Kings fire Cup-winning coach, GM

The Los Angeles Kings yesterday fired coach Darryl Sutter and general manager Dean Lombardi, who led the franchise to its only two Stanley Cup championships. The Kings also promoted defenseman Rob Blake to vice president and general manager, while longtime executive Luc Robitaille has been promoted to team president in charge of all hockey and business operations.

Los Angeles won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014, but hasn’t won a playoff round since.

The Kings (39-35-8) missed the playoffs this spring for the second time in three years with their worst record since 2009, fading down the stretch with a team that struggled to keep up with faster, younger opponents. The moves bring an emphatic end to the best era in the mostly ordinary franchise history of the Kings.

Blake has been an assistant to Lombardi, who has run the Kings since April 2006. Lombardi built a Cup-winning franchise and then undermined it by handing out lucrative contracts to underachieving veterans, and most of his recent moves didn’t pan out.

Robitaille has been in charge of the Kings’ business operations for the past several years. Both Blake and Robitaille are Hall of Fame players.

Desjardins ditched

Willie Desjardins was fired as coach by the Vancouver Canucks after missing the postseason for the second straight year, and ending with eight straight losses.

In three years, Desjardins went 109-110-27. He led the club to the playoffs as a rookie NHL coach in 2014-15, but the Canucks took a big step backward last season and then finished 29th out of 30 teams this season.