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Speculation: Fire Rob Blake Blow it Up Offseason Thread (update: Robitaille, Blake and Hiller stay)

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Johnny Utah said:
Roy is right in one regard. California is a dump now because of the soft on crime policies, homeless, and taxes. It’s gotten worse and everyone is bailing for Nashville, Vegas, Florida or somewhere…
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I’ve never felt worse about one of your takes than I do about this one. And that includes the last 10 years of you Garping “punch face, punch head, punch body good. Play actual hockey bad”.
 
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Surf Nutz said:
The crying game ignores that Blake is going to do whatever he thinks will save his job and that would include the #1 objective of winning a round.

He simply does not have the luxury of job security AND a rebuild.

Therefore instead of getting a 1st in a trade for a good player he holds the player.

Getting a 1st and then having to trade a 1st to fill the hole would be two bags of hammers being exchanged for each other.
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Why would we need to use the 1st to fill the hole? Have you heard of Brandt Clarke? That's what makes it so infuriating. It was a position of strength.
 
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King'sPawn said:
Don't forget the refreshed "nobody thought 2012 LA Kings were winning anything either."

They were the underdogs against the President's Trophy winners, but they still had better metrics and data going into the playoffs.
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Yep. I had us beating the Canucks in 2012… I thought we’d win it comfortably. It was a good matchup and it always felt to me that thing had clicked. Completely different situation.

I never felt that was even possible last year. I maintain what I said this time last year. The x-factor Clarke brings will make teams have to think/adjust. He will tilt the ice but he will need time to settle. I wanted Roy gone to make room for Clarke to give him the time he needed. My thought being they’d wait until the TDL to move Roy and not give Clarke the time needed and expect him to suddenly turn it on. I felt the TDL was too late… heh… I should have known better.

Even had PLD been the best version of himself this team was doing nothing without a dialled in Brandt Clarke, showing his swagger. The same is true this year and they have lost whatever assets Roy would have garnered plus lost a year of Clarke settling into the NHL. No Clarke won’t be as good defensively but his offensive impact will tilt the ice and on balance we would have been stronger. Watch him get more out of the likes of QB, Kempe and Fiala also IF he finds his groove.

I’m not just here to moan though. I’m ok with the off-season moves (Edmundson term excepted). The PLD trade was brilliant but should never have been needed and is still on balance a big minus. However, the team is better balanced on paper and I think will be better on the ice. However the way they got here means the team/asset register isn’t as strong as it could have been. It’s incredibly frustrating especially as there are a lot of IF’s in play - Turcotte/Thomas/Clarke/TJ/Kuemper.
 
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Chazz Reinhold said:
…why is Brandt Clarke playing in the rookie tourney?
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He has to earn every minute…. We all know the story waiting for the other shoe to drop so we can be a real team again and not an annoying failed ego project of two guys that jumped ships from team they were set up to lead to teams with actual leaders like Yzerman, Chelios, Shannahan, and Lidstrom and Sakic Drury, Foote, and Forsberg!
 
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I look forward to seeing lots of teams via my nhl center ice subscription. Thats my positive report on our teams skyrocketing rise to mediocrity.
Lets GO.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
Seems like the Kings want Clarke in a leadership role, hence his inclusion in the rookie tournament. That said, he should be protected at all costs.
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This. I read somewhere (LAKInsider?) that this is the case, so I think it’s a great idea. I think it said he’s not expected to play in all the games. I’d bet though that it’s as much because he wants to play as anything else.
 
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The core going forward should be Byfield, Clarke and Portillo. Portillo is really good - saw him in a handful of Reign games live last season including playoffs. He is not Cal Peterson.
 
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Johnny Utah said:
The core going forward should be Byfield, Clarke and Portillo. Portillo is really good - saw him in a handful of Reign games live last season including playoffs. He is not Cal Peterson.
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I don't see it, so agree to to disagree there. To me he's just a big body and not much else.

He makes saves he should make most of the time, but never makes saves he shouldn't make. Guess I just don't see that extra gear guys like Hasek, Roy, Quick, Luongo, and Richter had where they could single handedly win you a game.

He seems like he tops out as a solid guy to split time, but not a guy that will play 60-70 games a year.
 
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tigermask48 said:
I don't see it, so agree to to disagree there. To me he's just a big body and not much else.

He makes saves he should make most of the time, but never makes saves he shouldn't make. Guess I just don't see that extra gear guys like Hasek, Roy, Quick, Luongo, and Richter had where they could single handedly win you a game.

He seems like he tops out as a solid guy to split time, but not a guy that will play 60-70 games a year.
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Only 7 guys played 60 games or more, with nobody above 64 (those aren’t the starts). I don’t think we need anyone to play that many games. Having a guy that can start 50 and be reliable doing that. If Portillo hits 1A/B level that’s a success especially with the guys behind him in the pipeline.

I don’t personally have a view on Portillo at the NHL level because it’s too early IMO.
 
tigermask48 said:
I don't see it, so agree to to disagree there. To me he's just a big body and not much else.

He makes saves he should make most of the time, but never makes saves he shouldn't make. Guess I just don't see that extra gear guys like Hasek, Roy, Quick, Luongo, and Richter had where they could single handedly win you a game.

He seems like he tops out as a solid guy to split time, but not a guy that will play 60-70 games a year.
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He's still just too leaky for me. For such a big ass guy, lots of pucks just go thru holes close to his body. Otherwise I 100% agree with this assessment and I think he compares favorably to another career backup as such, Anders Lindback. I think he'll get more games but similarly wouldn't be consistent enough to be a full true #1 workhorse, but capable of going on streaks like Rittich.
 
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Our new core is cock blocked for multiple years moving forward.

Byfield behind Kopitar and Danault till 2028.
Clarke behind Doughty till 2027.
Portillo behind Kuemper till 2027.

I’ll be surprised if Clarke beats out Burroughs for a spot out of camp. All it takes is one case of mono for Brandt and one forgettable fight for Burroughs to win the preseason competition running away.

We’re suffering through the purple balls era and still have years to go.
 
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There is WAY too much tire pumping on Portillo going on here over the last week. Dude is at least two years away from contributing, if at all. Lots to work with, but his game just started moving away from "raw" being the most apt description. He has some really rough edges to refine before being considered as a viable option. The good news is that you could see the progress by years end, but this has kind of gotten out of hand here. Let him keep progressing before putting any expectations on him.
 
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tigermask48 said:
I don't see it, so agree to to disagree there. To me he's just a big body and not much else.

He makes saves he should make most of the time, but never makes saves he shouldn't make. Guess I just don't see that extra gear guys like Hasek, Roy, Quick, Luongo, and Richter had where they could single handedly win you a game.

He seems like he tops out as a solid guy to split time, but not a guy that will play 60-70 games a year.
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Agreed. I'm rooting for him, but he's more of a big-bodied scrambler (like Cechmanek) to me.
 
Brownie to Pancakes said:
Why would we need to use the 1st to fill the hole? Have you heard of Brandt Clarke? That's what makes it so infuriating. It was a position of strength.
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There were a few times when Brandt had been knocked on his ass and the puck ended up in the back of the net.

Just a microcosm of his overall sub par defensive game.

I think this is why they kept him out in the Rain.

But ya maybe they should have tried that.

If he falters again defensively or bombs out of camp on that end, he could again be sent out in the Reign.

I am hopeful that he has grown and he makes the team.
 
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