Crawford Hired by Dallas; Pronger to L.A.?

First, the Chris Pronger reports.

There are unconfirmed rumors flying around the internet today that suggest the Kings are on the verge of acquiring Chris Pronger from the Ducks for Jack Johnson and the 5th overall pick in this year's draft next month. The rumor initiated on the website HockeyBuzz and made its rounds through the internet. Some media outlets picked up on the initial report as a done deal but have retracted it since. The rumor is nowhere to be found on any of the major national hockey media outlets such as TSN.ca, or even ESPN.com.

Several sources, including Rich Hammond of the Daily News on his Inside the Kings blog, have claimed to have received word from one team or the other that no deal is in place. Hammond says he received a "Rumor not true" text from Dean Lombardi himself. And granted Hammond broke the Patrick O'Sullivan-Justin Williams trade a day before it happened taht Lombardi denied at first, who's to say the trade won't still happen?

And for what it's worth, Pronger has said he has not been notified either.

However, one source says the two players are still likely to be traded as the teams try to haggle on the draft pick going from the Kings to the Ducks.

All that aside, I think this would be a ridiculously dumb move on the Kings part if they do anything close to it. I can't see the upside behind it when you're trying to build around the youth, and Jack Johnson is part of that youth movement. Obviously this would be a salary dump for the Ducks to get under the cap, but I don't understand it from the Kings side.

Either way, well done by both SoCal teams for stealing some of the thunder of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight in Detroit.

And lastly, former Kings head coach Marc Crawford was indeed hired as the Dallas Stars new head coach yesterday, a day after it was speculated they had called the Kings to ask for permission to talk to him after the Stars fired former Kings assistant Dave Tippett.

Dallas Fires Tippett

Just in a bit ago: the Dallas Stars have fired former Kings assistant Dave Tippett as their head coach. Tippett led the Stars to playoff berths in his first five seasons as head coach until they failed to make the post-season this year. Rumors have it that new Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk has asked for permission from the Kings to speak to another of their former head coaches, Marc Crawford, who is still under contract with the Kings.

He's all yours, Dallas!

Crawford Fired

Well the Kings finally undid a mistake they made two years when they hired Marc Crawford as head coach: they fired him. Crawford was fired on Tuesday after a two-year run and a last place finish in the division and conference standings this past season. Crawford still had one more year left on his contract, but it was obvious with the team in a youth movement that Crawford wasn't a good fit; he never really was.

So where do the Kings go next? Well, several other teams are looking for new coaches, including Tampa Bay, Ottawa, and Atlanta. Several other coaching vacancies were filled in recent days, leaving the Kings number one rumored candidate according to the St. Pete Times via The Fourth Period still available: John Tortorella. Tortorella led Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004, the year before the lockout, and could bring in a style of play that would fit the young Kings.

Stay tuned...

Kings in Columbus...

UPDATE (8:25pm CT): Game over. Kings lose again, sixth straight I think, 2-1. Seems like some of the players have quit on head coach Marc Crawford. I missed a good chunk of the game, unfortunately (or fortunately?) but it seems like they just can't catch a break. There's no consistency in their losses either; they either play a good game and lose, or they completely stink.

Next game is tomorrow night in Nashville. Game time is an hour earlier than tonight, 7pm local time (CT).

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The other night I mentioned not being able to watch the Detroit game because I was shut out on TV on two feeds. I mentioned this was the second or third time this has happened. One of the other times was in Columbus earlier in the season, but I'm pleased to say I can actually watch the game tonight.

So far, the Kings are off to a good start, leading 1-0 towards the end of the first. They just had a power-play goal nullified (but I didn't see or hear why).