GDT: Los Angeles Kings at St. Louis Blues - December 16, 2014 - 5:00 p.m. (PST)

[MynameisKing]

So ... uhm, when did we re-hire Marc Crawford as a coach? 'Cause that's what we looked like out there tonight.

It's fatigue. You do stuff you don't normally do and you shirk assignments, take short cuts, and cut corners. It all adds up.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

What combination is left to try? I figure going with this makeup may give them some semblance of balance:

Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams
King-Carter-Brown
Pearson-Richards-Toffoli
Clifford-Stoll-Lewis

 

[Reclamation Project]

I really hate when I want to purposely be busy in order to miss the Kings play.

 

[deeshamrock]

Yup. And this is going to be really exposed once the playoffs roll around. The Kings defense right now is not a strength, we all know the forwards are struggling, but struggling and not living up to potential is one thing, not being good enough is another, this defense just isn't good enough to win a championship.

Losing Mitchell hurt a lot, he is a smart vet, controls the pulse of the game, gets the puck out of harms way and had pretty good breakout passes. They miss his leaderhip as well. But DL didn't really have a choice there but he did when he gave Greene 4 more years. There was a reason he was benched for most of the last 20 games and looked out of place in the WCF run.

I'm not sure what DL can do at this point. DD, AM and JM are fine and I think McNabb will be okay as he gets more minutes. But pairing him with Greene is scary.

But maybe if he gets one good d in a trade and give that d 40 RS games or so to get the system down the will change the top 4 enough to merit some hope. But it still eaves them with a weak 3 pairing.

 

[damacles1156]

Honestly I would bring up Shore, and see where he is at against NHL players.

Gabo/Kopitar/Williams
Pearson/Carter/Toffoli
King/Shore/Brown
Richards/Stoll/Lewis

 

[Reclamation Project]

Honestly I would bring up Shore, and see where he is at against NHL players.

Gabo/Kopitar/Williams
Pearson/Carter/Toffoli
King/Shore/Brown
Richards/Stoll/Lewis

What was the common thread in 2012, 2013, and 2014? Youth. King, Nolan, Toffoli, Pearson. It needs to happen.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Kopitar, 23GP, 4G, 7A, 11Pts
Stoll, 26GP, 3G, 8A, 11Pts
Richards, 26GP, 4G, 6A, 10Pts
Carter, 26GP, 3G, 6A, 9Pts

Those are the stats for those guys in the games not including the 6 early home games.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Slim pickings in the UFA front come July as well.
http://capgeek.com/free-agents/?year_id=2015&team_id=-1&position_id=D&fa_type_id=2

There's a handful of guys that I think could be a good fit here.

 

[damacles1156]

Kopitar, 23GP, 4G, 7A, 11Pts
Stoll, 26GP, 3G, 8A, 11Pts
Richards, 26GP, 4G, 6A, 10Pts
Carter, 26GP, 3G, 6A, 9Pts

Those are the stats for those guys in the games not including the 6 early home games.

Yup...

Center ice has been a problem all season long so far.

 

[MynameisKing]

What was the common thread in 2012, 2013, and 2014? Youth. King, Nolan, Toffoli, Pearson. It needs to happen.

You forgot Voynov was a call up that year, too!

 

[deeshamrock]

What was the common thread in 2012, 2013, and 2014? Youth. King, Nolan, Toffoli, Pearson. It needs to happen.

And it probably will if King and/or Nolan g et moved, Still rumors that GM's are calling about Clifford and King. Looking for size for bottom line depth, mostly East coast teams according to Friedman.

 

[Reclamation Project]

That's true! Seems like he's been on the team much longer than that. I remember his great game in Dallas.

 

[Herby]

Honestly I would bring up Shore, and see where he is at against NHL players.

Gabo/Kopitar/Williams
Pearson/Carter/Toffoli
King/Shore/Brown
Richards/Stoll/Lewis

I like the idea, but the problem is both Stoll and Richards have proven they can't play wing. And if you move Carter to wing to make room for Shore then you have one of Shore, Richards or Stoll centering the 2nd line, we know the veterans can't do it, and that's a lot to ask of Shore.

Is Shore able to play wing?

 

[Kingspiracy]

How about Andreoff, he hasn't had much of a shot yet.

 

[MynameisKing]

How about Andreoff, he hasn't had much of a shot yet.

Anyone. Anybody else would at least be hungry and energetic.

 

[Herby]

How about Andreoff, he hasn't had much of a shot yet.

