2017-18 Kings News/Rumors/Tidbits

[Shellz]

Wait, what nagging injury?

They didn’t go into anything further.

 

[damacles1156]

I think what changed is Stevens. I doubt the players want to play perimeter hockey. I think after the Kings stock piled points in the first few months of the season, Stevens decided its a good time to switch to a "playoff type" hockey style (i.e., puck possession, perimeter hockey), and began emphasizing it to the players. Remember, Stevens is a very defense-first type coach. I think he had a tough time stomaching the risky plays the Kings were making during the first few months of the season. I will admit that I was on board with the Stevens hiring, and place blame more on the players during this bad stretch, but it probably would have been better to hire a coach from the outside. Blake should have also done a better job of really overhauling the roster, instead of keeping the same old players and hoping for a different result.

Wait...

All of you folks were giving Stevens all this credit for changing the system too (open) now Stevens decides out of the blue to play Sutter Hockey, of which they are not even playing mind you.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Still wouldn't trade it and would of gladly accepted the **** that has followed if I was told this was the price of winning.

Still get pissy about this team though. It's not even the results, its how they get there. Just wanted them to be exciting this year, even if losing. The one thing I have zero ****ing time for is rolling over and just getting wheeled on and seemingly not giving a **** about it.

"Well, a division rival is embarrassing us and we're leaving our heart and soul goalie out to to dry...let's treat the rest of this game like its April 3rd and we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs already".

Knocked this one out of the park, my feelings exactly.

It's almost made worse by the fact that a lot of the team remains. We figured collectively the team would pay the price for all the trades and all the success, but it's wild to think a team with that same strength down the middle misses the playoffs in agonizing fashion. Who would ever have thought the 2012 steamroller would stop forechecking, or that the 2014 team with all the guts in the world would end up standing by idly whimpering as their franchise players get run?

Disagree, have a hard time seeing him walking away from nearly $90M, but that isn't to say I wouldn't move him (along with some combination of Toffoli, Pearson, Muzzin and Martinez) this summer if they aren't going to try to compete.

I think the extra year we can offer makes a significant difference.

 

[LAKings88]

I was thinking of Quick the other day and how much he doesn’t seem to fit the All-Star pomp and circumstance.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I was thinking of Quick the other day and how much he doesn’t seem to fit the All-Star pomp and circumstance.

I’m sure he’d rather get drunk and watch the Pats play, but that’s next Sunday.

 

[damacles1156]

Knocked this one out of the park, my feelings exactly.

It's almost made worse by the fact that a lot of the team remains. We figured collectively the team would pay the price for all the trades and all the success, but it's wild to think a team with that same strength down the middle misses the playoffs in agonizing fashion. Who would ever have thought the 2012 steamroller would stop forechecking, or that the 2014 team with all the guts in the world would end up standing by idly whimpering as their franchise players get run?



I think the extra year we can offer makes a significant difference.

It's pretty obvious by now a lot of leadership was lost in Williams/Mitchell/Stoll/Richards/Greene/RR. So this is not the same leadership team. All of those guys have been replaced by no one pretty much.

 

[LAKings88]

It's pretty obvious by now a lot of leadership was lost in Williams/Mitchell/Stoll/Richards. So this is not the same leadership team. All of those guys have been replaced by no one pretty much.

Could throw Greene and Rhegher(sp) in there too.

 

[damacles1156]

Could throw Greene and Rhegher(sp) in there too.

I miss Greene.

He was a steady number 5/6 you could count on. The Kings don't even have that anymore.

 

[BigKing]

As for thinking Stevens is forcing them to play "Sutter Hockey": do we want to see 6-2 losses every game since they didn't follow Stevens' game plan which is, apparently, "Sutter Hockey"?

That's mostly tongue-in-cheek, but I will say that they are doing nothing with the chances they do get. They flub the rush chances they do get and are back to missing the net or putting it right into the goalie's crest when they have great chances.

They were shooting at an unsustainable high percentage. Now they are shooting at a very low percentage while also being trash on the PK and not getting the goaltending play there were previously. I wish I could say the low shooting percentage is unsustainable except these assholes have proven that incorrect in the past.

The trope of "They aren't as good as the start of the year and they arne't as bad as this stretch" is pretty much true. They were pegged by most of us as a probable Black Hole Team or a Bubble Team. That's where they are, and it isn't because of coaching: it is the players.

I just much rather prefer a total flame-out and high draft pick over the black hole. As a STH'er who suffered through the 2000's black hole years and who counts Keith Tkachuk as his favorite player of all time, I'd love to see me some Brady Tkachuk in a Kings sweater.

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

Why wasn't Blake smarter and called up a goalie for tonight so Quick wouldn't be suspended Tuesday after the All-Star break?

 

[BigKing]

Why wasn't Blake smarter and called up a goalie for tonight so Quick wouldn't be suspended Tuesday after the All-Star break?

Keep Quick for tonight in case of injury. Punt him for Tuesday.

He's not injured or he wouldn't be dressing tonight and the last however many games. I'm sure he's knicked up like any other professional hockey player at this stage of the season, but the nagging injury talk is just posturing for him not going to the ASG.

Blake has experience lying

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

Keep Quick for tonight in case of injury. Punt him for Tuesday.

He's not injured or he wouldn't be dressing tonight and the last however many games. I'm sure he's knicked up like any other professional hockey player at this stage of the season, but the nagging injury talk is just posturing for him not going to the ASG. Instead he's out tonight and next Tuesday.

Blake has experience lying

But he's not even playing tonight. Campbell or whoever should've been brought up and tonight should've been Quick's "suspended" game.

