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

Kings/Oilers opened at Kings +120, but is now Kings +115, so the public either believes in the Kings this year or is just betting on a team with home-ice getting + money.

I was somewhat surprised at the opening odds, as much as I think this is once again going to be a terrible stylistic matchup, the Kings are still the best home-ice team in the NHL and they are relatively healthy as opposed to the Oilers who are beat-up. I thought home-ice and the injury question marks would have had this closer to even money.

Makes you wonder what the opening odds would have been had the Kings been starting on the road.
 
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Here's a neat one,

Kings haven't had this much firepower in the regular season since 1990-91

1990-91 LAK.png
2024-25 LAK.png
 
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Wait. The Kings are playing again tonight? Guess we'll see if Byfield is ready to go or not. I hope they sit some guys to rest or only put them out on the PP.
 
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shuchukfan said:
Wait. The Kings are playing again tonight? Guess we'll see if Byfield is ready to go or not. I hope they sit some guys to rest or only put them out on the PP.
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The pessimist in me says that's why they're waiting to render judgment (rather than "hurr Oilers travel").
 
www.nytimes.com

Stanley Cup Checklist 2.0: Analyzing the rosters of the NHL playoff teams

Here's a look at the 16 teams separated into five tiers based on how many boxes they tick on the new-and-improved Cup Checklist.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

1744813056481.png


What works

If you were surprised to see the Kings this high, that makes two of us. But having 40 percent of the Cup Checklist filled by players that are “ideal” or better is pretty eye-opening. Only the Lightning and Panthers have more.

Mostly, that stems from the Kings being a defensive powerhouse. Drew Doughty, Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov is an embarrassment of defensive riches. Same goes for Trevor Moore and Phillip Danault’s defensive depth game, not to mention the defensive combo of Quinton Byfield and Anze Kopitar. The Kings are built to shut teams down.

What makes the Kings extra intriguing this year, though, is the goalie behind all of that. Darcy Kuemper has been lights-out over the last month or so and that makes the team an even bigger defensive force. Their plus-37 Defensive Rating is right on par with the 2012 and 2014 champions.

This franchise has a blueprint they already won with a decade ago. They’re following it to a tee this season.

What doesn’t

One of the reasons to be surprised is because there are still major questions about whether the Kings have the offense to hang with the best of the West. Their two best players are Byfield and Adrian Kempe, and with all due respect to those two great players, they’re a shade below what’s expected of Cup champions. Byfield is the wild card there and looks to be ready to take over as The Guy, but that still feels like it’s a year away. Elevating to that level in these playoffs though would be a game-changer — the kind that could net the Kings the Cup.

Offense from the blue line is another sore spot. That’s brought about by the team’s top defender, Doughty, not measuring up offensively anymore and the team’s prized prospect, Brandt Clarke, being mostly untrustworthy without the puck to play in the top four. The Kings are elite defensively, but can they score enough when it matters?
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Detest Blake, but this is the best team he has had in his tenure and his fingerprints are all over it. Going to be a real bummer for him if Jeannot and Edmundson aren't available, however.

Hopefully he doesn't disappear in the playoffs, but you really can't ask for more out of a TDL pickup than what they've received from Kuzmenko. I'm not tracking the results of all the TDL moves, but I'm sure it would be hard to top the combination of production, fit, and cost that Kuz has brought.

Without him, only the Blake nut-huggers would feel confident going into this matchup. Current roster has Bland on the main board saying Kings in 5. Big change from pre-TDL.
 
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BigKing said:
Detest Blake, but this is the best team he has had in his tenure and his fingerprints are all over it. Going to be a real bummer for him if Jeannot and Edmundson aren't available, however.

Hopefully he doesn't disappear in the playoffs, but you really can't ask for more out of a TDL pickup than what they've received from Kuzmenko. I'm not tracking the results of all the TDL moves, but I'm sure it would be hard to top the combination of production, fit, and cost that Kuz has brought.

Without him, only the Blake nut-huggers would feel confident going into this matchup. Current roster has Bland on the main board saying Kings in 5. Big change from pre-TDL.
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Well the Kings have obviously been good all season....but they've been REALLY GOOD the last quarter. Can't ask for much more going into the playoffs -- all signs are pointing towards slaying the dragon, but that doesn't mean shit until they actually do it.
 
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Axl Rhoadz said:
Well the Kings have obviously been good all season....but they've been REALLY GOOD the last quarter. Can't ask for much more going into the playoffs -- all signs are pointing towards slaying the dragon, but that doesn't mean shit until they actually do it.
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Simply being "good" is the issue most of us have, since that gets you absolutely nowhere in this league.

