GDT: Kings Training Camp 2022/2023!

[kinghock]

Mikey Anderson and Sean Durzi should be paired together. Durzi is completely lost defensively and needs a guy like Mikey to stabilize the defensive zone. Really the definition of a power play specialist. Mikey can't develop a complete game in Drew's shadow. He's not assertive. He could be a better player on the third pairing.

I do not believe Mikey Anderson is good enough to carry Durzi defensively.
This pairing will be disaster in my opinion.

 

[lumbergh]

I do not believe Mikey Anderson is good enough to carry Durzi defensively.
This pairing will be disaster in my opinion.

Nobody is good enough defensively to carry Durzi. You can only hope that his contributions on the offensive side are enough to outweigh his defensive problems. I mean, I would even think about dressing 7 defensemen and throwing Durzi out there just for special teams.

 

[Fishhead]

I do not believe Mikey Anderson is good enough to carry Durzi defensively.
This pairing will be disaster in my opinion.

Yeah, it's a completely different type of play. With Doughty, Anderson can take some liberties to play physically without worrying about being too far out of position.

There is no way the top pairing is broken up right now anyway, it's proven and it works.

 

[Fishhead]

Nobody is good enough defensively to carry Durzi. You can only hope that his contributions on the offensive side are enough to outweigh his defensive problems. I mean, I would even think about dressing 7 defensemen and throwing Durzi out there just for special teams.

I absolutely would think about dressing 7 and doing that. If Clarke stays up though, there will be no need. It's why I think Durzi will be one of the ones being moved - between Doughty, Clarke, and eventually Spence there won't be as much need for a purely offensive type. I love Durzi's drive and moxie, but as the team (hopefully) starts molding into a contender his play isn't going to cut it.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I absolutely would think about dressing 7 and doing that. If Clarke stays up though, there will be no need. It's why I think Durzi will be one of the ones being moved - between Doughty, Clarke, and eventually Spence there won't be as much need for a purely offensive type. I love Durzi's drive and moxie, but as the team (hopefully) starts molding into a contender his play isn't going to cut it.

Honestly for the time being at least having the option of having Durzi, Clarke, Doughty out there when you need a goal in the last minute is pretty awesome.

One of the most valuable things Durzi brings is the balls to shine in the last minute or so. I'm tempted to say Durzi/Clarke over Drew, even.

But I do agree that Clarke especially makes Durzi expendable in short order especially since they don't want to use more than 1 dman on the power play. I'd just be wary of relatively rushing SPence when he's still served well getting huge minutes.

I appreciate Blake's patience on this because the forum-at-large (not you) has been trying super hard to purge our RHD depth immediately when it's great to have assets ready for a deadline move or address in-season deficiencies.

 

[lumbergh]

I absolutely would think about dressing 7 and doing that. If Clarke stays up though, there will be no need. It's why I think Durzi will be one of the ones being moved - between Doughty, Clarke, and eventually Spence there won't be as much need for a purely offensive type. I love Durzi's drive and moxie, but as the team (hopefully) starts molding into a contender his play isn't going to cut it.

Here are some crazy numbers for Durzi last season.

Even strength: -12
Power play: +14
Penalty kill: +1

Somehow the Kings outscored their opponents while killing penalties with Durzi on the ice. What a weird player. Fun as hell, but a two edge sword.

 

[Lt Dan]

Here are some crazy numbers for Durzi last season.

Even strength: -12
Power play: +14
Penalty kill: +1

Somehow the Kings outscored their opponents while killing penalties with Durzi on the ice. What a weird player. Fun as hell, but a two edge sword.

So take as many penalties as possible and have Durzi out for the full 2, 4 or 5 mins!!!

 

[Fishhead]

So take as many penalties as possible and have Durzi out for the full 2, 4 or 5 mins!!!

82-0. Speical teams only.

 

[FSL KINGS]

You guys are being a bit hard on Durzi. Not his fault Cal can't stop a beach ball right now.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Remember when Lombardi dug up the corpse of Sean Burke and the first time he played the puck behind the net he fell down?

We’ve been so blessed to have Quick stabilize this position for as long as he has.

 

[King'sPawn]

You guys are being a bit hard on Durzi. Not his fault Cal can't stop a beach ball right now.

And it's not Cal's fault the team is defensively shorthanded when Durzi is on the ice.

He was literally straddling the goal line with no Vegas player within 10 feet when the second goal was scored.

Remember when Lombardi dug up the corpse of Sean Burke and the first time he played the puck behind the net he fell down?

We’ve been so blessed to have Quick stabilize this position for as long as he has.

Didn't he also get dehydrated his first shift, too?

 

[FSL KINGS]

And it's not Cal's fault the team is defensively shorthanded when Durzi is on the ice.

