Lombardi: Lemaire honed Gaborik's defensive acumen

Tremendous insight into Marian Gaborik's defensive acumen - too often underrated - from GM Dean Lombardi, via LA Kings Insider. The quote (long, but so worth reading) also morphs into how the Kings players made Gaborik feel like "a part of the family."

"Well, everybody forgot he was tutored by probably one of the best defensive coaches – I’m not taking anything away from Darryl – but I’m sure he has a lot of respect for Jacques Lemaire," Lombardi began.

"And that’s the one thing about Marian that was very clear – that he knew what to do defensively. He’s as smart defensively as he is offensively, and he had been trained that way, and he had been trained that way, and he had also been trained that defense was a priority to the point where maybe there was that criticism out there to turn him loose. But Jacques Lemaire knows what wins. So he had been trained properly from a very young age, and those things.

"And, quite frankly, only in recent memory have you been getting European players that are maybe fascinating to watch but can be coined ‘one-way players.’ But traditionally, the European player has been a 200-foot player when you look at the Larionovs and the Fedorovs and the Hossas of the world. He had been schooled, and he would fall into that category even before he got to Minnesota.

"The thing about Marian…as much as you knew what he could do as a player, the most important thing was that this was a good teammate that was well-liked. Whenever you have a high profile player of his caliber, to get back that from other players that have played with him was huge. And you go back to that this guy cares. Now this is something that we can look at. But the biggest thing that makes that work, particularly over a short period, is the way those guys in the room went out of their way to embrace him. Jeff Carter grabbed him, said ‘You’re not staying in a hotel room. You’re coming to stay at my place.’ He lands in Winnipeg, the first guy that grabs him is Mike Richards. ‘Let’s go out for breakfast.’

"His acclimation, being part of this group is such a tribute to the guys in that room that embraced him right away, that made him feel a part of the family, and by virtue of that, impresses upon him, ‘Hey, this is the way we play here. Certain things have to be done. Now go do what few players can.’

"Like, you look at his goals, when we did all our work on him going back to when he was in Minnesota, people think those pucks he’s knocking out of the air are luck? You look back at his tapes – the 40 goal seasons – how many he knocked in like that. That’s a skill. But you’ve got to be a good teammate, and you’ve got to do certain things that every King has to do, now go do those things that make you special. When you see that acclimation happen so quickly, there is no other reason for that than the guys in that room. Like I said, that’s a real tribute to those other 20 guys. Now the guy goes out and performs and gives you something that makes you better."

Source: Jon Rosen, LA Kings Insider