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LA KINGS 2023/4 Regular season discussion

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Buddy The Elf said:
We can all appreciate what Lombardi accomplished in LA but he wasn't exactly celebrated when he was hired. He received a ton of criticism for his plan on this board right up until the Kings won a Cup under Sutter who was also a retread. The decision to hire Sutter was also met with a ton of criticism.

At the end of the day DL had a distinct framework and a plan. He stuck to it and it inevitably worked in spite of his failures leading up to winning. I drank the Kool-Aid early on and slowly began to turn on him right up until he hired Sutter which I thought was his death knell.

With all that said, Blake never has given me the inclination that he's playing a game of chess and is one step ahead. He's pretty much winging it as well as any other idiot could do. You can be the smartest man in the room and still fail. But I don't think Blake has ever been the smartest man in the room unless it was just him and Luc.
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A lot of Lombardi's success was about reacting. He had no idea Richards & Carter were going to become available. Had to react when it happened. He chased other players he wasn't able to land. Lombardi had his boxes he was filling.

Blake has a similar approach. He has done well with seeing what the team needs & adjusting. Yes he started the year without a goalie, but paying Korpisalo $20,000,000 wasn't a solution. He patched the holes he could at the time. Yes, that includes PL. At some point in the near future, Kopi is going to retire. We don't know when that will happen so being proactive & fixing that issue while there was a solution was better than locking up money in an un-solution in net.


dman3474 said:
Did Futa ever get hired by anyone? He is familiar with the org. And was here to see what DL did to win.

The athletic just had an article about who should be candidates for Columbus.

Eight early candidates for next Blue Jackets GM
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Don't think Futa wanted a GM job. He probably enjoys scouting & doesn't want the stress.

Have to think if Futa wanted a job as a GM some hockey team would have offered him one.
 
dman3474 said:
Did Futa ever get hired by anyone? He is familiar with the org. And was here to see what DL did to win.

The athletic just had an article about who should be candidates for Columbus.

Eight early candidates for next Blue Jackets GM
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www.eliteprospects.com

Michael Futa at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com staff profile of Michael Futa, 1967-10-28 Toronto, ON, CAN Canada.
www.eliteprospects.com www.eliteprospects.com

I don't think he is with any organization currently, he was last with the Canes, but that was 21-22. He has been on every GM shortlist for years now though. I definitely wanted him more than Blake, but it is water under the bridge now. I hope he lands a spot.
 
Lombardi's loyalty was his downfall - at least Blake in ruthless in that regard.

He refused to buy out Richards or fire Sutter.

Blake traded most of the Stanley Cup teams core or outlying players including Quick.
 
Johnny Utah said:
Lombardi's loyalty was his downfall - at least Blake in ruthless in that regard.

He refused to buy out Richards or fire Sutter.

Blake traded most of the Stanley Cup teams core or outlying players including Quick.
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Counterpoint; Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar are still the leading minute getters on the Kings. He even let those two determine when the rebuild was "over".
 
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tigermask48 said:
Counterpoint; Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar are still the leading minute getters on the Kings. He even let those two determine when the rebuild was "over".
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I’d put money on it that Luc made the call. Decisions on rebuilds etc in most franchises tend to get made from above the GM… certainly the impression I have.
 
Johnny Utah said:
Lombardi's loyalty was his downfall - at least Blake in ruthless in that regard.

He refused to buy out Richards or fire Sutter.

Blake traded most of the Stanley Cup teams core or outlying players including Quick.
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The one trade of Quick does not make Blake "ruthless": he's far from it.

Blake did not trade a Cup player until the Pearson deal when the season was off the rails. Then even when trading the vets, it always appears to be to places they would be happy to go to and potentially at a worse return for the Kings.

He's a players GM through and through because he looks at it like he would want to be treated, hence hiring a guy he formerly played for and making him the highest paid coach in the league on a five year contract.

If I was given the Andy Murray essay assignment but it was about "The Kings play best when...", it would be about how a Kings team with 11 and 8 running the show can't have a nice guy as the coach.
 
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Johnny Utah said:
Lombardi's loyalty was his downfall - at least Blake in ruthless in that regard.

He refused to buy out Richards or fire Sutter.

Blake traded most of the Stanley Cup teams core or outlying players including Quick.
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.

Details can only ever be verified if Richards waives his HIPPA rights, and there is no reason for him to do so. Its not exactly a state secret what happened there.

tigermask48 said:
We don't know that and it's entirely speculation. What we do know is that the rebuild stopping coincides with Doughty's "I'm sick of losing" comments to the media.
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It wasn't "I'm..." it was "me and Kopi are sick of losing".

Folks keep wanting to excuse Anze from this issue. He was just smart enough to not say it publicly.
 
BigKing said:
The one trade of Quick does not make Blake "ruthless": he's far from it.

Blake did not trade a Cup player until the Pearson deal when the season was off the rails. Then even when trading the vets, it always appears to be to places they would be happy to go to and potentially at a worse return for the Kings.

He's a players GM through and through because he looks at it like he would want to be treated, hence hiring a guy he formerly played for and making him the highest paid coach in the league on a five year contract.

If I was given the Andy Murray essay assignment but it was about "The Kings play best when...", it would be about how a Kings team with 11 and 8 running the show can't have a nice guy as the coach.
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Didn't he buy out Matt Greene as his first action as GM?
 
Fiala is probably on the same grading system too.

I can imagine the kings staff doing this when they are talking to Fiala and PLD


IMG_4024.gif
 
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AbsentMojo said:
Lol re take time to heal. After covering the Kings for the last 10 yrs, we all do.

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I don't read the LA Times and don't really read her articles, but obviously, I see her tweets and hear her questions during pressers. I always found her a harsh critic of the Kings, but fair and not afraid to ask tough questions. She will be missed and it does suck for SoCal hockey coverage in general. I miss the Hammond/Rosen days of coverage though. Having a team beat reporter was one of the best things Luc did for the team and I was sorry to see it go. What they have now is no comparison.
 
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Kudelski37 said:
Didn't he buy out Matt Greene as his first action as GM?
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Bought him out on June 13th, 2017 and he was hired as a pro scout exactly two months later.

Ruthless.

Lombardi actually put him on waivers for the purpose of buying him out the summer before but they wound up not doing it.

Love Greene. What a stud.
 
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Telos said:
I don't read the LA Times and don't really read her articles, but obviously, I see her tweets and hear her questions during pressers. I always found her a harsh critic of the Kings, but fair and not afraid to ask tough questions. She will be missed and it does suck for SoCal hockey coverage in general. I miss the Hammond/Rosen days of coverage though. Having a team beat reporter was one of the best things Luc did for the team and I was sorry to see it go. What they have now is no comparison.
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100%. She was def critical - almost Canadian style in her approach. That is a loss in terms of hearing the team called out when it needs to be. Who is left to do that in the press?
 
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BaileyFan said:
He did say he spent the whole All Star break watching Lilo & Stitch so decent chance this is what made it finally click for him.
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I don’t know why watching a movie where a hateful creature that everyone despises has to learn how to be a functional part of society would appeal to him
 
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