LA KINGS 2023/4 Regular season discussion

[bland]

Um? Pheonix is struggling.
Fiala in a slump but still producing.
PLD is still adjusting to coach & linemates.
PP is off from last year.
Arvidsson out long term, from day one.
Kaliyev suspension & short roster to start the year.
Laferriere has offended the hockey gods & just hits posts.
One of the hardest schedules to start year
Can't win at home.
Faust no longer play by play.

Ok, not the last one.

Plenty has gone wrong.

All wrong.

Copley is 2-0-2. Did you not see this same show last year?

This is who Fiala is. He never plays well, he just scores - and he is still doing it. Again, did you not see this last year?

PLD? See above. He is only slightly off of what should have been expected, but its still better than average 3rd line production.

Arvidssons injury was a blessing. It allowed for a full roster AND Laferriere's development.

Kaliyev missed two games. Big deal..

Laferriere? Really?

The schedule is nothing at all.

Their home record will more than even out.

 

[Fishhead]

Kopitar (and Doughty last year) was a spent shell in each of the last two runs. Both resort to ultra conservative hockey when tired, and you need your best to push the pace to win a series.

The Kings are not contenders. They are in a hot run at the moment and the slightly reduced time for Anze should be a help, but they aren't winning anything yet. This team won't bridge that gap until their best players are from the new generation.

Let's reevaluate in late January and see how well things are going then. Good ride so far, but virtually everything has gone right. This hasn't been a resilient bunch over the last 5 years, so let's see how they deal with the inevitable issues that pop up.

It's not like its a terribly small sample, we are a fifth of the way through the season. And I'm not sure I would just call this a hot run - it's who they are this year. They've played the toughest schedule in the league, and how many games have they been clearly outplayed or deserved to lose? I would say two - Colorado and Philly. Last game against Arizona was close. That's far less than most NHL teams.

The Kings have been better than Vegas head to head, and they are generally considered contenders. Colorado certainly isn't, contenders aren't inconsistent like that. They got absolutely smacked by St. Louis and we saw how poor they are the other night. Then they lost to Nashville. What about Dallas with the same point%, but an easier schedule? I guess you could argue that no one is a contender right now, that would be the most valid. But if any team in the league is a contender, the Kings certainly are as well.

And I don't think everything has gone right at all. Some things have went very well, but far from everything. The 4th line has been fantastic. Talbot has been great this year. Byfield is playing like a top pick. Yet... Kempe was really struggling for a while. Fiala has 4 goals. We lost a 2nd line winger. Dubois still hasn't settled in yet. Copley just played his first good game last night.

Resilience is going to be key for sure. This team is really deep, has a good balance, and is settling in. The ice time distribution has been fantastic. They have great underlying stats which reflect their play on the ice. They haven't been propped up by luck and fortunate bounces, they've been controlling most games. So yeah we'll see in January, but I don't think things will change much.

 

[Johnny Utah]

I would like to see Fagemo get a shot in either Laffy's spot or on the 4th line with Grunstrom-Lewis instead of JAD. He's tearing it up.

 

[YP44]

Readers beware...

You are the same guy that predicted us to miss the playoffs back in the summer -- this team will REALLY have to come back to earth for that prediction to stand.

I thought LA would miss this year. Not because I did not like the forward group or D. I just had zero faith in net.
Would be a huge fall if LA missed at this point. Very happy to be wrong.

 

[kilowatt]

It’s funny that visibly Fiala and Kempe haven’t play too well, since both guys are at or above a point per game.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

It’s funny that visibly Fiala and Kempe haven’t play too well, since both guys are at or above a point per game.

Can't understand why anyone would say Kempe hasn't played well...yah, his goal scoring was a bit cold to start the season, but he was getting his chances.

 

[Fishhead]

Can't understand why anyone would say Kempe hasn't played well...yah, his goal scoring was a bit cold to start the season, but he was getting his chances.

He struggled in the first few games, just didn't have his legs under him. He was floating on defense as well. After the Boston game he's looked like his typical self.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

I don't think the Kings can truly contend unless PLD plays up to his potential and we get another goalie.

Hard to imagine a team with their #1 center and goalie both being 36 years old winning anything in June.

The odds this team wins with a #1 center and goalie both being 25 years old is also very slim.