I would bet on the Kings if the 4th line of Jeannot/Helenius/Turcotte was fully ready to go. I still have concerns about playoff intensity and this team stepping up to the plate and that 4th line was just a killer playoff-style line.

I am at least at a point where I will not be surprised if they win this time, which is a huge change from last year where it was a formality.
 
BigKing said:
Simply being "good" is the issue most of us have, since that gets you absolutely nowhere in this league.

I would bet on the Kings if the 4th line of Jeannot/Helenius/Turcotte was fully ready to go. I still have concerns about playoff intensity and this team stepping up to the plate and that 4th line was just a killer playoff-style line.

I am at least at a point where I will not be surprised if they win this time, which is a huge change from last year where it was a formality.
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Besides the bullshit rhetoric that goes on around here, I think all of us are on the same page in that we'd like nothing more than playoff success. However, this constant dismissal of reg season success is absurd -- you gotta win games to make the playoffs. This team being the position to break the all-time franchise record of season points is pretty incredible. It doesn't mean everything, obviously, but it sure the hell doesn't mean 'nothing'.
 
Well, regular season success doesn't mean nothing. Fans can certainly enjoy the games, which for a good part of the second half has been, especially since the deadline. But breaking the franchise record for points in the 3 point game era is pretty meaningless for most, at least on this site.
It's a nice achievement sure, but that didn't even win the division and they're still almost 10 points behind the presidents trophy winner.

There's no doubt that this team at mid season was looking like it was headed toward another 3rd place finish and a 1st round exit.
The Kuzmenko trade, as everybody has said, has been magical.
It put all the forwards in a better spot, Hiller finally tried Byfield and Fiala together and that line has been pretty great.
This team looks far more dangerous than what they iced in the 1st half of the season, and I'm more optimistic about some playoff success than I have been over the last 2-3 years. But they'll need to get healthy, especially QB.

It's also looking like all the top teams have significant flaws, and there aren't any teams that looks considerably better than the rest.
 
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Regular season success doesn't indicate playoff success. And since the Kings have been bounced three years in a row despite being good, there's understandable tentativeness.

I am more confident going into this year's playoffs compared to the previous three... but I'm sorry, until they actually do something in the playoffs, I really don't care about regular season stuff.

Is it really worth celebrating being the west coast Maple Leafs who, up until recently, couldn't get out of the first round to save their lives?
 
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"Regular season success means nothing."

I don't agree with this attitude. Never have. The majority of the product we consume is played during the regular season.

It's not everything, but it sure ain't nothing either. A good regular season is worth some recognition.

It's actually incredible how little regular season success this franchise has had in its history.
 
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johnjm22 said:
"Regular season success means nothing."

I don't agree with this attitude. Never have. The majority of the product we consume is played during the regular season.

It's not everything, but it sure ain't nothing either. A good regular season is worth some recognition.

It's actually incredible how little regular season success this franchise has had in its history.
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If Dallas and Toronto lose in regulation or OT, the Kings could finish with the 4tn best record in the league.

That is a remarkable achievement for a team in a transition year. They followed the Lombardi plan of getting younger AND better.

Its actually very disappointing that more fans are being so damn cynical here and not showing an appreciation for the successful changes made this year.
 
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bland said:
If Dallas and Toronto lose in regulation or OT, the Kings could finish with the 4tn best record in the league.

That is a remarkable achievement for a team in a transition year. They followed the Lombardi plan of getting younger AND better.

Its actually very disappointing that more fans are being so damn cynical here and not showing an appreciation for the successful changes made this year.
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I've been screaming about this for four years now.
 
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Context matters.

If LA had this regular season after selling out the farm that'd be one thing. But they didn't. We held onto our 1st round picks in the offseason and at the TDL.

We had this regular season success while simultaneously improving the future.

Not trading Matt Roy was the last f*** up we've had. Since then things have headed in the right direction.
 
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johnjm22 said:
Context matters.

If LA had this regular season after selling out the farm that'd be one thing. But they didn't. We held onto our 1st round picks in the offseason and at the TDL.

We had this regular season success while simultaneously improving the future.

Not trading Matt Roy was the last f*** up we've had. Since then things have headed in the right direction.
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Without making some kind of grid, you can make the wrong decisions for the right reasons, right for wrong, etc.

Up until 7/1, Blake was making the wrong choices for the wrong reasons. Abject failures across the board. Then, suddenly it was the right choices for the right reasons. Sure, Jeannot was an overly expensive purchase and Edmundson seems to be overpaid in dollars and term by 25%, but you can live with those if they fulfill their roles. And they did - in spades.
 
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