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Gm #70 - 3/20/14, KINGS defeat CAPITALS, 2-1 in ShootOut !

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Herby said:
I think right now you have to say he is the Kings best option there, unless they want to move Carter off the wing. Richards for whatever reason is just a disaster out there, that pass tonight was just so bad on so many levels it's shocking to see a player with almost a decade of NHL experience who has won every championship known to man make that pass.

Stoll is not going to wow anyone, and he has the same shortcomings he has had his entire career, but Jarret Stoll gets that puck in deep tonight and protects the one goal lead and that is pretty important with our style of play. Plus, Stoll would likely be playing with Jeff Carter which is a major major improvement over anyone he had during his days as a 2nd line center.
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At least Richards didn't blast one of his teammates in the face with a puck this game. Gotta look for the silver lining.

I think once you move stoll to the second line, he goes against opponents that will expose him badly. And as mention he takes dumb penalties, it will be so much worse when he is playing chase against a good line. Sadly, as much as I like richards I am not optimistic we will ever see anything that resembles the beast MR of old.
 
Statistically, Richards is now the worst defensive player on the team.

Goal against per 60 minutes of ice time:

mikerichards_zps1f76cc6e.jpg
 
Richards has not been great this year, or even average lately, but for me, he's done enough to wait until after the playoffs are done to get a better picture. Obviously he's not going anywhere right now, so, all you can do is hope that he does have a switch to flip.

He's locked in with that contract, so he's not trying to impress anyone in the regular season anymore. This is the first full, 82 game marathon, 6 month grind since he won the Cup. Last year was a sprint as defending champ, 11-12 was his first year with a new team before winning. All that could matter to him are the playoffs at this point. The Kings are good enough that they don't need him to be great to get a playoff spot, and he has been on teams that have made the Final or won the Cup as 7th and 8th seeds. He knows you just have to get in.

That, or his body is rapidly breaking down, and he has no strength in his legs, arms, or wrists, to the point where every shot or pass he makes is more him pushing the puck than anything, and his hockey instinct can no longer cover up for his lack of raw talent, speed, or size.

Or, he could just be having a down year for whatever reason.
 
johnjm22 said:
Statistically, Richards is now the worst defensive player on the team.

Goal against per 60 minutes of ice time:

mikerichards_zps1f76cc6e.jpg
Click to expand...

To be fair to MR, he draws the most difficult assignments night in and night out. That doesn't mean he is good this year and those stats are still damning to some extent.

I personally don't think there has been that much of a drop off in his defensive play. MR is not what he used to be, but is still really good on the back check and on defense. What he's royally sucking at this year is turnovers, and I'm thinking that's where a lot of those numbers come from. He's making some really silly boneheaded mistakes, and they aren't occasional. It's more like every game. He literally puts the puck on opponents sticks often, and that's not good.
 
The one drop off in Richards game that I can't figure out is his passing. He used to be a great passer and even his shots could be pretty lethal when he was with the Flyers. But suddenly he seems to have no oomph in his shots and no zip in his passing. I hope this isn't a case of a player slowly losing confidence in his abilities, like say a Craig Janney or Jimmy Carson who had steep drop offs in production and retired early. That really concerns me.

What's even more bizarre is that he looked like he was picking things up right after the Olympic break after he had Carter put back on his wing, but now it seems like both players are struggling. I sure do hope that we see Richards turn it on down the stretch and wakes up for the playoffs. He was the Kings' best center during last years playoffs, yes, even better than Kopitar.
 
Fishhead said:
To be fair to MR, he draws the most difficult assignments night in and night out.
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Well, according to the same site. Richards starts in the offensive zone more than any other King center and starts in the defensive zone less than Kopitar and Stoll.

