KINGS17
Smartest in the Room
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The NHL is still investigating. Word is they hired the same people OJ did to find the real killer.
Rumor: KINGS 2018-19 Season- Luc/Rob ****Show/ Sell Everyone!! Part 3
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BigKing
Blake Out of Hell III: Back in to Hell
KINGS17
Smartest in the Room
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Raccoon Jesus
We were right there
I wonder if he wasn't able to do normal conditioning and stuff as well.
Distance Kings are from contention:
Hey, I see John Stevens in there!
SettlementRichie10
Registered User
- May 6, 2012
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This is not true at all, and a dangerous mindset for management to take on. The 2014 team was deep as hell. They had a ton of talent sprinkled throughout the lineup.
Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams
Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
Brown-Stoll-Lewis
Clifford-Richards-Nolan
Muzzin-Doughty
Mitchell-Voynov
Regehr-Martinez
Greene
Quick
Jones
How can you conceivably believe that’s an “underwhelming” amount of talent? Even Mike Richards on his last leg was the best fourth line center in the league, and contributing on the scoresheet in the playoffs.
That 70s Line is denigrated now due to Carter’s regression and Pearson/Toffoli hitting a wall in development. But at the time, they single handedly won the Hawks series for us.
Brown-Stoll-Lewis were one of the best if not the best checking line in the playoffs. Tenacious puck hounds. Physical. Contributed on the scoresheet.
Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams? What can I possibly say about them that hasn’t already been said.
Defense was deep. For f***’s sake, even our backup goaltender was talented.
It’s delusional to think the Kings as they sit today are anywhere close to that 2014 lineup just because we still have Kopitar and Doughty. It’s just not true. Yes, Kopitar and Doughty are cornerstone pieces, but we’re missing an entire second line and second defensive pairing compared to that 2014 team.
2014 d: Mitchell, Regher, Voynov, Muzzin, Martinez, Doughty. (Greene also played 38 games)
That is hard to replicate IMO
DoktorJeep
Luc and Rob are a waste of time and money.
That 2014 Kings team was all time greatest in franchise history, IMO
Raccoon Jesus
We were right there
The 2014 Kings were the 2008 NHL allstar team, if you told anyone in 08 or 09 we'd have Gaborik, Carter Richards, etc all on one team they would have handed us the Trophy ahead of time.
We won the Ducks series with Jeff Schultz patrolling the blue line, haha.
We won the Ducks series with Jeff Schultz patrolling the blue line, haha.
I loved that team too. And i agree that the d core was vefy solid obviously. But look at the regular season stats the individuals on that team put up. This was not a lineup filled with multiple franchise players. In fact most of the key players on the team were guys that other franchises gave up on. Really just a bunch of 2-way players with Kopi and Doughty. Outside of those 2 there weren't superstars that you can only aquire via the draft
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BigKing
Blake Out of Hell III: Back in to Hell
Well, Gaborik was a superstar that rediscovered his touch, crushing it for the Kings from the time of the trade through the 2015 season.
2014 was Kopitar's last season of consistency.
Regardless, the team had key contributors that you only get through the draft or by trading high draft picks, highly drafted prospects or good young players.
The 2014 team had players that were acquired via trading O'Sullivan and a 2nd (previously acquired, along with a 1st, for Demitra, the team's leading scorer the year prior. O'Sullivan was considered one of the top prospects not in the NHL), Jack Johnson and a 1st, Simmonds/Schenn (Top prospect in hockey)/1st round pick.
Point being, Lombardi didn't just pick up a bunch of trash off the streets. There is a lot of 1st round pedigree on that team. Aside from the talent, there was a lot of intangibles as well, including going through 2012 and '13 together.
The current roster is nowhere close, especially when looking at the blueline. This is, again, why landing Hughes seems to be very important as the team needs elite-level talent in short order before #11 and #8 aren't the building blocks you think they are.
2014 was Kopitar's last season of consistency.
Regardless, the team had key contributors that you only get through the draft or by trading high draft picks, highly drafted prospects or good young players.
