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

[Raccoon Jesus]

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.

yup, and many of us saw it coming in the middle of the season in games where it was completely unnecessary for Kopitar to get 24 minutes while Byfield got 8. Just godawful mismanagement.

Kopitar's two-way game fell off the map after the turn of the year, presumably due to Father Time and unnecessary fatigue.

The disparity between Kopitar's and Danault's #s in that series could not have been more stark, and LA failed with flying colors at bringing others along to support softer deployment.

 

[Ghetty Green]

The regional thread went National.

FYI Non Kings fans - Kopitar has been routinely been treated like a damn near villain on hfkings. Even pre Cups

 

[SimpleJack]

lol…

 

[Reality Czech]

As much as it pains me to complement the Kings for anything, I'd say they have done a pretty good job transitioning from the Cup winning core to where they are now. Sure, they could have torn it all down and traded Quick, Kopitar and Doughty for futures but it would have left a much different stamp on the team. If I were a Kings fan, I'd think it's kind of cool having those guys play their whole career with the team and stick around to oversee the transition to the next generation. They've demonstrated that teams don't necessarily need to completely start over in order to rebuild.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Two cups though in recent years.

 

[Statto]

Doughty has a few good years left as a legit #1 D but Kopitar and Quick need to drop lower in the depth chart soon. By the end of the regular season we need Petersen to have claimed the no1 job and we need even 5/5 ice time for the top 3 C’s (Kopitar, Byfield, Danault). Byfield will also need to be getting good pp time. IF that happens we are good, if not they will need to reassess a lot of things.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

I mean who cares that group won 2 cups…. That’s a lot more than a lot of good cores win. They did their part for the franchise / city

 

[PaulD]

The Dead Wings always include Yzerman, don't they? Even now he leads them to bottom 5 finishes.

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.

2 Cups . A rebuild. On their way to contend for a third. Great work.

 

[GreenLine]

Quick is awful. I don't think they'll win another series with him as the goalie. The overly aggressive flopping goaltending style doesn't age well.

But they did go through a rebuild and it's pretty clear that Doughty and Kopitar aren't the problem so this is a weird thread.

 

[23Monahan]

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?

They have went threw a rebuild, have a bunch of great young players, and almost took out edmonton in the first round last year. Kopitar has been awesome for them the whole time, doughty seemed to be regressing but was great last year even though he was injured for playoffs and Quick is still playing good hockey.

Also Browns C was taken away in 2015 and given to kopitar, yes he did get and A two years later but he hasnt been the captain for 7 years.

They seem to be trending the right way, and have some solid, still very capable veterans around to help the young guys. I definitely think they are good enough to make it to the playoffs, and possibly win a round this year.

 

[Lt Dan]

They have went threw a rebuild, have a bunch of great young players, and almost took out edmonton in the first round last year. Kopitar has been awesome for them the whole time, doughty seemed to be regressing but was great last year even though he was injured for playoffs and Quick is still playing good hockey.

Also Browns C was taken away in 2015 and given to kopitar, yes he did get and A two years later but he hasnt been the captain for 7 years.

They seem to be trending the right way, and have some solid, still very capable veterans around to help the young guys. I definitely think they are good enough to make it to the playoffs, and possibly win a round this year.

I am trading bland for this guy.

Welcome to Los Angeles 23Monahan

Report to the Kings forum for your jersey and avatar

Los Angeles Kings

forums.hfboards.com

 

[kilowatt]

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?

Here's a comprehensive list of all the teams that have won the Stanley Cup since the last Kings' Cup win:

Blackhawks
Penguins
Capitals
Blues
Lightning
Avalanche

Guess every other team besides these 6 are trash.

 

[Beau Knows]

I don't see why they should get rid of their best players who haven proven they know how to win.

They're in a rebuild, of course they haven't been competing for the Cup recently. Having those kinds of leaders around to mentor the next generation is probably a good idea, and if they are lucky they'll have them around when the time comes to compete for the Cup.

 

[norrisnick]

Here's a comprehensive list of all the teams that have won the Stanley Cup since the last Kings' Cup win:

Blackhawks
Penguins
Capitals
Blues
Lightning
Avalanche

Guess every other team besides these 6 are trash.

Wings fan here. We're a trash heap, but there's gold silver in them thar hills!