 

[regulate]

Projected Pace

Goals Assists Points +/-
Kempe 39 48 87 +48
Kopitar 43 39 82 +43
Fiala 19 63 82 -24
Byfield 14 58 72 +48
Moore 43 29 72 +14
Danault 19 39 58 +5
Dubois 24 19 43 -10
Kaliyev 14 24 38 +24
Lizotte 19 14 33 +34
Grundstrom 29 5 34 +29
Lewis 10 14 24 +14
Laferriere 10 10 20 +5


Anderson 5 34 39 +39
Doughty 19 19 38 +39
Spence 0 34 34 +14
Roy 0 29 29 +29
Gavrikov 10 14 24 +29
Englund 5 19 24 +29

 

[Coffey]

Hey Calibros, loved watching you play in the playoffs in the last two years, solid well-rounded team and I'll be cheering for you this year.

Hope I get to witness this again.

Much love from Deadmonton.

 

[johnjm22]

The Kings generally haven't played well since the Vegas game.

They will not contend with the way they're playing now. You'd need to see a big time improvement from PLD.

Todd is playing Doughty too much.

 

[Fishhead]

It’s funny that visibly Fiala and Kempe haven’t play too well, since both guys are at or above a point per game.

Fiala is coming around, but before his recent play his numbers were way down. He hasn't been shooting as much overall and he's not generating high danger chances at his usual pace. As a result his shooting percentage is also down. His secondary assist pace is the highest of his career by a large margin, which is why his points have been good. He's doing fine at possession but he's not driving the play, he's usually chasing it. Probably why his total penalties are higher than usual.

The upside of all that is we are 11-3-3 and it's very likely his goal scoring and play driving explodes.

 

[bmr]

I would like to see Fagemo get a shot in either Laffy's spot or on the 4th line with Grunstrom-Lewis instead of JAD. He's tearing it up.

I'm a Fagemo fan, but I don't think there's any possible way you would take Laferriere out of the lineup right now. He fits. The big thing for me is if Lizotte misses a few games then I'd say try out Turcotte or Fagemo there until he comes back. Nice problems to have.

 

[Fishhead]

The Kings generally haven't played well since the Vegas game.

They will not contend with the way they're playing now. You'd need to see a big time improvement from PLD.

Todd is playing Doughty too much.

I thought they looked really good against Florida, and St. Louis too - probably two of the most cohesive they've looked defensively this year. They should have beaten Pittsburgh but Copley shit the bed early. Philly they deserved to lose, and they got outplayed by Arizona the other night and should have lost that one despite the score.

Still, I can't think of many Western teams that could keep up with them in a series. Vegas for sure, and Dallas. Colorado probably, but they look a lot worse than the Kings right now. Still have no clue about Vancouver.

It's ironic that they probably aren't playing their best right now, yet they have the most points of any team in the West over their last 10 games. And we know that's not due to an easy schedule. As Kings fans I think we naturally underestimate what they are doing, but they've been impressive. I don't think we've seen their best yet either. We saw glimpses of it last year, where when the team is running well they are a handful. The big question is if they can be firing on all cylinders at the end of the season.

Ice time is a big part of that. Surprisingly, Doughty's 5v5 ice time is down 1:15 per game from last year - so it's way down - and his PP time is up by the same amount. Same thing with Kopitar, it's the lowest 5v5 time per game of his career by over a minute. They are getting really easy minutes which is good to see. I was really sour on Todd's ice time management a couple of years ago but it's improved. Kopitar is still leading in 5v5 ice time, but he's only getting 44 more seconds a game than his linemate QB who is #9. Throw in a 4th line getting 9 minutes a game and it's fantastic.

 

[deaderhead28]

The Los Angeles Kings have been so good this season. Only one of their players has been below-replacement in GAR, Cam Talbot (!) is currently 5th in the league for goalies in that stat, and almost every one of their team RAPM metrics is well-above average.

 

[deaderhead28]

With how well the Kings are playing, it got me thinking about how much of a bargain these contracts right now...

Adrian Kempe - $5.5 mill
Trevor Moore - $4.2 mill
Mikey Anderson - $4.125 mill
Cam Talbot - $1 mill
Andreas Englund - $1 mill

$3 million off the books next year for Kopitar and we have UFA status for Matt Roy at $3.15 mill and Victor Arvidsson at $4.25 mill. My guess is Clarke comes in for Roy and Arvidsson will be filled in with Laf/Turcotte. Curious how they are going to structure Byfield's contract. Dude is going to get paid. I would imagine they want to bridge him to when Kopitar leaves. I would expect Talbot to get a new contract but i'm not sure we would offer Copley anything less than the minimum. Lizotte, Grundstrom, Kaliyev, Lewis, AD and Spence are also going to need contracts. We still have retained salary (dead cap) with Provorov at $2.025 mill through 24-25.

