You seen their roster? It's a bunch of weird parts trying to be augmented into a contender. Kesler sucks (enjoy that Brown-esque contract), Getzlaf, I don't even know what is up with that guy. Bieksa was supposed to be this bad ass on defense, but it was painfully obvious 2 years ago to everyone in the world except Murray apparently that he was headed south fast. Should have just ponied up the extra year for Beauchemin and kept him here, he is doing a fine job as an anchor in Colorado as a veteran leader and helping those kids develop.
Perry is the only one who really is trying to carry that team but one guy can't do it all. Nothing on that team spells contender from their goaltender to their centermen to their defense.
They went the LA Kings self imposed salary cap route prior to 2005 so he can't spend as much as he'd probably like, but after catching lightning in a bottle on some low risk/high reward moves over the years all the tinkering he did last summer was for nothing.
Taking too many flyers on guys like Stewart, Santorelli, etc. doesn't pay off not to mention they have The Cooler as a head coach - the guy is simply a loser.