Really didn't look like an NHL'er in the few games he played. His upside is probably a fourth line center, I think the general feeling is Shore has better upside, but DL may want him to pay his dues for more than 95 games in Manchester. Shore's time may come next season, no way are the Kings paying $9 million to the third and fourth line centers.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Perhaps Dean being in Manchester recently will sway that.

 

[Kingspiracy]

Really didn't look like an NHL'er in the few games he played. His upside is probably a fourth line center, I think the general feeling is Shore has better upside, but DL may want him to pay his dues for more than a season and a half in Manchester.

He may be more comfortable now that he's had a cup of tea with the big club. I think we could use a little more sandpaper (Clifford and co have been strangely disappointing in that regard) Perhaps giving him another turn may spark us a little.

 

[deeshamrock]

I like the idea, but the problem is both Stoll and Richards have proven they can't play wing. And if you move Carter to wing to make room for Shore then you have one of Shore, Richards or Stoll centering the 2nd line, we know the veterans can't do it, and that's a lot to ask of Shore.

Is Shore able to play wing?

According to his HF profile he can. But that won't be this year, that's not DL"s style. I don'tt think he'll rush his development, he's not even half way thru his first year with the Monarchs. But he's a very bright light on the horizon and a part of me would love to see him center TT and TP on a kid line.


http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/nick_shore/

He is strong in transition and is equally at home playing both offense and defense. Although he plays center for the University of Denver, Shore can also play on the wing. He uses his 6’0, 200-pound frame quite advantageously, particularly in high traffic areas. He also brings passion and grit to his game, and does not shy away from the physical side of it

.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Doughty will never win a Norris because he shows up for about half the regular season games.

It's the same pattern every year, Doughty half ***** it during the season, people on this board get angry when he sleep walks through a Wednesay night game vs. Dallas, in April flips the switch in the playoffs and becomes the best defenseman in the league, and then when someone like Karlsson or Subban who played well for 82 games win the Norris those same people who hated Doughty in December are complaining that DD didn't win the Norris.

As for tonight's game, I think it's time go get Carter back at C, him on the wing just changes the entire makeup of the team (and not for the better) and the Kings need to make a trade to either add a d-man and or tweak the makeup of the team. Even if the offense comes back to last years playoff level it was still going to be hard to replace Mitchell and Voynov.

Great post, so true

To the last part, yeah. We lost a Cup winning second pairing for nothing in return. That hurts. I knew and said the loss of Mitchell would be HUGE. We saw what he meant in 2013. Losing his partner along with him kills us and puts guys in roles they can't really handle (except Martinez, who is doing well considering the team's overall struggles, imo).

I agree with others, this is not a Cup winning defense. I don't think there's any doubt we'll be seeing a personnel change there at some point.

The offense, on the other hand, is oddly fine, despite awful years from most parties so far. I really don't think offense is our problem. We could maybe use a PP specialist to get Doughty to stop breaking people's shinguards, but a trade isn't going to save us there; our best players just need to be our best players. We're not going to acquire BETTER forwards via trade at this point.

Well, it was good that DL saw this game up close. He's a smart man. Knowing the utter fatigue mentally and physically this team is going through, he should be proactive now and bring up some fresh bodies. This fatigue is only going to get worse as the season grinds along. The team won't suddenly become unfatigued by grinding out another close to 50 games with the same people.

Yeah really good point. And he spent time in Manchvegas this week, right? So, I doubt we'll be sitting on our hands, which is good news.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I wonder what Lombardi thought of Tarasenko after his recent trip in Manchester. Forbort was taken right before Tarasenko. Oof.

 

[Kingspiracy]

I wonder what Lombardi thought of Tarasenko after his recent trip in Manchester. Forbort was taken right before Tarasenko. Oof.

We would have found a way to stifle some of that offense

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I wonder what Lombardi thought of Tarasenko after his recent trip in Manchester. Forbort was taken right before Tarasenko. Oof.

I think that after every goal he scores for my fantasy team

/wrists

 

[damacles1156]

Probably the same thing he thought about with taking Trevor Lewis ahead of Claude Giroux. Absolutely nothing.

Ten GM's passed on Kopitar. One of them called him an overrated Euro player.

Quick was picked in the third round, and plenty of people thought Quick's career was over when he got demoted to the ECHL.

 

[Herby]

Can't win them all.

Forbort was not nearly as bad a pick as Teubert. Forbort had top 10 potential when he was 17, it just never happened for him at NoDak.

Plus, no one wanted Tarasenko that day, everyone was pissed the Kings passed on Etem.