Kings’ lot in life a source of royal pain

For Kings fans, paranoia struck long before reality bit.

Just ask Marc Saenz, who told The Times in January that he would stop being a hockey fan if the Ducks won the Stanley Cup before his beloved, but struggling, Kings.

“Everyone has been giving me a hard time,” said Saenz, days after the Ducks’ victory. “But I’m a man of my word. It’s going to be tough, but that’s it for me. I’ll watch from afar.”

Like Saenz, the Kings could only watch as their regional rivals did the impossible.

Within minutes of that Cup-clinching victory, Kings fans fired up the Web.

“FORTY ... YEARS!!!!!!!!!!” said one blogger, with exclamation points of outrage and one unprintable word.

“I am a huge fan, but they haven’t done anything productive in years. They couldn’t even bring home a Cup when Gretzky was here,” wrote another.

“By this win, the Kings are fast becoming the laughingstock,” summed up a third.

General Manager Dean Lombardi, who came on board in April 2006, now has to find a way to put a winning team on the Staples Center ice come October -- no easy task. Part of that job involves the NHL entry draft that begins Friday, in which the Kings have the No. 4 pick.

Much has changed within the Kings’ organization in the last 14 months, except for the losing.

They ended last season with the third-worst record in the league -- a pitiful 27-41-17 -- and have not been to the playoffs since before the NHL lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season. Their hallmarks have been late-season meltdowns and shaky goaltending.

Kelly Hrudey, the Kings’ starting goaltender during the Gretzky-led run to the Stanley Cup finals in 1993, knows what the fans have gone through.

“It’s tough because they have been patient fans, who have been very loyal, considering that the organization has had more lows than highs,” said Hrudey, a broadcaster for “Hockey Night in Canada” on the CBC network.

Lombardi knows about the fans too.

“Even before I was considered for this job, I was amazed at the core of fans that the Kings have,” said Lombardi, who helped build the San Jose Sharks into a powerhouse. “I would sit near the hard-core fans in the upper balcony and I would be so impressed with how passionate they were.

“It’s something that I may not totally understand,” he said of the fans’ frustration over the Ducks, “but I can feel it.”

Lombardi, who took over for the fired Dave Taylor, began working to end the chaos ignited by a string of miscues during a woeful 2005-06 season that included then-Coach Andy Murray’s decision to bench fan favorite Luc Robitaille.

Lombardi brought in Marc Crawford as head coach and together they cleaned house. Then they signed center Rob Blake, whose first stint as a King won him fans’ lasting admiration.

But as the 2006-07 season began, it became clear goaltending was still a disaster, the defense was at times porous and the offense was a worry.

More changes were needed.

But Lombardi doesn’t call any of this rebuilding, preferring the word building.

He traded captain Mattias Norstrom. Same with forwards Craig Conroy and Sean Avery. He didn’t re-sign Joe Corvo last summer, but this spring added promising rookie defenseman Jack Johnson, who brings youth to an experienced blue line led by Blake and Lubomir Visnovsky.

Around the league, the Kings are respected for their young talent core -- forwards Michael Cammalleri, Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Alexander Frolov.

But these are only pieces of the puzzle for Lombardi.

Over the last few weeks, the Kings have been rumored to be looking to draft a defenseman and adding a top-level forward such as pending free agents Scott Gomez of the New Jersey Devils or Chris Drury or Daniel Briere of the Buffalo Sabres.

Last week, though, Lombardi wasn’t ready to tip his hand as to which players he will pursue this summer.

Meanwhile, Robitaille was promoted to vice president in charge of the daily business operations for a franchise that now will be separate from parent company AEG.

And despite the team’s holes, Robitaille is, as usual, upbeat.

“We have a real direction now,” said the man who won the Cup in 2002 while with the Detroit Red Wings. “We want our young guys to take us to the Promised Land. We have a vision of where we’re going and we want to stick with that. We want our fans to understand that as an organization, we’re not going to overreact” because the Ducks won the Cup.

But some fans almost wish that weren’t the case.

“As a longtime Kings season-seat holder, I am bummed the Ducks won the Cup before the Kings,” said Drew Janner of Westchester. “From my point of view, the reason is clear and starts at the top. Local owners Henry and Susan Samueli are fans of the team and the sport and want to win. They let GM Brian Burke do his job and now they have a Stanley Cup.”

Lombardi knows fans will be watching what he does at this week’s draft and who he signs during the free-agency period, which starts July 1.

“I don’t think that when you’re in position of putting together a team, you can alter the goals you set out and the steps you need to take to build a contender,” Lombardi said. “You readjust your plan continually, but the focal point of that plan cannot change or you’re going to end up spinning your wheels. The object is to be a top team and not go for short fixes.”

Based on the number of season ticket renewals for 2007-08, the Kings’ fan support has not wavered much, even with an earlier renewal deadline of June 15.

As of Tuesday, the Kings have renewals from 80% of their 12,000 base of season-ticket holders and expect to hit 90% by the fall.

“Our fans have always been unbelievable,” said Robitaille, whose promotion is seen as a boost for the lowly Kings, a team that has had trouble standing out in AEG’s empire.

Starting this season, the restructured Kings will operate as a stand-alone unit. New team offices will be completed at the El Segundo practice facility this summer, and team officials expect to have a Kings-only staff of at least 60 by September.

“This is a huge step for the Kings, because we now have a business side that concentrates only on the Kings every day,” said Robitaille, who will host a Kings staff retreat next month at his home in Salt Lake City.

For season-ticket holders like Patt Hoffen, who has been attending games since 1974, change is nothing new.

“We’ve been there through the bad, the worst, the horrendous,” she said. “And we still believe. The only saving grace is that the way hockey is covered, no one is going to remember who won the Cup in a month or so anyway.

“But the bottom line is that I have a lot of faith in Lombardi. I wasn’t disappointed when he started breaking up the team. We’ve been rebuilding for too many years. He’s really rebuilding and that’s in a good way.”

Lombardi knows fans who have been with the team since its beginning in 1967 deserve more.

“We have to use [the Ducks’] win as motivation,” he conceded. “We have to start winning the little battles. Our fans are trusting us to build something they can be proud of.”

And if the Kings can get that done, even Saenz might have a change of heart.

“The Ducks won the Cup and they looked good doing it,” Saenz said. “But as a Kings fan, that’s just not right. We had a big head start and I remember when the Ducks were owned by Disney, you could never take them seriously.

“The Ducks’ win is still fresh, so it hurts. That’s why I’m done with hockey for now. But I admit, if the Kings can get it together, I may be back.”

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lonnie.white@latimes.com

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Begin text of infobox

Changing roster

What the Kings have done since Dean Lombardi became general manager in April 2006:

*--* KEY PLAYERS REMAINING Michael Cammalleri Forward Anze Kopitar Forward Dustin Brown Forward Alexander Frolov Forward Lubomir Visnovsky Defenseman Rob Blake Defenseman Jack Johnson Defenseman

*--*

*--* KEY PLAYERS GONE Sean Avery Forward Eric Belanger Forward Jeff Cowan Forward Craig Conroy Forward Mattias Norstrom Defenseman Brent Sopel Defenseman Joe Corvo Defenseman

*--*

-- LONNIE WHITE