He was literally straddling the goal line with no Vegas player within 10 feet when the second goal was scored.


Didn't he also get dehydrated his first shift, too?

Looks like we got ourselves a chicken & the egg situation.

 

[bland]

Nobody is good enough defensively to carry Durzi. You can only hope that his contributions on the offensive side are enough to outweigh his defensive problems. I mean, I would even think about dressing 7 defensemen and throwing Durzi out there just for special teams.

Not every player has to be safe or robotically enslaved to detail. Lord knows it took me a month or two to really appreciate Durzi, because every single shift he does something, usually something-s, cringe worthy.

He may very well be the worst defensive player I have ever seen, but despite our desire and need to break down every goal against to assign "blame", the point really isn't whether or not he is culpable. The Kings are a better team with him, despite having 7 or 8 defensemen who are individually "better" than him.

 

[Trash Panda]

Not every player has to be safe or robotically enslaved to detail. Lord knows it took me a month or two to really appreciate Durzi, because every single shift he does something, usually something-s, cringe worthy.

He may very well be the worst defensive player I have ever seen, but despite our desire and need to break down every goal against to assign "blame", the point really isn't whether or not he is culpable. The Kings are a better team with him, despite having 7 or 8 defensemen who are individually "better" than him.

The ole “culture” and “intangibles” argument that lots of people like to shit all over.

Thankfully, hockey isn’t a purely numbers driven game. There is a lot to be gleaned from a player who has “it” and can be infectious.

 

[psych3man]

So are you saying Clarke won't stick either, he did the same exact thing...

This is your worst post ever.
It is also classic GBH.
It is unnecessarily snarky; you posted this just to be an arrogant, "I gotcha" a-hole.
It ignores what was a valid, easy to read inference...that the player in question (Kupari) is being too passive offensively.
It makes a completely illogical, false comparison between two completely different players in very different career situations...incredibly stupid for someone who prides himself in being the smartest guy in the room.

Please quit this type of posting for 2022-23.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Kings don't have a Willie Mitchell, Matt Greene or Scuderi anymore.

Anderson seems like he could turn into a better version of Scuderi, but still very young and small. Scuderi actually had a bit of balls and would occasionally step up and stick someone or get in someones face. Greene and Mitchell could hit and played mean games. Same with RR.

Edler is the closest thing and he's late 30's.

Joel Edmundson would be a perfect fit here.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

This is your worst post ever.
It is also classic GBH.
It is unnecessarily snarky; you posted this just to be an arrogant, "I gotcha" a-hole.
It ignores what was a valid, easy to read inference...that the player in question (Kupari) is being too passive offensively.
It makes a completely illogical, false comparison between two completely different players in very different career situations...incredibly stupid for someone who prides himself in being the smartest guy in the room.

Please quit this type of posting for 2022-23.

So....Clarke DIDN'T DO THE SAME f***ING THING?

Just asking.....because it's relatively f***ing stupid, to see two players do the same thing, and criticize one for it, and not the other.....

 

[Mats26]

WTF. Durzi's first game since last year, gets 3 pts and people are bitching about him. Get him a quality stay home vet as his D partner for 5-5 play and add him to PP1, he can put up 50pts without costing us too many games. Kids is still adapting and learning. He needs a Scuderi type though to offset his defensive lapses.

I have no worries rolling with Doughty- Durzi- Clarke as our RD if we get Size\Mobility\Grit on LD.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

WTF. Durzi's first game since last year, gets 3 pts and people are bitching about him. Get him a quality stay home vet as his D partner for 5-5 play and add him to PP1, he can put up 50pts without costing us too many games. Kids is still adapting and learning. He needs a Scuderi type though to offset his defensive lapses.

I have no worries rolling with Doughty- Durzi- Clarke as our RD if we get Size\Mobility\Grit on LD.

We win 6-4....and no one says boo about it......

 

[Fishhead]

Not every player has to be safe or robotically enslaved to detail. Lord knows it took me a month or two to really appreciate Durzi, because every single shift he does something, usually something-s, cringe worthy.

He may very well be the worst defensive player I have ever seen, but despite our desire and need to break down every goal against to assign "blame", the point really isn't whether or not he is culpable. The Kings are a better team with him, despite having 7 or 8 defensemen who are individually "better" than him.

Last year the Kings were a better team with him, but only marginally. This year, that remains to be seen. Do you think the Kings are better with Clarke or Durzi in the lineup? Because Doughty and Roy aren't going anywhere on the right side this year. Is Durzi good enough to justify playing someone out of position for? That's a tough question.

And really, I don't think it matters if the Kings are better with Durzi. I think it's far more important to figure out if the team can take the next step and contend with Durzi in the lineup. It's not so black and white, things rarely are.

