Around the League '16-'17 Other Teams' Free Agent Frenzy

[SettlementRichie10]

Anyone remember that sick end to end goal Aki Berg scored in his very first game?

We thought he was the next Ray Bourque after that goal.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Anyone remember that sick end to end goal Aki Berg scored in his very first game?

We thought he was the next Ray Bourque after that goal.

You sure that was Aki? He didn’t score a goal until his 89th game in the NHL.

I remember Robert Lang’s end-to-end goal against the Rangers, thought he’d be a star someday. Of course it would be elsewhere.

Or Pavel Rosa’s two-goal game in his debut. Sadly, that was the hallmark of Rosa’s NHL career.

I thought Vitali Yachmenev was on his way to be a star, turns out he was a beneficiary of having Gretzky as a center. Without him, he was not so special.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

So not liking the result means I don’t understand it. Let’s all listen to this almighty snob who claims to have superior knowledge over the rest of us.

I guess pointing out that the team was unwilling to pay the price to score tough goals and backing it up with facts and stats that prove it demonstrates my lack of understanding of the sport.

Maybe if I shoved my head so far up my ass, I might also share your same myopic views. Let’s all listen to the resident ******* who thinks his **** doesn’t stink.

Never said that, but hey you like making up crap too, right? I mean, when pressed about Lombardi and his poor moves since 2014, you came up with THREE instances....in 3 years.....man...yep, he destroyed the franchise....

LOL that's just laughable and hindsight at it's best, but that's what you do, right? Judge the moves only by hindsight....again, if that Lucic trade wins another cup, no one says boo about it, but because it didn't, it's a disaster etc...

You think the team was unwilling to pay the price to score tough goals? I guess we can add delusional to your description as well, but hey, I will bite,

What the hell is a "tough" goal anyways?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Never said that, but hey you like making up crap too, right? I mean, when pressed about Lombardi and his poor moves since 2014, you came up with THREE instances....in 3 years.....man...yep, he destroyed the franchise....

LOL that's just laughable and hindsight at it's best, but that's what you do, right? Judge the moves only by hindsight....again, if that Lucic trade wins another cup, no one says boo about it, but because it didn't, it's a disaster etc...

You think the team was unwilling to pay the price to score tough goals? I guess we can add delusional to your description as well, but hey, I will bite,

What the hell is a "tough" goal anyways?

Didn't realize pointing out facts like paying Greene $10M on an extension after 2014 and not having the cap room to find a replacement is now considering making up crap. I'm sorry that you can't process how the CBA works, but maybe you can point out to me how the Kings utilized the free cap space from Greene being on LTIR, since you seem to know it all.

Did the Lucic trade result in a Cup win? No? How about a playoff series win? No? So you go ahead and start making crap up to help with your myopic narrative. So what did the team achieve from making the Lucic trade and what do they have to show for it now? You don't see me complaining about the Richards trade, despite how that whole saga unfolded.

Since you are too ignorant to notice and thought the playoff games were tightly contested, I'll provide you with a link that presents cold hard facts that shows how unwilling the Kings were in positioning themselves in high probability scoring areas.

https://www.tsn.ca/talent/time-has-come-for-the-kings-to-rebuild-1.1061737

The third column, HDCF, that is a measure of dangerous shot attempts. The lowest of any team in the past 20 years.

No team has ever scored fewer goals in four games. Only a handful of teams have generated less scoring chances, and only one team – the 2011 Florida Panthers – generated less dangerous shot attempts. Across the board, it was a total failure. (You’ll note 2017 Vegas is also on this table, but you can see a clear difference – they were generating plenty of dangerous scoring chances and shot attempts. They just weren’t going in.)

HockeyViz’s Micah Blake McCurdy had a fantastic visualization of the data tabled above. The heat maps reiterate the same point – L.A. was kept to the outside way too frequently, whereas Vegas was able to position itself in and around Jonathan Quick for most of the series.

