Confirmed with Link: Changes Incoming

[KINGS17]

It was Dean vs the Players and the players won. It was more of AEG getting control back from Dean Lombardi and favoring the players that didn't want to play for an intense coach and drives his players hard (as the article above led with in the beginning). It's literally the same story as with Terry Murray. Players had a tantrum and didn't put in the effort for Murray.

Nobody can honestly sit here and say that the players put in the effort this season. They sucked and robbed the fans this season.


Now we got a GM that needs training wheels (Futa etc) and Luc will do AEG's bidding.

Kind of sounds like the players wanted Sutter out and Luc wanted Dean's job. Not sure the players wanted Dean to be removed.

As many of us have said, this is Kopitar and Doughty's team now. No more excuses.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The Golden Knights make it official by naming Gerard Gallant as their first head coach.

 

[Little Psycho]

Sounds like John Stevens might be our head coach. Umm

 

[The Tikkanen]

It was Dean vs the Players and the players won. It was more of AEG getting control back from Dean Lombardi and favoring the players that didn't want to play for an intense coach and drives his players hard (as the article above led with in the beginning). It's literally the same story as with Terry Murray. Players had a tantrum and didn't put in the effort for Murray.

Nobody can honestly sit here and say that the players put in the effort this season. They sucked and robbed the fans this season.


Now we got a GM that needs training wheels (Futa etc) and Luc will do AEG's bidding.

You could easily make the same argument that Dean and Darryl quit on the Kings as well. Signing Teddy Purcell and Devon Setoguchi among others to replace Milan Lucic. Nobody not wearing a sraitjacket thinks that might have worked. Darryl giving Dwight King 15 minutes a night and throwing out Nic Dowd as the extra attacker with the goalie pulled is a big F YOU to the Kings players and the fans. Sutter should have been fired a long time ago, probably after hearing about the lockout situation. When professional athletes this day and age hate their coach it's over. As far as Blake, he trained under Lombardi which means he should be Lombardi without the blind loyalty which is what people wanted anyway. And did anybody else notice some King players went to Lombardi's house but no stories about going to see Sutter? Nobody wants to see the warden after they get out of jail.

 

[Winger23]

Sounds like John Stevens might be our head coach. Umm

Imo if your cleaning house you don't skip a room, you clean the entire house.

Imo they really need someone from the outside...

 

[Winger23]

You could easily make the same argument that Dean and Darryl quit on the Kings as well. Signing Teddy Purcell and Devon Setoguchi among others to replace Milan Lucic. Nobody not wearing a sraitjacket thinks that might have worked. Darryl giving Dwight King 15 minutes a night and throwing out Nic Dowd as the extra attacker with the goalie pulled is a big F YOU to the Kings player and the fans. Sutter should have been fired a long time ago, probably after hearing about the lockout situation. When professional athletes this day and age hate their coach it's over. As far as Blake, he trained under Lombardi which means he should be Lombardi without the blind loyalty which is what people wanted anyway. And did anybody else notice some King players went to Lombardi's house but no stories about going to see Sutter? Nobody wants to see the warden after they get out of jail.

I believe kopitar was quoted that he visited both Lombardi and sutter...

 

[deeshamrock]

Sounds like John Stevens might be our head coach. Umm

DOn 't think so, not by what Blake said the day of the presser , wanted an NHL coach with experience. I guess if they can't land one, they might go STevens but from the quotes Luc gave in another article, it sounded like they want to go in a new dirction. Stevens is tied to Sutter and Murray.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Kind of sounds like the players wanted Sutter out and Luc wanted Dean's job. Not sure the players wanted Dean to be removed.

As many of us have said, this is Kopitar and Doughty's team now. No more excuses.

The question is does that mean anything or matter to them? They already got their contracts and two cups in LA. Doughty has an eye to Toronto, we know that. I don't know what's going on with Kopitar but he doesn't seem to care anymore. He's no longer that guy from Slovenia that loves to play hockey, maybe that payday went to his head. I don't know, point is that saying it's their team now. I'm not sure it has any effect on them as players.

