GDT: 2023-24 season game 34 LA Kings vs Toronto Maple Leafs @7:30pm 1/2/24

[funky]

8 straight without goal from defense. Spence is still goaless in 39 games for being an offensive dman . Into the crest, and high and wide were his two shots tonight. There is zero offense coming from the back end.

Roy is the one that surprises me the most. the guy was potting goals every 8 or 9 games last year and nothing this year.

t seems our D core as a whole is either taking muffin shots to kill any plays, shooting high or wide, or holding the puck to long and telegraphing their intentions.

If Clarke gets called up he better be with Gavrikov. Clarke may be a wizard on offense but defence is still suspect. Get him on the PP, keep Fiala as far away from the blue line as possible and give Spence a game or two off just to catch his breath a bit and watch a few games. Spence is like a sponge and will probably pick up a few tips and up his game.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

NFL at least has some accountability with their officiating. They actually have a report card system which determines if they make the cut for the playoffs. I would love to see something like that for NHL officiating, because there are far too many games where the officiating is having a too much of a negative effect on games.


So this is the first time that Kopitar has been the C since Brown retired?!

They do.

 

[Kudelski37]

Kings are only 6 points up on Edmonton and Seattle. Will they be trailing one or both by the end of next week?

 

[ibleedkings]

If Sutter took over this team (which I think would only happen over Kopi and DD dead bodies).. What changes would he make?

Lewis to line 1.

 

[Bandit]

Seems like a good thing I missed this one.

I guess Todd is adapting? Can't blow a 2 goal lead if you don't have one.

 

[fivehole32]

8 straight without goal from defense. Spence is still goaless in 39 games for being an offensive dman . Into the crest, and high and wide were his two shots tonight. There is zero offense coming from the back end.

Gavrikov was the only defenseman hitting the net with shots. He has a real good handle on pinching and swapping with forwards that is seamless.

Being that it is Todd, there won't be any changes, but after last nights lackluster performance there needs to be some dramatic changes. I did like PLD getting pissy and stirring it up a bit, but at that point, it was too little too late. Should have been dictating that from the get go.

 

[chris kontos]

arthur kaliyev can be blamed directly for this loss. his mere presence in the pressbox has distracted the coaches and players to the point of exhaustion. his antics and lack of professional response to the exellent coaching provided points up the reason for his banishment for the forseeable future to the pressbox where hopefully he can consider his sinful attitude, philosophy and facial affect.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

arthur kaliyev can be blamed directly for this loss. his mere presence in the pressbox has distracted the coaches and players to the point of exhaustion. his antics and lack of professional response to the exellent coaching provided points up the reason for his banishment for the forseeable future to the pressbox where hopefully he can consider his sinful attitude, philosophy and facial affect.

Dude your defense of the kids, is persistent, I get that, but Kaliyev has not been good this year, he simply hasn't. He still looks lost in the defensive zone, offensively he's lost, you rightfully shit on PLD, but Kaliyev is playing the same type of game, and you blame it on, his playing his off wing? Really?

 

[Schmooley]

Dude your defense of the kids, is persistent, I get that, but Kaliyev has not been good this year, he simply hasn't. He still looks lost in the defensive zone, offensively he's lost, you rightfully shit on PLD, but Kaliyev is playing the same type of game, and you blame it on, his playing his off wing? Really?

He is saying the coach blaming Kaliyev is a joke. People criticize Dubois but I dont think I see anyone pinning losses directly on him.
Maclellan singling out Kaliyev as the problem is not cool when the issues are deeper and team encompassing.
Kaliyev took that nasty hit vs the Sharks and maybe got scrambled a bit also.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

He is saying the coach blaming Kaliyev is a joke. People criticize Dubois but I dont think I see anyone pinning losses directly on him.
Maclellan singling out Kaliyev as the problem is not cool when the issues are deeper and team encompassing.
Kaliyev took that nasty hit vs the Sharks and maybe got scrambled a bit also.

Didn't see that, what did he say exactly? Kaliyev has to play better? Is he wrong? But when Kaliyev's play, dictates that JAD is a better option, that's on Kaliyev....and he hasn't been playing well all season...not just the past 3 games etc.

 

[YP44]

How many other times in League history has a team iced an entire forward line of Left hand shots?
LA did that last night right?

 

[The Butcher]

I  AM CALM!

What panic button, what are you talking about?

 

[YP44]

I heard Darryl is available.

The coach seems pretty safe, but I think Gallant is still out there. He is who I wanted last coaching change.

Fiala once again with TO, wich leads to goal

The whole team was turning over the puck last night. Whatever the opposite of crisp passing was they did it.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

How many other times in League history has a team iced an entire forward line of Left hand shots?
LA did that last night right?

The Kings have done that for much of the season with Byfield-Kopitar-Kempe and Fiala-Danault-Moore.

Also, just a quick look at the best lines so far this season (with my top-of-the-head recollection of handedness) shows that there are a number across the league:

(There might be others on that list but I just haven’t confirmed handedness for players I haven’t seen much. Also, ignore me marking the Lizotte line—that was an accident.)

 

[Little Psycho]

 

[Nasti]

Kings don’t need sutter. They just need a coach who’s not a spineless bitch. They got the only coach in modern hockey who got reverse swept lol

I get the sentiment but Julien was reverse swept too.

