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Kings Article: Kings Don’t Need Speed, They Need Better Players

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ScoreZeGoals said:
They need both
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THey do need both, and speed and skill does win. But Lombardi has to recognize that his big heavy game is effective in the playoffs, but not in a grinding 82 game season, not when they have to play teams with speed. The game has changed, he needs to evolve.
He could have chosen that path over the summer, decided not to. And I don't think that will change, despite the evidence otherwise.


For what it's worth, TFP says the Kings are looking around the NHL For some outside scoring help...

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/los161102.html
 
I've heard that if AK focused on goal scoring he could score upwards of 90 points. As long as we are not getting scoring from anyone else I say lets see if we set the moose loose we can strike some fear into opponents. Maybe he can't change gears like that but we oughta give it a try. The team looks tight, tighter, too tight. Loosen up and keep on truckin. We can't play the defensive game and wait for our chance to win when right now we don't have the shutdown Kings. Set loose the dogs .
 
"Kings Don't Need Speed. They Need Better Players.." --> Or they need to just rebuild.

Kopitar, Quick, Carter all have their value still retained, which is probably used better in trade than squeezing into the playoffs (hopefully). Moving the right pieces now can probably speed up the rebuild quite a bit. Plan for 3 years.. Doughty will still be in his prime, Brown can be bought out and Gaborik will likely retire, etc..

Don't want to wait like we did w/ Richards and set ourselves back another 5-10 years.
 
I Am Ziggy Palffy said:
"Kings Don't Need Speed. They Need Better Players.." --> Or they need to just rebuild.

Kopitar, Quick, Carter all have their value still retained, which is probably used better in trade than squeezing into the playoffs (hopefully). Moving the right pieces now can probably speed up the rebuild quite a bit. Plan for 3 years.. Doughty will still be in his prime, Brown can be bought out and Gaborik will likely retire, etc..

Don't want to wait like we did w/ Richards and set ourselves back another 5-10 years.
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unless we are getting a 1c, 2c and goalie through the trades, I can't see how we would be competitive in 3 years. Draft picks will take 3-5 years to mature alone. If we tank lets do it lakers style!!! Realistically it would be another 5-6 year process.
 
guzmania said:
I've heard that if AK focused on goal scoring he could score upwards of 90 points. As long as we are not getting scoring from anyone else I say lets see if we set the moose loose we can strike some fear into opponents. Maybe he can't change gears like that but we oughta give it a try. The team looks tight, tighter, too tight. Loosen up and keep on truckin. We can't play the defensive game and wait for our chance to win when right now we don't have the shutdown Kings. Set loose the dogs.
Click to expand...

Honestly I think this is the problem. Talk of a rebuild is laughably premature. Re-tool, maybe. The team is playing tight because they have Peter Fricking Budaj as their ace goaltender right now. They're gripping sticks.
 
A full rebuild will be tough. We will essentially be giving away Kopitar at his prime at a chance of drafting a player that will be Kopitar 5 years from now. Doesn't make sense. The way I see it, the Kings should keep Kopitar, Toffoli, Pearson, Doughty, Muzzin and Martinez and be open to trading anyone else for picks/prospects or package valueable players such as Carter or Quick with cap dumps (e.g., Gaborik, Clifford, Green). No one will ever take Brown, so we are stuck with him unfortunately.

This will leave roster spots open, which we can fill with either the youth from Ontario or veteran players on 1-year contracts such as Setoguichi and Purcell. Once the young players development, and with the available cap space, we can make a splash in the free agent market 3 years from now and fill the necessary holes to be competitive.

Edit: With respect to Quick, we should not trade him this season because of his injury. Hopefully he comes back playing well so that we can trade him to a team looking to make a cup run next year. We can draft and develop a goaltender to replace him, like we did with Jones.
 
The Sekera, and especially the Lucic trades were the "all in" moves to push for one more Cup. Both of them failed badly. More tweaking by adding a piece or two won't solve the greater team issues now. To put off the inevitable rebuild (and for what.. another 8th seed, 1st rd exit?) is bound to come back to bite us.

Kopitar and Quick are still in their prime, which is why their peak value is still in tact.. Holding off for 1 more season is probably fine, but with each passing season, players age, values decrease, and the rebuild is probably prolonged.
 
All Kings need to do is get rid of Brown and King and call up Mersch and Kempe and it totally changes the look of the team.

Kempe-Kopitar-Toffoli
Pearson-Carter-Seto
Mersch-Dowd-Andreoff
Clifford-Shore-Lewis

Extras: Nolan
 
deeshamrock said:
THey do need both, and speed and skill does win. But Lombardi has to recognize that his big heavy game is effective in the playoffs, but not in a grinding 82 game season, not when they have to play teams with speed. The game has changed, he needs to evolve.
He could have chosen that path over the summer, decided not to. And I don't think that will change, despite the evidence otherwise.


For what it's worth, TFP says the Kings are looking around the NHL For some outside scoring help...

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/los161102.html
Click to expand...

What the hell could the Kings possible trade for scoring help?
 
I think what we need most is some youth and prospects in the lineup not because they bring speed and skill into the lineup , but because they bring hunger for the Cup and to make the playoffs. Our players dont have that hunger anymore . They won 2 cups . Its over they feel comfortable where they are. They were outperformed in the pre season and still won roster spots. We need some youth injection
 
Johnny Utah said:
All Kings need to do is get rid of Brown and King and call up Mersch and Kempe and it totally changes the look of the team.

Kempe-Kopitar-Toffoli
Pearson-Carter-Seto
Mersch-Dowd-Andreoff
Clifford-Shore-Lewis

Extras: Nolan
Click to expand...

Why do people keep penciling Kempe into top line LW? There's absolutely nothing to indicate he's ready for that kind of position right now.
 
Kingsfan1 said:
I think what we need most is some youth and prospects in the lineup not because they bring speed and skill into the lineup , but because they bring hunger for the Cup and to make the playoffs. Our players dont have that hunger anymore . They won 2 cups . Its over they feel comfortable where they are. They were outperformed in the pre season and still won roster spots. We need some youth injection
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Absolutely wrong.

I want youth in the lineup as much as anyone else but no one (except maybe Gravel because of waiver issues) got wronged based on preseason performance.

I don't disagree with your overall conclusion but the premise is totally flawed because it echoes that "DL/Sutter don't want to play the youth!" meme that has been proven wrong time and time again.
 
Who needs better players when you have Trevor Lewis and Kyle Clifford to save the day?
 
Basilisk said:
They need their players to PLAY BETTER.....
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100% correct.

The Bottom six, once again is not even an issue. Kopitar/Carter/Pearson/Toffoli are not carrying the top six, is the current issue.

10 Periods of scoreless hockey, and Trevor Lewis(and now Matt Greene) has your lone goals out of that ?

Yes, it's all those 1.5m-690k, 9-12 minute a night player's fault....

Ugh NO!
 
Last edited:
damacles1156 said:
The bottom six basically dragged the Kings out of that 10 period rut.

Imagine that.
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I posted shooting %s in the other thread.

Basically all our top forwards are shooting less than half their normal career %s.

Even if they all had a career worst year by a couple of percent, we'd still expect them to rubberband hard pretty soon.

Puck was getting slung around quickly last night and made us look uber fast, funny what getting players with movement and IQ in the lineup can do!
 
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