LOS ANGELES -- Well, this was a move designed for a maximum lack of impact.
In that regard, at least, the timing of the Kings' decision Tuesday to fire coach Marc Crawford make some sense. With the greater L.A. area wholly focused on some little basketball game at Staples Center, and the hockey world focused on Ron Wilson's hiring in Toronto (since the Canadian-based hockey media believes Toronto is the axis of the hockey universe), Crawford's ouster after two seasons figures to get very little attention.
Which, presumably, is what the Kings want, since in so many other ways the timing seems so bizarre. If Crawford was going to go, why not immediately after the Kings went 32-43-7 and missed the playoffs for the umpteenth time?
General manager Dean Lombardi -- in an afternoon conference call long on rambling generalizations and short on concrete answers -- essentially said the Kings had decided they needed a different coach to deal with building a team with young players.
"Ultimately," he said, "it comes down to meeting with ownership and their commitment to staying with this plan ... building a young core the old-fashioned way."
For some reason, that was a decision better made in June than April. Lombardi talked a lot about organizational meetings projecting the shape of the roster to come, based on free agency, the draft, and promotion of players from the minor-league system, but that means the decision to change coaches is based on a roster that does not yet exist. Free agents can't be signed for another month, the draft is a week away, and projecting the promotion of minor-leaguers is an uncertain science.
So, based on players the Kings don't have -- and might never have -- it was time to change coaches. Strange move. Or at least a strange justification.
This is not to say it's necessarily wrong. Crawford can be a tough taskmaster, and that may not be the best approach with young players, as Lombardi noted.
"I think the ability to communicate and build trust is critical," Lombardi said. "The fear factor is not there as it was in the past."
Later, he added, "You better be prepared to answer why when they ask a question."
Still, Crawford hasn't changed in the last two months, and if communication skills are the issue now, it's hard to see that they were any less of an issue at the end of April.
Lombardi said he's open to hiring a coach without NHL head-coaching experience, and plans to ask current assistant Mike Johnston if he's interested in pursuing the job.
He also said he considers this a "critical hire" and that the team will not rush to make it.
But the real critical issue that remains for the Kings -- the one that kept Crawford from doing as well as the organization might have hoped, and quickly eliminated the team from playoff contention -- isn't one of coaching. Lombardi touched on that issue when he was asked if hiring Crawford proved to be a "miscalculation."
Said Lombardi, "The goaltending completely went south, and then you get into why that happened, that we were 30th in the league."
Without goaltending, no coach is going to succeed.
And when you consider the lack of goaltending, you end up looking at the guy who provides the talent, not the one who coaches it.
And you're a lot more likely to think about that question if the firing of the coach has any chance to make a ripple.
Which makes Tuesday's move perfectly timed -- if you happen to be Dean Lombardi.