Whiskeypete
Registered User
i've been on the sidelines for months waiting. i only saw the NYR game in Vegas so i am only up to speed based on others comments, opinions and insights. here is my beginning of the season take on the state of the Kings.
the glut of 3/4 line veteran talent vs. the Kids:
Carbomb, Fraser, Lewis, Frattin, King are all UFA/RFA after this season. i think all of them are on a tryout at this point. that is what this year's camp was about. the chance for Dean to measure the Kids against these guys. it will not surprise me if any of them struggle that Sutter will sit them first. any extended lack of production or effort and they are gone. none of them can afford to have a season like they did last year.
the exception to this is Lewis. i agree with MN14 - he is a Maltby type of player. he does everything to help a team win, but seldom appears on the sheet except for hits, blocked shots, etc. every team needs one or two guys like this to win titles.
Clifford i didn't mention. he has another year to go on his contract, but this year is critical for him. last year he was invisible in my eyes, he has to make his presence known. i'm not saying he has to drop the mitts all the time, but he has to play physical.
Nolan the one game i saw, i liked what i saw. he was destroying guys and best of all, he walked away most of the time from the after whistle crap. you want to make a player/team lose their ****, that is how you do it. play them physical and when they go to retaliate just skate away.
King, Fraser and Carcillo imo are gone. they are holding back more well rounded young talent on ELCs. i expect 1-2 of them traded by the deadline to make room.
D corp
stacked. pure and simple. is it ideal? no. i would rather have Scuds over RR, but it isn't happening so move on. i am anxious to see how RR performs now that he is 100%. i am still concerned about his top end speed and even more on his lateral/pivot movement. i think he got burned more on stop/starts then he did at top speed.
DD and VV....no reason to comment. studs that will carry the backend all 200 feet.
AMart i am glad to hear is coming back in 2012 form. the guy never got it together last year with the two injuries, coupled with a compressed schedule. i still have very high hopes for him moving forward.
Muzz has tremendous upside as we all know. once he overcomes his injury, we will see him split with AMart. to me Muzz is rough, he needs time to develop between the ears to be more effective on the ice. he needs to simplify and slow down his game. last year i think he tried to do to much and accelerate his own development. that lead to some porr decisions and miscues. KISS.....keep it simple stupid. he plays north-south and plays his game he will be fine.
Sutter - AMart - Muzz. personally i think if Sutter is smart he lays out 10 game plans for these two, that let's them know when they play. i think both guys last year where so worried about their play and possibly getting scratched it **** them up more and performed poorly on the ice. Sutter needs to reduce the fear factor these two have, so they go out and play 'their' game. in the end the team will be better for it.
WM - hope the knee holds brother. if it does he is an upgrade to Scuds.
MG - love Greener. who is the first jagoff this season that will call for his trade? whoever it is most likely never played and don't realize why a team needs a guy like him.
Goalies
Quick - enough said
Scrivens - go buy yourself an ass donut, so you don't get a sore ass or 'roids.
Top 6
The big guys can't go silent or slump....end of story.
As some noted the lineup on Oct 3 most likely will not be what we see come April and past, not to mention next season.
At what point will we possibly see the evolution of the Kings forward lines? Personally i think we will begin to see it when they guys on the 3/4 lines aren't producing they way DL wants. It goes back to camp. Dean got a good long look (and Sutter finally) at what they had in vets and prospects. They both now see what they have as replacement upgrades, should they want to change the dynamic of the team. The same way they did in 2012.
I have been and am still in support of a lineup that is going to be
xx - Kopitar - xx
xx - Carter - xx
xx - Richards - xx
xx - Stoll - xx
That is and will be the Kings lineup period. It gives Dean the ability to move around all the pieces he has and slot them in correctly, while improving the club on the top end. Nobody is playing out of position just to get in the lineup. It moves guys into a position based around their age/capability that will allow them to play more to their abilities.
Going to this lineup will move Stoll down into the #4, which will be a pre-tell of AA's arrival to take that role.
Pearson - TT can move into the line up on any of the top three lines, on the correct side.
Brown can slide from 1-3 in the line up as the LW, but i think sliding him down and a reduction in TOI will help him long term for his career.
JW can stay with Kopi, or slide him alongside Carter or Richards. I want to see JW play with Richards on the #3. Personally i would hate to play against a line that was made up of xx - Richards - Williams. Yes there is skill there, but more importantly the amount of veteran know how and grit is over the top. As a 3rd line having those two out there, would exploit the living hell out almost every team they line up against. Put a kid on the left side with some size/speed to open space and it will be entertaining.