The 2014 team had players that were acquired via trading O'Sullivan and a 2nd (previously acquired, along with a 1st, for Demitra, the team's leading scorer the year prior. O'Sullivan was considered one of the top prospects not in the NHL), Jack Johnson and a 1st, Simmonds/Schenn (Top prospect in hockey)/1st round pick.
Point being, Lombardi didn't just pick up a bunch of trash off the streets. There is a lot of 1st round pedigree on that team. Aside from the talent, there was a lot of intangibles as well, including going through 2012 and '13 together.
The current roster is nowhere close, especially when looking at the blueline. This is, again, why landing Hughes seems to be very important as the team needs elite-level talent in short order before #11 and #8 aren't the building blocks you think they are.
Gaborik was definitely not a superstar at that time. Nor was he that season or the season before that or any season after that. He did get hot during the playoffs (on Kopitars line). Carter was very good and got hot in the playoffs. He was basically the lone player on that roster outside of Kopi and Doughty that could drive production, and he wasn't doing it at some elite Malkin type 2nd line center level. And the trade for Richards that you mentioned (regardless of what we gave up) netted us a solid 3rd/4th line center. These are the type of players we could sign as ufas, or trade for. When i say the roster was filled with 2 way players im really being generous on the offensive side of 2 way. As most of the guts were really just defensively excellent players who were very limited offensively.
kovacro
Uvijek Vjerni
BigKing
Blake Out of Hell III: Back in to Hell
Gaborik had 27 goals in 2015. 46 goals in his first 114 games in a Kings sweater. Over a 40 goal pace. Former 3rd overall pick. The point is that he is an elite talent that rediscovered said talent. For those first 114 games, he was Marian f***ing Gaborik again.
By 2014 Richards was nothing close to his former self, however, you are merely stat watching with this argument. Intangibles are a thing and these guys had it in spades.
The Kings don't have the assets to surround 11 and 8 with anything close to 2014-level Carter, Williams, Voynov, Mitchell, Gaborik etc...unless you want to try to go all-in again and start moving picks and prospects.
The team needs young, cheap talent and to start hitting on its draft picks. The 2014 Kings team had that in Voynov/Toffoli/Pearson/Muzzin contributing while they also had moved draft picks they had previously hit on and future 1st/2nd rounders to get proven guys to join up with an elite 1C/1D/G.
In regards to the former, are they all elite anymore? They have a lot to prove next season.
Steve Zissou
I'll order you a red cap and a Speedo.
kovacro
Uvijek Vjerni
AlphaBravo
Registered User
An even bigger picture is that the 2014 team bought into Sutter’s system, and played at a very fast pace and like clockwork. When the Kings cycle was revering in full gear no team could stop us. But yes, we had incredible leadership from vets (not DD or Kopitar), amazing deep defense, and center depth. I think we could have gone deep again if we squeezed in the playoffs in 2015, and Sekera didn’t get hurt.
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A lot of people crapping on Kopitar on these boards. Unfortunately none of us have hindsight and none of us can predict the future. The biggest reasons we are not competitive at this moment do not include Kopitar or Doughty.
#1 - Dean Lombardi - It hurts to say it as he is my all time favorite GM of this team. He brought us to Stanley cups and I will forever be in his debt. Unfortunately he is the main reason for where we are today. Here are the three biggest examples:
A) not buying out Richards. He not only brought back a corpse that took up a roster space and cost us points and games. He pissed off the hockey world with a loophole that still has a good sum of money on the books. Even if it is a million a year we have had times in the past we couldn’t even call up a player because we were to close to the cap.
B) Lucic trade - for those complaining of our lack of talent we gave up a first in a deep draft as well as a young right d’man and what could have been our goalie of the future. I always wondered if he would have moved Quick that year and went with the cheaper solution where it would have left us. He would have got a Kings ransom for Quick at the time but again Hindsight.
