HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Rob Blake post trade deadline press conference

[Lt Dan]

 

[kilowatt]

We have no hope of competing with the top 8 teams in this league and we have very little in the pipeline. What are we doing?

Our path to the cup goes through Edmonton, Colorado, Dallas, and Florida. Not sure we even take a game off any of them in a seven game series.

 

[Bandit]

Rob Blake spoke, and the sound that came out was:

Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp

At least we somehow managed to escape without trading Clarke or Spence. .

 

[unicornpig]

Rob Blake spoke, and the sound that came out was:

Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp

At least we somehow managed to escape without trading Clarke or Spence. .

theres still the offeseason for that. hopefully hes fired by then

 

[FSL KINGS]

Rob Blake spoke, and the sound that came out was:

Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp

At least we somehow managed to escape without trading Clarke or Spence. .

Why do we have both Clarke & Spence if they are mutually exclusive?

 

[BigKing]

We have no hope of competing with the top 8 teams in this league and we have very little in the pipeline. What are we doing?

Our path to the cup goes through Edmonton, Colorado, Dallas, and Florida. Not sure we even take a game off any of them in a seven game series.

No need to mention an EC team: only need to mention potential first round opponents.

Hell, St. Louis is taking their lunch money so far in this mini series over the last week. The Kings will be one of the worst playoff teams again this year. They are the definition of average.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Why do we have both Clarke & Spence if they are mutually exclusive?

I don’t think you understand what mutually exclusive means.

 

[BigBrown]

The funny thing is I complain that he doesn't make himself available to the media and now that he has a presser I don't even wanna hear it.

Just send his ass packing as soon as the season is over, and have Luc and Bergevin join him.

 

[SaltyElkHunter]

Why do we have both Clarke & Spence if they are mutually exclusive?

Personally I would be waiting for Clarke to steal it from him to trade him. Can’t give it to him.

 

[King'sPawn]

With the trade deadline, teams should look to achieve one of the following:
- get futures
- get depth
- get that missing piece for a deep push.

I would have preferred they got futures, but for a team likely to make the playoffs was never going to do that.

Things could have been much worse.

 

[bland]

That was a quality presser, honest and forthcoming.

Blake has had a strong year. Time will tell, but this should be the season we look back on where they stopped the hope and took a good hard look at what they needed instead of what they wanted.

 

[FSL KINGS]

I don’t think you understand what mutually exclusive means.

Hiller won't play them at the same time?

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Did no one ask blake what kind of dog Kuzmenko has

I like Blake a lot more away from his handlers

Sounded like a dude who is over it and not going to renew contract after this season

 

[DoktorJeep]

Should have been a fifth for Kuzmenko. Guess Dennis Bernstein got his wish fulfilled for making an overpayment.

 

[Lt Dan]

I never notice it before this video, but Rob really looks like Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai

 

[kingsholygrail]

I never notice it before this video, but Rob really looks like Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai

He looks like a karate teacher from the 90s, yes.

 

[KINGS17]

No need to mention an EC team: only need to mention potential first round opponents.

Hell, St. Louis is taking their lunch money so far in this mini series over the last week. The Kings will be one of the worst playoff teams again this year. They are the definition of average.

I would say mediocre.

 

[jgs]

We have no hope of competing with the top 8 teams in this league and we have very little in the pipeline. What are we doing?

Our path to the cup goes through Edmonton, Colorado, Dallas, and Florida. Not sure we even take a game off any of them in a seven game series.

Good question because Blake doesn't have a clue on what he doing.

 

[bland]

Good question because Blake doesn't have a clue on what he doing.

But this year he looked logically at the state of his franchise and made moves to address weaknesses with what he realistically had avaliable. He did no harm. That's pretty significant given his track record.

 

[Statto]

But this year he looked logically at the state of his franchise and made moves to address weaknesses with what he realistically had avaliable. He did no harm. That's pretty significant given his track record.

Obviously in truth I have no idea but since the off season it’s felt like Luc hasn’t had as much influence. The moves feel like Blake’s.

The period of time from dumb decision the end the rebuild through to Luc announcing that “we were right there” seems to me to have been Luc being too involved. He definitely seems to have taken a step back.

I’m not absolving Blake as at the very least he’s gone along with it. Hopefully Blake goes and Luc doesn’t interfere with the next guy (preferably going himself). Of course all bets are off when his buddy gets the job.

