from Lisa Dillman of the LA Times,

Moments after the Kings' season ended in the longest game in franchise history, General Manager Dean Lombardi walked into the dressing room and was confronted by silence.

There was a visible sense of disappointment and anger from players at the fact their Stanley Cup reign ended Saturday in a Game 5 double-overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center.

"There's almost no emotion," Lombardi said Sunday afternoon on a conference call. "You're almost frozen. There's so much going through your head, there's nothing going through your head. ... It's almost like you don't know what you've lost until it's gone — or whatever that saying is — until you've experienced it.

"You can't condone losing — you never want to do that — but I have to condone their sense of honor. They didn't quit. They fought through and given the history of it, they deserve to be commended for what they did accomplish."

What they accomplished was a run all the way to the Western Conference finals, something that the last three Cup champions were unable to manage. In fact, all three lost in the first round the next year.

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