 

[Terry Yake]

Wasn't Doughty out last playoffs?

Is the OP aware they had a rebuild?

they tried to rebuild but their vets weren't having it so they figured might as well take advantage of what kopitar/doughty/quick still have left in the tank

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

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.

Should be taken with a grain of salt. McDavid and Draisaitl also torched the best even-strength line in the NHL in the same playoffs.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Their roles are going to change after the rebuild, they'll be more support players in the future. If anything I applaud them for sticking with their core guys through good and bad.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

Los Angeles could be in danger of losing Lias Andersson, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Austin Wagner to waivers but I suspect Blake may have a few tricks up his sleeve to keep 2 out of the 3.

LA could always send Byfield back to Ontario for a few games to start the season same goes with Kaliyev and Bjornfot, anyone with the slightest injury could also be placed on IR for a few weeks to buy time to keep LA’s depth intact.

Having players like Kopitar, Doughty, Edler and Quick for the younger players to learn from isn’t bad either.

LA won Cups in 12 and 14 so it hasn’t past the 10 year cup less drought yet, the Kings fans atleast have something to be proud of unlike some of the other teams in the league.

 

[Bandit]

Los Angeles could be in danger of losing Lias Andersson, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Austin Wagner to waivers but I suspect Blake may have a few tricks up his sleeve to keep 2 out of the 3.

LA could always send Byfield back to Ontario for a few games to start the season same goes with Kaliyev and Bjornfot, anyone with the slightest injury could also be placed on IR for a few weeks to buy time to keep LA’s depth intact.

Having players like Kopitar, Doughty, Edler and Quick for the younger players to learn from isn’t bad either.

LA won Cups in 12 and 14 so it hasn’t past the 10 year cup less drought yet, the Kings fans atleast have something to be proud of unlike some of the other teams in the league.

If the Kings send Kaliyev down at any point for any reason I will personally fly back to LA and burn the entire town of Manhattan Beach to the ground.

The point isn’t that Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick “suck”. I honestly think if Doughty was healthy last playoffs the Kings take out Edmonton in 5 or 6 games. The point is that when it’s several years after drafting a bunch of alleged “high end” players and they can’t even get into the AHL lineup come playoff time, that’s a problem.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Kings that won 44 games and scored 100 points, who led the Oilers 2-1, 3-2
but lost 2-0 in the game 7 of last season, who have one of the deepest prospect
pools in the NHL?

Is that the Kings you are talking about?


They are borderline contenders already this season
with the addition of young star player Kevin Fiala

 

[Pavels Dog]

More concerning for them is that so many of their prospects seem to underperform. For years and years we've heard about their amazing prospects but almost all of them seem to be either developing far slower or far worse than expected.

 

[God]

Who cares? The Kings won two cups and have done a fantastic re-tool. They'll win a playoff series quite soon.

 

[Deas]

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.

Exactly this.

Also, they did a rebuild while keeping their 1C and 1D. So of course they weren't winning those years.

One could argue if they should've done an even more thorough rebuild and traded also the mentioned two, but nah. It seems they wanted to stay, LA now has strong prospects anyway, and you never know what prospects pan out or not. The one move I would question is the Danault signing, but if Byfield takes 2C and Danault is 3C that's not bad at all.

Not a great take by the op. Cherry picking a perspective to create a story that's not really there.

On the contrary it will now be very interesting to see what the new LA Kings can do with their young guys while still having a few years of high level play from Kopitar and Doughty.

 

[Deas]

More concerning for them is that so many of their prospects seem to underperform. For years and years we've heard about their amazing prospects but almost all of them seem to be either developing far slower or far worse than expected.

True to an extent but is their hit rate really that bad?

Concerning - Turcotte, Fagemo, Madden, Vilardi, Kupari, Dudas, Thomas, Bjornfot

In between - Byfield, JAD, Simontaival

Very promising - Durzi, Spence, Clarke, Kaliyev, Grans, Anderson

No doubt I'm missing a few and have assessed someone incorrectly. LA is not "my" team. But isn't this hit rate pretty normal? It's just that LA amassed so many in relatively short time that we put alot of focus on their prospect pool?

 

[hohosaregood]

They won cups, they're allowed to coast for the next 20 years without criticism.