GDT: 2020-21 season game 45 LA Kings vs Arizona Coyotes @7:00pm 4/24/21

[Raccoon Jesus]

Must disagree with you here...Kings haven't played well in two months (hence, the reason why they haven't been able to put together two or more straight wins in that time). That means, they really only played well for the first 6 weeks of this season....pretty mediocre or crap after that.

I mean, that's pretty well the definition of what a non-playoff team looks like.

Please don't get me wrong--I'm not trying to defend their recent play. You see how mad I am about it above. The micro level has me pretty f***ing worried. But the big picture is accurate.

 

[BigKing]

@Raccoon Jesus

Wheeler's Top 5 prospect pool runs LA-NYR-OTT-DET-CAR. What do those first four teams have in common? Sucking. The Rangers are bolstered by lottery luck but they also had three 1st round picks in 2018 and two in 2017 and 2020.

Anyways, I guess the answer to "why doesn't everyone suck and do it" is that there can only be so many garbage teams that are going to move legit players for more draft capital. It makes the NHL product bad but it will make your prospect pool look great by picking high and often unless you draft horribly. Even then, I've already brought up how guys like Bernier and Hickey were headlining a Top 5 prospect pool. Unless you just go and Teubert it right away, a player's draft position will carry a lot of weight for a decent amount of time when ranking prospect pools.

Giving away good NHL players for draft picks and prospects is not hard. Picking players with draft picks is not hard: picking the right ones is and we really have no idea yet on Blake's success rate.

So, my issue is Blake does not deserve to have anything he's done be called amazing at this point except for passing on AK and then getting him at the top of the 2nd anyways. That's the coolest thing he's done at the draft with Faber hopefully being up there as well.

We *hope* we are in a good position and, yes, I think we are in a good position as far as assets and cap space go but that isn't some stroke of genius. This off-season and what we see on the NHL ice next season is where we need to start seeing some sort of tangible results to Blake's rebuild but, at this moment, he doesn't deserve high praise: not yet.

 

[SFKingshomer]

Signing AI and AA were good moves. LA is not a big FA attraction so I'll give him a pass there. He's finally in a position to move out some assets to improve the NHL roster.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

@Raccoon Jesus

Wheeler's Top 5 prospect pool runs LA-NYR-OTT-DET-CAR. What do those first four teams have in common? Sucking. The Rangers are bolstered by lottery luck but they also had three 1st round picks in 2018 and two in 2017 and 2020.

Anyways, I guess the answer to "why doesn't everyone suck and do it" is that there can only be so many garbage teams that are going to move legit players for more draft capital. It makes the NHL product bad but it will make your prospect pool look great by picking high and often unless you draft horribly. Even then, I've already brought up how guys like Bernier and Hickey were headlining a Top 5 prospect pool. Unless you just go and Teubert it right away, a player's draft position will carry a lot of weight for a decent amount of time when ranking prospect pools.

Giving away good NHL players for draft picks and prospects is not hard. Picking players with draft picks is not hard: picking the right ones is and we really have no idea yet on Blake's success rate.

So, my issue is Blake does not deserve to have anything he's done be called amazing at this point except for passing on AK and then getting him at the top of the 2nd anyways. That's the coolest thing he's done at the draft with Faber hopefully being up there as well.

We *hope* we are in a good position and, yes, I think we are in a good position as far as assets and cap space go but that isn't some stroke of genius. This off-season and what we see on the NHL ice next season is where we need to start seeing some sort of tangible results to Blake's rebuild but, at this moment, he doesn't deserve high praise: not yet.

Would disagree on the Carolina sucking, but that's probably just splitting hairs.

You're arguing against yourself as well, though. If at best we can give him an 'incomplete,' and we can't praise him for what he's apparently done so far (fair, as guys have to pan out), we can't give him a 'YOU SUCK' sticker then either.

The point, regardless, is that this is about where we expected to be at this point in the season.

Now, if the bottom falls out, and we somehow finish at a worse points pace than last season (still possible IIRC)? You'd better believe I'll firmly be on the 'burn everything' bandwagon.

 

[BigKing]

Would disagree on the Carolina sucking, but that's probably just splitting hairs.

You're arguing against yourself as well, though. If at best we can give him an 'incomplete,' and we can't praise him for what he's apparently done so far (fair, as guys have to pan out), we can't give him a 'YOU SUCK' sticker then either.

The point, regardless, is that this is about where we expected to be at this point in the season.

Now, if the bottom falls out, and we somehow finish at a worse points pace than last season (still possible IIRC)? You'd better believe I'll firmly be on the 'burn everything' bandwagon.

I said "what do the first four have in common" and CAR is #5 since I was including LA with the other suckers.

I'm not putting a "YOU SUCK" sticker on him but I am going to say to pump the brakes when I feel his assessment is too generous, much like you probably would if someone was ripping on him too much.

Nothing will change how I feel about him doing the easy thing as a GM. Hell, even his best NHL season was basically standing pat with the existing team while hiring the assistant coach to be the head coach. Then he thinks all the team needs is more scoring so he signs a UFA "scorer". Then he realizes that the bottom has fallen out and he needs to rebuild so he does. Credit for realizing it needed to be done, of course, but it is easy to lose and not try to make the on-ice product better when ownership is on board with that vision.

He can be praised for certain moves that he has made during the rebuild, no doubt. He can also be criticized but even those criticisms mostly still rely on seeing how certain prospects pan out: just like most of the praise he receives.

I will say that while they are kind of where we expected them to be, I expected them to be here in a different way so I am concerned much more than I was earlier this season. I hate their lack of intensity and how soft they are. I thought they would be better this year because young guys stepped up and the team played real hard and scratched out points. What's happened is that they rode a real hot power play to points v. getting them by being hard to play against. A team lacking talent should be hard to play against in an effort to overcome the lack of talent but these guys don't do it. It is worrisome since Blake started talking "culture" but it doesn't seem to be here yet and it isn't coming in spades via the prospect pool. I hope he realizes this is a glaring weakness and somehow addresses it this offseason.

 

[Jason Squirties]

I will say that while they are kind of where we expected them to be, I expected them to be here in a different way so I am concerned much more than I was earlier this season. I hate their lack of intensity and how soft they are. I thought they would be better this year because young guys stepped up and the team played real hard and scratched out points. What's happened is that they rode a real hot power play to points v. getting them by being hard to play against. A team lacking talent should be hard to play against in an effort to overcome the lack of talent but these guys don't do it. It is worrisome since Blake started talking "culture" but it doesn't seem to be here yet and it isn't coming in spades via the prospect pool. I hope he realizes this is a glaring weakness and somehow addresses it this offseason.

This is 100% where I'm at with them.