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

[dman3474]

Clarke should be on the half wall for one of the power plays, with either Drew or Spence on that point.

 

[unicornpig]

think pettersen is a good comp for gavikov. do it 6.5 by 5

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

16 stats: Can Connor McDavid become the NHL’s first $20 million player?

Plus Moritz Seider’s easing burden in Detroit, home-ice disadvantage in Utah, how multiple teams have adjusted amidst injuries and more.

www.nytimes.com

4. Quinton Byfield taking on bigger defensive challenge​

On a team with Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault, it speaks volumes that Byfield is the one getting the majority of the team’s matchup minutes.

That’s something that really started in early January against the Lightning, a home game where Byfield played 13 minutes head-to-head against Nikita Kucherov, while Kopitar and Danault played just under five minutes combined.

Since that day, Byfield has played 93 minutes against the opposing team’s top forward while Kopitar has played 56 minutes and Danault has played 51 minutes. In terms of average Offensive Rating faced, Byfield is at plus-4.2 compared to Kopitar’s plus-2.3 and Danault’s plus-2.1. Big difference. Byfield has been the go-to shutdown guy and he’s getting the results to match with a 56 percent expected goals rate fueled by allowing just 2.0 xGA/60, both among the best marks on the team.

That’ll be an interesting development to watch down the stretch. Can Byfield’s emergence down the middle help solve the Kings’ McDavid-Leon Draisaitl problem in the playoffs?

5. Can Kevin Fiala have a second-half resurgence?​

Another thing that can help: getting the real Fiala back. He’s the closest thing the Kings have to a true offensive game-breaker, but he’s been way too quiet this season to earn that notion. Fiala has just 31 points in 49 games this season, a 52-point pace that would be his worst since 2018-19.

Under the hood, it’s business as usual for Fiala. At five-on-five he’s still pushing play, he’s still getting chances and he’s still scoring. Ditto for the power play. The problem has mostly been his teammates — at five-on-five they’ve scored on just 4.8 percent of their shots with Fiala on the ice. That’s the 25th-worst mark in the league with only two top-six players (Josh Norris and Nazem Kadri) above him.

That’s probably not Fiala’s fault either. According to data tracked by Corey Sznajder, Fiala is the team’s leader in scoring chance assists per 60 at 5.8. That’s one of the best marks in the league, comparable to elite playmakers such as Nikita Kucherov and Mitch Marner — his teammates just aren’t finishing.

Fiala is playing good hockey and it feels like the results will come soon.

 

[tigermask48]

I disagree in general with this sentiment. Do you think Dustin Brown got in the faces of teammates or held other players accountable more than Kopitar did? I don't.

What separates the two is Lombardi recognized Brown's shortcomings and added players to supplement what the current leadership is lacking.

Maybe we're on two sides of the same coin, but the Kings won with Brown, Kopitar, and Doughty as the faces of the team. Kopitar and Brown brought a more even-keeled, subdued leadership. But intense players like Quick, Richards, Mitchell, Williams were there to amp up the team. Who's there now?

Teams need leaders who keep things on an even keel as much as they need run-through-the-wall players. Blake's not shown he can identify that. But it's also why he should have fostered a rebuild sooner. Let the youth take over and lead a lively charge while the vets try to keep the team emotionally composed when things are down.

Tl;dr I think Kopitar is a good but limited captain, and continuous mismanagement of a rebuild and the future is the fulcrum of what's wrong with roster construction.

I do think we are on two sides of the same coin a bit.

Brown didn't need to get in people's faces to hold them accountable though, as he did it on the ice.

He also didn't shy away from being vocal in the locker room which was part of Dean and Murray giving him the C. There was that story about Brown at one of the early development or rookie camps where Brown talked to all the young guys about what it meant to be a professional hockey player. That was also a large part of him being named captain.

I've made this point before but so I apologize if it isn't new, but teams often take on the qualities of their leaders, good and bad.

Brown was the very embodiment of everything those Kings teams tried to be while he was captain. Hard working, hard hitting, in your face, never give up hockey, and Brown was exactly that. Even if you aren't scoring, you are pitching in where you can. Yes, he had a ton of help will guys like Williams, Greene, Quick, Richards, Carter, etc. But he was always the guy that was "Kings Hockey" at that time.

Now look at the teams once Kopitar got the C, yes all those other guys are gone and that may be part of it... But the Kings have become a frustratingly soft, streaky scoring group of players that don't really seem all too bothered by much of anything. They've taken on Kopitar's best and worst attributes. Yes they are defensively responsible, and one of the best teams in the league on defense, but they all have the skill to score more than they do. Even Jeannot who was brought in to be a physical force, and he was early in the year! But now, he's just stopped hitting, stopped fighting, and is now just kind of there.

Jesse made a really good point last week (or maybe two weeks ago) about never hearing of any issues in the locker room and the vibe being very good. He also went on to say that he never heard of any issues, even when Todd got fired last year and that was a little strange. That maybe there should be something when the team is playing bad enough that the head coach is fired?

That stuck with me as you can contrast that to the Kings under Brown holding that players only meeting and locking Sutter out of the room (was that ever confirmed to have happened?) back shortly before Daryl was fired.

 

[FrozenKing18]

That stuck with me as you can contrast that to the Kings under Brown holding that players only meeting and locking Sutter out of the room (was that ever confirmed to have happened?) back shortly before Daryl was fired.

Tofu said it was Williams that decided to do this lmao