Kings' Hiller: 'We should have won the series' after taking early lead

[bouncesonly]

hopefully he learns from that complete bedshitting of a challenge. as pissed off as i am about losing to the same shitbird team years in a row AND at hiller for the challenge, i really do believe he is a good coach

How do you hold a lead for the first 4 games, but then decide to do something completely batshit insane every 3rd period? Can you come back from that insanity and still be a good coach?

 

[bouncesonly]

lol:

 

[BaileyFan]

I’m sure it’s been brought up already but with this L, these guys have officially broken the franchise record for longest time between series wins (years not seasons). 11 years between ‘01-‘12 and it’s now 11 and counting since 2014.

Blake himself has had 8 years with no hope of a series victory in sight. I’m starting to believe that he really might retire to avoid the ignominy of single handedly setting the record outright.

 

[tigermask48]

lol:

It's like a clip straight from Shoresy!

 

[FSL KINGS]

Hiller has potential. In 4-5 years he'll probably be a decent coach. Love that he eventually had to play the kids. Edmundson racking up 36 minutes wasn't sustainable. Who knew? Next season maybe we should play the kids & let them make mistakes in the regular season so they're more ready for the playoffs? Nah, play guys like Burroughs 33 games instead of giving someone a shot.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Hiller has potential. In 4-5 years he'll probably be a decent coach. Love that he eventually had to play the kids. Edmundson racking up 36 minutes wasn't sustainable. Who knew? Next season maybe we should play the kids & let them make mistakes in the regular season so they're more ready for the playoffs? Nah, play guys like Burroughs 33 games instead of giving someone a shot.

Only way Hiller is gone is if they completely clean house….ain’t happening. f***, how many coaches you want on the payroll?? Does TM still get paid or does that cancel out once he takes another job?

 

[theMajor]

How do you hold a lead for the first 4 games, but then decide to do something completely batshit insane every 3rd period? Can you come back from that insanity and still be a good coach?

its his first playoffs as a head coach. coaches learn and grow just like players do, right? im sure not every hall of fame coach was perfect early in their career. idk, i'm probably giving him too much credit

 

[FSL KINGS]

Only way Hiller is gone is if they completely clean house….ain’t happening. f***, how many coaches you want on the payroll?? Does TM still get paid or does that cancel out once he takes another job?

I want one decent coach on the payroll. Blake doesn't seem to be able to identify a coach that will fit his vision, which isn't surprising. System is in a state of flux. Can't identify which players fit the current system. Why would Blake be able to identify a coach for the system?

Hiller has had warning signs since he took over as head coach. Now we've seen those carried into the playoffs & we've seen the results. Maybe he can learn from those mistakes next season. Rather just get a coach that doesn't make dumb, rookie mistakes like going 9/4 roster in a 7 game serries.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

I want one decent coach on the payroll. Blake doesn't seem to be able to identify a coach that will fit his vision, which isn't surprising. System is in a state of flux. Can't identify which players fit the current system. Why would Blake be able to identify a coach for the system?

Hiller has had warning signs since he took over as head coach. Now we've seen those carried into the playoffs & we've seen the results. Maybe he can learn from those mistakes next season. Rather just get a coach that doesn't make dumb, rookie mistakes like going 9/4 roster in a 7 game serries.

Just out of curiosity, what ‘warning signs’ are you speaking of?

 

[kingsfan28]

I want one decent coach on the payroll. Blake doesn't seem to be able to identify a coach that will fit his vision, which isn't surprising. System is in a state of flux. Can't identify which players fit the current system. Why would Blake be able to identify a coach for the system?

Hiller has had warning signs since he took over as head coach. Now we've seen those carried into the playoffs & we've seen the results. Maybe he can learn from those mistakes next season. Rather just get a coach that doesn't make dumb, rookie mistakes like going 9/4 roster in a 7 game serries.

It wasn't just that, it was putting Lewis in taking Turcs spot because he was on the ice when the Oilers scored in game two. He changed the line up only to give Lewis 2 or 3 min in games 3/4 and even put him on the top line late in the game. it did nothing but back fire .There was no 4th line , while the Oilers kept rolling all four and wore our guys down. That is more than a rookie mistake, it was not trusting a 4th line which was good all year. Then look at the results in game 6, Turc drew a penalty which gave us a 1-0 lead, and the 4th line stood out and help bring the game back to 5-3. This series was ours to win, and by the coaches hand, we lost. Let him go find somewhere else to learn!

 

[bouncesonly]

Hiller was on the bench for all 4 playoff losses. What more does he need to learn about what works and doesn't work against the Oilers? How many more losses does this guy need before he learns or before someone realizes he isn't gonna learn shit?

 

[johnjm22]

If the Oiler's fanbase notices it, that's probably a sign you're doing something wrong.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Just out of curiosity, what ‘warning signs’ are you speaking of?

Sure I'll forget some. Off the top of my head.

Taking over for Todd & not changing the lineup from the guy that got fired.

Not making adjustments until it was too late in the playoffs.

Last season
11/7, running a short bench for much of the season

Not playing the kids, when it turned out he was forced to in the playoffs

Burroughs got 33 games of garbage hockey instead of that time going to a player that might have a future in the NHL

Bad challenges throughout the season

3rd to last game against Oilers, played gutless, turtle hockey like it was going to work against the Oilers. Some thought it was amazing playoff hockey. It was never going to be successful.

Hiller not focusing on physical play despite Blake's "getting tougher"

Last 2 games against the Oilers, regular season, when Hiller put his best players out to get run while the Oilers rested their. Home ice though!!!!

