I was so hoping no-snarl-Carl played his last game as a King and stayed on LTIR.
What is the King management fascination with him? His last good game was vs Oilers in 2022 playoffs, taking Nurse on his back to the goal and scoring. That was probaly his last good play.
Teams let loose of players, after apx 1-3 months of ineptness. Not 1.5 years. (see resigning Edler for a second year...signing Athanisiou a second year) Know when to let loose of any player
that can no longer play at a needed level to elevate the group. They were getting all excited when he was playing his games in Ontario, hoping he would be ready for this series...right after a -2 game vs Bako. Great! Bring on Carl! "our hardest hitter on the forecheck!" Nice. How many of those hits, are the opponents on their butt and Carl takes the puck and does something great? Once a year, maybe? WOW!! After Akil scored 3 goals and 1 assist in his last 6 games on the Kings and was playing great in all 3 zones...and and mixed lines and still producing. Let's send Akil down....Carl is almost ready to take Akil's spot! Akil plays with instincts...that may not be good for the system!... Carl has zero instincts. Or robot like ones. Any opponent knows he's just going to go hard in a straight line and you can force him to shoot or dump it...no way will he try to go around you...and if you're a D, don't sweat him coming to you to hit you hard...take the hit...he won;t hurt you, be viscious or face wash you...he's the Lady Byng winner of 'hard hitters' in the NHL. Oh and he won't take the puck from you, so proceed with your play. You may at worst, hear a naughty word in Swedish.
What's missing from the Kings, is a lot of things mentioned in this thread (and most all threads...it's a King team thing) is players that play with instincts and bring something to big games. Akil and Turcotte have a history of being big in big games...as well as Clarke. Those 3 should be playing.
The Kings PP is stagnant and here you have Turcotte with 3 PP goals 72 hours ago and Clarke, that had 3? asssits and has offensive instincts few on the Kings have. You really have nothing to lose, by removing Carl and one of Spence / Englund and playing Clarke and inserting either Akil or Turcotte. Look at Laferriere in his first playoff game? Going balls out...8? hits and a sweet assist on Moore's goal. Let the kids play. Akil,. Turc and Clarke are ALL at their young career best right now.
I am so done with Lizotte...this bizarre fascination with thinking he can elevate your team as the MUCH needed championship level 4th line....whereas he has about 20% success rate at successfully completing whatever play he is involved in....is lunacy. I started counting all and any plays he's involved in and measure success on what the result is...it's pitiful. It ususally ends in getting knocked down, barely keeping play alive, sometimes making a of uccessful pass or cycle...but NEVER the end result is a great one...maybe a goal every 30 games...BFD. Akil can score a goal ever 4 periods, in a variety of ways. Yes he battles, sometimes wins...but never, ever, is an opponent overmatched, pummelled, or has fear facing him. Why the F do you even want a player like that on your team? Heart and hard work = faliure, if you fail at 80% of all of your plays consistently for YEARS. How many times is he knocked dwn, to every time he knocks a player down? 50-1 I would say....and once in awhile, it's by a slew skate type of thing, with his stick used, like on Vilardi.
Kings mantra. Hard work, compete, play the system = success. BS. Skill, finishing ability, instincts and beating your opponent in multipe ways = championship level success.
Burn this thng down, as it's not what I wanted...but any new regime, first to go are Liz and Carl...and Lewis is let go...and a new 4th line that can win NHL playoff games, will be constructed....just one of the several things that must be done....Now, if Helenius was the answer...great. But so wish he was as hoped. Maybe scouting and development need to go.
Please put in Rittich from here...what did he have? One turd game all year? Go with him.
Would install Turc / Akil / Clarke and sit Liz, Carl and Englund as well. Clarke PP1. PP2 gets no time. DD and Clarke both on unit 1. Why not? Both are pretty adept at shooting from 40 feet....only one would have to be 55 feet back near the line. If the Kings are going down, give the kids a shot.