Kopitar is the Kings go to defensive center, and often times other coaches who match lines more than DS do everything they can to keep their star center away from Kopitar (and against Richards). Just scroll the site that johnjm posted ( http://behindthenet.ca )


And as for Gaborik, I am all for re-signing him to a 3 year deal worth around 16-18 million, the problem is money. According to some of the experts here the Kings will NEVER trade Richards or Brown, well guess what, you guys want Gaborik re-signed and the money to get a top 4 defenseman, well it's not happening with $12 million committed to those guys until the next decade.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
The one drop off in Richards game that I can't figure out is his passing. He used to be a great passer and even his shots could be pretty lethal when he was with the Flyers. But suddenly he seems to have no oomph in his shots and no zip in his passing. I hope this isn't a case of a player slowly losing confidence in his abilities, like say a Craig Janney or Jimmy Carson who had steep drop offs in production and retired early. That really concerns me.
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Wasn't there some wrist injury or something when he was back with the Flyers? With the way Richards backhands passes so often, if he can't flick his wrist for some reason, you can probably get more force going on the backhand than the forehand. Especially if it were his right wrist, which controls the stick since he shoots left.
 
Looks like Sutter agrees with many, Richards taking 4th line shifts at practice
Gaborik – Kopitar – Williams
Pearson – Carter – Toffoli
King – Stoll – Brown
Clifford – Richards – Lewis – Nolan
 
Brad Doty said:
Looks like Sutter agrees with many, Richards taking 4th line shifts at practice
Gaborik – Kopitar – Williams
Pearson – Carter – Toffoli
King – Stoll – Brown
Clifford – Richards – Lewis – Nolan
Click to expand...

It's unfortunate, but this was long long overdue. No one is happy with the complete collapse of his game, because the Kings probably need the 2012 Richards (or a player like him) to win another Cup, but it is what it is, that player is likely never coming back. It wasn't because he was tired or injured or waiting to flip a switch or whatever excuse people came up with, he has just completely fallen off the cliff this season. I was literally amazed that there were people on this board as of 2-3 days ago that were trying to defend his play or numbers this season. He has been complete and utter garbage since about Thanksgiving and the Kings can't afford to be wasting Carter with a bottom six center who can barely make or receive a pass, the truth is if Carter and Richards had come here from Florida and Winnipeg and never played together previously there would be no demand to have one of our best players this season skating with one of our worst players.
 
Brad Doty said:
Looks like Sutter agrees with many, Richards taking 4th line shifts at practice
Gaborik – Kopitar – Williams
Pearson – Carter – Toffoli
King – Stoll – Brown
Clifford – Richards – Lewis – Nolan
Click to expand...

That turnover in the neutral zone last night had to piss Sutter off to no end.

Looks like some of us may get our wish to have Carter moved to center.

Nice to see the King - Stoll - Brown line back together. That line showed some spark when they were together, and nice to see Sutter not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with Stoll staying on the 3rd line.

Those lines may not last, but at least Sutter is holding Richards accountable today.
 
I like the message that Sutter's sending Richards, but we all know that Richards isn't going to be our permanent 4C.

As long as Sutter doesn't promote Lewis back up to the top 3 lines, I'm good.
 
My god.. ENOUGH about Mike Richards already. Keying on an individual this much is ridiculous. It's a team sport. He's a clutch player that has won at every level - every level. You want that guy on your team. He's having a slump. It's not the end of the world.

This crap is as embarrassing as when people around here wanted Kopitar traded. Come on.
 
TonySCV said:
My god.. ENOUGH about Mike Richards already. Keying on an individual this much is ridiculous. It's a team sport. He's a clutch player that has won at every level - every level. You want that guy on your team. He's having a slump. It's not the end of the world.

This crap is as embarrassing as when people around here wanted Kopitar traded. Come on.
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I love what Richards brings to the table when he brings it, but he is in a prolonged slump. There's nothing wrong with Sutter holding him accountable for the turnover he made in the neutral zone last night.
 
TonySCV said:
My god.. ENOUGH about Mike Richards already. Keying on an individual this much is ridiculous. It's a team sport. He's a clutch player that has won at every level - every level. You want that guy on your team. He's having a slump. It's not the end of the world.

This crap is as embarrassing as when people around here wanted Kopitar traded. Come on.
Click to expand...

We really need a Mike Richards thread stickied. It would be, by far, the most populated thread in the Kings section.
 