Obviously just speculation based on my observations/perceptions.

 

[NikF]

Blake's energy in that presser seems like relief and acceptance. Makes you wonder if he even expects to be back in the GM role.

Unfortunately, we will probably never be privy to it, but I would LOVE to read/know about the power dynamics between the Liewekes, Lombardis, Robitailles, Blakes etc. over the years. I'm reading Robert Caro's The Power Broker and it makes me realize just how much we probably don't know about the stuff behind the scenes that influences hockey decisions.

 

[Master Yoda]

I would say mediocre.

As the kids say these days, this team is mid

 

[Reaper45]

As the kids say these days, this team is mid

Right smack dab in the black hole. Not good enough to do damage in the playoffs and not bad enough for a top pick.

Mundane. Mediocre. Tan f***ing crayon.

 

[Madness20721]

I'm grateful that I got to see the Kings win two Stanley Cups. Not many teams can say they have two Cups. I don't think I'll live to see them win another one, and that's freaking disappointing. DL screwed everything up with his contracts after the Kings won the second Cup, and the Kings have been trying to dig themselves out of that hole ever since. Unfortunately, the Kings went with the good ol' boys club and gave the GM job to Blake, who is completely in over his head, and has no chance of ever building a contender. I don't know if another GM will fair any better until we get rid of this big cap hits and dead weight skaters, and maybe come up with a better game plan because this one isn't working. And having the worst PP in the league isn't helping things either. No idea why the special teams coaching staff still have jobs.

 

[funky]

All I know is Blake made a ton of trades and acquired a boatload of picks. In hindsight, it was probably a year too late, but he was probably brought in and told to try and win right off the bat. I see this because Lombardi was let go because the team was starting to flounder and the moves Dean was making were not working. Still love Dean.

Blake accrued a ton of assets, and none of his pics were out of their pre draft slot according to every draft service. I think 95% of the fans loved the 2019 draft picks after the draft.


He ended up drafting Faber, Vilardi, Anderson, Spence Turcotte, Byfield, Anderson, Laf, Helenius as well as guys that have played like Bjornfot, Grans, Anderson-Dolan and Kaliyev, Thomas and Lee in the first 5ish drafts.

Everything’s fine until Doughty opened his mouth and philosophy seem to change. Now was this Blake’s doing? Or did it come from higher up?

The Fiala trade was made, the PLD trade. Both greatly changed the complexion of the team, added massive salary. They rushed a contract to an immature/ unproven goalie which compounded the problem and added cap which we did not have.

I saw a plan in the first five years. The first part was to try and win. Lombardi was fired because he was not doing that while mortgaging the future. BLuc continued until they realized it was futile and abandoned that plug for a rebuild.

The rebuild was cruising along, fans accepted this, but obviously the internal veteran players did not.

Was it Blake’s plan to listen to his players? Did he get orders from above?

I cannot see PLD as a guy Blake covets. He was the type of player that used to destroy when he played.

Every move around this time, Blake had Robitaills stuck to his side. Bergevin was brought in. Last year’s processor where Luke appeared to be on drugs, watch Blake’s reaction to what Luc. Blake was distant, looked away, didn’t offer any time support to.Luc.

Blake did a lot of crap moves like his choice in coaches, his role in allowing some of these trades to happen, and the way he ditched us 20+ years ago

however, I would like to see how much interference and meddling has happened in his tenature as GM.

This news conference was a win. It was Blake alone, appearing vested, appearing knowledgeable, and being as forthcoming as he could. There was no outside interference and he seemed like a different man.

The win is he didn’t throw away our future to save his job.

We have some great young pieces that are starting to get better in Byfield, Laf, Turc, Greentree, with a Dcore that still has Clarke, Spence, Anderson and a goalie pipeline in Portillo, Sluk, and George.

We have still young enough higher end guys like Kempe and Fiala we will have contracts that will be bargains.

No, it’s up to the coast to put players like Kopitar in proper roles. If he’s gonna be a legacy player, let him play out his last year of his contract as our third line center and trade, Phil.

With the cap going up Doughty would have immense trade value around the league especially if we ate a bit of contract. Toronto would be a perfect fit.

We are actually in really good shape for the future cap wise. As long as we don’t do anything stupid.