WC - Pacific - SCF
who the hell knows? i've seen far to many wide ranging calls on where LA will finish. Some as far down as 3rd or 4th in the Pacifc. Really? Hockey experts my ass.
Write it down, quote me on it. The WCF will be almost exclusively a CHI - LA series for the next 5 years. Those are the two teams to beat in the west as it stands today. Both teams have all the pieces in place today and have strong pipelines of prospects waiting.
Outside of the Kings and Hawks, then i see STL and ANH. STL is the only team other than CHI that worries me in the West. ANH is becoming more and more a two horse act of Baldy and Perry. SJ is at a seesaw tipping point when you look at the roster of young vs vets. Joe, Marleau and Boyle lead that team and that is a lot of talent to lose when they leave/retire. VAN....lol....Torts....lmao....he will implode in VAN and the sisters will retire back to Sweden. In the end the Nucks will still be titleless. MIN still building, has some pieces but needs time to develop further.
Back to the Hawks....
The achilles of the Hawks past, present and remains the #2C spot. Zus did great for them and I was happy for him. The guy is a class act and i was happy to see him get a ring. Now it is a full season, he is another year older at 36. How effective will he be in the middle of March? May?
After Zus then it becomes another rotation of Kane? Sharp? experiment at center, which only reduces the effectiveness of what makes them. Zus gave coach Q the ability to stack one of them on a top line. To essentially skate three all star forwards together - Toews, Kane, Sharp, Hossa. If Zus becomes ineffective then Q has to move him down to the #3C. Which turns into another D Bolland situation that never worked for them, when they try moving Shaw or Kruger up.
On the back end it will be Rozsival and/or Leddy. Which will break first? Rozsival is 35 and just had a career year, one that had Q leaning heavily on him. Can he continue to give them 20+ minutes for a full season.
Leddy is at a critical junction. He is CHI's Alec Martinez. Great skill set, great potential but struggling to pull it together every night.
Those are the three guys in CHI's roster that i think are key to their success this year. Some will say what about Crawford? Personally i think he will play like he did last season. He's a damn good goalie and like Quick (pre 2012) doesn't get the respect he should. Now if he should get injured and they have to rely on Khabi, that is another question.
these are my assessments at this point. can't wait for the puck to drop. i love summer and hate winter. but i hate no hockey during the summer....it's a strange love-hate
GKG!!
the glut of 3/4 line veteran talent vs. the Kids:
Carbomb, Fraser, Lewis, Frattin, King are all UFA/RFA after this season. i think all of them are on a tryout at this point. that is what this year's camp was about. the chance for Dean to measure the Kids against these guys. it will not surprise me if any of them struggle that Sutter will sit them first. any extended lack of production or effort and they are gone. none of them can afford to have a season like they did last year.
the exception to this is Lewis. i agree with MN14 - he is a Maltby type of player. he does everything to help a team win, but seldom appears on the sheet except for hits, blocked shots, etc. every team needs one or two guys like this to win titles.
Clifford i didn't mention. he has another year to go on his contract, but this year is critical for him. last year he was invisible in my eyes, he has to make his presence known. i'm not saying he has to drop the mitts all the time, but he has to play physical.
Nolan the one game i saw, i liked what i saw. he was destroying guys and best of all, he walked away most of the time from the after whistle crap. you want to make a player/team lose their ****, that is how you do it. play them physical and when they go to retaliate just skate away.
King, Fraser and Carcillo imo are gone. they are holding back more well rounded young talent on ELCs. i expect 1-2 of them traded by the deadline to make room.
D corp
stacked. pure and simple. is it ideal? no. i would rather have Scuds over RR, but it isn't happening so move on. i am anxious to see how RR performs now that he is 100%. i am still concerned about his top end speed and even more on his lateral/pivot movement. i think he got burned more on stop/starts then he did at top speed.
DD and VV....no reason to comment. studs that will carry the backend all 200 feet.
AMart i am glad to hear is coming back in 2012 form. the guy never got it together last year with the two injuries, coupled with a compressed schedule. i still have very high hopes for him moving forward.
Muzz has tremendous upside as we all know. once he overcomes his injury, we will see him split with AMart. to me Muzz is rough, he needs time to develop between the ears to be more effective on the ice. he needs to simplify and slow down his game. last year i think he tried to do to much and accelerate his own development. that lead to some porr decisions and miscues. KISS.....keep it simple stupid. he plays north-south and plays his game he will be fine.
