Kings Video: Luc Robitaille Press Conference

[All The Kings Men]

He didn’t really address the captaincy change on your podcast.

Think so huh?

 

[Statto]

I might be wrong here but I don't think it matters a whole lot who wears the C. A leader is a leader, with or without a letter. I think it's pretty obvious that the real leaders during the cup runs were Stoll, Williams, Richards and so on. This team needs winners. They don't have to have letters, they just need to go out there and show how it's done. Let Kopi retire with the C, it doesn't matter anyway. Just my opinion of course.

Yep. They are ALL leaders. I’m surprised hardly anyone seems to understand the concept of a leadership group. You need a wide range of leadership skills that you will never get in one, two or even three guys. Even when your job in life is to be a leader you can’t be effective on your own (which good leaders understand). Good deputies often make many a corporate leader and bad deputies bring them down. Many of us will have lived that story, I know I have.

In sport you develop a more narrow set of leadership skills partly due to sport culture and partly because of a huge focus on technical performance. Hockey (and other sports) still thinks hazing is a great idea so it’s hardly surprising that there are so few guys with a rounded set of skills in the area. So instead of 2-3 leaders you need a wider group.

So it’s not a case of replacing Kopitar with a Williams type, but yes the room needs a guy like him. You can add a Matt Greene and that adds another type of leader again. However if you remove Kopitar it removes the type of leadership that brings and it hurts the room in different ways.

Lombardi talked a lot about leadership grouping beyond the C and A’s. The blend in this room is wrong, I completely agree. However the problem isn’t one guy it’s a much wider issue. I’ve seen this too many times. Blake finally started addressing it but it was too late.

 

[Brownie to Pancakes]

I think 99% of the pissy leadership talk around here is weird projection about what kind of man yall wish you were

 

[Maynard]

I think 99% of the pissy leadership talk around here is weird projection about what kind of man yall wish you were

Either that or we’re fans of a hockey team that constantly gets pushed around, boarded, cross checked and elbowed in the face and none of them EVER do anything about it.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Either that or we’re fans of a hockey team that constantly gets pushed around, boarded, cross checked and elbowed in the face and none of them EVER do anything about it.

Sounds a BIT dramatic….but hey, that’s just me.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Got it, one game.....ok, well they look inspired Game 2....so there ya go......seriously f***ing logic around here take a microscopic event, turn into a way to prove the macrop....great f***ing job.

List of Byng winners, MacKinnon, Datsyuk, Slavin, Barkov, Francis, Sakic....

Yea, list of real p***yes there......spoken by someone who's never played above D level beer league calling professional players p***yes...gotta love it....

And before you other pansies get your panties twisted, nothing wrong with not playing or playing shit level hockey, but to do that AND shit on a sure fire HOFer takes a special kind of stupid.

It's ok man, take a breath. We only have one year left of Kopi to get through before we can forget this version & just remember him burning Pronger.

If Kopi wanted to win he'd have requested a trade to a contender during the rebuild or in the last couple of seasons in his contract. He's just content to collect his check & chill at the beach. That's fine, but not what this team needs.

Doughty didn't request a trade either, but he may be the only person other than Luc that thinks We're Right There.

Team has been failing for a decade & that's on the capitan, coach, GM & meddling PoHO.

Next season we have about 20% of the cap tied up in past their prime, expired Doughty & Kopi.

 

[King'sPawn]

Either that or we’re fans of a hockey team that constantly gets pushed around, boarded, cross checked and elbowed in the face and none of them EVER do anything about it.

It's a valid gripe, and I'm not saying that to be patronizing. I've been saying for years that Kopitar is a golden retriever. An affable dude who does what he's told.

Brown wasn't an in your face presence, either. He was a wry nerd who laid out occasional big hits. But Brown wasn't an aggressive player either.

But leadership groups need different voices and personalities. You need some pitbulls and bulldogs in the mix, too. It's a big reason why I think DL was hellbent on getting Lucic.

The bulldogs get pissed and amp things up when needed. Huskies bring energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to help pull the team wherever they go. Retrievers bring stability and calmness when things are bad.

The point is Kopitar's leadership on its own isn't good enough. But that's not a failing of Kopitar. Kings won with him being part of the leadership before. They just failed to bring in the right personalities to complement his leadership gaps.

 

[Maynard]

It's a valid gripe, and I'm not saying that to be patronizing. I've been saying for years that Kopitar is a golden retriever. An affable dude who does what he's told.

Brown wasn't an in your face presence, either. He was a wry nerd who laid out occasional big hits. But Brown wasn't an aggressive player either.

But leadership groups need different voices and personalities. You need some pitbulls and bulldogs in the mix, too. It's a big reason why I think DL was hellbent on getting Lucic.

The bulldogs get pissed and amp things up when needed. Huskies bring energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to help pull the team wherever they go. Retrievers bring stability and calmness when things are bad.

The point is Kopitar's leadership on its own isn't good enough. But that's not a failing of Kopitar. Kings won with him being part of the leadership before. They just failed to bring in the right personalities to complement his leadership gaps.

Yeah I don’t think #11 should be out there busting heads. It’d be nice if he’d shove a guy once in a while but whatever. They don’t have anyone else doing anything either. I feel like having some “sand” in your game is a big part of leadership and it seems to be absent. The guy I quoted thinks that’s fine and that we’re projecting about it. I disagree with him. We’re just fans voicing very reasonable grievances in discussions with other fans.

