Re: Blake
Every day, AEG should require a daily report submitted by 5 PM, in which he must state what the 3 main problems are (they may change daily) and what he has done this day
to address these 3 problems. What players should be moved and why. Why do the players have no emotion, urgency, or the effort required to win. What can be done about this?
What GMs has he spoken to TODAY and synopsis of what players he is targeting . What (college / CHL) free agents are being scouted currently.
By December 1, he must submit a full evaluation of: coaching staff, scouting, all development team, a brief overview of EACH PLAYER, what Adam Oates has done so far, and give an analysis / critique
of his own job. And finally, a blueprint of what must be accomplished this season, from this point. And a 1 year plan, a 2 year plan and a 3 year plan. Including what is the Vision.
I had a boss like this once...while not having to do a daily report, sure made you do your job...no excuses. No one to blame. Accountability!
Considering Blake's boss (Robitaille) insists this team is a contender, I don't think the long term vision is of any consequence.
Also, considering the fluidity of sports, expecting daily reports and how to resolve problems is not a realistic expectation, in my opinion.
I think Blake and Robitaille need to have an honest assessment of the state of the team and how they plan to construct the team with how they actually want the team to play. Because right now, the team is not capable of playing the way Blake wants them to, and at best we can expect them to play better next season after they've had more time to play an uptempo game.
This isn't me excusing the team, mind you. I just don't think it was realistic to expect this core who has played a certain way to change drastically in one off season to match the higher speed demands. They had Terry Murray teach the X's and O's on offense, and when he had run his course, Sutter adjusted a different attitude but maintained a similar structure, which led to great success. After Sutter ran his course, Stevens made another adjustment to tweak the execution, and the star players responded, but it was still focused on making defense the primary objective.
This year, they wanted the Kings to play faster, have more open ice, and allow more opportunities against. Changing the way you play takes longer to be executed properly compared to building off of the way you play.
This is even considering Blake's goal is to have a fast team. Damacles brought up a good point that while Kopitar has lost weight to try to gain speed, he's been muscled off the puck easier. Of course, Kopitar's play is not acceptable, but I think we all know he's better than this. Doughty, too.
The players need to play better, no doubt, but Stevens was not the right coach to try to enforce a more uptempo game. Blake should have kept him as an assistant coach to help with the defense, where he excelled, and never promoted him to head coach in the first place. Now Blake needs to examine his roster and determine who he wants to keep to actually execute the style of play that he wants. Right now, he's essentially told a mostly held together core since 2014 to change how they play and expecting them to be able to do so.
Lombardi identified issues with the locker room when he first game in. He traded away Pavol Demitra, for example, because he missed games when he was hurt versus missing games because he was injured. He wanted a team that was tough to play against, so he brought in players like Thornton.
I was willing to give Blake a pass last season to see who was on the roster who was able and willing to play the way he wanted to play, and then after they were swept by Vegas, he thought he would just sign a free agent and tell the players to do the same thing, only differently, and expect the same results. Trading for Hagelin is one move to bring in a player to execute a faster game, but it's not enough to right the ship.
I can only hope Blake realizes this is pretty much a lost season, and he trades some players who need a change of scenery and brings in young players and picks that he can build around and mold into his own vision.
