Back to the drawing board for the Kings

Let’s be honest: The Kings’ season ended Tuesday with their disgustingly passive 7-0 loss to Nashville, their 27th defeat.

The final playoff spot in the West last season was earned by Calgary, which had 29 losses. So unless the Kings start something like a 36-2 surge tonight, this will be another broken promise from a club that vowed it would become a Stanley Cup contender under the salary-cap system but sabotaged itself with bad free-agent signings and timidity in the front office.

Although their playoff hopes are gone, the Kings should look at where they stand and consider it a beginning.

This is the time to take a sledgehammer to 40 years of futility instead of chipping away with a spoon.

It’s time for General Manager Dean Lombardi to promote some of the kids he has stockpiled, to give them a taste of the big leagues and to give hope to a disheartened and dwindling fan base.

It’s time to give the veterans and almost uniformly awful free-agent signees some competition. Players who respond and set good examples for younger teammates can stay. Those who go through the motions should be shipped out, even if the return is a bag of used pucks.

Lombardi must make a point, and he must make it now.

The youngsters already leading the Kings into the future -- Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, Patrick O’Sullivan and Jack Johnson -- can’t be allowed to think that efforts such as Tuesday’s are tolerable. If they do, another 40 years will pass without the Cup coming any closer than Anaheim -- again.

Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive officer of the Kings’ parent company, AEG, has strong emotional ties to the club. Maybe too strong. He retreated this season while he helped AEG gobble up the rest of the known sports world but couldn’t stay silent after the loss to Nashville.

He called the lack of competitiveness “a shame on all of us.”

He was right.

“Ownership will be patient with the development philosophy but when they do what they did [Tuesday] night, it’s terrible,” he said Wednesday. “Up until [Tuesday] I’ve loved these guys because they tried every night, but last night was inexcusable. It’s not acceptable.”

Lombardi has gathered some fine prospects but has been hesitant to bring them up, fearing they would be scarred if they make mistakes. That reasoning doesn’t apply anymore.

So what if they make mistakes? The Kings aren’t bound for the playoffs and there’s a chance they’ll learn from their errors. If they don’t pan out Lombardi would still have time to retrench through trades and good selections in the June entry draft.

Let’s get a look at skillful right wing Teddy Purcell, a 22-year-old who was named to the American Hockey League all-star team Wednesday.

Let’s see 6-7, 250-pound center Brian Boyle, who’s 23. Tell him that if someone runs his goaltender, he is to respond immediately. Think teams will take many liberties after that?

And why not bring up 24-year-old defenseman Peter Harrold? He can’t be worse than puck-shy Lubomir Visnovsky, caring but hardly mobile Rob Blake, so-so Tom Preissing and contact-shunning Jaroslav Modry.

Lombardi has done a good job solidifying a farm system whose foundation was assembled by Dave Taylor. He has surrounded himself with good minds.

Now, let’s see what they’ve done.

Put the kids out there this season. Do it again next season, when goalie Jonathan Bernier might stick and solve the problem the Kings face annually. (A trade for Ottawa’s Ray Emery is not the answer, no matter how desperate the question).

If Marc Crawford can’t advance the kids’ development, a coaching change might be in order. There’s nothing to gain by firing him now and Lombardi isn’t inclined to do it.

“I don’t see that. I think we have to continue to fight through things,” Lombardi said. “Look at some of the things he has confronted this season. I have not gone there at all in my mind.”

But in assessing the progress of the core youngsters Lombardi said Kopitar “hasn’t gone backward” and spoke of an “over-reliance” on the 20-year-old Slovenian, who is in his second NHL season. Those aren’t ringing endorsements of Crawford.

Nor was Lombardi’s assessment that “we haven’t been able to manage” Blake’s minutes and have relied too heavily on the 38-year-old as he recovers from hip surgery. The stalled progress of Alexander Frolov and Michael Cammalleri also go in the minus column.

If Crawford can’t bend, he must be replaced next season.

Lombardi likes to say he must “change the culture” of the Kings, who have made the playoffs only four times since they lost the 1993 Cup final and have won one playoff series since then. Change must arrive soon for the Kings to retain a semblance of relevance.

“There may be fans that leave after this year, and I respect that. But they’d be leaving at the wrong time. This team is going to get better every year,” Leiweke said.

“As painful as it is to go through the valley, we will not look back. The days of making excuses are over. I hate losing but I understand that’s what we have to do for two years. We were trying to cover gaps and mistakes with our checkbook, and those days are over.”

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.