 

[King'sPawn]

Yeah I don’t think #11 should be out there busting heads. It’d be nice if he’d shove a guy once in a while but whatever. They don’t have anyone else doing anything either. I feel like having some “sand” in your game is a big part of leadership and it seems to be absent. The guy I quoted thinks that’s fine and that we’re projecting about it. I disagree with him. We’re just fans voicing very reasonable grievances in discussions with other fans.

That's fair. I felt the overall point was the general sentiment that Kopitar is getting scapegoated when the bigger frustration should be towards management's roster construction.

But I get it.

 

[bland]

That's fair. I felt the overall point was the general sentiment that Kopitar is getting scapegoated when the bigger frustration should be towards management's roster construction.

But I get it.

It's not getting scapegoated, it's being held equally accountable for his lack of success in what actually is an important role.

 

[BigKing]

It's a valid gripe, and I'm not saying that to be patronizing. I've been saying for years that Kopitar is a golden retriever. An affable dude who does what he's told.

Brown wasn't an in your face presence, either. He was a wry nerd who laid out occasional big hits. But Brown wasn't an aggressive player either.

But leadership groups need different voices and personalities. You need some pitbulls and bulldogs in the mix, too. It's a big reason why I think DL was hellbent on getting Lucic.

The bulldogs get pissed and amp things up when needed. Huskies bring energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to help pull the team wherever they go. Retrievers bring stability and calmness when things are bad.

The point is Kopitar's leadership on its own isn't good enough. But that's not a failing of Kopitar. Kings won with him being part of the leadership before. They just failed to bring in the right personalities to complement his leadership gaps.

Brown was not a fighter and definitely a hit and run guy, but he was aggressive. The hit numbers speak for themselves and I would not label the amount of big hits as "occasional." He's got a kill list that goes up against any player and he wasn't just lining up scrubs.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

But it's a culture problem overall. Sure Kopitar has a piece but it's not 'solved' by bringing in bucketheads like Edmundson and Jeannot. That's a step in the right direction but EVERYONE that pulls on a kings jersey turns into a p***ycat from a tiger and it's annoying (with the rare screwloose guys like Lemieux, bless his lunatic ass). Jeannot was getting tuned up almost every staged fight this year and rarely showed ferocity. Edmundon just watched Tkachuk run the goalie and just bitchily slapped away at his stick.

Laferreiere got benched for standing up, that tells you everything about where we are at. We are firmly in the unspoken 'power play is our enforcer, turn the other cheek era' and it's a fair opinion to hate it.

 

[johnjm22]

I think 99% of the pissy leadership talk around here is weird projection about what kind of man yall wish you were

100%.

I'm of the unpopular opinion that "The C" hardly even matters.

 

[bland]

100%.

I'm of the unpopular opinion that "The C" hardly even matters.

Then you simply do not understand the culture of a hockey team. 20 guys in a room, there is a pecking order. Sure, guys break into sub groups due to various age, nationality and experience levels, but there is always a unified expectation presented to and understood by the team from its leaders. The "c" is the symbol of the designated voice and approach set to be followed.

It's honestly an extremely limited view to compare the current team only to the 12-14 era of the Kings. Every era is different, every team is different. Cup winning shouldn't be the only definition of success. We just heard from an abundance of players that "this year felt different" compared to the last few years. They felt they were a better team and STILL collapsed in on themselves.

Compare this team to the various other teams around the league and ask why the Kings couldn't do what Winnipeg and Dallas just did. The Kings actually had greater tactical advantages over the Oilers than those teams had over their opponents, yet those teams exhibited a self-belief that allowed them to overcome adversity and not just say "well, obviously we have to do better".

These Kings always fail in the heart department. They don't rise from being knocked down, they don't overachieve. They just think they are prepared, show up and do their best until they get punched in the mouth, then they fly their white flag.

"If everybody is good then nobody has to be great." That’s a much maligned comment that folks have tried to excuse for years as a throwaway line, a non-speak. But look at what happens to this team every stinking year and ask yourself if that isn't actually this entire organizations goddam ethos.

They have lost because they thought they were good, got challenged, then never dared to be great. There is always next year. That comes from within them, its their DNA from some sacred cows respected for soooooo long that it's almost become a religion here.

Leaders are always born, you cannot make them. Its been proven here that you do not learn that skill via osmosis. You can buy as many self-starting team first guys as you can to limit the amount of players that need active leadership. You can break the asset bank to bring in captains from other teams to mitigate that gap. But you can't bring in kids, especially talented ones from a rebuild that likely come with larger egos, or tax the shit out of your Leadership group with acquisitions like Fiala and Dubois, without requiring somebody to do the work.

We have seen so many occasions were new players and kids have had a lot of difficulty assimilating here. Players just admitted that they felt closer this year - likely due to the "right" kinds being brought in with former Cup winners and team first guys making MUCH bigger splashes than the over-priced big fish. Why? They didn't need somebody to lead them.

Is Kopitar a terrible captain? I don't know. But sure as shit everyone of his teams fails the same way for the same reasons, and it's always heart and character. Those are the most obvious intangibles whose absence you can perceive from losers. Coming back from behind, finding new ways to win and overcoming obstacles are the most obvious intangibles you see in winners, and they do not happen here.

Whether anybody refuses to criticize Kopitar or not, it would take somebody with very limited understanding to say that it does not matter and that a total overhaul of the leadership group wouldn't be the best possible outcome here.