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LA hasn't won a playoff series in 8 years, hasn't changed their #1C, D or G

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bland

bland

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Jul 1, 2004
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The LA Kings haven't won a playoff series in 8 seasons, having gone 0-3 without qualifying 5 times and hasn't changed a piece of their core. Brown's retirement created the first real change to their leadership group in that timeframe.

Partly the devil of longterm contracts, partly a long held belief in those players, and partly hubris from a management group that hasn't considered any of the seasons as last chances even though they have had 4 different coaches in that poor span.

To the best of your memory, has your favorite team ever gone an unsuccessful period of time that long without ever shaking up the core of their team?
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In what universe is the Kings' problem Kopitar and/or Doughty? Quick is a goalie so who cares, but there is nothing wrong with their #1 C or #1 D. Give them some help.

It's that line of thinking that had people itching to run Yzerman out of town in the mid 90s.
 
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sparr0w said:
In what universe is the Kings' problem Kopitar and/or Doughty? Quick is a goalie so who cares, but there is nothing wrong with their #1 C or #1 D. Give them some help.

It's that line of thinking that had people itching to run Yzerman out of town in the mid 90s.
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The Dead Wings always include Yzerman, don't they? Even now he leads them to bottom 5 finishes. :sarcasm:

But putting humor aside, your point is quite valid. The Kings used to be an exceptionally deep team, and now they're not. Their core got old and paid, and the rest of the team moved on or retired and were replaced by cheaper options.
If you want to win Cups, win them before you have to pay your core. Don't pay for a core and then expect to win. You might get lucky one year doing it that way, but teams that can ice world class talent at low cap hits have a huge advantage that doesn't depend (entirely) on luck.
 
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sparr0w said:
In what universe is the Kings' problem Kopitar and/or Doughty? Quick is a goalie so who cares, but there is nothing wrong with their #1 C or #1 D. Give them some help.

It's that line of thinking that had people itching to run Yzerman out of town in the mid 90s.
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Stagnation is a very real thing.

They aren't necessarily a problem individually, but they have gone 8 years without any kind of success and are still in the same roles. Kopitar has faded from an arguably top 10 center to a top 25 or so. Doughty still has plenty of rubber on the tires. 8 seasons is an eternity in sports, a very, very long time to keep the same formula in place without results.

The question is how long has your team gone on unsuccessfully without making changes to the core pieces of its lineup?
 
BlueBaron said:
Wasn't Doughty out last playoffs?

Is the OP aware they had a rebuild?
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Are you aware that Kings management had no intention of rebuilding and has simply cleared out space to fill out the middle of their lineup with veteran players while the kids fight it out for spot roles? Multiple first round picks sat out the money games in both the NHL and AHL playoffs while veteran players lost two winnable series. Top 5 picks don't get PP time in the AHL, multiple first rounders are looking at hitting the waiver wire without ever getting a real chance at feeling their way into the league while faded vets continue to lose at the pro level.

The only difference between the team that received the 2nd overall pick and the one that made the playoffs was management maxing out its cap on 2nd line players, not the play of its faded core and certainly not the play of the kids.

Do you think that is sustainable?
 
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bland said:
Stagnation is a very real thing.

They aren't necessarily a problem individually, but they have gone 8 years without any kind of success and are still in the same roles. Kopitar has faded from an arguably top 10 center to a top 25 or so. Doughty still has plenty of rubber on the tires. 8 seasons is an eternity in sports, a very, very long time to keep the same formula in place without results.

The question is how long has your team gone on unsuccessfully without making changes to the core pieces of its lineup?
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You can adjust the core (a core is not 2 players) without ripping out the foundation. Anyone you could possibly bring in you want to play and learn from Kopitar and Doughty. They desperately need someone to outplay and push Kopitar and Doughty into #2 roles. Etch-a-sketch rebuild are possible, but I'd much rather try to land new cornerstones before you dig up the old ones.

It's tricky though because if your old cornerstones are still solid players you aren't going to draft where you usually find new ones. Wing fans (me) are feeling that pain right now. Would have loved to land Seider in '09 and learn from Lidstrom for a year or two instead of '19.
 
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bland said:
Are you aware that Kings management had no intention of rebuilding and has simply cleared out space to fill out the middle of their lineup with veteran players while the kids fight it out for spot roles? Multiple first round picks sat out the money games in both the NHL and AHL playoffs while veteran players lost two winnable series. Top 5 picks don't get PP time in the AHL, multiple first rounders are looking at hitting the waiver wire without ever getting a real chance at feeling their way into the league while faded vets continue to lose at the pro level.

The only difference between the team that received the 2nd overall pick and the one that made the playoffs was management maxing out its cap on 2nd line players, not the play of its faded core and certainly not the play of the kids.

Do you think that is sustainable?
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Well I think if they had Doughty they might have passed the Oilers and they have some great youth. I don't know know when they will no longer be able to lean on Kopitar and Doughty but I imagine they have a couple years.

I'm not too worried about it 😁.
 
You would think with four center picks in 2017 (11 OA), 2018 (18 OA), 2019 (5 OA) and 2020 (2 OA) that at least one of them would have either dethroned Kopitar or be on the path to it, but that is far from the case. Instead they had to go into UFA and sign a C to fill a gaping hole that never should have existed with the draft capital used on the position. Three of those drafted centers were playing wing in the AHL or NHL last year.

It’s not as if a team wants to not have young players they invested high picks in take the next step. LA just has an extremely difficult time evaluating and developing high end players, one of the worst teams in the league at it when you consider all the relatively high picks they had.
 
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They only draft players because they run out of time to trade the picks for two-way veterans. They have no intention of developing or playing those picks.
 
sparr0w said:
And not just best players, because there have long been teams where their best players were trash. But Kopitar and Doughty are legit cornerstones to a team. Those don't come around every day.
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Kopitar looked nearly finished as a top two-way center in the playoffs last year.

GF-4 GA-9 at even strength. 45% corsi, 46% shot share. 35% expected goals.

Anze's loss of footspeed was exposed pretty hard.
 
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Bank Shot said:
Kopitar looked nearly finished as a top two-way center in the playoffs last year.

GF-4 GA-9 at even strength. 45% corsi, 46% shot share. 35% expected goals.

Anze's loss of footspeed was exposed pretty hard.
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I mean... he's 34 being asked to shut down a speed demon 10yrs younger without the usual safety net back there.

This thread was about cornerstones and the Kings were missing one that series.
 
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They mortgaged their future to win two cups and are coming out of their rebuild. Kings got dominated in their series loss vs the Sharks, the sweep vs the Knights might be the most competitive sweep in the history of the NHL and then lost to the Oilers while missing their #1 dman, their most consistent winger and another top 4 dman.
 
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bland said:
The LA Kings haven't won a playoff series in 8 seasons, having gone 0-3 without qualifying 5 times and hasn't changed a piece of their core. Brown's retirement created the first real change to their leadership group in that timeframe.

Partly the devil of longterm contracts, partly a long held belief in those players, and partly hubris from a management group that hasn't considered any of the seasons as last chances even though they have had 4 different coaches in that poor span.

To the best of your memory, has your favorite team ever gone an unsuccessful period of time that long without ever shaking up the core of their team?
Click to expand...
This is better than the leafs
 
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