But y'know, I don't have an understanding for the game. We need the almighty GoldenBearHockey to explain to us that they lost because SPORTS happened.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Doing the quick math, it averages to about 8 posts a day. Quite amazing when you are technologically advanced and use a computer at work and have a mobile phone in your possession.

A good example of what happens around losing. Same thing happens in locker rooms. When you win, we're all cool. Lose? Dissension. Factions form. Start nit-picking. We got the stand firm group. We have the trade everyone group. We have the re-tool group, but within that group there is disagreement on who to trade, so that's another splinter. Now we have post counts. 9 playoff games in 4 years, we have plenty of extra time to divide. We're all only human.

The only antidote is success.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Didn't realize pointing out facts like paying Greene $10M on an extension after 2014 and not having the cap room to find a replacement is now considering making up crap. I'm sorry that you can't process how the CBA works, but maybe you can point out to me how the Kings utilized the free cap space from Greene being on LTIR, since you seem to know it all.

Did the Lucic trade result in a Cup win? No? How about a playoff series win? No? So you go ahead and start making crap up to help with your myopic narrative. So what did the team achieve from making the Lucic trade and what do they have to show for it now? You don't see me complaining about the Richards trade, despite how that whole saga unfolded.

Since you are too ignorant to notice and thought the playoff games were tightly contested, I'll provide you with a link that presents cold hard facts that shows how unwilling the Kings were in positioning themselves in high probability scoring areas.

https://www.tsn.ca/talent/time-has-come-for-the-kings-to-rebuild-1.1061737

The third column, HDCF, that is a measure of dangerous shot attempts. The lowest of any team in the past 20 years.



But y'know, I don't have an understanding for the game. We need the almighty GoldenBearHockey to explain to us that they lost because SPORTS happened.

Where to start?

Ok, it doesn't matter if they paid Greene, $10 million or $100 million, he was on LTIR, you keep bringing up Greene like it matters, it doesn't FFS, pay him $10 million a year, when he goes on LTIR, guess what, you have $10 million in cap space....see how that works?

As far as utilizing it, don't know, you seem to think it was tied up in Greene....

Did the Lucic trade realize in a cup win, well no, of course not, but thats why you think the trade is bad, not the trade itself, the RESULT of that deal, hell you admitted it when you said you aren't complaining about the Richards deal, which theoretically is MUCH worse than the Lucic deal, you know why you aren't complaing, because they WON. See how that works?

As far as this year's playoffs, got any more charts? Wait, I know, show me a chart that shows puck luck, crap, gonna have to wait for your diatribe over puck luck.

Kings had ZERO bounces go their way, none, that's flat out amazing in four games, to have ZERO bounces, I'm not saying the result would have been different, it might have been, who knows, hell they might have won a game or two, and then you wouldn't have anything to bitch about, that would suck for you, we know that....

But yes, I call 4 one goal games, contested games.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

You aren't going to generate much "luck" if you are shooting from the f***ing walls. I thought you were an expert. Even you should know the bounces won't go your way if you aren't even there to pounce on them.

Maybe they can hang a banner for scoring a moral victory for the team's biggest cheerleader.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

You aren't going to generate much "luck" if you are shooting from the ****ing walls. I thought you were an expert. Even you should know the bounces won't go your way if you aren't even there to pounce on them.

Maybe they can hang a banner for scoring a moral victory for the team's biggest cheerleader.

LOL I see that you have zero idea bout puck luck, but hey, I'm glad there was no diatribe,

So the puck bouncing up on Brown's stick with a wide open net, that would have been different if he had just been there?

You have yet to answer, what exactly is a "tough" goal?

Puck luck isn't just about being there.....but that's literally what you are saying, because your chart says they didn't shoot from there...they weren't there.....does your shot take into account shot attempts or just completed shots? Just curious

 

[KINGS17]

LOL yes, and some are here to trade everyone like it's a video game I suppose

Yes, because that is what I have said, "Trade everyone!"

