Maybe I’m just out of touch, but what about that roster indicates being held back?
Their 1C, 1D and 1G are all well past primes. Their defensive group is Doughty and a bunch of nobodies and guys like Kempe, Fiala and Dubois are far from elite top end talent. Byfield is finally starting to put some things together, but he’s not yet consistent.
Frankly they’ve been more than the some of their parts the last 2 and a half seasons.
Trouble is they've lost some of their talent. Arviddsson has been out injured all season. So they've been short a 60pt utility guy all the while. Then of course Gilalrdi and Iafallo gone in trade.
Thats a whole 3 topisx players Kings are missing, got PLD in return. Kings lineup is best used as a tight to pucks pressure line up pressuring turnovers all over. They have the skaters and in past had the depth to roll lines and do that.
The jury is out on whether they can do that for long now. But that said throughout the Kings arc this is an up and down club. They have to outwork teams to get Win streaks and then inevitably cant do that anymore.
But a new coach by default might be better at line matching, adjustments, and figuring where people should land. Adjustments were never a McLellan strength.
Last Kings are as good as they are because of 3 solid Centers and mostly a team that plays the right way. Danault is unsung, and one of the hardest working Centers in hockey. But its fair comment the team has exceeded expectations past few seasons. This should be a rebuild team, not a playoff team. The team buy in and pride and leadership has allowed them to be better.
But the Kings downfall is they do not have elite talent. In their cup era Doughty, Kopitar, Jeff Carter etc were that. But they dont' have it now. Team is limited so belief is harder.