C) Gabby extension - hated it when it happened, long term for a man of glass. Now we have Phaneuf taking up 5 million cap space and a no movement as a result.
2) Voynov - This was a crushing blow. Not only did we lose our right hand shot young number two defenseman with skill and offensive instincts, we made a crappy trade to try and replace him.
3) Draft and development. I will concede that with many of our top picks traded away Bergeron department had to work overtime. However Lombardi and Co missing out on the new style of play in the NHL And drafting for size and character Haidet in the downfall of our future.
Blake has inherited a huge mess. I am not giving him a failing grade as of yet but this summer will be a big test of his abilities. As a Kings fan I’m not going to crap on our current Captain and one of the best defenseman in the NHL. I am going to hope that Blake addresses the coaching situation, the dressing room, and the on ice product in a harsh and swift way this summer. I like the fact that he has brought in a lot more prospects, some through trade, some through college free-agent signing’s, and some through what appeared to be good draft picks. We need this trend to continue but we need him to do one or two more shake up moves to address the youth, skill and speed.
#1 - Dean Lombardi - It hurts to say it as he is my all time favorite GM of this team. He brought us to Stanley cups and I will forever be in his debt. Unfortunately he is the main reason for where we are today. Here are the three biggest examples:
A) not buying out Richards. He not only brought back a corpse that took up a roster space and cost us points and games. He pissed off the hockey world with a loophole that still has a good sum of money on the books. Even if it is a million a year we have had times in the past we couldn’t even call up a player because we were to close to the cap.
B) Lucic trade - for those complaining of our lack of talent we gave up a first in a deep draft as well as a young right d’man and what could have been our goalie of the future. I always wondered if he would have moved Quick that year and went with the cheaper solution where it would have left us. He would have got a Kings ransom for Quick at the time but again Hindsight.
C) Gabby extension - hated it when it happened, long term for a man of glass. Now we have Phaneuf taking up 5 million cap space and a no movement as a result.
2) Voynov - This was a crushing blow. Not only did we lose our right hand shot young number two defenseman with skill and offensive instincts, we made a crappy trade to try and replace him.
3) Draft and development. I will concede that with many of our top picks traded away Bergeron department had to work overtime. However Lombardi and Co missing out on the new style of play in the NHL And drafting for size and character Haidet in the downfall of our future.
Blake has inherited a huge mess. I am not giving him a failing grade as of yet but this summer will be a big test of his abilities. As a Kings fan I’m not going to crap on our current Captain and one of the best defenseman in the NHL. I am going to hope that Blake addresses the coaching situation, the dressing room, and the on ice product in a harsh and swift way this summer. I like the fact that he has brought in a lot more prospects, some through trade, some through college free-agent signing’s, and some through what appeared to be good draft picks. We need this trend to continue but we need him to do one or two more shake up moves to address the youth, skill and speed.
Steve Zissou
I'll order you a red cap and a Speedo.
Screw Sekera. Healthy or not, Greener was out with a shoulder injury all season and letting Williams walk and sign w/ Washington lost us a huge chunk in leadership, and it hasn't been replaced since.
Letting?? Williams wasn't going to resign, you realize that right? He stated his intention of raising his family on the east coast.
Steve Zissou
I'll order you a red cap and a Speedo.
Point being his leadership along with a few others were not replaced since 2015 - Kopitar, Doughty, Quick, and Carter have not stepped up in their absence.
I thought at the time it was no big deal. Boy was I wrong.
deaderhead28
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KINGS17
Smartest in the Room
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Williams was reported to be looking for 5-6 years and $5M a season. The Kings didn't want to do that, and I can't blame them. It would have been nice if some of the players who were supposed to be watching and learning from guys like Williams and Mitchell actually stepped up and assumed the leadership role.
deaderhead28
Registered User
- Jul 3, 2010
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William's didnt want to sign with the Kings.It was reported his wife wanted to go back to the east coast.
KINGS17
Smartest in the Room
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Hmmm, actually I thought it was Kopitar and Doughty who were crapping on the fans this season.
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