If you want to be taken seriously, you might want to start by not misrepresenting what others post.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Yes, because that is what I have said, "Trade everyone!"

If you want to be taken seriously, you might want to start by not misrepresenting what others post.

LOL and yet, you do it to mine, what's amusing is that you assume I have favorite players

 

[KINGS17]

LOL and yet, you do it to mine, what's amusing is that you assume I have favorite players

When I quote you, you know I am referring to you. That was a general comment which applies to a few posters, but take it as you will.

It's just SPORT, right. The whole thing is up to the fickle finger of fate, puck luck, etc. It's the reason the Kings went to three WCFs in a row, winning two cups, and its the reason the Kings have won ONLY a SINGLE playoff game in the last four seasons.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. HE'S BRILLIANT!!!

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

When I quote you, you know I am referring to you. That was a general comment which applies to a few posters, but take it as you will.

It's just SPORT, right. The whole thing is up to the fickle finger of fate, puck luck, etc. It's the reason the Kings went to three WCFs in a row, winning two cups, and its the reason the Kings have won ONLY a SINGLE playoff game in the last four seasons.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. HE'S BRILLIANT!!!

Bolded the part that matters lol, obviously it's more than that, but you being facetious doesn't really help your cause, I get it, you think right after they won the cup in 2014, that was the peak, they should have started to slowly rebuild......trade Martinez maybe, kick the can at trading Carter when he was ripe old 29, etc, never occurred to you to try to win again right?

 

[bouncesonly]

Kings had ZERO bounces go their way, none, that's flat out amazing in four games, to have ZERO bounces, I'm not saying the result would have been different, it might have been, who knows, hell they might have won a game or two, and then you wouldn't have anything to ***** about, that would suck for you, we know that....

But yes, I call 4 one goal games, contested games.

What about they had crap offense is so hard to swallow that you're gonna bury yourself to the King's 2018 misfortune to puck luck/zero bounces? 4 games, 3 goals for the entire series. That's not puck luck. Also love how you say that the result would not have been different, but then add the caveat "might have been, who knows." Talk about the most wishy washy augment ever made, next to a series sweep to puck luck

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

What about they had crap offense is so hard to swallow that you're gonna bury yourself to the King's 2018 misfortune to puck luck/zero bounces? 4 games, 3 goals for the entire series. That's not puck luck. Also love how you say that the result would not have been different, but then add the caveat "might have been, who knows." Talk about the most wishy washy augment ever made, next to a series sweep to puck luck

Because I judge offense by more than just results, the same guys are making the same arguments back in 2010-2011, and then they go on and have the most success they had in their history,

As long as the chances, are there, the effort is there, the results will follow,

You guys act as if a 3% shooting percentage is normal.....

I know, I know, the chart says that they didn't have offense, no...they didn't have results, huge difference.

Do the results need to be there, absolutely, are there things they can switch or change up to improve the results, absolutely,

Is the sky falling because the results aren't there...no...not at all.

 

[lumbergh]

Somebody put an end to this thread and start this shit over. Sigh.

 

[BigKing]

It is true that you need a lot of luck if you are just shooting from the walls most of the time.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I'm not going to close this thread, but I AM going to start threadbanning people that can't disagree civilly.

Drop the egos, you're likely right AND wrong.

 

[Brodeur]

Anyone remember that sick end to end goal Aki Berg scored in his very first game?

We thought he was the next Ray Bourque after that goal.

For me it was Jere Karalahti: Edmonton Oilers at Los Angeles Kings Box Score — December 30, 1999 | Hockey-Reference.com

I remember coming home for winter break as a college freshman and watching that game. I didn't have a TV in my dorm room, so I hadn't watched much that season.

In that game, Karalahti had a couple goals including one off an Al MacInnis-esque slapper. He played 25 minutes and made a couple of nice hits too. I was immediately convinced he was a stud and made an ill fated trade for him in my keeper league.