Byfield has been good, I don't see a big contract yet.

 

[Statto]

Byfield has been good, I don't see a big contract yet.

If he keeps up his scoring pace it’ll present a challenge because ideally they’d want to tie him down long term before he takes another step. Even a short bridge deal wouldn’t be cheap which is what his agent will want.

 

[rajuabju]

It’s funny that visibly Fiala and Kempe haven’t play too well, since both guys are at or above a point per game.

Just PPG? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Trade both of these scrubs.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

“Kempe and Fiala just a PPG & LA has not played well since the Vegas game.”

We don’t have to plan the parade just yet, but this is a tough crowd..

 

[King'sPawn]

Just PPG? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Trade both of these scrubs.

“Kempe and Fiala just a PPG & LA has not played well since the Vegas game.”

We don’t have to plan the parade just yet, but this is a tough crowd..

People forget that players can get points while not playing well.

Kempe, especially to start the season, was floating and not digging in board battles. Byfield and Kopitar were digging in the trenches. His passes were off. His reception of passes were off.

Fox mentioned in one of the telecasts that while Kempe doesn't pay attention to metrics specifically, he looks up where he's been scoring.

He spent a chunk of the beginning relying heavily on just shooting from where he scored before. He put up points, but he wasn't physically engaged at times when it mattered, and he wasn't scoring in ways where he just expected goals to go in for him.

It's the mindset of Ovechkin without having his talent. And it was that refusal to work on elements of his game that sunk a first overall pick like Yakupov. I'm not comparing Kempe to Yakupov, but the quality of his on-ice play was betrayed by the points he put up.

Fiala... is there legit questioning that he's not been playing well? It's why he was separated from PLD. Neither were. He takes undisciplined penalties. On almost a daily basis he makes no-look backhand passes that get picked off from the opposition (or it just plain misses his target).

I'll never understand the aversion to bringing up shortcomings that could be an issue. Nobody's saying they have to be perfect, but they're the ones people are expecting to score, and these issues could inhibit their ability to keep scoring if the behaviors continue.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

“Kempe and Fiala just a PPG & LA has not played well since the Vegas game.”

We don’t have to plan the parade just yet, but this is a tough crowd..

I mean Fiala tried to give his entire assist column to the Yotes the other night

It's telling how good this team is that there are guys currently not-here-yet scoring at high paces while their games are as bad as we have seen them

People forget that players can get points while not playing well.

Kempe, especially to start the season, was floating and not digging in board battles. Byfield and Kopitar were digging in the trenches. His passes were off. His reception of passes were off.

Fox mentioned in one of the telecasts that while Kempe doesn't pay attention to metrics specifically, he looks up where he's been scoring.

He spent a chunk of the beginning relying heavily on just shooting from where he scored before. He put up points, but he wasn't physically engaged at times when it mattered, and he wasn't scoring in ways where he just expected goals to go in for him.

It's the mindset of Ovechkin without having his talent. And it was that refusal to work on elements of his game that sunk a first overall pick like Yakupov. I'm not comparing Kempe to Yakupov, but the quality of his on-ice play was betrayed by the points he put up.

Fiala... is there legit questioning that he's not been playing well? It's why he was separated from PLD. Neither were. He takes undisciplined penalties. On almost a daily basis he makes no-look backhand passes that get picked off from the opposition (or it just plain misses his target).

I'll never understand the aversion to bringing up shortcomings that could be an issue. Nobody's saying they have to be perfect, but they're the ones people are expecting to score, and these issues could inhibit their ability to keep scoring if the behaviors continue.

Exactly, I'm enjoying the shit out of the house party, but it would be silly to ignore the leaking toilet, too.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Hey Calibros, loved watching you play in the playoffs in the last two years, solid well-rounded team and I'll be cheering for you this year.

Hope I get to witness this again.

Much love from Deadmonton.

Who was that, that caused the turnover?

 

[kilowatt]

I wasn’t knocking Fiala or Kempe, in fact quite the opposite. I meant for that to be more of a “these guys haven’t even fully hit their stride yet” kind of thing.

 

[AbsentMojo]

Didnt read through the thread - but has anyone got an update on Bjornfot?

 

[King'sPawn]

Didnt read through the thread - but has anyone got an update on Bjornfot?

Looks like soreness and a broken nose, according to Hoven.