GDT: GM#3 LA Kings vs Winnipeg Jets @5:00pm 10/9/18

[Johnny Utah]

Stevens is back to Sutter; playing the vets.

Amadio and Wagner both played under 7 minutes.

LaDue played 10.

JAD didn’t even play. Lol.

Pretty ridiculous when you look down the road and watch the Ducks with a young D and playing a lot of there young forwards OVER 15 minutes. I guess we can argue Kings don’t have top end rookie talent like Steel and Terry.

 

[Herby]

Stevens is back to Sutter; playing the vets.

Amadio and Wagner both played under 7 minutes.

LaDue played 10.

JAD didn’t even play. Lol.

Pretty ridiculous when you look down the road and watch the Ducks with a young D and playing a lot of there young forwards OVER 15 minutes. I guess we can argue Kings don’t have top end rookie talent like Steel and Terry.

WTH are they doing with JAD. If your not going to play him over Clifford, Thompson and Lewis then just send him down to junior.

I realize that all coaches love veteran players, but I think Stevens is a step above most others.

 

[tny760]

looks like i made the right choice not watching that 3rd

guess i know i can trust my gut now

 

[Herby]

On the bright side, it can't be denied just how good Kovalchuk has looked. Just imagine if Stevens knew how to use him on the PP.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The worst thing about the current iteration of the Kings is that they remove the fun out of watching hockey.

We kind of went through this kind of period in the past where they didn't have much hope beyond Ziggy Palffy.

For the most part, it looks like the team is just going through the motions. Again.

 

[tny760]

The worst thing about the current iteration of the Kings is that they remove the fun out of watching hockey.

We kind of went through this kind of period in the past where they didn't have much hope beyond Ziggy Palffy.

For the most part, it looks like the team is just going through the motions. Again.

they're hitting their spots same as last few years

i don't agree with calling it going through the motions cause i think there's effort there, it's just effort restrained to a ridiculous system so it's not ultimately effective

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Same as Shore by Sutter

Different coach, same ****

Shore was horrible, what are you talking about.

 

[Herby]

It's not effort. The Kings just don't have very much speed and skill in a league that is being played fast and skilled. And the archaic system certainly doesn't help either.

And two of the guys with speed on the Kings can't shoot the puck into a soccer goal with Kempe and Wagner.

The Kings may have to split up 11 and 17 to spread the scoring throughout the lineup. That 70's Line should never be a thing again. Carter is no longer capable of carrying Toffoli and Pearson up and down the ice.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

they're hitting their spots same as last few years

i don't agree with calling it going through the motions cause i think there's effort there, it's just effort restrained to a ridiculous system so it's not ultimately effective

Gotta stick with the system. Everything just looks so rigid, it becomes excruciating to watch. You can tell Kovalchuk hasn't been tainted by spending years playing under that stifling system because he tries to do things other Kings forwards don't even attempt to do with the puck.

 

[Herby]

Regarding team speed and the plodding etc.

Has anyone considered that the Kings culture has changed from years ago when it was heavy emphasis on having a rigid offseason workout and training hard to outwork the opponent?

It’s been a concern of mine that we are headed right back to the pre-DL era where guys are just here to surf and enjoy the weather. I just can’t believe some players speed have just miraculously dropped off as if they are a year away from retirement.

I think they just got old for the most part. Richards got old and fell apart, Gaborik had 1 more good season then fell apart, Carter had a few good years but that injury looks like it's taken a gear off of him, Williams got old, Stoll got old and retired, Mitchell got old, Voynov thing happened. And on top of that there was little development from Toffoli and Pearson beyond 2014 and the drafting and asset management by DL was criminal. I think that is why we are at this spot with the roster, vs. conditioning or culture.

We can beat the drums on Stevens, and I'm right there too, he's a horrible coach who helps nothing but the problem with the Kings is more the Jimmy's and the Joe's than the X's and O's.

 

[tny760]

Gotta stick with the system. Everything just looks so rigid, it becomes excruciating to watch. You can tell Kovalchuk hasn't been tainted by spending years playing under that stifling system because he tries to do things other Kings forwards don't even attempt to do with the puck.

exactly

seen so many opportunities for defensemen to skate pucks straight up but you can tell they're 100% looking for a pass. it's like reading a quarterback, if they don't even look at a receiver you know the ball's not going there

 

[tny760]

We can beat the drums on Stevens, and I'm right there too, he's a horrible coach who helps nothing but the problem with the Kings is more the Jimmy's and the Joe's than the X's and O's.

but i think the logical "troubleshooting" step here has to be to hit the easy stuff first, and that's to change the plays

it's hard to turn over a lineup, it's a lot easier to change a system

 

[KingsFan7824]

Regarding team speed and the plodding etc.

