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Doughty out for the year after wrist surgery

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Peter James Bond II said:
It's going to take some extraordinary things....like 3 or 4, 2 goal games by Kempe....5 goals from Arvy the final 8, Lizotte back to his early year play, no more than 2 -2 (or worse) games from Durzi, Byfield, Vilardi, Kupari all playing their best NHL level yet...Roy taking full charge of the D, Danault leading the team, Moore, being more of Moore...and no more than 2 soft goals given up the rest of the year. Oh, and no more than 3 penalties taken in any game. Would help if Kopitar shows up. Keep Iafallo less than 12 minutes and Brown on the sidelines.

Mark Stone may be coming back tomorrow.
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How is Stone coming back? He has a 9.5 hit and they only have 5.5 to work with
 
BigKing said:
I don't think it was playoffs or bust but rather being in the position they are currently in: firmly in the race with 10 games or so left which is a far cry from the last few seasons.

Strictly going off of results, it is a win for Management. This is not how they expected to get here though. Management would be lying if they told you they didn't expect any of the highly touted forward prospects to be a key contributor by now. Kudos to Durzi and Spence for taking their chance and running with it but the forwards--outside of Kaliyev--have been disappointing and it was supposed to be the strength of the prospect pool.

Even if they make the playoffs, it is going to be near impossible to win a series with this current group on defense unless one of the goaltenders goes on an insane tear.

Blake wanted/needed clarity going into this offseason and now he has a bunch of "what do I really have" when it comes to the forward prospects and, perhaps frighteningly, he has a "maybe we are a 100 point team as-is if these injuries didn't hit" similar to 2018 and "we just need to score some more goals and we are a Cup contender".
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Better said than I did.

It's weird going into next season with less knowledge and clarity than this one. What a weird f***ing tire fire. A million assets, but few panning out; hall of fame vets, but nothing in the tank; star rookies, but none take off; lines/minutes mismanaged into the ground; development looking pretty sketchy; goaltenders tailing off and nothing certain in the pipeline; marco sturm with the lifetime contract apparently; highly-touted development coach leaves as soon as he arrives; the injury comet from the 2000s swings right back around. You always said this was the hard part and imo it's looking even more difficult than even you suggested.
 
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Raccoon Jesus said:
Better said than I did.

It's weird going into next season with less knowledge and clarity than this one. What a weird f***ing tire fire. A million assets, but few panning out; hall of fame vets, but nothing in the tank; star rookies, but none take off; lines/minutes mismanaged into the ground; development looking pretty sketchy; goaltenders tailing off and nothing certain in the pipeline; marco sturm with the lifetime contract apparently; highly-touted development coach leaves as soon as he arrives; the injury comet from the 2000s swings right back around. You always said this was the hard part and imo it's looking even more difficult than even you suggested.
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Blake, and if McLellan won't do it another coach, will have to throw caution to the wind next season and play the kids in the positions for which they were drafted. There is no more need to pay respect to the cup winners when it comes to playing time. That means no more Kopitar or Doughty on the #1 power play.

It's time to find out what these kids can do without the training wheels next season. If they crash and burn, and I don't think most of them will, then it's time to blow it all up, because that means the scouting or development system are broken beyond repair.
 
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BigKing said:
I don't think it was playoffs or bust but rather being in the position they are currently in: firmly in the race with 10 games or so left which is a far cry from the last few seasons.

Strictly going off of results, it is a win for Management. This is not how they expected to get here though. Management would be lying if they told you they didn't expect any of the highly touted forward prospects to be a key contributor by now. Kudos to Durzi and Spence for taking their chance and running with it but the forwards--outside of Kaliyev--have been disappointing and it was supposed to be the strength of the prospect pool.

Even if they make the playoffs, it is going to be near impossible to win a series with this current group on defense unless one of the goaltenders goes on an insane tear.