 

[BigKing]

I'm not going to close this thread, but I AM going to start threadbanning people that can't disagree civilly.

Drop the egos, you're likely right AND wrong.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

I'm not going to close this thread, but I AM going to start threadbanning people that can't disagree civilly.

Drop the egos, you're likely right AND wrong.

I will take that, according to my wife, I'm mostly the latter

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

For me it was Jere Karalahti: Edmonton Oilers at Los Angeles Kings Box Score — December 30, 1999 | Hockey-Reference.com

I remember coming home for winter break as a college freshman and watching that game. I didn't have a TV in my dorm room, so I hadn't watched much that season.

In that game, Karalahti had a couple goals including one off an Al MacInnis-esque slapper. He played 25 minutes and made a couple of nice hits too. I was immediately convinced he was a stud and made an ill fated trade for him in my keeper league.

LOL don't you hate that, reminds me of Leaf fans and Matt Frattin....he was the next coming etc...

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Jere Karalahti had so much potential, but he was more concerned with drugs and partying and didn't take his career seriously. Had he done so, he would have arrived in the NHL sooner and would have stuck around longer. What a wasted talent.

High Times Five years after he says he last smoked heroin, the L.A. Kings' Jere Karalahti looks back on his dreamy days on drugs

All the while Karalahti excelled in the Finnish hockey amateur ranks, and in June 1993 the Kings selected him in the sixth round of the draft. Karalahti, then 18, remained in Finland and signed with HIFK, one of the country's elite clubs. "He was a great team guy and an awesome player," says Kimmo Timonen of the Nashville Predators. "He was my defense partner, and the way he played, you couldn't tell he had a problem with drugs."

Timonen says he got a little worried in January 1995 when he,Karalahti and the rest of Finland's junior national team came to Red Deer, Alberta, to play in the world junior championships.They arrived several days before the games began, and Karalahti immediately went AWOL. He had met some Native Americans in a bar,and they'd invited him to their reservation to get high. Karalahti went on a mind-altering binge, spending close to 48 hours drinking and smoking various drugs with his new friends. "A lot of it was just enjoying this big pipe with those guys and looking up at the sky," he says.

When he returned to the team two days later, Karalahti admitted where he'd been and, after a reprimand, was allowed to play in the tournament. A few days later he scored a third-period goal as Finland tied Sweden in a crucial game. "That's the best Jere story," says Kings defenseman Mattias Norstrom. "Taking off to go smoking with Indians? That's why we all call him Chief."

After that trip to Canada, Karalahti's drug use intensified. He recalls tripping on LSD at a Pink Floyd concert in Germany. Karalahti had also begun to smoke heroin, staying away from needles because he was afraid his teammates would see track marks on his arms. He loved the onset of the heroin high and how alive he felt: Mr. King of the Earth. Now Karalahti speaks of heroin almost protectively, emphasizing the pleasure of it and saying that descending from the high "was not so bad for me. I was in good shape from hockey."

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Jere Karalahti had so much potential, but he was more concerned with drugs and partying and didn't take his career seriously. Had he done so, he would have arrived in the NHL sooner and would have stuck around longer. What a wasted talent.

High Times Five years after he says he last smoked heroin, the L.A. Kings' Jere Karalahti looks back on his dreamy days on drugs

That last quote is scary as hell and doesn't bode well, "Now Karalahti speaks of heroin almost protectively, emphasizing the pleasure of it and saying that descending from the high "was not so bad for me. I was in good shape from hockey.""

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

That last quote is scary as hell and doesn't bode well, "Now Karalahti speaks of heroin almost protectively, emphasizing the pleasure of it and saying that descending from the high "was not so bad for me. I was in good shape from hockey.""

The last few paragraphs in that article are even scarier.

