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Confirmed with Link: Kings announce signing kovalchuk to 3 year contract.

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tny760 said:
for real, people calling for blake's head over this is ridiculous, he took a flyer and it didn't work out, no great loss

best of luck to kovy, i think he's still got hockey left in him just not with this team
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Where did I say this is the only, or even one of, the reasons why I'd want Blake and Luc gone?
 
Paddyjack said:
What happened exactly? Is he too slow? Bad attitude? Lost his hockey because of age?
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Nobody really knows. By all accounts his attitude was always good, but he seemed to not buy into playing any sort of system, and was a constant turnover machine. His scoring didn't offset the negatives of those traits, so here we are. The one thing the Kings never seemed to be able to do was figure out how to put him on the powerplay to use his one-timer, which is f***ing ridiculous when you think about it.
 
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Paddyjack said:
What happened exactly? Is he too slow? Bad attitude? Lost his hockey because of age?
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i think it's a bit of everything, a local writer took a (imo cheap) parting shot saying that he was detached from the team on and off the ice but that seems to be kind of the prevailing sentiment that he wasn't a "team" guy. not that that should come as any surprise to anyone who's ever watched kovalchuk play, but that's another story

he seemed engaged imo but i saw him flub a million pucks that he probably should have handled - but i also think he was misused in his time here, playing with depth players and not being utilized for his best weapon, his one timer on the PP. i wish they would've at least given him a fair shake on kopi's wing and allowed him to be selfish but that's probably not meshing with the meritocracy message a rebuilding team is getting

Bandit said:
Where did I say this is the only, or even one of, the reasons why I'd want Blake and Luc gone?
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wasn't directed at just you but you can go ahead and take it personal
 
It feels like we did Kovalchuck dirty this entire time. Outside of maybe two weeks under John Stevens, had Kovaluchuck ever been given a proper chance?
 
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lexlavender said:
It feels like we did Kovalchuck dirty this entire time. Outside of maybe two weeks under John Stevens, had Kovaluchuck ever been given a proper chance?
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Define "proper". I mean, he got to play and he didn't play well. Quoting early season point totals for a short stretch of games v. everything else is cherry-picking: his complete body of work as a King is pretty bad.
 
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I am slammed today, so cannot read through the thread....but I will say I am disappointed that he never got to play LW #1 with Kopitar and Brown. I think they tried like 3 or 4 games, maybe.
I think that's a travesty. Iafallo glued there is still a problem. 31 NHL Teams and if Kovalchuk was on any of the other 30 teams, at least 25 of them would have put him at LW 1.
And all of them given him a shot at that. Putting him with different linemates most every night was bad, in fairness to him. No ill wishes.
 
regulate said:
Kings with Kovalchuk this season: 5-11-1 Kings without Kovalchuk this season: 9-7-2
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This keeps being mentioned and I find it silly....what’s the Kings record with Kopitar and Doughty in the line up this year?

I guess at the rate we are going with Kovy out of the lineup, we are destined to be a playoff team by April.
 
Peter James Bond II said:
I am slammed today, so cannot read through the thread....but I will say I am disappointed that he never got to play LW #1 with Kopitar and Brown. I think they tried like 3 or 4 games, maybe.
I think that's a travesty. Iafallo glued there is still a problem. 31 NHL Teams and if Kovalchuk was on any of the other 30 teams, at least 25 of them would have put him at LW 1.
And all of them given him a shot at that. Putting him with different linemates most every night was bad, in fairness to him. No ill wishes.
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You couldn't find two more incompatible players in the league than Kopitar and Kovalchuk.

This was explained in detail 8 years ago then again 2 years ago. No need to go through it again. It was never going to work.

My hope two years ago was that we could see a 2nd line of Kovalchuk -Vilardi - Carter, but Gabe got hurt and there were no centers on the roster suited to Kovalchuks game.
 
Peter James Bond II said:
I am slammed today, so cannot read through the thread....but I will say I am disappointed that he never got to play LW #1 with Kopitar and Brown. I think they tried like 3 or 4 games, maybe.
I think that's a travesty. Iafallo glued there is still a problem. 31 NHL Teams and if Kovalchuk was on any of the other 30 teams, at least 25 of them would have put him at LW 1.
And all of them given him a shot at that. Putting him with different linemates most every night was bad, in fairness to him. No ill wishes.
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Kopitar had his best year with Iafallo on his wing. It seems like Kopitar needs a certain type of winger, and Kovalchuk is not, and was not going to be, it. We thought Kopitar would explode with Gaborik for a full season, and then he had what at the time was his worst full season. The 2014 playoffs were great, but that was because Gaborik scored most of his goals from 5 feet in front of the net. They even somehow beat the Hawks and Rangers with 0 goals from Kopitar.

Axl Rhoadz said:
This keeps being mentioned and I find it silly....what’s the Kings record with Kopitar and Doughty in the line up this year?