Sutter - AMart - Muzz. personally i think if Sutter is smart he lays out 10 game plans for these two, that let's them know when they play. i think both guys last year where so worried about their play and possibly getting scratched it **** them up more and performed poorly on the ice. Sutter needs to reduce the fear factor these two have, so they go out and play 'their' game. in the end the team will be better for it.
WM - hope the knee holds brother. if it does he is an upgrade to Scuds.
MG - love Greener. who is the first jagoff this season that will call for his trade? whoever it is most likely never played and don't realize why a team needs a guy like him.
Goalies
Quick - enough said
Scrivens - go buy yourself an ass donut, so you don't get a sore ass or 'roids.
Top 6
The big guys can't go silent or slump....end of story.
As some noted the lineup on Oct 3 most likely will not be what we see come April and past, not to mention next season.
At what point will we possibly see the evolution of the Kings forward lines? Personally i think we will begin to see it when they guys on the 3/4 lines aren't producing they way DL wants. It goes back to camp. Dean got a good long look (and Sutter finally) at what they had in vets and prospects. They both now see what they have as replacement upgrades, should they want to change the dynamic of the team. The same way they did in 2012.
I have been and am still in support of a lineup that is going to be
xx - Kopitar - xx
xx - Carter - xx
xx - Richards - xx
xx - Stoll - xx
That is and will be the Kings lineup period. It gives Dean the ability to move around all the pieces he has and slot them in correctly, while improving the club on the top end. Nobody is playing out of position just to get in the lineup. It moves guys into a position based around their age/capability that will allow them to play more to their abilities.
Going to this lineup will move Stoll down into the #4, which will be a pre-tell of AA's arrival to take that role.
Pearson - TT can move into the line up on any of the top three lines, on the correct side.
Brown can slide from 1-3 in the line up as the LW, but i think sliding him down and a reduction in TOI will help him long term for his career.
JW can stay with Kopi, or slide him alongside Carter or Richards. I want to see JW play with Richards on the #3. Personally i would hate to play against a line that was made up of xx - Richards - Williams. Yes there is skill there, but more importantly the amount of veteran know how and grit is over the top. As a 3rd line having those two out there, would exploit the living hell out almost every team they line up against. Put a kid on the left side with some size/speed to open space and it will be entertaining.
WC - Pacific - SCF
who the hell knows? i've seen far to many wide ranging calls on where LA will finish. Some as far down as 3rd or 4th in the Pacifc. Really? Hockey experts my ass.
Write it down, quote me on it. The WCF will be almost exclusively a CHI - LA series for the next 5 years. Those are the two teams to beat in the west as it stands today. Both teams have all the pieces in place today and have strong pipelines of prospects waiting.
Outside of the Kings and Hawks, then i see STL and ANH. STL is the only team other than CHI that worries me in the West. ANH is becoming more and more a two horse act of Baldy and Perry. SJ is at a seesaw tipping point when you look at the roster of young vs vets. Joe, Marleau and Boyle lead that team and that is a lot of talent to lose when they leave/retire. VAN....lol....Torts....lmao....he will implode in VAN and the sisters will retire back to Sweden. In the end the Nucks will still be titleless. MIN still building, has some pieces but needs time to develop further.
Back to the Hawks....
The achilles of the Hawks past, present and remains the #2C spot. Zus did great for them and I was happy for him. The guy is a class act and i was happy to see him get a ring. Now it is a full season, he is another year older at 36. How effective will he be in the middle of March? May?
After Zus then it becomes another rotation of Kane? Sharp? experiment at center, which only reduces the effectiveness of what makes them. Zus gave coach Q the ability to stack one of them on a top line. To essentially skate three all star forwards together - Toews, Kane, Sharp, Hossa. If Zus becomes ineffective then Q has to move him down to the #3C. Which turns into another D Bolland situation that never worked for them, when they try moving Shaw or Kruger up.
On the back end it will be Rozsival and/or Leddy. Which will break first? Rozsival is 35 and just had a career year, one that had Q leaning heavily on him. Can he continue to give them 20+ minutes for a full season.
Leddy is at a critical junction. He is CHI's Alec Martinez. Great skill set, great potential but struggling to pull it together every night.
Those are the three guys in CHI's roster that i think are key to their success this year. Some will say what about Crawford? Personally i think he will play like he did last season. He's a damn good goalie and like Quick (pre 2012) doesn't get the respect he should. Now if he should get injured and they have to rely on Khabi, that is another question.
these are my assessments at this point. can't wait for the puck to drop. i love summer and hate winter. but i hate no hockey during the summer....it's a strange love-hate
GKG!!
