Around the League 2016:World Cup Edition

[kingsfan28]

Nobody making the jump from the AHL last few years, has also hurt.

Pearson/Shore/Toffoli last few guys(drafted by the Kings), Pearson was drafted in 2012, Shore was drafted in 2011, Toffoli in 2010.

Yeah, that's where I see one of the weaknesses. Many teams are bringing guys in within 2 years of their draft, our guys continue to play in the AHL and "mature".

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Helene with some pointed words. She's right too.

 

[Little Psycho]

Dean and Torts are delusional. Only way our system was (is?) working because he had years to build it and the players grew into it. How the hell do you expect to run the same method for a short tournament?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's what Dean is known for, he overthinks everything.

It's obvious how much of a disdain he has over skill when you see how the likes of Voracek and Tarasenko have been passed over in favor of the likes of Hickey and Forbort.

That is why I have grown to become skeptical of his questionable decision making. Unfortunately, Dean is starting to make more bad decisions than good ones. It was easy to ignore them after Cups in 2012 and 2014, but the end of 2017 will mark three years removed from that last Cup, and he hasn't made any good decisions since acquiring Gaborik, and before that his best move was the Carter trade.

Since then, his track record has been pretty dreadful, and this World Cup experience further adds to his poor decision making.

 

[KingsFan7824]

It's what Dean is known for, he overthinks everything.

It's obvious how much of a disdain he has over skill when you see how the likes of Voracek and Tarasenko have been passed over in favor of the likes of Hickey and Forbort.

That is why I have grown to become skeptical of his questionable decision making. Unfortunately, Dean is starting to make more bad decisions than good ones. It was easy to ignore them after Cups in 2012 and 2014, but the end of 2017 will mark three years removed from that last Cup, and he hasn't made any good decisions since acquiring Gaborik, and before that his best move was the Carter trade.

Since then, his track record has been pretty dreadful, and this World Cup experience further adds to his poor decision making.

Disdain might be a strong word. He did trade for Carter. And Gaborik. And Sekera. Drafted Voynov. Drafted Toffoli. Traded for Selanne and Damphousse back in the day. But yeah, Lombardi's dream team would be 23 players like Mike Ricci or Mike Richards.

 

[damacles1156]

You people are delusional if you think Lombardi/Sutter don't want skilled players on the team.

Seriously,


Some folks act like the Kings, are the only team in the entire NHL that have missed draft picks....

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

That must be why Dean Lombardi, who had free reign to pick the best American born players, passed on some much needed offensive talent in order to have a bunch of redundant "gritty" players on his roster.

Backes, Kesler, Dubinsky, Abdelkader, Stepan, the Johnsons.

This is the same man who said that he would love to have a team full of Mike Ricci's.

Can you name all of the talented, skilled forwards Dean Lombardi has drafted? You don't need 5 fingers to tally that number up.

 

[deeshamrock]

That must be why Dean Lombardi, who had free reign to pick the best American born players, passed on some much needed offensive talent in order to have a bunch of redundant "gritty" players on his roster.

Backes, Kesler, Dubinsky, Abdelkader, Stepan, the Johnsons.

This is the same man who said that he would love to have a team full of Mike Ricci's.

Can you name all of the talented, skilled forwards Dean Lombardi has drafted? You don't need 5 fingers to tally that number up.

Yup...and that's why they need a change of management if they do this again and for the Olympics if they opt to go. He still values grit and heart over skill too much.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/hock...ts-blame-for-world-cup-of-hockey-failure.html

Lombardi defended the U.S. selection of players.

“Let me say this, if you’re talking about Justin Abdelkader, Blake Wheeler, Brandon Dubinsky, David Backes, Ryan Kessler . . . I’ll take those guys any day, any day,†Lombardi said. “Those guys have big-time heart and when I talk about caring, they’d be the nucleus of the caring, and they compete, and they can play for me any day.â€

 

[damacles1156]

That must be why Dean Lombardi, who had free reign to pick the best American born players, passed on some much needed offensive talent in order to have a bunch of redundant "gritty" players on his roster.

Backes, Kesler, Dubinsky, Abdelkader, Stepan, the Johnsons.

This is the same man who said that he would love to have a team full of Mike Ricci's.

Can you name all of the talented, skilled forwards Dean Lombardi has drafted? You don't need 5 fingers to tally that number up.

Drafted and not panned out ? Or drafted and actually made an NHL impact ?

Cause if you want to argue Lombardi doesn't draft skilled players period, you will lose that argument.

If you want to argue that his staff has had a lot of misses, you might win that one.

But the NHL as a whole Misses on most draft picks, especially 3rd-7th round picks.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[deeshamrock]

...except when it doesn't....

 

[mrkolice]

again, we can't compare lombardi with lak vs lombardi with usa. it's a different game and brain farts that he did commit here and there are not correlated. overall i still think he's a great gm for lak, but a lousy one for a national team. his basic skillset is long-term team building with short-term cap-related magic, which often worked well for lak. with lak he can pull a pink or a green rabbit out of a hat from time to time, but he can't do that with usa team. anyhow, i still trust him.

 

[Vamos Rafa]

This has got to be the least optimistic offseason Kings fans have had since...the '07 summer (when we were coming off a 27-win season + the Quacks winning the Cup)? At least in '08, we had Doughty to be excited about.

But yeah, in terms of aspirations, Kings fans seem to be unenthusiastic.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

This has got to be the least optimistic offseason Kings fans have had since...the '07 summer (when we were coming off a 27-win season)? At least in '08, we had Doughty to be excited about.

But yeah, in terms of aspirations, Kings fans seem to be unenthusiastic.

