A winning finish, but the future is calling

The Kings gave their fans a 4-3 victory Saturday over the best team in hockey, the San Jose Sharks. Then they gave them the shirts off their back, handing their jerseys to a select few from the crowd after the season finale.

Nice gestures, both, but for the sixth consecutive season, the Kings won’t be able to deliver something more meaningful: a playoff berth.

The Kings, who began the season with few expectations, ended it with many. They have found a goaltender with a future in Jonathan Quick, developed up-and-comers such as defenseman Drew Doughty and winger Wayne Simmonds, and bought in first-year Coach Terry Murray’s defense-first approach while improving their point total by eight.

But the slow-growth approach of General Manager Dean Lombardi will be harder to justify if the Kings’ only late-season run continues to be the 5-kilometer race they sponsor each April.

“The playoffs need to be a legitimate goal,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell said. “Playoffs need to be at the front of our mind, in every conversation, in everything we do. For San Jose, they came in to the season [Stanley] Cup or bust. We need to come in playoffs or bust.”

The question that looms heading into the summer is how their often impotent offense will be addressed. The Kings managed two goals or fewer in 42 games, and have used Dustin Brown, a natural right winger, and Michael Handzus, a natural center, on the left.

“The one thing that stands out personnel-wise is the left wing,” said Brown, who will undergo an MRI exam early next week to determine the extent of the back problems that have hampered his play of late. He finished the season pointless in his last 12 games.

The Kings were a league-high $13 million under the salary cap and are sitting on 13 draft picks, putting them in position to make a play for Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk, a left winger who has scored 186 goals over the last four seasons and is entering the final year of his contract next season at $7.5 million.

Another option could be Minnesota’s free agent right winger Marian Gaborik.

“Guys are excited,” defenseman Matt Greene said of the possibilities. “You do have a lot of cap room, you do have the ability to spend some money and address some needs, which is scoring. Guys are looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen, but at the same time you’re not a GM. It doesn’t matter if I’m scanning the free agent list on July 1.”

Murray said he wasn’t concerned with adding pieces as much as he was interested in the summertime improvement of young players.

Asked if the Kings could make the playoffs as currently constituted, Murray paused for a moment before answering.

“That would be our goal, for sure,” he said. “The way we played at times this year, if we get to that level on a consistent basis, this team is good enough to get to the playoffs.”

That statement might be taken as a leap of faith that Anze Kopitar’s offense will come back now that he’s playing more at the defensive end, that a healthy Justin Williams will make the same type of impact that a healthy Handzus did, that the club will get more consistency from restricted free agent Jack Johnson if he’s brought back, and continued improvement from one of the league’s youngest rosters.

But for Kings’ fans who left Saturday having been presented with nearly three hours of optimism, it is sure to leave them with a sinking feeling.

If the opinions of several Kings fans are representative of the masses, there is great skepticism about whether owner Philip Anschutz will write the check for a proven goal scorer.

“It’s the same thing every year,” said Nigel Spill, an 11-year season-ticket holder. “Day 1of free agency is like Saks Fifth Avenue. Day 2 is like the 99-Cent store -- that’s when the Kings show up.”

He then smiled.

“If they do something this summer,” Spill said. “then everything I’m saying is wrong and I’m sorry.”

--

billy.witz@yahoo.com