 

[lumbergh]

Not every player has to be safe or robotically enslaved to detail. Lord knows it took me a month or two to really appreciate Durzi, because every single shift he does something, usually something-s, cringe worthy.

He may very well be the worst defensive player I have ever seen, but despite our desire and need to break down every goal against to assign "blame", the point really isn't whether or not he is culpable. The Kings are a better team with him, despite having 7 or 8 defensemen who are individually "better" than him.

Spot on. Despite being defensively a complete dumpster fire, he managed to be on the ice for more goals for than against because of his special teams play. On the whole he did well, but there's no getting around his poor defensive play. Like I said in another post, it's really a matter of whether his offensive capabilities can balance out his defensive problems.

To me he is the anti-Nick Shore. He makes things happen. Lots of good things on one end of the ice, lots of bad things on the other end.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Kings don't have a Willie Mitchell, Matt Greene or Scuderi anymore.

Anderson seems like he could turn into a better version of Scuderi, but still very young and small. Scuderi actually had a bit of balls and would occasionally step up and stick someone or get in someones face. Greene and Mitchell could hit and played mean games. Same with RR.

Edler is the closest thing and he's late 30's.

Joel Edmundson would be a perfect fit here.

And Scuderi didn't play his first full NHL-only season until he was just about 28 years old.

 

[Fishhead]

WTF. Durzi's first game since last year, gets 3 pts and people are bitching about him. Get him a quality stay home vet as his D partner for 5-5 play and add him to PP1, he can put up 50pts without costing us too many games. Kids is still adapting and learning. He needs a Scuderi type though to offset his defensive lapses.

I have no worries rolling with Doughty- Durzi- Clarke as our RD if we get Size\Mobility\Grit on LD.

If he could put up 50 points, I doubt anyone would complain. He's an offensive player but he's not the equivalent of Seider, DeAngelo, Dahlin, Jones, Hanifin, etc.

He's a mid-30's type of guy, he doesn't have that kind of ceiling. And he and Bjornfot last year hemorrhaged dangerous chances, and that's against the worst competition. His offense offsets a lot of it, but it's not really enough.

Yeah, he had 3 points last night. But he was also on the ice for 4 of the 5 ES goals against. It's just not a winning formula. And it's not really bitching about Durzi, I love watching him and his swagger. it's just the reality that the team will outgrow players like that as they progress.

 

[Herby]

Not every player has to be safe or robotically enslaved to detail. Lord knows it took me a month or two to really appreciate Durzi, because every single shift he does something, usually something-s, cringe worthy.

He may very well be the worst defensive player I have ever seen, but despite our desire and need to break down every goal against to assign "blame", the point really isn't whether or not he is culpable. The Kings are a better team with him, despite having 7 or 8 defensemen who are individually "better" than him.

Well this was the forum where anytime that the best defenseman of the 2010’s would make a defensive mistake it would be magnified and followed by comments like

“I don’t care how many points he scores, I wouldn’t want him on my team”

“A defenseman’s only job is to play defense”

This was as that defenseman was carrying a garbage roster to within one goal of the SCF.

So not sure why you would expect Durzi to appreciated. But I agree, he added a lot to this team last year and was without question a positive asset that greatly helped the team get to the playoffs following the loss of Doughty.

The job of any player on a team is to help that team win as many games as possible, and it doesn’t have to be only one way.

But we had a dozen seasons of get it in deep and chip it out of the glass being glorified, so it’s kind of hardwired in some thinking.

 

[kings11]

Spot on. Despite being defensively a complete dumpster fire, he managed to be on the ice for more goals for than against because of his special teams play. On the whole he did well, but there's no getting around his poor defensive play. Like I said in another post, it's really a matter of whether his offensive capabilities can balance out his defensive problems.

To me he is the anti-Nick Shore. He makes things happen. Lots of good things on one end of the ice, lots of bad things on the other end.

Its fine right now but the greater problem is that Clarke is a few notches above Durzi at 19YO and Spence is nipping at his heels with just as much offense but much better defense.
Seeing how good Clarke is right now and his seamless transition to his off side(preseason I know) when TMac moved him over tells me he thinks he can pair him with Roy and round out the top 4.
How do you think Durzi plays on the bottom pairing with Edler as his partner? Because that’s where he’s going to play. As much brass as he showed last season the fact remains that he’s a defense liability we don’t have the talent to offset.
Then there’s the Walker dilemma…
I’m looking at our D corps being this for the season opener
Anderson - Doughty
Clarke - Roy
Edler - Durzi
Moverare
Walker possibly being waived knowing he won’t get claimed to let him get games in Ontario and work himself back to the NHL