Kings GM Dean Lombardi highlighted Marian Gaborik's defensive abilities. "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," Lombardi said of Gaborik. The Kings GM pointed to Gaborik's former coach, Jacques Lemaire, as being one of the reasons for the star forward's development defensively. Meanwhile, Gaborik also has a league-leading 12 goals in 21 playoff games.