Speculation: Another year of this Bluc **** (The 2024-25 season thread)

[Raccoon Jesus]

Fiala also doesn't really match his eye test game to metrics anyway, since he has the "muzzin" knack--be awesome 90% of the time, but be catastrophic with your errors such that it will look like you had a good game on paper but you're a minus three since your turnovers are breakaways...people will make excuses about 'unlucky' because your linemates aren't finishing and your on ice save % is deflated but it's because you aren't doing 'normal' things...see also last year's version of PLD (your linemates aren't finishing because you can't find them with a map) and basically any year of Erik Karlsson (oh his goalies keep failing him...no, he constantly has the lowest on-ice save % of any dman of any team he's on for a reason).

Compare that to someone like Byfield who by and large if he has a good game or bad game the stats typically match.

 

[KingPuckChoo]

Watching Vilardi tearing it up really reinforces the fact that this admin has to go

no matter what

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Watching Vilardi tearing it up really reinforces the fact that this admin has to go

no matter what

You guys should all be sending Thank You cards to PLD.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Quite the offensive juggernaut Bowlby has assembled. Good thing he got rid of Vilardi. Can't have any of that talent on this team that is built for playoff success.

 

[King'sPawn]

Quite the offensive juggernaut Bowlby has assembled. Good thing he got rid of Vilardi. Can't have any of that talent on this team that is built for playoff success.

The 14 goal difference between LA and Seattle is the same between LA and Calgary, who sits 20th with 364 goals. It also ignores the fact that LA has played a fewer games than everyone else.

It's bad, but they're just as close to 20th as they are to 29th with fewer games played.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Gavrikov, 2 years, 5.875 AAV, NMC both years.

How did Blake back himself into this corner? Most competitive teams signing Gavrikov would want him signed 4+ years for cap stability to plan out the team. What team would be willing to give him a two year contract to cash in on the cap going up? That's how desperate GM's think, not GM's building a contender. If someone gave him a two year contract, why have a NMC in the final year so you can't recoup assets for allowing Gavrikov to cash in.

This makes absolutely no sense. Now at 29 Gavrikov is probably looking for that big long term contact. King's have the cap to sign him with Kopi & Doughty retirements on the horizon, but why does Gavrikov want to sign long term on a team that's in decline?

That's right, the two year contract bought Blake 2 more years of first round exits. Mission accomplished.

Kempe can negotiate a new contract this summer too. What incentive is there to re-sign with the declining King's?

 

[NikF]

The thing that's crazy is that two of the biggest Blake's acquisitions, where he used massive draft/prospect capital (Vilardi, Faber etc.), *the* kind of acquisitions that GMs usually make once or twice at most in their tenure, *the* kind of assets used where the GM is really putting his stamp on the team... One of those acquisitions is off the team after a single year (Dubois) and the other we're all discussing about whether he should be off the team within three seasons of being here (Fiala).

 

[KingPuckChoo]

You guys should all be sending Thank You cards to PLD.

And Blake supporters should send their Thank Yous to the San Jose Sharks organization

 

[Schrute farms]

It's amazing to me how anyone can continue to support Blake after the PLD/GV trade and immediate 8 year contract. Let alone giving up Faber among the RHD we had, no playoff series wins, loss of assets, current bad/weak prospect list among the league, NTCs, no cap space annually, Cal contract, etc.

It's one thing to support the team -- but the GM after all these failures and big steps. Who knows the missed successes this franchise could have had without all these horrible missteps.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I really do think Blake has FAR more common ground with Mike Milbury at this point than is comfortable for anyone to admit

 

[FSL KINGS]

What a time to be a King's fan.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

 

[BaileyFan]

I really do think Blake has FAR more common ground with Mike Milbury at this point than is comfortable for anyone to admit

At least Milbury knew Luc had no business being anywhere near hockey operations.

 

[Vote4Lubo]

Personally would put Greene over Norstrom but overall legends. Good memories

 

[King'sPawn]

Personally would put Greene over Norstrom but overall legends. Good memories

View attachment 969335

I would have a few changes too.

Brown - Kopitar - Williams
Norstrom - Doughty
Quick

Palffy - Kempe - Deadmarsh
Visnovsky - Greene
Potvin

But the final submission here is certainly a good one.

 

[Johnny Utah]

We know they can't score, but now they aren't even tough.

Jeannot has been invisible, Edmundson has a weak slap fest with Tkachuk, Burroughs/Englund are press boxed and Helenius back in Ontario.

Back to soft and boring.

 

[kingsboy11]

Personally would put Greene over Norstrom but overall legends. Good memories

View attachment 969335

Mines pretty close to what was revealed, just swapping Norstrom and Martinez and Carter and Kempe. When I first started watching the team in 06-07 and I was pretty young and still learning about hockey, Norstrom was a player that stood out in a way that a pretty young kid could tell he was a good player and a guy who you would want leading the team. The team may have been bad, but he was easily the most consistent player during that time. Would've loved to have seen on the cup winning teams.

