Jettisoning Another Star a Loser Move

All together now.

“Loooooooosers.”

A chant that filled this town for 12 of the last 15 winters was silenced Monday, replaced by a slightly altered version more befitting a team that skated into the boards again.

Less than two months after entertaining a skeptical public with two glorious playoff rounds, the Kings issued a carefully worded statement that read, Just kidding.

They win our hearts, then they lose Luc Robitaille.

They win our confidence that they will fight for the Stanley Cup next year, then lose the league’s No. 12 scorer to the Detroit Red Wings without throwing a punch.

Granted, Robitaille is 35, cannot always skate back fast enough on defense, faded in the playoffs and does not fit in Coach Andy Murray’s master plan.

But he scored more points last season, 88, than in any of his previous seven.

In two of the last three seasons, he hasn’t sat out a game.

He is the team’s best power-play scorer.

He is headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Yet he must first go to Detroit?

Because the Kings would guarantee him barely one-fourth of the Red Wings’ $9-million offer?

The bidding, which ended Monday when Robitaille signed with the Red Wings, wasn’t even close.

As everyone learned Sunday, neither were the Kings’ estimates of Rob Blake’s value.

Blake signed a deal with the Colorado Avalanche worth about $54 million Saturday after the Kings traded him last winter upon refusing to pay him more than $24 million.

Those longtime hockey fans who desperately love this team despite taking numerous pucks to the face--and the Kings know there are many of you--will say both deals were about diminished skills.

Yet weak, selfish Blake still managed to help lead the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup championship.

And old, tired Robitaille scored more points last season than any King other than Ziggy Palffy.

Diminished skills? Maybe. Salary dump? Absolutely.

Once is a blip.

Twice is a pattern.

Philip Anschutz, the Staples Center landlord and one of the richest owners in all of professional sports, has clearly given his opinion on the three most important aspects of a professional sports team.

Real estate, real estate, real estate.

All of which makes you want to pick up the phone and scream at him, but, of course, you can’t. He is off-limits to reporters and lives in Denver, where it is hoped he is not waiting for his day with the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup.

So you call the nice man constantly charged with spinning this team out of its public relations grave, King President Tim Leiweke.

Who apparently has been waiting for you.

“We hate to lose Luc, but you have to trust us,” Leiweke said.

Leiweke clearly cares about the Kings and Staples Center and the roles of both in the community. He has done as much for the revitalization of pro sports here as anybody.

But it’s not about trusting him.

It’s about trusting his boss.

We don’t.

We don’t even know Philip Anschutz.

All we know is, he has money, yet again has shown he is unwilling to spend it.

Leiweke noted that the Kings will still have the ninth-highest payroll in the league. He noted that spending tons of money like the New York Rangers guarantees nothing.

And then, as expected, he played last spring’s Stanley Cup card.

“You have to look at Rob Blake, and how we handled that issue, and what happened after that,” he said. “Based on some of the things we did in the playoffs, you have to trust us.”

In other words, it worked last spring, so it will work next spring. They advanced to the seventh game of the second round without Blake, they can do it without Robitaille.

Silly us, thinking that last season’s sellouts and citywide buzz would convince Anschutz that this town would embrace a team that could skate to the next level.

Instead, it has seemingly convinced him only that the second round is the next level.

Murray clearly doesn’t believe that, publicly pushing this once-insecure franchise to set its sights higher.

But make no mistake, the release of Robitaille is as much about Murray as it is about Anschutz.

This is Murray’s way of saying the Kings are not about stars, but a system. They are not Hollywood’s team, they are his team.

He is the leader. He is the focal point. Those square pegs will fit into carefully arranged round holes, or they will be tossed aside.

So far, it is a philosophy that has worked.

But next season, playing without their two most popular veterans and with a goalie who has been hot about three months in five seasons, the real test awaits.

“Luc is 35 years old, and based on the kind of team Andy wants, it is not how we can best spend our money,” Leiweke said. “It’s the same with a player like Jaromir Jagr. If he came here, he would be the sole focus, and that doesn’t fit Andy’s style either.

“We learned good lessons last year, and now we want to stick to the format.”

While the format looked good on the ice last spring, it didn’t always play so well in the dressing room. During the Kings’ giddy playoff run, I spoke to a veteran who sighed.

“Can’t you see?” he said. “They have gotten lucky with the moves they’ve made, and this will convince them to make the same moves this summer. Some more veterans are going to lose their jobs. This whole thing is going to get blown up again.”

Based on last spring, we might be inclined to indeed trust them.

But based on the previous 34 years, we should probably just cover our ears.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.