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Kings GM Dean Lombardi apologizes for his outburst, still upset over call

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We’ve all had moments like Dean Lombardi had last night. You get in the middle of a heated contest, you’re struggling to get things right and then you’re asked about what’s bothering you and you blow off some steam verbally. For the rest of us it means either ticking off friends, making an ass of ourselves at a party, or getting thrown out of the bar.

For Lombardi, it means having to wake up the next day and see all over the Internet and in the newspapers about how you accused the NHL’s Vice-President of Hockey Operations, Mike Murphy, of making a bad call on a reviewed goal because Murphy was upset about not getting the GM job in Los Angeles years ago. It didn’t matter that Lombardi had a legitimate complaint over the call on Martin Hanzal’s second period goal that allowed it to count despite being batted in with a high stick, it’s the fact that Lombardi blew up and called out an NHL executive over it all.

Today, Lombardi apologized to Murphy over what he said and he feels pretty bad about the entire thing but hopes it took some heat off his struggling team as Sportsnet’s Mike Brophy shares.

“I called Mike Murphy and apologized first thing this morning,” Lombardi said. “He was very professional and a bigger man than me.”

Asked if he was trying to reflect attention away from his team which has been slumping after a terrific start, Lombardi admitted, “Yeah, there was some of that.”

Still, Lombardi was upset at the call and how the on-ice officials handled it.

“They are supposed to get together and discuss it so that one has the opportunity to over-rule the original call,” Lombardi said. “I mean it was so obvious it was knocked in with a high stick. Our defenceman Mike Greene is 6-foot-3 and the guy’s stick was right in his face.


Don’t be distracted too much by what Lombardi said last night, he had a very real and legitimate gripe and when things are going bad for your team, even the smallest slight against your team seems like a titanic issue. Lombardi’s rant also distracted away from what the Kings real issue now: scoring goals. The Kings still had 30 minutes of hockey to even things up and even with Lee Stempniak’s goal later in the period, it’s not as if the Kings were out of the game. The Kings had more than 30 shots on goal in the game and held Phoenix to just 15 shots of their own. On a night when the goalie is just on like how Ilya Bryzgalov was on all it took was one goal to make the difference.

Frustration coming down from the team front office usually doesn’t get such a public spectacle and for a guy like Lombardi, who keeps things close to the vest, it’s stunning to see. We hope everyone enjoyed it for what it is because it’s probably the last time we see this happen in L.A.