Toggle sidebar

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

  • We sincerely apologize for the extended downtime. Our hosting provider, XenForo Cloud, encountered a major issue with their backup system, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of some critical data from the past year.

    What This Means for You:

    • If you created an account after March 2024, it no longer exists. You will need to sign up again to access the forum.
    • If you registered before March 2024 but changed your email, username, or password in the past year, those changes were lost. You’ll need to update your account details manually once you're logged in.
    • Threads and posts created within the last year have been restored.

    Our team is working with Xenforo Cloud to recover data using backups, sitemaps, and other available resources. We know this is frustrating, and we deeply regret the impact on our community. We are taking steps with Xenforo Cloud to ensure this never happens again. This is work in progress. Thank you for your patience and support as we work through this.

    In the meantime, feel free to join our Discord Server
bland said:
No, but the gap is considerably narrower than 23-25.

McDavid really hasn't been the issue, its been Draisaitl eating Anze's lunch.

If they matchup Danault with McDavid and Byfield against Draisaitl, the Kings would be in their best position yet to beat the Oilers. Doesn't make them favorites by any means, but the increased Kings depth and weakened Oiler roster is a factor in the Kings favor. They haven't enjoyed that advantage in the three prior tries.
Click to expand...
This only matters when the Kings have last change, so at most 4 of 7 games, and also doesn't factor in Edmonton just double shifting those two (which they'll do and have done) against other lines, making the whole match-up attempt moot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vote4Lubo and AbsentMojo
bland said:
No, but the gap is considerably narrower than 23-25.

McDavid really hasn't been the issue, its been Draisaitl eating Anze's lunch.

If they matchup Danault with McDavid and Byfield against Draisaitl, the Kings would be in their best position yet to beat the Oilers. Doesn't make them favorites by any means, but the increased Kings depth and weakened Oiler roster is a factor in the Kings favor. They haven't enjoyed that advantage in the three prior tries.
Click to expand...

somehow read this as McDanault and Bysaitl

Good luck unseeing that, suckers
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: 333359, Rumpelstiltskin, FrozenKing18 and 2 others
AbsentMojo said:
Re Oilers I dont think anything else matters if the extreme special teams disparity cant be addressed. PP over last 3 playoffs:
  • Edmonton Oilers:
    • 2022: 50.0%
    • 2023: 50.0%
    • 2024: 45.0%
    • Overall (3 seasons): 48.1%
  • Los Angeles Kings:
    • 2022: 15.8%
    • 2023: 22.2%
    • 2024: 0.0%
    • Overall (3 seasons): 16.3%
Other notes:

Outscored 9-0 on special teams v EDM last playoffs

24-25 Reg season PP%: EDM 25.6, LAK 15.6.

Penalty minutes taken/60: EDM: 7.02, LAK: 8.29

Penalty minutes drawn/60: EDM: 7.39, LAK: 6.96
Click to expand...
Florida used pressure on the pk. They actively went at the puck holder. This opened things up behind the defender, but in moving quickly it rushed the passes before the oilers could get in position.

Last night Doughty took away the cross crease pass, half going down, instead of pressuring the person with the puck. This allowed Beddard to just skate right into the lane & rip a shot off the pass because Doughty was down & they could adjust.

Mikey had a similar issue a week or two ago. He went down on the pk to block the cross ice pass. The player just looped around with no pressure & waited for Mikey to make the exact same play while a teammate coasted into the crease for a good chance.

By being passive, you allow the offense the time to set up plays. Going at the puck opens plays up too, but the team doesn't have time to get the perfect pass, shot off.

Raccoon Jesus said:
somehow read this as McDanault and Bysaitl

Good luck unseeing that, suckers
Click to expand...
Really have to watch the McD. . . Auto completes
😂
 
kingsfan28 said:
You do know every team at some point uses the 1-3-1 in the playoffs, right? Last year Fox showed 2 or 3 times EDM used it when they were up a goal.
Click to expand...