One minute I'm excited for hockey to be back, but when I think of the current state of the Kings...ugh. We are going into the season with massive holes and no way to fill them. Too good to suck, not good enough to contend, we are in the black hole of sports

 

[LAKings88]

LA has hope as long as Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick are on the team. That said. This team has not improved since the last cup.

Youth has been moved for stop gap rentals.

My biggest concern is the improvement of other divisional teams.

Gonna be a tough year.

 

[deeshamrock]

It's what Dean is known for, he overthinks everything.

It's obvious how much of a disdain he has over skill when you see how the likes of Voracek and Tarasenko have been passed over in favor of the likes of Hickey and Forbort.

That is why I have grown to become skeptical of his questionable decision making. Unfortunately, Dean is starting to make more bad decisions than good ones. It was easy to ignore them after Cups in 2012 and 2014, but the end of 2017 will mark three years removed from that last Cup, and he hasn't made any good decisions since acquiring Gaborik, and before that his best move was the Carter trade.

Since then, his track record has been pretty dreadful, and this World Cup experience further adds to his poor decision making.

Maybe Ron Hextall had more influence in those decisions. A lot of the decisions he's made since Hextall left haven't been the best. Hextall said when he was hired, and even since then when he is credited for his decision making, how much Lombardi trusted his input and opinions.

 

[KingsFan7824]

This has got to be the least optimistic offseason Kings fans have had since...the '07 summer (when we were coming off a 27-win season + the Quacks winning the Cup)? At least in '08, we had Doughty to be excited about.

But yeah, in terms of aspirations, Kings fans seem to be unenthusiastic.

Look at the last 2 years, and how the Canucks have more playoff wins and games played than the Kings do. Look at all the big contracts, and how there's nothing you can do when Brown has a $6m cap hit for the next 6 years and can barely hit double digit goals. The contract as a single entity is bad enough, but when you combine it with all the other large deals, it makes it that much worse.

The team is certainly back to the prove it mode. They've lost the benefit of the doubt. From fans, and I think from Lombardi too.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Maybe Ron Hextall had more influence in those decisions. A lot of the decisions he's made since Hextall left haven't been the best. Hextall said when he was hired, and even since then when he is credited for his decision making, how much Lombardi trusted his input and opinions.

We'll never know how things would've gone had Voynov not done what he did. It screwed so many things up. They managed to win with a 4th line level Richards. They managed to beat the Ducks, Hawks, and Rangers with Greene on defense. They managed to win with what Brown had become in 13-14.

It's not even a matter of any good GM could get his team back on track after something like Voynov. What other GM has had to deal with that, on and off the ice? A young, cheap, right handed defenseman, who you drafted, developed, that can play 20 minutes, and provide some puck movement and offense. Those guys aren't out there to get. If the Kings had that guy, how much would've/could've been different in the last 2 years? We'll never know.

 

[mrkolice]

Look at the last 2 years...

last two years were marked with a huge pile of **** coming from voynov, stoll and richards. 3 top players, a layer just under the core, went berserk almost simultaneously. after that it was mostly harm reduction and it still is. it's a miracle lak did so well under such circumstances. lombardi is doing a great job to fix it, many gms would prefer to hang themselves if confronted with such problems.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

last two years were marked with a huge pile of **** coming from voynov, stoll and richards. 3 top players, a layer just under the core, went berserk almost simultaneously. after that it was mostly harm reduction and it still is. it's a miracle lak did so well under such circumstances. lombardi is doing a great job to fix it, many gms would prefer to hang themselves if confronted with such problems.

Stoll "went berserk" when he was a pending free agent. He had been crap for a while before that. Richards should have been bought out before all his troubles surfaced, and it was a massive mistake by Lombardi to not do so. The only one Lombardi gets a pass for is Voynov

 

[mrkolice]

Stoll "went berserk" when he was a pending free agent. He had been crap for a while before that. Richards should have been bought out before all his troubles surfaced, and it was a massive mistake by Lombardi to not do so. The only one Lombardi gets a pass for is Voynov

if i recall correctly, the comments about stoll were that he should stay, back then. and richards was huge for top6, for instance he kept kopi's back like no one did before or after, and that was very visible in top6 production. now, when the **** happened, lombardi had the dilemma: to fix it or to build it again from scratch. it was a tough choice to make, he said so himself. he went for a fix and so here we are. after that choice, imo, lombardi played well, not superb, just healthy well. the core is there and intact, the cap is manageable, the influx from ahl should happen shortly, from what i read and saw. i'm optimistic. lak is a contender this season.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[deeshamrock]

So disappointed the Young Guns are done, they were the most exciting team in the tournement and without them, it's like watching black and white tv.

They had the tougher bracket as well. It's almost a shame they can't do a game for charity between Canada and NA, that would be fun

Tourny lost it's appeal for me now.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I really disliked the format of this year's World Cup. Even if the US did play well, I don't think we would've gotten a Canada vs. US World Cup Final like we did in '96.

Hopefully the talks of having the two winners of each division getting a bye, with the teams finishing 2nd and 3rd in each division moving on to the quarters and playing the division winner in the semis.

 

[mrkolice]

So disappointed the Young Guns are done, they were the most exciting team in the contest and without them, it's like watching black and white tv.

They had the tougher bracket as well. It's almost a shame they can't do a game for charity between Canada and NA, that would be fun

Tourny lost it's appeal for me now.

i completely agree with the the sentiment, but imo the score is fair, right and just. in such tourneys the team needs some hard-shell experienced defense and they're still too young for that kind of skill. but it was a joy to watch!