Blake wanted/needed clarity going into this offseason and now he has a bunch of "what do I really have" when it comes to the forward prospects and, perhaps frighteningly, he has a "maybe we are a 100 point team as-is if these injuries didn't hit" similar to 2018 and "we just need to score some more goals and we are a Cup contender".
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If the Kings make the playoffs, I expect them to get throttled by the first physical team they face, and that could be Calgary in the first round of the playoffs. I think a series against Calgary could get really ugly for the Kings.

Edmonton would be a different kind of series, but the Oilers have beaten the Kings three games in a row.
 
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Does anybody else wonder if Doughty's surgery has to do with the fact that the kings are falling out of playoff contention? I wonder if they were solidly in second place, if they had put his surgery off? Just a theory. Makes no no difference in the long run.
 
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GoldenBearHockey said:
How is Stone coming back? He has a 9.5 hit and they only have 5.5 to work with
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It’s about cap space accrued and cap hits prorated for the remaining portion of the season. They moved about half of Stone’s current hit to LTIR today between three different players, so that plus the space they already had is enough.
 
We were expected to be in contention for a playoff spot until the end of the season (and hopefully make it) when the season started, and that's where we are now. We accomplished that without our top defenseman for half the season and overall subpar goaltending. This season is still a positive step forward and next year will be better as a number of kids got their feet wet in the NHL this year. Making the playoffs is still very much possible and would be a great cherry on top.
 
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Follow The Reaper said:
Does anybody else wonder if Doughty's surgery has to do with the fact that the kings are falling out of playoff contention? I wonder if they were solidly in second place, if they had put his surgery off? Just a theory. Makes no no difference in the long run.
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No, I think they were trying to rehab it and it wasn't getting better. I know in sports medicine the ideal is to avoid surgeries at all costs, but it's so advanced now I don't know why they put things like this off.
 
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kingsholygrail said:
No, I think they were trying to rehab it and it wasn't getting better. I know in sports medicine the ideal is to avoid surgeries at all costs, but it's so advanced now I don't know why they put things like this off.
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Probably because he'll be out for the season but ready before training camp whether they did it two weeks ago or today, so they hoped against hope he'd recover since the playoffs are possible. They had nothing to lose by giving it a few weeks really.
 
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kingsfan said:
We were expected to be in contention for a playoff spot until the end of the season (and hopefully make it) when the season started, and that's where we are now. We accomplished that without our top defenseman for half the season and overall subpar goaltending. This season is still a positive step forward and next year will be better as a number of kids got their feet wet in the NHL this year. Making the playoffs is still very much possible and would be a great cherry on top.
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I think goaltending has been at least average, if not better than expected.
 
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KINGS17 said:
Blake, and if McLellan won't do it another coach, will have to throw caution to the wind next season and play the kids in the positions for which they were drafted. There is no more need to pay respect to the cup winners when it comes to playing time. That means no more Kopitar or Doughty on the #1 power play.

It's time to find out what these kids can do without the training wheels next season. If they crash and burn, and I don't think most of them will, then it's time to blow it all up, because that means the scouting or development system are broken beyond repair.
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And I firmly believe that route should’ve been taken BEFORE the Kings were on the cusp of the playoffs, kind of like how other teams are letting their kids play and seeing them take off. Instead of the earn your minutes on the 4th line after toiling in the AHL for a few seasons, Dean Lombardi route. Put guys who are top 6 talents in top 6 roles and let them go. Unfortunately the Kings didn’t and had guys blocking them and now that they need them in those roles they’re not ready. How does no one in Kings management see this?
 
Axl Rhoadz said:
I mean, it shouldn’t be seeing how Doughty has only played 39 games this season.

Lot of points still up for grabs, our miserable HF community has given up way too fast. At least save the cyanide pills for when they are mathematically eliminated.
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agreed, after tomorrow the schedule gets pretty favorable.
I know teams out of it often play really well at the end of the year, but Doughty being out should not be scape coat should LA miss.
 
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