Post-Game Talk: Official Kings (2) vs Soilers (3) Series talk

The world we live in.

I have been watching the playoffs exclusively this season things I’m noticing.

In every series there has been game management by the refs. We saw a lot of teams go up 2-0 and miraculously we have had almost all of those series tighten back up. Almost every favorite in the series fan base has complained about inconsistent reffing.

Betman lives to brag about revenue. He cums all over himself talking about playoff format and how “exciting” and how lucrative and competitive the league is. Competitive equates to maximum engagement which equals larger pool of consumers.

I don’t think the team is picking winners and losers. I do think they are 100% engineering competitive series. You don’t have to tell the refs to not call on a certain team all you have to do is nourish a game management philosophy to officiating which has been done over the last 4 years.

You don’t have owners in the league anymore you have corporate ownership through 90% of the league. Pro sports is all about making money. It’s not about banners anymore it’s about franchise value and gates. The accounting is so subversive and there are 100’s of ways to bury profits and losses.

Gambling

Another huge influence on the game. The league partnering with sports betting and the games management by refs is another thing too obvious to overlook.you can drastically change statistics based on the way a game is called. Put away the whistles you get a kore wide open game. Call it one way you can get lead changes. Call it another way you can get blowouts.


With how corrupt and with the greed in the world there is. No way this doesn’t at least get some attention.

The league doesn’t have to have the narrative of we are fixing games . They just have to implement a culture of competitive balance, game management, we want emotion in the games, must watch tv, and parody. All have which been narratives screamed not whispered by the league.

Look no further than our own team that already won 2 championships they can point at in the rafters only to shift to a profit based direction. Luc will not be fired because he makes the team money and they can shuffle the deck chairs with coaches and players to maximize always getting that first round of playoff money. To do that you make an inclusive environment that always has casual fans with deep pockets wanting to be entertained with the delusion of a completive team. The team isn’t designed from the rafters to basement to win the cup. The are designed to make money, sell merchandise, attract sponsors, and build franchise value. They already have 2 cups to check that box with!

Professional sports is filled with agents, lawyers, marketing people, frat dudes, sales people, and multi millionaires. Which are in fact the biggest pieces of shit on the face of the earth!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Omni Owl
What's really maddening too is that even Mclellan had spurts of success with aggressive play--he was generally 1-3-1 but does anyone else remember mid series when he suddently adopted an aggressive forecheck (semblance of 2-1-2) and we started controlling play? Took a lead only to....you know the rest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tigermask48
1745864341751.jpeg
 
What's really maddening too is that even Mclellan had spurts of success with aggressive play--he was generally 1-3-1 but does anyone else remember mid series when he suddently adopted an aggressive forecheck (semblance of 2-1-2) and we started controlling play? Took a lead only to....you know the rest.
Yep. It really isn't an issue with a specific coach, the players, or anything else. What's been so frustrating these last 4 playoffs has been watching this team get in it's own way, sitting back, playing defensively, and losing.

I don't understand where this NEED to trap the Oilers to death comes from... it just doesn't work and seemingly everyone is aware of it... and yet the Kings still try.
 
Are you really going to tell us if the Kings don't win 2 of the next 3, that the season was still a success?

At what point does success in the playoffs matter to you?
Is that what I said? No, I said the regular season success was tons of fun to watch. Too bad you guys didn't get any enjoyment out of it.
 
The real angry part for me...Oiler fans. They have been talking so much junk like their team is great but it's the Kings fumbling the series away. They haven't been doing anything in the series until the Kings sit back and wait for one line to take over. They have only lead for 27 mins in four games and all of those minutes came in game 3. The Kings have been dominating the series.
 
This was March 30th

"With Lewis in the lineup and on-ice:

26 wins, 26 losses
46.67 CF% 9GF 17GA 34% GF%, 48%xgf%

With Lewis out of the lineup/team with Lewis off-ice:

14 wins, 6 losses
54.45 CF% 133GF, 92GA 59% GF%, 55%xgf%"

Updated W/L--

31 wins, 30 losses with lewis in

18 wins, 6 losses with lewis out

You have to go all the way back to March 17th to find our first L with lewis out of the lineup, and back to December 22 for the previous one.

That's correct. We only have literally one loss in 2025 with Trevor Lewis out of the lineup.
 
This was March 30th

"With Lewis in the lineup and on-ice:

26 wins, 26 losses
46.67 CF% 9GF 17GA 34% GF%, 48%xgf%

With Lewis out of the lineup/team with Lewis off-ice:

14 wins, 6 losses
54.45 CF% 133GF, 92GA 59% GF%, 55%xgf%"

Updated W/L--

31 wins, 30 losses with lewis in

18 wins, 6 losses with lewis out

You have to go all the way back to March 17th to find our first L with lewis out of the lineup, and back to December 22 for the previous one.

That's correct. We only have literally one loss in 2025 with Trevor Lewis out of the lineup.
It’s tough to ignore, it’s not exactly a small sample size either.