TonySCV said:
My god.. ENOUGH about Mike Richards already. Keying on an individual this much is ridiculous. It's a team sport. He's a clutch player that has won at every level - every level. You want that guy on your team. He's having a slump. It's not the end of the world.

This crap is as embarrassing as when people around here wanted Kopitar traded. Come on.
Click to expand...

Wait, what?????

So we can't talk about a highly paid player (the Kings highest paid for 2014 btw) who is having a crappy season and has just been demoted to 4th line. You think people are "keying" on the guy for no reason? Is coach Sutter in that group now?

It's a team game, so we can't talk about individual players anymore? Ok, time to stop the praises for Kopitar, Quick and Gaborik because "it's a team game", correct? I'd personally be ok with removing names and numbers from jerseys and Brad Richardson deserves as much credit for the 2012 win as Quick, hell why even have the Conn Smythe, team game right?

He has won everything, yes, he has. But that has zero relevance to how he is playing in 2010, a WJC in 2005, an Olympics in 2010 and even a Stanley Cup in 2012 mean nothing when you can't keep up in 2014.

You want a guy on your team who has played like he has? For the next 6-7 years at that cap hit? If you are ok with it, which is fine, do you atleast understand why others are a bit worried that Mike Richard's has 7 years left on his deal?

A slump? It's not a slump anymore Tony, it's a season man, come on, a slump is 3 points in 10 games, no goals in six, this is far more than a slump. And it's not only the offensive numbers, the guys game has completely fallen off the face of the Earth.

And it's ridiculous and looks bad on the site when a moderator calls an on-topic hockey discussion embarrassing and says we should stop talking about it. Is it embarrassing to be talking about a player having a poor season? Nothing talked about in this thread is out of line or embarrassing, it's a GDT where a player making almost $8 million this season and has 3 goals in 46 games had a horrible costly turnover that could have cost us key points in the standings. Is there even one example of anything said in this GDT that is embarrassing (would love to see an example), to me it looks like a bunch of people using facts and stats to back up their arguments, shamefully facts and stats are apparently frowned upon by some on this board.
 
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I am more concerned with Slava his offense has disintegrated at a young age....51 games no goals.

Richards is getting older on an old body, Slava doesn't really have an excuse.

Slava's cap hit is 4.4 million. The Kings can't pay Slava that money to provide no offense.

The Defense not generating offense (Along with Richards goal slumps, and Brown); have torpedoed this team.

Not sure what has happened to Richards.

But Doughty even needs to pick it up, He is suppose to be a catalyst like Yandle or Keith....Drew is not providing offense anywhere near those guys.

Doughty is also one BIG reason the Kings PP is awful.
 
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Richards was actually having a decent game until that turnover. That will forever be lost in the dogpile, as it usually is after he makes his mistakes, same with Muzzin. Hilariously, Williams was also being called over the hill after our last loss, but that went away easily enough. I agree with Sutter's move here as a means off waking Richards up, because he certainly needs it, but I'm in no way sold he's a spent force until I see what he does in the postseason and next year.
 
damacles1156 said:
I am more concerned with Slava his offense has disintegrated at a young age....51 games no goals.

Richards is getting older on an old body, Slava doesn't really have an excuse.

Slava's cap hit is 4.4 million. The Kings can't pay Slava that money to provide no offense.

The Defense not generating offense (Along with Richards goal slumps, and Brown); have torpedoed this team.

Not sure what has happened to Richards.

But Doughty even needs to pick it up, He is suppose to be a catalyst like Yandle or Keith....Drew is not providing offense anywhere near those guys.
Click to expand...

Dean needs to take a look this summer at all the players he is paying a ton of money for a lot of years to be core players.

Quick
Kopitar
Richards
Brown
Carter
Doughty
Slava

And then decide which ones are going to be longterm.

Plus you have to factor in Gaborik who would probably be a 5-6 mill a year re-sign.

That's a lot of money to be paying forwards, and Kopi's salary is going to go through the roof his next extension.

I like Slava, but his play has been very underwhelming most of the year.
 
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