Has anyone considered that the Kings culture has changed from years ago when it was heavy emphasis on having a rigid offseason workout and training hard to outwork the opponent?

It’s been a concern of mine that we are headed right back to the pre-DL era where guys are just here to surf and enjoy the weather. I just can’t believe some players speed have just miraculously dropped off as if they are a year away from retirement.

Which the players got sick of.

They played stupidly great for 20 games in 2012. They dodged multiple bullets in 2014. For all the flowery talk about the golden age, they were never great from start to finish. Rigid offseason workouts didn't do too much. They were down 0-3, and looked like crap doing it, in the most important games of that season up to that point. Essentially the same team couldn't beat a bad McDavid-less Oilers team in a must win game. Justin Williams was still here for that game too. Mitchell wasn't, and of course Voynov, but most of the rest of them were. That was the trash can year as well. Just a few months after winning the Cup they got sick of a winning coach. Might be that they've been in that pre-DL era for at least 3.5 years now. And again, down 0-3, looked like total crap. It's possible it's been surf and enjoy the weather even before the spring of 2015.

 

[Winger23]

It's not effort. The Kings just don't have very much speed and skill in a league that is being played fast and skilled. And the archaic system certainly doesn't help either.

And two of the guys with speed on the Kings can't shoot the puck into a soccer goal with Kempe and Wagner.

The Kings may have to split up 11 and 17 to spread the scoring throughout the lineup. That 70's Line should never be a thing again. Carter is no longer capable of carrying Toffoli and Pearson up and down the ice.

I agree with your post, but caught myself saying, what scoring lol. It's the same ole 1 to 2 goals a night and hope the goalie wins it like it's been for a few years now. They are better off just loading up a line at this point.

 

[Fishhead]

I'm all about Amadio and Wagner, but they played like shit tonight. Wagner lost focus and cost us a point.

Look at it this way. The Jets are contenders, and the Kings could have left with a point at least without Brown and Quick. The defense did a tremendous job of limiting second chances and keeping the Jets to the outside. Campbell played well, but he coughed up a ton of rebounds, his control was not good at all tonight. There just wasn't anyone there to put them in. Muzzin and Martinez get flak but they played well against top players tonight. They were a -1 because of a missed assignment by a forward. They at least got shots through, no other defensman did.

The Jets are a top team for a reason, they are stacked. I get the frustration with Stevens, most of us want to string him up, but the team hung in there and made a run at a game they had no business being in.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

I think they just got old for the most part. Richards got old and fell apart, Gaborik had 1 more good season then fell apart, Carter had a few good years but that injury looks like it's taken a gear off of him, Williams got old, Stoll got old and retired, Mitchell got old, Voynov thing happened. And on top of that there was little development from Toffoli and Pearson beyond 2014 and the drafting and asset management by DL was criminal. I think that is why we are at this spot with the roster, vs. conditioning or culture.

We can beat the drums on Stevens, and I'm right there too, he's a horrible coach who helps nothing but the problem with the Kings is more the Jimmy's and the Joe's than the X's and O's.

We can add Quick to list of aging and breaking down players.

I don’t know about ‘horrible drafting’, Kempe and Wagner are DL picks and add speed to a team that really needs it. Asset management criticism, we’ve been over this. I understand the trades and the moves he made because those teams were in a window to win another cup.

Going back to the issue of culture, it helps your teams identity and frankly this current squad has none despite some changes by management to appease the players. Just a collection of overrated players that are here to collect a paycheck. I’m watching the kings these past couple games and this is a team with zero direction.

 

[Choralone]

Some of you are comparing Stevens to Terry Murray. That is a disservice to Terry Murray. Terry Murray actually had the Kings playing sound defense and coached playoff teams that actually won more than zero games in the first round.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Good coaches realize their players' strengths and weaknesses and put them in positions to succeed. A coach with a limited range will stress "the system" and if players stray away from it, blame their inability to execute the system. "We have to be better prepared." That's the go-to-line for John Stevens.