I would just love to hear the reasoning from anybody in the organization why any of these guys are playing over Turcotte, not just Lewis but Malott too. I’d also argue he’s better than Helenius, but I don’t think the Kings view Turcotte as a viable option at C going forward.

In early March he was playing on a line with the teams two best players, and Hiller was talking about all that he added to the team even if he wasn’t scoring. And then six weeks later he is a healthy scratch, behind 38 year old Lewis and some guy who at 28 had one-career NHL game before this season? This treatment because of one bad mistake in a playoff game? Good lord by that logic they are going to send Byfield to the ECHL for the rest of the season.

And while I am not saying our 4th line is going to be a strength, completely abandoning it is going to have consequences even if the Kings do advance. You have a lot of guys on the wrong side of 30 playing big minutes for the Kings, that is not sustainable.
 
Are we holding on for dear life at the ends of these last two? Yes! However, that penalty in OT was a joke. Horrible call on an embellishment. If Byfield just chips the puck out of the zone, we’re sitting pretty today.
 
Are you really going to tell us if the Kings don't win 2 of the next 3, that the season was still a success?

At what point does success in the playoffs matter to you?

It doesn’t. The only thing that matters to him is being right on the internet.

He doesn’t care about the team. He just wants internet points.
 
Are we holding on for dear life at the ends of these last two? Yes! However, that penalty in OT was a joke. Horrible call on an embellishment. If Byfield just chips the puck out of the zone, we’re sitting pretty today.
Or, if the ref calls the blatant trip on Edmundson by Hyman with 1:27 left, game over.
If if if, as we all know.
 
This was March 30th

"With Lewis in the lineup and on-ice:

26 wins, 26 losses
46.67 CF% 9GF 17GA 34% GF%, 48%xgf%

With Lewis out of the lineup/team with Lewis off-ice:

14 wins, 6 losses
54.45 CF% 133GF, 92GA 59% GF%, 55%xgf%"

Updated W/L--

31 wins, 30 losses with lewis in

18 wins, 6 losses with lewis out

You have to go all the way back to March 17th to find our first L with lewis out of the lineup, and back to December 22 for the previous one.

That's correct. We only have literally one loss in 2025 with Trevor Lewis out of the lineup.
So we have identified the symptoms, and we know the cure...But this antiquated won't make changes
 
Playing like scared midget players. The last 5 minutes is an example of what we traditionally do. The last coach to get us out of that mindset was Sutter. We have size on the fourth line that we don’t use. We don’t bite back when they start getting dirty. We don’t get physical when they start running us. Hiller is a tactics coach but fails in crunch time. He can’t calm his team down and he can’t send messages to the other team when they start to play chippy. He’s afraid of a war of attrition. And the rest of the team is catching that from him. No matter how the modern the new stat driven the NHL gets. The playoffs will always be an old-school hockey war of attrition. So far, Hiller is not showing that he can coach a team into that kind of battle. And this current team is not built for that kind of battle.
I told my group that the if the Kings do not dominate this game in the 3rd and play tit for tat with the Oilers when it comes to the physicality, that we were gonna lose this game and it would be the turning point of the series. Hiller better figure this out NOW. Not next season, not next series, not next game. He better figure out how to play desperate hockey NOW. Being up 2 games to the Oilers with the way we barely won game one, did not show that we were the better team. We’re only a better team than last year on stat sheets. If we can’t beat the Oilers, we’re not really a better team . And Doughty as our number 1Dman reached it’s expiration date two years ago.
 
Last edited:
Even mentioning the refs at this point is absurd....

The Kings could have and SHOULD have EASILY swept this series even with questionable officiating at times.

These guys are basically playing 3 skaters down every night with the way Hiller distributes ice time and we're talking about the damn refs???? We absolutely STEAMROLL this Soilers team if we just roll 4 lines and 3 d pairs but instead we're self sabotaging like a mf...

That is the ONLY reason this series is remotely close.
 
I voted Kings in 6, so I was expecting a couple of losses along the way, but these losses were self-inflicted, which I thought was a thing of the past. How can any coach see what happened in prior years and then think, "Yeah, let's try and sit back once we get the lead. Good strategy!" We can all bitch about Byfield screwing up and giving the game away, but it should NEVER have got to that point. I understand teams can pushback when they are down, but this team literally allows the Oilers the time and space to create offense. Let's give the best player in the world ALL THE TIME that he needs. The players can't be fine with this. If they are, find different players.

I also disagree with some who think Jeannot wouldn't make a difference. For some reason, Hiller just doesn't trust a 4th line without him. This team is much more dangerous when they run 4 lines and this line with Jeannot is especially hard to play against. That said, who knows what playoff Hiller is thinking. They may still only get a shift or two, especially if he thinks Jeannot will take some undisciplined penalties. I just wish he trusted his players more. You know, the ones that got them that great regular season record.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Ad

Ad