 

[KingsFan7824]

DOn 't think so, not by what Blake said the day of the presser , wanted an NHL coach with experience. I guess if they can't land one, they might go STevens but from the quotes Luc gave in another article, it sounded like they want to go in a new dirction. Stevens is tied to Sutter and Murray.

Stevens was a head coach.

The question is does that mean anything or matter to them? They already got their contracts and two cups in LA. Doughty has an eye to Toronto, we know that. I don't know what's going on with Kopitar but he doesn't seem to care anymore. He's no longer that guy from Slovenia that loves to play hockey, maybe that payday went to his head. I don't know, point is that saying it's their team now. I'm not sure it has any effect on them as players.

Maybe that's why they fired guys that won for ex-players. It doesn't matter if they win anymore. They got their Cups, now time to coddle the big money players.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

You could easily make the same argument that Dean and Darryl quit on the Kings as well. Signing Teddy Purcell and Devon Setoguchi among others to replace Milan Lucic. Nobody not wearing a sraitjacket thinks that might have worked. Darryl giving Dwight King 15 minutes a night and throwing out Nic Dowd as the extra attacker with the goalie pulled is a big F YOU to the Kings player and the fans. Sutter should have been fired a long time ago, probably after hearing about the lockout situation. When professional athletes this day and age hate their coach it's over. As far as Blake, he trained under Lombardi which means he should be Lombardi without the blind loyalty which is what people wanted anyway. And did anybody else notice some King players went to Lombardi's house but no stories about going to see Sutter? Nobody wants to see the warden after they get out of jail.

They both got phone calls and visits from former and current players. Blake is never going to be a Lombardi, not even on the same plane as Lombardi.

Bottom line is the culture in LA is reverting back to the country club/retirement home style hockey that we've witnessed in the Dave Taylor/Lieweekly era. No offense to Dave Taylor, he was just an AEG puppet for the most part.

 

[CowMix]

Ted Nolan or Matjaž Kopitar are going to be our coach

 

[Little Psycho]

DOn 't think so, not by what Blake said the day of the presser , wanted an NHL coach with experience. I guess if they can't land one, they might go STevens but from the quotes Luc gave in another article, it sounded like they want to go in a new dirction. Stevens is tied to Sutter and Murray.

I hope so.

@REALepsnLeBrun
Kings' coaching search for now includes just 1 man: associate coach John Stevens. Rob Blake wants to discuss things with him, see if a fit..

 

[KingsFan7824]

They both got phone calls and visits from former and current players. Blake is never going to be a Lombardi, not even on the same plane as Lombardi.

Bottom line is the culture in LA is reverting back to the country club/retirement home style hockey that we've witnessed in the Dave Taylor/Lieweekly era. No offense to Dave Taylor, he was just an AEG puppet for the most part.

And in a cap league with guaranteed contracts, what else can you do if the players stop listening?

 

[DryIslandBartender]

And in a cap league with guaranteed contracts, what else can you do if the players stop listening?

Find new ones.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Find new ones.

Because it's so easy to replace 18 players. You have it all figured out.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Because it's so easy to replace 18 players. You have it all figured out.

Did I say that? Nice hyperbole Ziggy.

Look, do you guys remember the trade deadline before our first cup? Brown was going to the Rags or Buffalo? Then all of a sudden he starts lighting up the stat sheet with hits and points. Guy was all over the place and playing lights out.

These guys need a reminder that if they don't perform, they will be shipped out.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Find new ones.

But it's a cap league with guaranteed contracts. It's not the NFL where you can let a guy go whenever you want. They're not buying Kopitar out. It's not as bad as the NBA, but the players run the show in the NHL, outside of CBA negotiations.

It worked in Pittsburgh this last time. They've always been accused of a country club atmosphere with Lemieux there. Crosby didn't want to play for the previous coach. They have an old GM that failed in Carolina and Hartford outside of that one hit wonder. They brought in someone Crosby was ok with, and off they went. We can only hope Doughty and Kopitar can do the same when they give their stamp of approval.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Did I say that? Nice hyperbole Ziggy.

Look, do you guys remember the trade deadline before our first cup? Brown was going to the Rags or Buffalo? Then all of a sudden he starts lighting up the stat sheet with hits and points. Guy was all over the place and playing lights out.