I guess at the rate we are going with Kovy out of the lineup, we are destined to be a playoff team by April.
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Explain the records with and without Kovalchuk then. A Kings team with no depth was still decent in the 55 games without Carter in 17-18. Basically the same team was 4-8-1 at the start of 18-19, with Kovalchuk, although Brown wasn't there for most of those games. Under Wille D, and long passed caring, they were 7-7-4 without Kovalchuk. They're 9-7-2 without him this year. Why are the GF and GA so different with and without him? Especially the GA. They've given up 44 goals in 18 games without him, 66 in the 17 games with him this year. Why? That's more than a goal per game difference. Are they doing something different? Has the schedule been that much easier since Nov 9th?
 
Axl Rhoadz said:
This keeps being mentioned and I find it silly....what’s the Kings record with Kopitar and Doughty in the line up this year?

I guess at the rate we are going with Kovy out of the lineup, we are destined to be a playoff team by April.
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It's not the record with him in the lineup, it's the record without him.
 
It was a desperation signing in a season they thought the Kings were going to be competitive and ended up having one of their worst seasons ever. Once they committed to the rebuild, Kovalchuk didn't fit anywhere into the plans. He's not a mentor or team player. He's basically a mercenary and would have better luck on teams already pushing that wouldn't need him to fit into a system, just score some goals.
 
lol at the posters talking out of both sides of their mouths to slam Blake over this.

First, it was "can't believe we signed Kovy" and now "look at how it turned out, told you so"

while also believing

"poor Kovy didn't even get a fair shot"

It's a victimless crime. No assets were spent, no time was wasted, just another vet who held down a spot till a kid was ready. Whoopdedoo. Getting out the axe over this is laughable.
 
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Fishhead said:
It's not the record with him in the lineup, it's the record without him.
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The team seems to have come together a bit since the start of the year. Some of that could be the sitting of Kovy, some could be that they are starting to get comfortable with the new system.
 
There would still be 6 years left on his NJ contract hadvit not been terminated. Imagine that.

Iginla, Lecavalier, and now Kovy. Chalk up another 2000s all star that had a forgettable short stint with LA.
 
Kingspiracy said:
The team seems to have come together a bit since the start of the year. Some of that could be the sitting of Kovy, some could be that they are starting to get comfortable with the new system.
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Because everyone is playing the system?

With Kovalchuk:
Clifford, +1
Kopitar, 0
Brown, 0
Wagner, 0
Lizotte, -1
Iafallo, -3
Toffoli, -3
Lewis, -3
Carter, -6
Amadio, -6
Kempe, -7
Kovalchuk, -10

Without Kovalchuk:
Prokhorkin, +3
Amadio, +3
Kempe, +3
Luff, +3
Lewis, +2
Brown, +2
Clifford, +1
Kopitar, +1
Lizotte, +1
Iafallo, 0
Toffoli, 0
Wagner, -2
Carter, -3

Those numbers never tell an entire story, and you can say Kempe was playing out of position at C, but a lot of those minuses were playing with Kovalchuk at various times. Now there are fewer minuses. They've given up 13 fewer goals at 5v5 in 1 more game.

They've also given up 10 fewer PP goals, and Kovalchuk played 7 seconds of PK time, so not a factor there. 15 fewer minutes on the PK without him, 15 fewer times SH without him. Is that fewer turnovers by Kovalchuk, resulting in the team taking fewer penalties? That's probably a bit much to dump on one guy.

They're even 3% better on the PP without him, although they've had 13 fewer PP's. Not that 14% as opposed to 11% is good. 14% is still bottom 10 since Nov 9th.

I don't like shoving everything onto Kovalchuk, because the problems have been much bigger than Kovalchuk for years, but almost every stat seems to be better when he's not there. How complicated can the Kings new system be?
 
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Raccoon Jesus said:
lol at the posters talking out of both sides of their mouths to slam Blake over this.

First, it was "can't believe we signed Kovy" and now "look at how it turned out, told you so"

while also believing

"poor Kovy didn't even get a fair shot"

It's a victimless crime. No assets were spent, no time was wasted, just another vet who held down a spot till a kid was ready. Whoopdedoo. Getting out the axe over this is laughable.
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No, two years were lost due to the thinking that brought in Kovalchuk. He is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. It was two years of going for it instead of acknowledging the true state of the franchise. There are some unmovable veteran players on this roster that were a hell of a lot more attractive then, and had management correctly read the terrain when Blake got the job they would have stepped straight into the rebuild instead of wasting millions and productive prime years of other players they wanted to retain.

There absolutely was a cost here, just not one folks are wanting to notice. Its great that Blake eventually did make this change (thank baby jesus Pacioretty didn't accept 6 x 6), but its no reason to excuse his error. Plus, you think Anschutz is cool just throwing cash away?

Besides, with two strong centers likely debuting next year, its asinine to think that dead cap space isn't hurtful because this team needs help on the wings right away. Kaliyev is at least a full season away, Kupari and Thomas as well. You find the right fit in the UFA market, you buy now to help break those kids in with somebody to finish. They have a very good amount of space now, but nobody is going to say having the Kovalchuk and Phaneuf hits on top of that isn't welcome.

Excusing this as no harm no foul is the real joke. Its pretending that the here and now is the only aspect of the GM job, and it certainly isn't. It just isn't what most fans want to pay attention to.
 
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