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Speculation: - Another year of this Bluc **** (The 2024-25 season thread) | Page 113 | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League
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Speculation: Another year of this Bluc **** (The 2024-25 season thread)

PLD to Washington is easily the best trade Blake has ever made or will ever make.
It's just incompetence.
-Blake shouldn't have made the trade without a plan to fit PL into the team.
-Blake needed to step in between Todd & PL. Both gone. 😂 Solid Todd extension before firing.
-The contract was problematic. Not Blake's first rodeo on cap crippling investments into a player that ultimately didn't fit the team.
-Blake dumped an asset for a 5 mill by 3 years contract that had lost the starting job. Got lucky Kuemper rebounded. We'll see how he does in the playoffs.

But wait! There's more! The gowing rate to dump a 5M goalie signed for more than one year is
Walker (injured 2nd, 3rd pair PMRD)
Grans 2nd round pick
2 Million in cap, Provorov
That was Kuemper's value leaving Washington. We have comps.

No faith in Blake.
No faith in Hiller, crap special teams & Burroughs cements that.
No faith in Luc for allowing this to fester, but we're right there.

Team needs a fresh perspective & A GM with some actual experience. An actual GM might not have to lean on Luc for his input.
 
Kevin Fiala in that series was a 39% CF%, 38% SCF%, and a 33% xGF%.

Fiala IS AN ISSUE. He has always been an issue in the playoffs across now several teams. It's just now also manifesting in the regular season.

I'm sorry but I'm sick of people burying their heads firmly in their asses about this. It's visible AND it shows up in stats. What more will it take to at least make you guys say "huh, that is bad" rather than "Lol no problems?" Why the hell is the bar for this guy set so low? We need him to be one of our best players, a true positive difference maker, not just 'not bad', especially given they've coddled him every god damn which way to no effect (except a bad PP and ever dwindling even strength play).

I try to give everyone here the benefit of the doubt but it seems some people are hypnotized by his razzle-dazzle and ignore the substance.
I’m not burying my head in any sand. I was just saying that the team record after he came back after injury and clearly not 100% fit (which you were critical of) isn’t the basis of any conclusion. I also don’t think he was the biggest issue in that series… the lack of coaching adjustments was problem #1.

He’s playing poorly this season, I’ve said nothing to the contrary.
 
I think there's a happy medium at play as far as arguments. By focusing on Fiala and providing no other depth in the discussion or posts, it implies that he alone is the reason the Kings lost. Very similarly, people posting he scored 2 points per game in the series suggests he should be absolved. So people try to add context and layers instead of just nodding mindlessly.
Thank you.

I’m happy to say that as a fact (because I used to do it) a pro team won’t analyse stats without all the context. Line mate, injuries they are carrying, matchups, plus (what we definitely don’t know) how they are asked to play. There will be additional factors and data points we are unaware of which all form part of the analysis. So not one person on this board knows better than the team, simply because we don’t have all the information.

It’s one of the reasons I don’t get into a lot of the stats arguments, because I don’t have the spare hours to do it properly…. or all the context I need. I won’t do it if I can’t do it properly, not that I can be all that bothered these days.

However, my general thought are. Fiala is a maverick, X-factor type of player. He does things others can’t and when he’s not forcing it he is definitely an asset. He’s playing very poorly right now and is definitely forcing it. I don’t mind having one of those types on the team but he needs to be better. At his best he is definitely a net asset but he is a long way from that currently. He’s clearly the new whipping boy on here.
 
Fiala doesn't have to turn into Nikita Kucherov, I just want him back to playing like his first season with the Kings. He had flaws then too, but he was a difference maker and an impact player offensively. This season has been rough for him.
 
Just to add having someone like Fiala (and Clarke for that matter) will affect how other teams set up. They might tell the D to be more conservative than normal, for example. As soon as that happens it helps even when said player is not on the ice. Given Fiala’s form I doubt he’s causing that to happen much at the moment, but when he’s on I think it’s likely teams make adjustments, even just small ones. I’m not saying it’s going to be adjustments like you’d make when facing the McDavids of this world.

You can’t have players that all play safe/conservative because it’s horrendously easy to play against. So having X-factor players is important. It’s the same with Clarke, he makes thing happen and teams have to allow for that.

I’m not defending the trade/contract as that’s a separate argument. I’m just saying that evaluating his value to the team isn’t a straight forward as looking at a stat line. As I’ve said though it really requires him to actually be playing well which he isn’t.
 
Just to add having someone like Fiala (and Clarke for that matter) will affect how other teams set up. They might tell the D to be more conservative than normal, for example. As soon as that happens it helps even when said player is not on the ice. Given Fiala’s form I doubt he’s causing that to happen much at the moment, but when he’s on I think it’s likely teams make adjustments, even just small ones. I’m not saying it’s going to be adjustments like you’d make when facing the McDavids of this world.

You can’t have players that all play safe/conservative because it’s horrendously easy to play against. So having X-factor players is important. It’s the same with Clarke, he makes thing happen and teams have to allow for that.

I’m not defending the trade/contract as that’s a separate argument. I’m just saying that evaluating his value to the team isn’t a straight forward as looking at a stat line. As I’ve said though it really requires him to actually be playing well which he isn’t.
Are we seriously in “PLD’s mere presence is helping the Kings to win” territory with Fiala now?
 
Are we seriously in “PLD’s mere presence is helping the Kings to win” territory with Fiala now?
Whether or not you like Fiala, Statto has a point. Opposing teams have to respect the skilled players. If they were to leave Fiala alone or let him make easy decisions, he will create dangerous scoring chances. They need to neutralize a skilled person who's not a complex problem solver.

It's like the opposite of Clarke. He finds various ways to escape scary situations (particularly in the opponent's zone). But they clog up the middle more to make sure he keeps the puck on the outside. He doesn't try to force the puck through traffic.

It's also why teams back off from Kopitar on the half boards. They know he's not going to try carrying the puck to the net and close off passing lanes. This is just scouting and execution by professional teams.
 

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