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

[Surf Nutz]

That's funny. The Kings should've tried that with Cliff Ronning and Anson Carter.

Isn't Kuz like 10 years younger than when those guys were shipwrecked on the Kings?

Big difference if so.

Well maybe its more like 5.

I guess your comparison is reasonable.

Don't know if you looked at the attachments but there ain't shit to sign otherwise.

3.5 ain't jack either even if you end up 4.5.

After looking it up Anson did great and Ronning fair.

So you are also interested in extending Kuz?

 

[Telos]

They should look to keeping Kuz, but while he has passed the eye test and balanced the lines, he has got to get some points here soon and find some chemistry with the guys. No way his agent pulls the trigger on a deal before the end of the season.

 

[Surf Nutz]

They should look to keeping Kuz, but while he has passed the eye test and balanced the lines, he has got to get some points here soon and find some chemistry with the guys. No way his agent pulls the trigger on a deal before the end of the season.

Hmm, 8 years might be tempting.

 

[King'sPawn]

I remember being lectured how much the 4th line doesn't matter when the others aren't producing

but that completely ignores the domino effect of having the 4th line that effectively handles minutes and moves the puck up ice so you're not digging yourself out of your own zone with the other team having built momentum running over a corpse.

The results rippling thru the lineup aren't a coincidence.

There's still merit to the argument. A fourth line is depth, and it tilts the scales when all other things are equal.

But if Byfield, Fiala, Kopitar, etc stop producing, the fourth line isn't going to win you games alone.

That fourth line without Lewis hasn't been putting up points, either.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

There's still merit to the argument. A fourth line is depth, and it tilts the scales when all other things are equal.

But if Byfield, Fiala, Kopitar, etc stop producing, the fourth line isn't going to win you games alone.

That fourth line without Lewis hasn't been putting up points, either.

The fourth line without Lewis hasn't been getting caved in like it was with Lewis. There's a chasm of a difference between being net neutral and net negative.

 

[Statto]

There's still merit to the argument. A fourth line is depth, and it tilts the scales when all other things are equal.

But if Byfield, Fiala, Kopitar, etc stop producing, the fourth line isn't going to win you games alone.

That fourth line without Lewis hasn't been putting up points, either.

Your point about tipping the ice is key. If they can eat some reasonable minutes without costing us then it’s a win. If they can chip in the odd goal and be a net positive it becomes a difference maker… as you say when all else is equal.

If they can be trusted enough to shave a minute or so off the minutes of the top guys they can, indirectly, be a difference maker in a PO series.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Your point about tipping the ice is key. If they can eat some reasonable minutes without costing us then it’s a win. If they can chip in the odd goal and be a net positive it becomes a difference maker… as you say when all else is equal.

If they can be trusted enough to shave a minute or so off the minutes of the top guys they can, indirectly, be a difference maker in a PO series.

Exactly.

They might not win us a game

But they can't be actively losing us games. LIterally--Lewis, Burroughs and the fringe corpses were doing that. Yes, there was a scoring drought--one of the ripple effects of having 2-4 literally unplayable players a night getting pushed back into our zone (and playing 5 non-puck moving dmen) is that we had 9 forwards a night, some of whom are closer to retirement than their prime, starting shifts repeatedly in our dzone. Look at the possession/shot charts with and without some of those guys, it's bonkers, and literally the difference between lottery and league-top-3.

I guess my point was people were selling short how a bad 4th line (really forwards 10-11, since it wasn't a full line) hurts.

 

[King'sPawn]

The fourth line without Lewis hasn't been getting caved in like it was with Lewis. There's a chasm of a difference between being net neutral and net negative.

There is, but the other lines were also problematic.

It's like complaining about Kurtis MacDermid. Was he winning you games? No. But the team had bigger issues causing the losses.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

There is, but the other lines were also problematic.

It's like complaining about Kurtis MacDermid. Was he winning you games? No. But the team had bigger issues causing the losses.

When your entire fourth line gets caved in every shift there is a cascading effect on the rest of the team. It cannot be segregated from the issues elsewhere on the team; it is foundational to those issues.

 

[King'sPawn]

When your entire fourth line gets caved in every shift there is a cascading effect on the rest of the team. It cannot be segregated from the issues elsewhere on the team; it is foundational to those issues.

Sure it can. Lewis plays an average of 10:13 per game. What's happening the other 49:47 of hockey? Is that Lewis' fault too? Is it Lewis' fault the Powerplay is 15.5% (28th in the league) when he averages 3 seconds per game on it?

Kopitar and Kempe lead the team with 53 points in 64 games. On pace for 67 points, which is slightly above PLD"s career high. Is that also Lewis' fault the team can't consistently score?

Blaming any singular player as much as people like to shit on fourth liners here is just an asinine argument to me. I'm sorry.

If the discussion is about upgrading the fourth line from Lewis, I'm all ears and supportive of that. But when the BIGGEST complaint after every loss is low-hanging fruit like a fourth line player, we are losing focus of bigger issues.

 

[Schrute farms]

Blake and Hiller really got things coming together right now with Kuz balancing the lines.

I would offer him 3.5 X 8 before he starts cashing in with points.

Gav 6 up to 6.5

So nice to see after the carpal tunnel epidemic from obsessive hand wringing.

8 years?!? Wow OMG....lol, welcome back. I need the entertainment.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

Sure it can. Lewis plays an average of 10:13 per game. What's happening the other 49:47 of hockey? Is that Lewis' fault too? Is it Lewis' fault the Powerplay is 15.5% (28th in the league) when he averages 3 seconds per game on it?

Kopitar and Kempe lead the team with 53 points in 64 games. On pace for 67 points, which is slightly above PLD"s career high. Is that also Lewis' fault the team can't consistently score?

Blaming any singular player as much as people like to shit on fourth liners here is just an asinine argument to me. I'm sorry.

If the discussion is about upgrading the fourth line from Lewis, I'm all ears and supportive of that. But when the BIGGEST complaint after every loss is low-hanging fruit like a fourth line player, we are losing focus of bigger issues.

Much of the other 49:47 is spent trying to transport the puck 180 feet given that the fourth line with Lewis on it is statistically likely to be far away from the offensive net at the end of its shift, or lining up at center ice after a goal against and then trying to chase the game. You can’t just ignore the negative effects that has on the rest of the team.

Also, the Kings spend an average of 3:54 on the power play per game. That’s far less time per game to be a detriment to the team than Lewis when he’s on the ice.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I can be the fourth lines fault when they don’t draw penalties like the current version does and instead take penalties, especially given the Kings are last in the league in power play chances

Again no one was saying it was the only problem but it’s exceedingly clear how it was the most easily and immediately fixable AND that there are huge effects on the rest of the lineup and play because of it

And being told”who cares about the fourth line” ignores all that