 

[Bandit]

I really do think Blake has FAR more common ground with Mike Milbury at this point than is comfortable for anyone to admit

So Blake’s got a future with ESPN, vs., OLN??????

 

[johnjm22]

Kings have the 5th highest shooting percentage in the league, while simultaneously being dead last in slot shots and being near the top of the league in 'Long range goals'.

That doesn't seem sustainable. Neither is Kuemper's recent play.

You're probably gonna see some regression soon. P3 here we come.

Thank you, Sol.

The Kings have played 38 games already. What's not sustainable?

Kopitar had 3 goals and 3 assists in the first 3 games of the season. That's not sustainable. If he scored 38 goals and 38 assists in the first 38 games, that's a very large sample and says he's absolutely crushing it.

People misunderstand regression all the time. If you flip a coin and get heads 5 in a row, the probability of getting heads the next time is still 50%. If you flip another 95 times, your total will very likely end up around 50 heads out of 100. That's regression. Flipping heads is also a RANDOM event.

Hockey is NOT a random event. Darcy Kuemper's career save percentage is 91.4%. He's a very good goalie. Someone has to have the 5th highest shooting percentage in the league. Why can't it be the Kings? The Kings have gone 6-2-2 in their last 10 for a point percentage of 70%. You can say they're hot now, that's not sustainable, and they're due for a regression. It turns out that their point percentage for the season so far is 67.1%, so it turns out they've been hot for the entire season.

^Since this post:

Kings are 3-6-1
Scored 17 goals in 10 games
Dropped to P3

 

[SaltyElkHunter]

This team has become exactly what we were before Dean flipped the script. Back then the problem was players like Luc and Blake and now the problem is Luc and Blake. Go f***ing figure!

 

[kingsfan28]

Thanks for the 1009 games Lewis, but it's time to put you out to pasture. Enough of this and lets get some new blood into the 4th line, which was working before he returned.

 

[tigermask48]

This team has become exactly what we were before Dean flipped the script. Back then the problem was players like Luc and Blake and now the problem is Luc and Blake. Go f***ing figure!

"Legacy moves us forward"

"Ha"

 

[AbsentMojo]

They only seem to win with the 11/7 - which I think is masking their inability to find reliable line combos. I think the reason no one has ever run the 11/7 for entire season (that ive hard of) - is because it wears down the players - made worse by running a tight check system. That could be part of the reason for the scoring drought. Some of the below have sucked the entire season.. but Laf, Kopi and Foegle were producing well previously

 

[johnjm22]

Personally would put Greene over Norstrom but overall legends. Good memories

Palffy - Kempe - Deadmarsh
Visnovsky - Greene
Potvin

Greene over Mitchell?

I know Willie is a left shot, and didn't play as many games here, but he's better than Greene and more important to the cup runs.

 

[Herby]

They only seem to win with the 11/7 - which I think is masking their inability to find reliable line combos. I think the reason no one has ever run the 11/7 for entire season (that ive hard of) - is because it wears down the players - made worse by running a tight check system. That could be part of the reason for the scoring drought. Some of the below have sucked the entire season.. but Laf, Kopi and Foegle were producing well previously

View attachment 969563

It's largely just a result of variance catching up to many of these guys, the Kings got off to a great start do to overachieving, now they stink because things are evening out.

Moore - Career year last year, obv slumping but he's a 15-20 goal type guy
Jeannot- Another horrible Blake trade, 18 goals in 187 games since the fluke of all fluke seasons. Should not be counted on for any offense.
Kopi - Slumping for sure, but he also greatly overachieved earlier in the year and variance is catching up
Laf - Like Kopi also being hit by variance. He wasn't going to score 35+ goals, a crashing down was overdue.
Danault - This is probably just who he is at this point, maybe a slight slump, but he never gets threatening chances anymore
Foegele - PPG player in December with 19% shooting% just completely unsustainable
Fiala - The enigma, still on pace for around 30 goals, so was probably also running well earlier in the year
Byfield - 2 goals in 10 games is 16 pace over season, he had 20 last year and on pace for 19 this year, baby slump, but 3 in 10 would be overachieving
Turcotte - That is a 15 goal pace, I'm guessing that Turcotte ends up being a guy who gets you 12-18 goals most seasons in his career.

It's funny how the Kings media will highlight this, but will never suggest that the earlier season results were flukey when things like Kopitar scoring at a 90 point pace through 30 games, or Laf scoring at a 36-goal pace through Oct/Nov with a shooting% north of 20% or Warren Foegele scoring at a 40-goal, point-per-game pace over 12 games that the team went 8-2-2 in was just not going to be sustainable.

They aren't as good as they were or as bad as they are now, things will eventually stabilize a bit, and the Kings will be somewhere between what they were in December and what they are now, which is a 12-16 in the league, black hole team that is 1st round cannon fodder to an actual contender, or what they have been the previous three seasons since Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake declared the team "contenders"