EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The journey from championship titles to a toxic sense of entitlement can be a short one.
For the Los Angeles Kings, the journey took five years, from winning their second Stanley Cup in 2014 to last season's absolute debacle: Getting coach John Stevens fired after 13 games, and then shrugging their way to a 31-42-9 record, their worst performance in 11 years.
When general manager Rob Blake met with his veteran players during last season's spiral into mediocrity, he realized the concept of "entitlement" was a reoccurring motif.