How many other times in League history has a team iced an entire forward line of Left hand shots?
LA did that last night right?

I’ve been saying this for a year. Laf and Lewis are the only righties with Arvidsson out and Vilardi traded. It’s like a microcosm of the bad mix of players Blake has assembled.

 

[Lt Dan]

that f***ing sucked

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

I wonder what is our record with JAD in the lineup. 0-10?

JAD is a 4th liner,13th forward if I ever saw one but maybe he replaces Lizotte at Centre

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

i think that was the idea behind the grundy promotion and that did nothing

enough catering to PLD, bench his ass

I'm not for benching Lucien "Deblois" but might be up for trading his ass to Siberia...maybe Novosibirsk where NProkhorkin used to play he'll enjoy the 12 months of Winter and the rest of the seasons the rest of the time...

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

How many other times in League history has a team iced an entire forward line of Left hand shots?
LA did that last night right?

Probably many times...LA Kings first truly good line of Juha Widing,Mike Corrigan and Bob Berry were all Lefties but that's going back a 100 years ago in Kings folklore

 

[SherVaughn30]

If Sutter took over this team (which I think would only happen over Kopi and DD dead bodies).. What changes would he make?

Accountability of the players. Hard forcheck and attack the front of the net. Protect our defensive zone and counter-attack. Simply this team wouldn't be playing so soft if Sutter was coaching us again. Sutter knew how to prepare his teams for the playoffs, TMac Charmin doesn't have a clue! Why exactly would Kopitar/DD not like Sutter? He was the coach who lead those 2 and the rest of the Kings to winning 2 Cups! I think they would have a huge amount of respect for Sutter. But realistically, Blake would have to fire TMac and might have to relinquish some control regarding personnel decisions. It would never happen as Blake would look bad and he would not give up the leverage he has now. So with that said, Kings need a Sutter type coach(playoff tested) but a bit more modern to adjust to the faster, high tempo game played nowadays.

 

[lexlavender]

Also McClellan continues to be the worst "good" coach I've ever seen. He cited the line shake-up last night as "successful" because the kings played better in the 3rd.

BRO, HAVE YOU HEARD OF SCORING EFFECTS BEFORE. You have a whole team of analytics experts that tell you possession stats when behind mean less than at close. You should not be making conclusions based on this alone.

Although thank god he did something because the lines have been tepid for a while. He did it in the most DUMBASS way possible, but at least it's something.

Lines if I was him would be:

Fiala-Kopitar-Kempe
Laf-Danault-Moore
Byfield-Dubois-Kaliyev
Lewis-Lizzotte-Grundstrom

To me, this is a line up shake-up that understands where each person is struggling:

Fiala needs to be a on a line that will be able to capitalize on his creativity, as well as motivate him to be sharper
Laf needs to be with players who can cover for his tenacity
Dubois needs players that can hold the puck in the zone, and Byfield is perfect for that

 

[SherVaughn30]

Also McClellan continues to be the worst "good" coach I've ever seen. He cited the line shake-up last night as "successful" because the kings played better in the 3rd.

BRO, HAVE YOU HEARD OF SCORING EFFECTS BEFORE. You have a whole team of analytics experts that tell you possession stats when behind mean less than at close. You should not be making conclusions based on this alone.

Although thank god he did something because the lines have been tepid for a while. He did it in the most DUMBASS way possible, but at least it's something.

Lines if I was him would be:

Fiala-Kopitar-Kempe
Laf-Danault-Moore
Byfield-Dubois-Kaliyev
Lewis-Lizzotte-Grundstrom

To me, this is a line up shake-up that understands where each person is struggling:

Fiala needs to be a on a line that will be able to capitalize on his creativity, as well as motivate him to be sharper
Laf needs to be with players who can cover for his tenacity
Dubois needs players that can hold the puck in the zone, and Byfield is perfect for that

One change from your list of lines. PLD should not be centering any line right now. He should be delegated to winger. Being a pivot is too much responsibility for PLD to handle right now. It would put less pressure on him, as being a winger he can be used to shoot the puck or find an open teammate if he has no shot option available in that moment. PLD might not be the best player to have him working with Byfield right now. Byfield needs to continue developing good habits and PLD is not the right player to be learning from.

 

[SherVaughn30]

You can rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, but the big ship is still hitting a giant iceberg and sinking. Remove the giant iceberg problem in TMac Charmin(bigger than that probably would be Blake) and bring in someone else to captain/helm this team in right direction(become a better team going into the playoffs).

 

[kingsfan28]

He is saying the coach blaming Kaliyev is a joke. People criticize Dubois but I dont think I see anyone pinning losses directly on him.
Maclellan singling out Kaliyev as the problem is not cool when the issues are deeper and team encompassing.
Kaliyev took that nasty hit vs the Sharks and maybe got scrambled a bit also.

When Kaliyev can't make basic hockey plays on a nightly basis, thats a problem. Time after time he has chances to get the puck in deep, instead, he stops 2 feet into the blueline and makes a pass into the middle that misses everyone or turns it over. He loses basic board battles...and he's 6-2", 210. He's played on 3 dif lines, same issues. You'd think he would've picked something up playing with lizzo by now. This is on him now. He has to be more than a shot.