Kings hire Pierre Turgeon as Offensive Coordinator

[KINGS17]

Yeah it would certainly be pretty awful for one of us if he put up a mere 76 point season huh?

You seem to enjoy assigning motives to me which don't exist.

Almost all of the time I post here, I post what I think will happen, not what I hope happens.

I hope Kopitar has a great season and leads the Kings to another cup. It's very enjoyable watching Kopitar play playoff hockey like he did in 2012 and the first two rounds of 2014.

Do I THINK he will? No.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I figured this discussion about Turgeon from Elliotte Friedman's column belongs here,
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-thoughts-summer-market-matt-duchene-still-open/

16. Intrigued by Los Angeles’s idea to hire Pierre Turgeon as an “offensive co-ordinator.” How is it going to work? Will he be on the bench during the game?

“We’re not exactly sure,” Kings coach John Stevens said. “We haven’t set that up yet, we’ll probably talk about it in a couple of weeks.”

Did he know Turgeon?

“Didn’t know him at all, but (President) Luc Robitaille and (GM) Rob Blake brought his name to me. We brought him in for a week at development camp, and it went very well. We went end-board to end-board, talked about everything. I can talk Xs-and-Os, but he can see the game in a way I never have. What are others doing, and how can we take advantage? On the power play, how can you help us with your knowledge of offensive situations?”

The Kings have done a lot of work with analytics this off-season, trying to figure out why a team that dominates possession has so much trouble scoring.

“There’s so much info, it can bog you down,” Stevens adds. “We want Pierre to look at it from an offensive perspective, see what’s really important (from that data). He has a knack for that stuff — he was a gifted player and a structured thinker. I don’t need every coach to be like me. (Assistants) Dave Lowry and Don Nachbaur are a little different, Pierre is very different. Because he has a son at this level, he is engaged with today’s player and the way they think.”

(Dominic Turgeon just finished his first pro season with AHL Grand Rapids.)

17. Stevens says there will be a difference in the way the Kings play.

“You bet, it’s not a secret. We have the puck a lot, our top guys take ownership that if they don’t have it they are working to get it back. But we don’t do enough in the middle of the ice, creating scoring chances or driving from there. It will be a huge focus on our hockey team. We need to grab the attention of our players to create offence in front of the net and inside the dots. We will challenge some players to be a bit uncomfortable in their games.”

18. Stevens added he feels good about bounceback years for Kopitar, Brown and Jake Muzzin.

“I saw some promise in (Brown’s) game at the end of last year. He may not necessarily be a 30-goal scorer again, but I am comfortable with what I think he can do.”

At this point, 20 goals from Brown would be a godsend. Gaborik should also be added in that "bounceback" group.

 

[SlimCharles]

 

[kingsfan28]

He was on NHL Tonight talking about his new role with the Kings. It relays all night so I'm sure you can catch it at some point.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

This article from Helene Elliott sheds more light on Turgeon's role as offensive coordinator,

http://www.latimes.com/sports/kings/la-sp-kings-turgeon-elliott-20170713-story.html

He plans to spend a lot of time analyzing video of opponents’ plays and tendencies, looking for the smallest crack or quirk the Kings can exploit. “There’s things you can teach, or make other players realize the time and space they have to create,” he said. “Or if [opponents] are very aggressive as far as the power play or penalty killing, bring ideas on where can you relieve the pressure by putting the puck in areas where you’re not going to have as much pressure, if that makes sense.”

He also plans to lead drills designed to refine players’ skills. “You can work on targets, or shooting quick release, or shooting and finishing on the left side or right side of your legs,” he said. “You repeat this in practice, you get in a game situation and you’re reacting to what you have in front of you without thinking about it.”

The NHL has changed since Turgeon was at his peak, now driven by smothering defenses and athletic goaltenders. He scored 58 goals and 132 points in the 1992-93 season but finished in a tie for fifth in goals and a tie for sixth in points. Only once in the last eight season has a player scored 60 goals — Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos had 60 in 2011-12— and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid won the scoring title this season with 100 points.

“It’s a different game as far as the neutral zone, as far as defensive play and the way they’re structured defensively. And everyone’s doing it,” Turgeon said. “If you want to score today, you’ve almost got to hit the post and go for that rebound on the right side or the left side and create traffic in front of the net.”

 

[USE Fi]

This article from Helene Elliott sheds more light on Turgeon's role as offensive coordinator,

http://www.latimes.com/sports/kings/la-sp-kings-turgeon-elliott-20170713-story.html

Was this posted?
https://www.nhl.com/video/nhl-tonight-pierre-turgeon/t-277350912/c-52423903

 

[Bandit]

Hire me as offensive coordinator, it's really not complicated:

"Go to the middle of the ice and shoot from there you *******."

Done.

 

[lumbergh]

Hire me as offensive coordinator, it's really not complicated:

"Go to the middle of the ice and shoot from there you *******."

Done.

Oh, it's a lot more complicated than that. This is a critical hire. The defensive systems are so structured now that it's hard to penetrate the middle of the ice. The Kings adopted a brute-force forecheck that resulted in lots of possession time and shots from the outside, but that only worked so long. It's great to bring a guy with the vision of Turgeon in to rethink the way the Kings work in the offensive zone.

In a way, it's like the way football evolved over the past two decades. In the eighties you saw some teams dominate the ground game and win with defense, but now you have to have the most innovative passing game to succeed. The most important members of an NFL team are now in a box 100 feet off the field. Likewise the emphasis on defense and goaltending in the NHL requires a innovative offensive mind to find gaps in the defense.

From what I remember of Turgeon, he was one of those playmakers who knew where everyone was on the ice. Read the game extremely well. If he can coach as well as he played, this could be a big moment in a pretty boring last two months.