Lombardi: Kings made offer to Sutter, 'still working on' Lucic

The Los Angeles Kings are doing some soul-searching.

General manager Dean Lombardi described his team's five-game first-round loss to the San Jose Sharks as "a punch in the gut" on a conference call Friday. After a run of success including two Stanley Cups, the Kings are in re-evaluation mode.

Lombardi, though, wants the same man behind the Kings' bench for those Cups to return, and said an offer is on the the table for head coach Darryl Sutter.

"I think (Sutter's) comfortable with what's there. I think it's very fair," Lombardi said of the offer. "But just like when he came here and when his last contract was up, 'Does he want to do it?'"

Money isn't the issue - it's about where the Kings are, where they go from here, and whether Sutter wants to be involved, Lombardi said.

"There's a lot of work to be done here," he added. "There's safety in doing things the same way after you've won. This is a little ... not scary, but you see what's happened. We're not where we want to be. Now you have to fix it."

Lombardi also addressed Milan Lucic's pending unrestricted free agency, saying he's "still working on" a deal, and acknowledging that the power forward is a priority over other potential re-signings.

"Good kid and a great fit. ... There's still some work to be done here. I don't see anything quickly on the horizon," Lombardi said, adding, "The discussions are much further along with Looch (than with other players)."

As for captain Dustin Brown, who had a very disappointing season, Lombardi needs more from him - but from other players as well.

"To a certain degree, every part of us got a little too full of ourselves," Lombardi said, adding that stagnation has crept into the organization. "We have to get back on that path, the innovation, the spark, the challenge that was there seven years ago when we were coming out of the gutter."

- With h/t to Helene Elliott and Lisa Dillman