Boy, there some grouchy old bears around here. We're probably better off digging our CRT's out of the garage & watching The Bob Newhart show reruns the rest of the summer.
Guess it's understandable watching the paying to clear space, PL trade, then dumping PL only to get a goalie that lost his starting job last year & Edmundson which is a combined larger cap hit than PL.
Going to say it again because some still don't get it. Blake should use his Sharks connections to bring Pavelski (7th round pick) in to demonstrate the dedication it took him to get to top of the NHL at deflecting pucks in the hope it turns a lightbulb on for one of the kids. This is a no brainer. If you're arguing against it you have a problem with Joe, understandable. Otherwise you're wrong. There's no downside & it might positively impact some players for years to come.
King's veteran players that can teach dedication. Doughty? Nope. Dude discovered the gym around 30. Anyone have those quotes?
Kopitar? Sure, Kopitar can teach hard work, but he's been glued to the half wall for years & isn't very good at the center lane on the PP when he gets lost & ends up there.
My problem with King's coaching, development & whatnot. You may want to skip & I'll probably forget some of it.
Development sucks. The plan for the player, where they play, developing skills they need to make the NHL. They rushed players into league they weren't ready for. They tried to change players games instead of working on skills to get them to the NHL & then rounding things out. Turcotte, Björnfot, Kaliyev, Fagemo.
That draft & the aftermath should get Blake fired alone.
Skill Coaches, Stoll is probably fine. He's good at faceoffs. You can see the lack of effect on the ice. Let's back up a bit. The King's are a blue collar team. They're never going to have top 3-5 player in the NHL. They need to coach & game plan for it. That's fine, Florida found a way, although I'd rate Barkov higher than most. The King's need to play something like Panthers or Sutter hockey to be successful.
I see the lack of skills being used for that type of hockey & cute passes, flybys instead. The lack of the skills going to the net aren't high end skills. It's just a matter of putting the work in & the head coach holding the player's accountable.
Sutter: go to the net. It hasn't changed.
Then the head coach last year was special. Get a speedy, chippy team that should dominate with neutral zone pressure & just sit back in the 131. Just trade all the fast players & get pylons. Did Blake go in a new direction? Nope, got Todd's lackey.
So for coaching, they aren't running the simple, puck on net & get rebound skills & they aren't coaching that from a system perspective either. Putting the puck on net & crashing is how this team is going to be successful. The coaches are dropping the ball on what this type of team needs to be successful.
Coaches are 100% about results. You're job is to improve the players skills or get the most out of the team depending on what type of coach you are. If you consistently fail, you're unemployed. Sometimes they're just too creepy & want to see everyone's pics on their phones. There are player like Vilardi that coaches just can't fix. It's when the coach is failing more often than not it's a problem.
Advice to Blake: go full Magellan. Just burn all the picks so no one can cheer for a tank.
grouchy icebarren!!!!