He will not, however, pretend that he has left that world entirely behind. Last December the Kings were in Detroit when Karalahti went out and, he says, "got a little crazy with the drinking." The next day he was late for practice. "The only time you worry about Chief is when you don't see him," says Norstrom."Most guys, when they're late, it's not a huge deal. With him, we worry: Where is he?"

The Kings immediately sent Karalahti to Los Angeles, where he tested negative for drugs. He entered the NHL's substance abuse program and since then has undergone twice-weekly testing fordrugs and alcohol. Karalahti says he was touched that the Kings cared. "Now I have to stay out of trouble," he says. "I have to get myself to work every day."

Karalahti lives in a town house overlooking the Pacific with Susanna, whom he met 6 1/2 years ago in Finland and married in May 2000. He's in the second year of a three-year, $2.4 million contract, but he is always aware, he says, that he could lose it all with one misstep. In Helsinki, school groups ask Karalahti to preach to kids about the evils of drug use. He refuses. "I can't do it, it's too close still," he says. "You'll hear a song on the radio, and it will bring you back to that time, you know? I have a great wife and a beautiful girl, and the money's crazy right now. But I can't say I'd never go back to the drugs. I don't think you can ever say that."

And then the Kings finally got fed up with his act and dealt him to Nashville for Cliff Ronning.
Karalahti Would Put Alcohol First

The Kings were chilled this week by comments out of Finland from former King defenseman Jere Karalahti that, in essence, he would rather quit the NHL than have to give up drinking.

Karalahti, traded in March from the Kings to the Nashville Predators, was suspended by the NHL for six months without pay last month for a third violation of the league's substance-abuse policy.

Each violation involved alcohol, sources said, and the first two occurred while Karalahti played for the Kings. Karalahti, who struggled with drug problems before joining the NHL, played 134 games in three seasons with the Kings.

"Obviously, we're worried about him," King Coach Andy Murray said Wednesday. "It wasn't a good thing to read, that's for sure."

Karalahti, 27, told Finland's TV4 that if he continued playing in the NHL, "I would have to be a teetotaler."

"I don't really believe I can do that," he told the Ilta-Sanomat tabloid in a separate interview, "and I don't even have the will to try."

Karalahti, whose drug problems included heroin use, said his current troubles concern only alcohol.

"If I know myself at all, I know that zero tolerance with alcohol won't work," he said in the television interview.

He told the tabloid: "I'm not ready to go through a treatment program. There are other leagues in which to play in this world."

One option, he said, would be to have his NHL contract terminated.

"I'm a little disappointed," said King General Manager Dave Taylor, who helped clear the way for Karalahti to play for the Kings after the defenseman's 1997 conviction in Helsinki on drug offenses. "I thought he was certainly going in the right direction. I view it as a privilege to play in the NHL."

Predator General Manager David Poile told the Nashville Tennessean that it's unlikely Karalahti will play for the Predators this season when the suspension ends.

And years later in 2008, Karalahti is arrested for smuggling drugs.
Former NHL player Karalahti faces drug charge

Former NHL player Jere Karalahti was charged Tuesday with being involved in smuggling amphetamines into Finland.
The 32-year-old Karalahti was charged with being involved in smuggling nine pounds of amphetamines into the country. In a case that includes 19 people, he also allegedly provided $29,500 for smuggling operations, prosecutors said. He has denied the charges.

If found guilty, Karalahti could face up to six years in prison. The drug ring is suspected of smuggling amphetamines and cocaine from Estonia to Finland last year.
On Nov. 6, Karalahti was taken off the ice for police questioning during his Karpat team's practice. Three days later, he was arrested on suspicion of committing a serious drug offense.
The Finnish Hockey League temporarily banned Karalahti in December.

Karalahti left the NHL in 2002 after being suspended for six months for his third violation of the league's substance abuse policy. He played 121 games from 2000-02 for the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators.

 

[fivehole32]

King killer Cliff Ronning who had a total of what, zero goals in a King uniform..