 

[BigKing]

He's still dressing, no?

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

He's still dressing, no?

He is but it's pretty unlikely he's going to play so tonight should've been the suspended game.

 

[Bandit]

He is but it's pretty unlikely he's going to play so tonight should've been the suspended game.

Even more puzzling if you consider if it gets to the point where they have to pull Kuemper the game is likely done anyway, unless he injures himself in warmups...

 

[kovacro]

I miss Greene.

He was a steady number 5/6 you could count on. The Kings don't even have that anymore.

Greene was f***ing nails.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Could throw Greene and Rhegher(sp) in there too.

I miss Regehr a lot; guy was a monster that other players feared. Now we have Forbort.

 

[KingsOfCali25]

Different styles can be successful. There were plenty of teams emphasizing fast/quick play in 2012-2015 when the Kings were dominant.

The difference is the Kings were not complacent. They had the talent and type of personnel to execute their system to a tee. They let the puck do the work when it came to being fast by supporting the puck and using short quick passes other teams could not keep up with. They destroyed other teams defensemen with an aggressive forecheck.

In my opinion Dean failed to recognize when the ride was over and it was time to move on from some of the players.

Dean came out and said after the first cup that he knew how to build teams to contend, but he didn't know what to do after they win. So he was just shooting from the hip and trying to keep together what got him there. Instead of keeping up with league and improving the team every year.

 

[KingsFan7824]

He probably does have a nagging injury that is easily playable through: most NHL players have a little something going on.

He'd prefer the weekend off and to not have to go through all the All-Star BS. He can play but is choosing not to do so.

I'm not always fully on the player's side in labor issues, but it is kind of garbage to me that they will suspend a player for not going. So my reward for being chosen an All-Star is that I have to do extra work above and beyond the majority of other players and, if I refuse to do it, you are going to take away an actual game check from me? Thanks for the honor!

That's pretty ridiculous.

The league still wants to keep the all-star game, even though the game had reached awful levels of game play in recent years. It might have been a small step above the Pro-Bowl. If you want the stars to at least show up, you give them a penalty if they bow out because of an "injury", which in all likelihood isn't anything serious.

I think what changed is Stevens. I doubt the players want to play perimeter hockey. I think after the Kings stock piled points in the first few months of the season, Stevens decided its a good time to switch to a "playoff type" hockey style (i.e., puck possession, perimeter hockey), and began emphasizing it to the players. Remember, Stevens is a very defense-first type coach. I think he had a tough time stomaching the risky plays the Kings were making during the first few months of the season. I will admit that I was on board with the Stevens hiring, and place blame more on the players during this bad stretch, but it probably would have been better to hire a coach from the outside. Blake should have also done a better job of really overhauling the roster, instead of keeping the same old players and hoping for a different result.

Stevens is a defense first coach? You know what he did with the Flyers right? Look up those stats. And how was Blake supposed to overhaul the roster? We know what the contract situation was over the summer, and what it still is today, and they're not going to trade Carter, or do anything on that sort of level, until they know what Doughty is doing. They were never going to do anything franchise changing until the Doughty issue is settled one way or another.

It's pretty obvious by now a lot of leadership was lost in Williams/Mitchell/Stoll/Richards/Greene/RR. So this is not the same leadership team. All of those guys have been replaced by no one pretty much.

And most of those guys were still around in 14-15. There's no question that that group of players had that it factor, but they were also around for 14-15. A different sort of adversity was faced by the team that year, but where was the vaunted leadership that year? Forget winning the Cup, they couldn't get into the dance, and they had their chances.

Why wasn't Blake smarter and called up a goalie for tonight so Quick wouldn't be suspended Tuesday after the All-Star break?

Probably because he's not actually hurt, or hurt enough anyway.

Dean came out and said after the first cup that he knew how to build teams to contend, but he didn't know what to do after they win. So he was just shooting from the hip and trying to keep together what got him there. Instead of keeping up with league and improving the team every year.

And it worked in 2013, despite not having Mitchell or Greene. In was sort of working in 2014, although Brown still couldn't score, which resulted in taking a flyer on Gaborik, who they got for nothing. Then Gaborik had the playoff of a lifetime, and since Brown couldn't be trusted to score, they almost had to keep Gaborik no matter what, who then had a pretty damn good 14-15 season with 27 goals.

14-15 will always go down as the biggest what if season.

 

[BigKing]

Speaking of lost gumption and leadership:

 

[Sol]

I miss Greene.

He was a steady number 5/6 you could count on. The Kings don't even have that anymore.

When? I like nostalgia as much as the next guy, but a steady 5/6 he was not around the last two years as a King.

I see a lot of rose colored glasses here when talking about the past. Shit hit the fan way too much even with those players. I see a lot of depression here lol. Those players were not nearly as good as nostalgia is making it sound.

 

[Sol]

I don't like over complexity, the difference between "Successful Sutter Hockey" was a really solid defense with timely scoring.

No surprise the Kings fell apart when the stout defenseman were gone. Sutter hockey wont work without competent defenseman.

You plug in 2012-2014 Mitchell and Voynov into the current line up you'd see the Kings be at the top of the division.


Kings get hemmed in way too much and cause so many idiotic goals because of the lack of hockey IQ on the back end.

Mitchell and Voynovs competence would mean Kings would be on the offense more, and scoring more, and losing less.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Our new All-Star left-winger?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Paajarvi has the same number of goals and assists as Andreoff...

 

[kovacro]

Meh, I'd consider taking a shot at Paajarvi. He's an UFA at seasons end, if it doesn't work, no obligation.