Kings fire John Stevens, assistant Don Nachbaur; Desjardins hired as interim

[Leafs87]

Making an assistant a head coach never works. Players always view him as an assistant

 

[stampedingviking]

wasn't Stevens this next great up and coming coach in the NHL that the Kings protected when teams were asking for him?

Was he the guy Linden was looking at before we signed Willie D?

He was a guy lots of Canucks posters wanted.

 

[Sheppy]

Happy for Marco Sturm. Always liked that guy, and I think he could be a fantastic coach going forward.

 

[KingPuckChoo]

Willy D really? Guy was a disaster here and had no tactical knowledge.

Willie Desjardins wasn't the only disaster in Vancouver, but if he can't get this group going, then i'll agree with you too

 

[Machinehead]

Sutter may have reached his time, but this was not a good replacement.

 

[Machinehead]

Even though they beat us in the Finals, I wouldn't wish AV on LA.

I'm waiting for AV to coach the Devils.

 

[King'sPawn]

Sutter may have reached his time, but this was not a good replacement.

I always insisted it was Sutter's time to go, as he had a shelf life, but Stevens was not the right answer long term. I hoped the Kings would have pursued Gallant

 

[Riptide]

You don't rebuild when your #1 c and d are in their prime and two of the top 10 players in the league.

The Kings roster is better than what we have seen so far and has underachieved a bit.

It doesn't help though that they haven't added a single high end young talent to the roster in over 5 years.

I was thinking the exact same thing reading that post. Like you just signed DD to an 8 yr extension. He would be pissed if LA decided that they were going to rebuild around him for the next 3-5 years - which is the duration of their 1Cs contract.

 

[kingsfan28]

haha, wait until you see the 4th line is taking the offensive zone face off when the team is down by a goal with 30 sec left

Sutter would send out King , Nolan and Lewis out there all the time in this exact situation. 2 of the 3 aren't in the NHL anymore.

 

[tony d]

Really think the Kings are headed for a few long seasons. Desjardins is good in the interim but long-term they need a better option than him.

 

[elvisisalive]

Making an assistant a head coach never works. Players always view him as an assistant

do you mean on the same team, or hired by another team? Turk Gallant was an assistant in Montreal, and he worked out ok

 

[Leafs87]

do you mean on the same team, or hired by another team? Turk Gallant was an assistant in Montreal, and he worked out ok

On the same team

 

[Osprey]

do you mean on the same team, or hired by another team? Turk Gallant was an assistant in Montreal, and he worked out ok

He means on the same team (i.e. promoting from within). It was easy to predict that Stevens wouldn't last. Much was made about how Sutter's message got old after 5 years and how the team needed a new one, yet Blake's solution was to promote a voice that the team had been hearing for even longer than that (Stevens joined the team as an assistant in 2010, a year and a half before Sutter was hired). It was a bad rookie mistake, but at least Blake recognized and corrected it relatively quickly. Others might've stood by it longer, patiently waiting for results that would vindicate them.

 

[GordieHowsUrBreath]

so they made another coach the scapegoat

maybe the players just overachieved those cup years...

 

[Choralone]

so they made another coach the scapegoat

maybe the players just overachieved those cup years...

Sutter lasted 5 1/2 seasons in LA, slightly longer than his stint with the Sharks. which is an eternity in coach years - especially with Sutter's style. I don't think you can hang the "coach killer" tag on the Kings.

 

[Osprey]

Canucks fans weren't kidding when they said that Desjardins would roll 4 lines and give some of the top players' ice time to bottom players. Kopitar, Brown and Carter all played 2.5 minutes less last night than on Saturday while Thompson and Lewis played 4 minutes more.