Hockey is a free flowing sport. Trying to homogenize it and have everyone accord to a strict structure will never work in this sport. You watch those playoff runs in 2012 and 2014, the Kings were a free flowing team that attacked aggressively. That's well in the past now and that team is long gone. We're approaching five years since that run. You can't expect this team to be anything like the team we watched five years ago. They're not the same team.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Down by a goal at the end of the game with an extra attacker and they continue to pass to each other to run out the clock instead of getting an actual shot on net. Unbelievable.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Someone please explain to me the Kovy on the PP ridiculousness, because I'm about to lose my damn mind. This team is 0 for the season on the PP while completely misusing a PP weapon that every single person on this damn board apparently knows how to use better than the coach of the team! For as bad as this team has looked so far this season, a damn PP goal or two would go a hell of a long way, but this coaching staff is apparently perfectly fine with going out there with one arm tied behind their backs.

 

[Sol]

I don't know where people get this idea that the Kings have slow skaters. They have good speed without a doubt, they just play slow.

 

[Herby]

We can add Quick to list of aging and breaking down players.

I don’t know about ‘horrible drafting’, Kempe and Wagner are DL picks and add speed to a team that really needs it. Asset management criticism, we’ve been over this. I understand the trades and the moves he made because those teams were in a window to win another cup.

Going back to the issue of culture, it helps your teams identity and frankly this current squad has none despite some changes by management to appease the players. Just a collection of overrated players that are here to collect a paycheck. I’m watching the kings these past couple games and this is a team with zero direction.

Well we can agree to disagree on what happened between June 2014 and the end of the 2017 season.

But I think you are spot on about the just collecting a paycheck part, and I think I mentioned that in another post. Most of the players on this team have atleast one ring and most of them have signed the biggest NHL contracts they will ever sign. That is just a recipe for disaster, IMO. Just not enough hungry players. I get grilled and mocked for it from some, but I think it's ridiculous to have support players in one place for so long. Kopitar, Doughty, Quick, Brown? ok. Lewis, Clifford, Martinez, Toffoli, Pearson? No.

The Kings have won 1 playoff game the last 4 seasons (post Cup). You would think that would bring massive changes, but nope, we still have 11 players, or half the roster as holdovers. How is that possible?

 

[Herby]

Someone please explain to me the Kovy on the PP ridiculousness, because I'm about to lose my damn mind. This team is 0 for the season on the PP while completely misusing a PP weapon that every single person on this damn board apparently knows how to use better than the coach of the team! For as bad as this team has looked so far this season, a damn PP goal or two would go a hell of a long way, but this coaching staff is apparently perfectly fine with going out there with one arm tied behind their backs.

I never thought I would see anything worse than having your PP funnel one-timers to one of the most inaccurate shooters in team history for 3 years.

Then I saw Stevens send Ilya Kovalchuk out to screen the goalie.

I apologize Jamie Kompon.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Campbell reminds me of Boromir during LOTR when he takes a bunch of arrows and no one helps him

is anyone else seeing me eat these three-foot arrows?

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

some not so fun facts:

We've gone from best possession team in the league by a full 4% at 56.37% to 39.26% in 3 years. That's phenomenal if you hate shot differentials. And yes it's a small sample size but we were below league average last year too, just a hair over 50%. per Rosen, "The Kings have yielded 110 shots through their first three games (36.7 shots against per game)".

Doughty has been on the ice for 4 goals for and none against. Muzzin has been on for 1 for and 2 against, Martinez 2 for and 6 against. But sure lets keep forcing it.

Kopitar is playing more minutes than most #1 d-men. He's playing more than PK subban. He played more than anyone in this game except Doughty and more than anyone on the jets but Byfuglien…only 30 s less. Yeah he gets paid a lot and yeah he can handle it but if the spread between your top C and your bottom C without injury or overtime is nearly 20 minutes that's just something else entirely.

I've defended Blake a lot and praised a lot of his moves but he wears this for not even interviewing another coach. The dying gasps of Terry Murray hockey sucked, but at least you know what the identity and system (HOME PLATE LIKE THE JERSEY LOL) was. If anyone has a f***ing clue what we're supposed to be or do or what Blake/Stevens' vision for the team is going forward, please let me AND them know.

I am beyond disgusted. There is far too much talent on this team for your system to be "Jack Campbell" (and don't get pedantic here about "too much talent" because just about everyone agrees this team "should" be sniffing around the bubble). Gonna be fun to see what happens when the 5v5 save percentage drops from its current 96.39% to something more reflective of the flow of play. Right now we have the alibi of injuries and the games are close and I'm hating it because I'm rooting for Campbell bigtime.

Blake needs to either fire Stevens at 10 games OR if he's not going to do that trade everything from the Cup years but Kopitar and Doughty. At least that will make us miss the playoffs by a good amount.