Los Angeles Kings Information

The Los Angeles Kings are real professionals in their sport which is ice-hockey. The team was founded in 1967 in Los Angeles, California, and now is a remarkable NHL member. For a long time, the logo of the team was a crown, which the teams members used on their jerseys from 1967-88. Since 1999, the Kings play in Staples Center, which is known also as the place where many other prominent teams struggle with each other, e.g. the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers etc.

In the period of time since 1988 to 1996 Wayne Gretzky, one of the most successful players of all times, was playing for the team. Besides, the Kings are known for such prominent players as Bill "Cowboy" Flett, Eddie "The Jet" Joyal, Eddie "The Entertainer" Shack, and Real "Frenchy" Lemieux. Exactly these bright professionals helped introduce the Los Angeles ice-hockey to the NHL in the first few seasons. The players got such colorful nicknames thanks to owner Cooke, who thought that such nicknames would make hockey, as a kind of sports, more popular on the Southern California market. He even insisted on his radio and television commentators using these nicknames referring to the mentioned above players.

In their first season, the LA Kings managed to get a second place in the Western Division, falling the Flyers behind just by one point, which was a very good result.Their second season under the leadership of head coach Leo Red Kelly, ended in the teams fourth place in the West Division the last playoff position. But after the Oakland Seals were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in seven games, the Kings failed in participating in post-season plays in the second round because of the St. Louis Blues.

Because of bad managerial methods, the Kings started facing very hard times after two fairly successful seasons. The teams managers considered it useful for the team to trade away first-round draft picks for veteran players, some of them NHL stars in their declining years of professional activity, which turned out to be no good for the team.

In 1972, the Kings hired Bob Pulford as their coach. Thanks to this person, the team eventually played five of the most successful seasons in the history of the franchise.

On June 23, 1975 the team acquired such an outstanding figure as Marcel Dionne. Already being an NHL superstar, Dionne scored 40 goals and added 54 assists for 94 points in eighty season games. It was he who managed to lead the Kings to a 38-33-9 record, earning them a second place finish in the James Norris Division.

Dionne's time with the Kings lasted for 12 years, when eventually, on March 10, 1987, the player was traded to the New York Rangers. It was not a big problem for the Kings, as by that time, they had new figures to help bring them into the next successful decade, e.g. star forwards Jimmy Carson, Luc Robitaille, Bernie Nicholls, and defenseman Steve Duchesne.

On April 21, 2006, the Kings employed Dean Lombardi as their new President and General Manager. Soon after he was hired, Lombardi quickly began to make changes to the hockey operations of the team, and on May, 2006 he hired Marc Crawford to be the 21st head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.