Not surprising to me.
Would have been surprising if you told me that at the beginning of last year, but reading all the quotes, and non-quotes down the back half of the eyar a number of things became evident:
1) Geoff is cool on Reggie. Shaw was his guy, and there are some fundamental philosophical differences (and on that front I am actually on Reggie's side)
2) Reggie is challenging Geoff. He has made repeated comments about the sort of players Geoff likes vs. the sort of players he (Reggie) likes, and sort of arrogantly implied that he knew better and Geoff should listen to him.
3)The Maloofs still have manlove for Geoff. Like Whiz before him, Geoff is part of the family.
4) Geoff, and here is the surprising one, the Maloofs as well, wanted to see the kids play down the stretch. As did I and many if not most Kings fans. Reggie, in his arrogance, I think essentially defied his bosses. That's not a great way to stay employed. The Maloofs repeatedly mentioned minutes for Shelden and Douby in particular.
5) Geoff and the Maloofs also are responsible for publickly annointing Kevin as Golden Boy. When Reggie repeatedly insulted or challenged Kevin, I think that hurt him in their eyes. There is a lot of wrong with that whole scenario. Reggie was wrong to do put down Kevin (and most of his guys). The Maloofs were wrong in the annointment. And now there is a bit of an icky player wiht more power than the coach thing going on -- whether Kevin knows it or not, if he squirmed and created enough fuss, I think he could actually get Reggie fired on his behalf. Reggie is either too dumb or too cocky to recognize that. And hopefully Kevin is above such cancerous behavior. But there is no doubt in my mind at least which party would be favored by the powers that be if a showdown erupted.
6) A few other tidbits:
-- Geoff has been guarded in his comments about Shelden and Beno. I'm not sure he really likes either that much (which surprised me in Beno's case).
--Reggie really has no use for Shelden.
-- But Reggie really liked Beno I think.
--No idea how the Maloofs feel about Beno, but they obviously wanted to see Shelden play.
-- Both the Maloofs and Geoff wanted to see Douby play.
-- Reggie does not see a position for Douby as an undersized non-PG.
-- Geoff moderately, but the Maloofs in particular really liked Spencer.
-- Theus on the other hand has reservations about him (never been entirely clear why, but he keeps using the word "finesse" as a synonym for soft).