These guys need a reminder that if they don't perform, they will be shipped out.

I think the new staff wants to see how these guys perform under a new coach before doing something drastic, but from what we've learned already, they are making it a focus to find ways to generate more offense.

I doubt that the team we see on opening night will be the same as the team we saw in the last game of this season.

 

[johnjm22]

FYI, when John Stevens was head coach with the Flyers in 2007-08 and 2008-09, here's how his team's finished in goals for/goals against and special teams.

2007-08 Flyers:
248 Goals For (6th overall)
233 Goals Against (19th overall)
21.8 PP% (2nd overall)
83.3 PK% (10th overall)

2008-09 Flyers:
264 Goals For (6th overall)
238 Goals Against (17th overall)
22.5 PP% (6th overall)
82.9 PK% (6th overall)

It's worth mentioning that those Flyers teams didn't have the best goaltending and defense, but those special teams and goal scoring numbers are encouraging to see if he is who the Kings decide to go with as the new bench boss.

His career win percentage as a coach in the NHL is .478.

He only lasted 268 games. When he was fired the team had just got done suffering back to back shut outs.

He was also the Flyer's coach in 06-07 when they finished dead last in the NHL. They were 23rd in offense that year.

If the Kings are trying to shake things up. I don't see how promoting another internal guy makes sense.

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

Did I say that? Nice hyperbole Ziggy.

Look, do you guys remember the trade deadline before our first cup? Brown was going to the Rags or Buffalo? Then all of a sudden he starts lighting up the stat sheet with hits and points. Guy was all over the place and playing lights out.

These guys need a reminder that if they don't perform, they will be shipped out.

Except you can't ship out the high paid guys. No one wants Brown or Gaborik. Kopitar has a NMC and I bet maybe 1 or 2 teams would even want him. Carter seems to still have the fire so you keep him.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

His career win percentage as a coach in the NHL is .478.

He only lasted 268 games. When he was fired the team had just got done suffering back to back shut outs.

He was also the Flyer's coach in 06-07 when they finished dead last in the NHL. They were 23rd in offense that year.

If the Kings are trying to shake things up. I don't see how promoting another internal guy makes sense.

http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/stevejo01c.html

Don't know where you're pulling your numbers from. He turned around a pretty terrible Flyers team that had 56 points the season he took over into a team with 95 and 99 points in his two full seasons there. That's significant improvement.

 

[KingsFan7824]

His career win percentage as a coach in the NHL is .478.

He only lasted 268 games. When he was fired the team had just got done suffering back to back shut outs.

He was also the Flyer's coach in 06-07 when they finished dead last in the NHL. They were 23rd in offense that year.

If the Kings are trying to shake things up. I don't see how promoting another internal guy makes sense.

Look how injured that 06-07 Flyers team was. Look at how many coaches the Flyers go through. The last guy that lasted 4 full seasons was Keenan.

If Stevens gets the job, and it doesn't work out, then they'll find another guy that the players are ok with.

 

[nikolai19]

Stevens is fine as long as one of his assistants is a wizard in an updated offensive structure. I suppose the system could be tweaked to allow for creativity and also still have components of a hard grinding system. The biggest issue with the dump and chase philosophy is getting in on the forecheck quicker. As stated by everyone on this board and in the Kings brass, need to get faster is critical. That allows for more speed through the neutral zone and also getting in on the opponents D to have them play with their backs to the play more often.

Part of that philosophy should absolutely be creating more chances in better scoring areas. I don't think the "volume of shots on goal" scenario is a good one any longer.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Hitchcock to the Stars. What a relief.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Stevens is fine as long as one of his assistants is a wizard in an updated offensive structure. I suppose the system could be tweaked to allow for creativity and also still have components of a hard grinding system. The biggest issue with the dump and chase philosophy is getting in on the forecheck quicker. As stated by everyone on this board and in the Kings brass, need to get faster is critical. That allows for more speed through the neutral zone and also getting in on the opponents D to have them play with their backs to the play more often.

Part of that philosophy should absolutely be creating more chances in better scoring areas. I don't think the "volume of shots on goal" scenario is a good one any longer.

Doubtful anyone needs to worry about a hard grinding system anymore.