Hiller is so far off from what it takes to be successful in the playoffs it's not worth waiting for him to figure it out. The Oilers became more rested as the serries wore on. Crazy.

Low probability Hiller gets canned. That's exactly what is expect from a team that hasn't won a playoff round in a decade.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Sure I'll forget some. Off the top of my head.

Taking over for Todd & not changing the lineup from the guy that got fired.

Not making adjustments until it was too late in the playoffs.

Last season
11/7, running a short bench for much of the season

Not playing the kids, when it turned out he was forced to in the playoffs

Burroughs got 33 games of garbage hockey instead of that time going to a player that might have a future in the NHL

Bad challenges throughout the season

3rd to last game against Oilers, played gutless, turtle hockey like it was going to work against the Oilers. Some thought it was amazing playoff hockey. It was never going to be successful.

Hiller not focusing on physical play despite Blake's "getting tougher"

Last 2 games against the Oilers, regular season, when Hiller put his best players out to get run while the Oilers rested their. Home ice though!!!!

Hiller is so far off from what it takes to be successful in the playoffs it's not worth waiting for him to figure it out. The Oilers became more rested as the serries wore on. Crazy.

Low probability Hiller gets canned. That's exactly what is expect from a team that hasn't won a playoff round in a decade.

wow, that's some horrible shit - how the hell did he squeeze 105-points out of that??

 

[Telos]

I don't hate Hiller, he probably is the most likeable coach the Kings have had, but that also is possibly a con all on its own. I sort of like that he is forthright with his opinions and blunt about his assessments. He has convictions about his decisions, argues them well, and makes some good decisions that does deserve some credit for getting home ice advantage in the regular season.

However, in the end, he just makes very questionable decisions in the most clutch situations and dangerously mismanages his bench. His reliance on vets while double-shifting them endlessly until they can't even move anymore and then hiding his roster depth, which was one of the team's biggest strengths heading into the postseason, is mind-boggling. He's not the worst coach the Kings have ever had, and while I was against his hiring he did do some things and performed a little better than I had expected in the regular season while somehow being worse than I thought he could be in the postseason.

Unfortunately, he's gotta go with BLuc and the house needs to be completely cleaned. Fans have no say, so they aren't going to green light another rebuild, but they had to at least consider a heavy retooling. Kopitar needs to be on the third line with limited to no special teams, and Drew has to be on the 2nd pairing or less with maybe 2nd unit special teams capacity with restricted minutes. Byfield and Clarke need to be given a long leash and they gotta make some tough choices about their vets and possibly move some for younger players/assets.

 

[Martyros]

I think it's 95% Luc, 5% Blake. As much hate as we may have for Rob, he doesn't deserve it for THIS reason. I highly doubt anyone in the organization called for Hiller to make 4/5 challenges that were f***ing stupid. That wasn't his first hair-pulling challenge of the year.

 

[Martyros]

It's not even that he refused to put the 4th line out there, It's so much more frustrating that there was trust in that group all throughout the season, and yet come playoff time all of that was taken away.

 

[BigKing]

its his first playoffs as a head coach. coaches learn and grow just like players do, right? im sure not every hall of fame coach was perfect early in their career. idk, i'm probably giving him too much credit

He was at the helm of last year's gentlemen's sweep

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

He was at the helm of last year's gentlemen's sweep

Lots of blame to dish, but at some point you guys are gonna have to give EDM some credit. Last year we got out-classed by a team that went to game 7 of the SCF.

 

[Herby]

It's not even that he refused to put the 4th line out there, It's so much more frustrating that there was trust in that group all throughout the season, and yet come playoff time all of that was taken away.

It came from above, it had to have, think about it, put yourself in Luc and Blake's (clown) shoes.

You really think that the Kings management team, knowing that a loss could very easily result in them losing their own jobs, just let their HC decide on his own to go with nine-forwards and four-defenseman, in a way that no one has ever seen an NHL team do before in the playoffs? AND allowed it to happen for five straight games?

Blake and Robitaille very clearly got spooked about less experienced players dropping the ball and directed Hiller to lean more on the veterans. The same Blake and Robitaille who have their cronies go on state-podcasts and tell us how great their strategy for developing young players is. That strategy ofcourse leading to younger players having less NHL games than they'd have in any other organization, resulting in them (in their eyes) being less ready to play in the playoffs.

It's a total circus, and the longer AEG allows it to happen the longer the cleanup is going to take to recover from it.

 

[Sol]

wow, that's some horrible shit - how the hell did he squeeze 105-points out of that??

The mask is back on huh? It was nice to see your honest takes. Now you’re in damage control mode again lol

 

[All The Kings Men]

It came from above, it had to have, think about it, put yourself in Luc and Blake's (clown) shoes.

 

[Herby]

Sorry Jesse, and I know you hate when I bring it up, but we have had multiple members of this organization tell blatant lies before to the media, so Blake saying "everything is up to Jimmy" doesn't really hold a lot of water. These are the people who brought us, "We have always been a slow-cook team" , "He was a 5/6 year project", "Only the McDavids of the world can jump right to the NHL", "We projected him as more a 3C" and "We were right there"

I still have an extremely difficult time believing that Blake and Robitaille just sat back and did nothing as their HC in his first full-season proceed to use the most bizarre and unorthodox ice-time distribution that anybody has ever seen in the Stanley Cup playoffs. We are talking about Jim Hiller here, not Scotty Bowman, Bill Belichick or Phil Jackson.

 

[All The Kings Men]

Blake saying "everything is up to Jimmy"

That was definitely not the point I was trying to make.

 

[Faterson]

That was definitely not the point I was trying to make.

So what was it?