“At some point” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

There’s nothing wrong with the 1-3-1 when a specific situation calls for it.

The f***ing problem is using the 1-3-1 when you’re down a goal and it’s game six.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: FrozenKing18, AbsentMojo, Raccoon Jesus and 5 others
Byfield had 55 pts last season, and on pace for about that this season (actualy 53, but he's hot now).. Maybe thats why he picked the number? If he had been w Fifi all season and not grinders on the 3rd line, plus his rightful place on PP1, I expect he'd be pushing 65-70 pts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KopitarGOAT420
I know this team still has a lot to prove, but all of the sudden the future is starting to look pretty damn good for the Kings despite all the mistakes management has made over the years.

It's pretty remarkable actually, given we don't even have players like Vilardi and Faber in our system anymore.

Byfield is him. At this point, I have a ton of confidence in the guy, especially long term. He's added a good shot to his arsenal and he and Fiala work GREAT together. He IS the 1C the Kings need for the future. Laferriere is also a significant piece for the future. He's been snakebitten at times this year but what a player this kid is. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a consistent 60 point winger in his prime, especially if he finds himself on a scoring line. The guy just makes so many good/smart plays and is constantly involved on the ice. He's not a game breaker offensively but he's certainly offensively skilled enough to be a factor. Turcotte is incredibly solid and a very useful player, even if he ends up as mainly a middle 6 player. Clarke is starting to look better again and the points are starting to show up again - I have a lot of faith in him long term as well. Spence is veryyyyy good. Mikey Anderson isn't going anywhere anytime soon - still only 25 years old.

If one of the 3 goalie prospects ends up hitting, the Kings will actually be in great shape.

Then you have guys like Greentree and Ziemmer who are also looking like hits. Plus a handful of other players in the pool who could surprise and end up hitting (Wooley, Mania, Conmy, Salin, Dvorak, Pinelli, etc).

Additionally, the Kings long term cap situation is actually surprisingly solid. Even Doughty's contract will be off the books in a couple seasons and there may be alternative options if the Kings really do end up needing to free up additional cap space prior to Doughty's contract expiring. Plus the cap expected to go up significantly. Even if we re-sign Gavrikov long term and Kempe ends up getting a huge extension, things still look pretty solid. I'm sure people will still find reasons to be pessimistic but things are looking pretty good IMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lumbergh
I think we have a better shot at beating edmonton than in any of the last 4 yrs.
We have to get better than 28th best team in the leauge on the power play because if we dont that stat by itself will kill us in the playoffs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Omni Owl and Schmooley
chris kontos said:
I think we have a better shot at beating edmonton than in any of the last 4 yrs.
We have to get better than 28th best team in the leauge on the power play because if we dont that stat by itself will kill us in the playoffs.
Click to expand...
I think I’m on the wrong message board…
 
chris kontos said:
I think we have a better shot at beating edmonton than in any of the last 4 yrs.
We have to get better than 28th best team in the leauge on the power play because if we dont that stat by itself will kill us in the playoffs.
Click to expand...
Can't tell if hopium or copium, though I do agree this year feels a bit different. We def match up better against Vegas though. Either way they need to try and secure home ice because of the dominance at home.
 
I mean if there's ever a time to feel good about the team it's after scoring 7 in back to back games.

I still fear the Oilers would just kill them on special teams again but we'll cross that bridge if we get there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Omni Owl and VILARGOD
FSL KINGS said:

:popcorn:
Click to expand...

That'll certainly be an interesting contract to watch over the next 8 years.

Chychrun is obviously a good player and the Caps hands were kind of tied in this scenario but $9m AAV for the next 8 years is a LOT to commit to a guy who has played just 1 full season of hockey in his ~8 year career. And those are his younger (likely healthier) years of his career.

He's also yet to put up over 50 points in a season, in part because of injury issues but still. And virtually 0 playoff experience. Guess we'll see how it plays out but I'm a bit nervous long term if I'm a Caps fan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BaileyFan
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom