The boldfaced is almost exactly what I'm talking about.
What a rosy, alibi-laden outlook for SJS. "if only...", and pessimistic retroactive view of LA, who was coming off being the best defensive team in the league and literal mvp caliber performances, allowing as many goals in one series as SJS did in GAME 1, trying to add scoring.
The next two paragraphs are a much more reasonable assessment, but man, I will never understand how that team gets so many excuses made for them for 'just competing' while attempting the same around here is considered blackholing and the worst situation to be in.
I mean, I thought they were running out of spectacular ways to fail, but having two Norris winners on your roster and getting the benefit of damn near every call in the first two rounds while making everyone hate you was a new twist. So I guess they are entertaining.
It basically says that fans of a team generally think their team is better than it is while downplaying other teams. It took the Kings taking a shit on the ice in 2019 for the majority of this board to say time to pack it in while SJ has remained competitive. Comparisons to Washington and St. Louis are amusing to me because those teams are Washington and St. Louis until they aren't: much like the LA Kings were the pathetic f***ing LA Kings until they weren't for what now appears like a three year hallucination.
This fan base would be ecstatic if the Kings followed up 2015 with the W/L record that San Jose has put up. It would mean the Kings core was good enough to contend as opposed to what has proven out over the last five seasons. While it is true it appears the window isn't as open as it once was for SJ, the majority of this board was still sweating a possible Cup win from them this season and we've had to sweat out a SCF appearance. The Kings have one playoff game victory over that same time.
I'm not saying I advocate a "just make the playoffs" strategy since I don't really put San Jose in that camp. We laugh at them because they choke and we miraculously have the ability to look down on them due to that aforementioned three-year stretch, but they've been to the SCF/1st Round/2nd Round/WCF the past four seasons. Pittsburgh is probably the only other team that has had more cumulative playoff series wins over that time, right? Maybe Washington?
Point is, San Jose has been good enough to warrant "going for it" while the Kings haven't been and really proved they didn't deserve it after last season. Wilson has dug a hole for the future with the long-term deals and lack of picks so they have to try to win it now. Odds are stacked against them since there is only one winner per season, but I don't blame Wilson one bit for going all in while he's had these players. That franchise is starved for a Cup and to ditch the choker label: letting EK walk and then just rolling with a lesser squad or trying to rebuild just doesn't work for them. The dye had already been cast with the other long-term deals.
This is also why I don't blame DL for "going for it" with Sekera and then even Lucic. Easy to dismiss 2015 as an aberration after what they did the three seasons prior: I definitely did. They just won the Calder Cup, Kempe looked great during that Calder run and Toffoli/Pearson looked like 20 goal + locks moving forward. Wilson doesn't have the benefit of his core putting up a 2012-14 Kings run but it is the best he has and they annually are in the mix.
I want the Kings to respectfully tank at this point but I also wanted the Gaborik contract, was stoked on Sekera and Lucic as well. I even thought they would beat Vegas in 2018. It is clear that they need to hit the reset button on this thing and get buy-in from the vets and continued improvement from youth. San Jose? They can't blow it up if they wanted to and it doesn't make sense to do so. If the Kings core had performed like SJ's the past four seasons, we'd be clamoring to add an impact FA and try to keep the ball rolling while these guys were still hot.
Tanking/rebuilding is the right move for some teams and continuing to go for it makes sense for others. SJ will bottom out eventually with all the other long-term contracts they have: what's another log on the fire at this point if it buys you better than a puncher's chance at the Cup for a couple seasons?
