News Article: The Athletic: Why the Ten Worst Teams...

[KINGS17]

may actually be good. This article is sort of a rebuttal to Dom's predictions.

Down Goes Brown: Why the 10 worst NHL teams (according to...

Here is an example regarding Chicago:

But hear me out … : For the second straight entry, we can invoke last year’s Islanders to give hope to one of this year’s also-rans. The Hawks’ biggest offseason acquisition was goalie Robin Lehner, who was so good for the Islanders last year that he somehow won the Jennings for the Rangers. Between adding Lehner and the possibility of Corey Crawford getting back to full health, the Hawks looks pretty set in goal after watching Cam Ward torpedo half their season last year.

Mix in the possibility of Kane and Toews continuing to play at a high level and continued development from youngsters like Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome, and there’s some decent room for improvement here. And don’t forget that this will be the first full season for head coach Jeremy Colliton. Everyone was ready to write off Jared Bednar in Colorado after one year despite being hired on the eve of the season starting, but he’s settled in as a solid coach once he had a full offseason to work with. Colliton is young and learning, so as he gets better, the Hawks should too.

Will it be enough to compete in a Central that may not be top-heavy but should be deep? Probably, because these are the Blackhawks and the dressing room is still knee-deep in Cup rings and magical know-how-to-win dust. See? Optimism!

But alas for the Kings, even a Captain Optimism viewpoint isn't working:

But hear me out… : This is where our whole journey in optimism goes from difficult to almost futile. The Kings are bad, they know it, and they seem resigned to stay bad for a while. At this point, the question around the Kings is more like “can they be good by 2023”, so predicting big things in 2019-20 seems silly.

But maybe not quite as silly as you might think, if only because unlike almost all of these other teams, the Kings aren’t all that far removed from being decent. Last year was a disaster, but they had 98 points the season before that. That team had the same core as this one, albeit a few years younger. Get Kopitar and Doughty back to something like their 2018 level, mix in a strong year from a healthy Jonathan Quick and factor in a big upgrade behind the bench from Willie Desjardins to Todd McLellan, and the Kings could be in the mix in what figures to be a weak division. At least until they sell at the deadline.

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[Choralone]

They won't be the third worst, but the rebuild should continue unabated.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I did think it was kind of funny that he almost gave up by that point in the article

But he's not wrong, way more accurate. And he at least accounts for the possibility that the core can go nuclear again. I think he also--like just about every other preview--has gotten lazy and assumes that the Kings are still old, slow, and the same roster, rather than actively integrating youth and getting younger and faster. At least he accounts for Willie D, but I'm not sure anyone even realizes we dumped Phaneuf at this point. No one in the world knows Wagner, Amadio, or anyone newer than Iafallo who they all think sucks.

Kings are gonna be a surprise team. They'll blackhole/be a first round exit most likely, but it's gonna be a shock to the hockey world like the post-Doughty draft Kings. Like where did these guys come from? Get ready for "Who is Austin Wagner?" stuff, or like "we got beat by something called a Muzzin" from 2013

 

[Herby]

The Kings barely missing the playoffs or making the WC and getting destroyed again like two years ago would be just about the worst thing that could happen to the organization. Need to be picking in the Top 5 again. They have some awesome secondary pieces but they need to draft another Kopitar or Doughty type player to really have a chance going forward. They can surprise people and maybe make a WC run in 2020-2021, that is fine, but they need to be awful again this year.

The Kings made what looks like a great pick in 2018 in Kupari, so that eases it a bit, but sure would be nice to have the chance to draft players like Dahlin, Tkachuk, Hughes, Svechnikov, that is the type of player we need to get this draft.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The Kings barely missing the playoffs or making the WC and getting destroyed again like two years ago would be just about the worst thing that could happen to the organization. Need to be picking in the Top 5 again. They have some awesome secondary pieces but they need to draft another Kopitar or Doughty type player to really have a chance going forward. They can surprise people and maybe make a WC run in 2020-2021, that is fine, but they need to be awful again this year.

The Kings made what looks like a great pick in 2018 in Kupari, so that eases it a bit, but sure would be nice to have the chance to draft players like Dahlin, Tkachuk, Hughes, Svechnikov, that is the type of player we need to get this draft.

This is a different conversation, though. You're talking philosophy about what the franchise needs, or should pursue. This article is about an evaluation of what they are. And frankly, no matter how much some posters think the core sucks/is too old/needs to go away, the possibility exists that they can be a playoff team, and the likelihood that they're actually a last place team is pretty low with some changes most notably Willie D.

 

[Herby]

This is a different conversation, though. You're talking philosophy about what the franchise needs, or should pursue. This article is about an evaluation of what they are. And frankly, no matter how much some posters think the core sucks/is too old/needs to go away, the possibility exists that they can be a playoff team, and the likelihood that they're actually a last place team is pretty low with some changes most notably Willie D.

I can’t pretend to have in-depth knowledge of what the other teams are trotting out there on defense but I can’t imagine there are many teams with a worse defense than the Kings have.

And it’s not like the Kings have an elite offense to make up for it.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I don't disagree at all.

 

[BigKing]

The defense is horrible. Really hoping for MacD to keep it bad but provide entertainment.

Rather see bad defense from a guy that will crush people v. some trash heap SJ soft shit signing. They are still charging money for seats so let's make it fun at least.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The defense is horrible. Really hoping for MacD to keep it bad but provide entertainment.

Rather see bad defense from a guy that will crush people v. some trash heap SJ soft **** signing. They are still charging money for seats so let's make it fun at least.

The good news there is we've all seen the McLellan systems. They're up-tempo, hard-charging. And we all know they'll have to outscore their problems. Here's hoping.

 

[Sol]

Threads like this are hard to evaluate when you don't know what the roster will look like by December

 

[KingsFan7824]

I've got Vancouver winning the Pacific, and the division sending 5 teams to the playoffs. The Kings will not be one of them.

There's not another team in the league with fewer d-men that have played more than 100 NHL games than the Kings. Ottawa is close. Colorado, having traded Barrie, and with Johnson and Cole hurt to start the season I believe, are actually right there with the Kings. I think in total GP of d-men that will start the year, they're actually less experienced than the Kings.

4th on that list for the Kings is Ryan though, just inching above that limit with 106 career games. There's Doughty, with the least proven help around him he's ever had, and nobody that can control him, Martinez is a borderline top 4, then everyone's favorite Forbort, and then just an organizational roster full of guys that have barely played. Even if some of the key forwards bounce back, the team has to replace Voynov and Muzzin. They haven't come close to replacing Voynov in 5 years, and have yet to make any attempt at replacing Muzzin(not that they should've). They're 2, likely 3 top 4D away from being in any conversation outside of prospect pools.

If Martinez can be better than he is, if Forbort can be a solid minute eater, if one of Walker/LaDue/Roy can be that 2nd RHD that can take a regular shift, if Doughty can be a veteran leader, and if any 3rd pair they throw out there isn't regularly torched, then the team might have a chance to surprise.

 

[kingsfan28]

This is a different conversation, though. You're talking philosophy about what the franchise needs, or should pursue. This article is about an evaluation of what they are. And frankly, no matter how much some posters think the core sucks/is too old/needs to go away, the possibility exists that they can be a playoff team, and the likelihood that they're actually a last place team is pretty low with some changes most notably Willie D.

Pretty much. We now have a coach who will command respect and hold the players accountable. I don't see last season playing out again, not even close.

 

[bland]

Its not so much that the Kings are a bad team, but that they dramatically underachieved last year. I think the majority of us expected them to be a bubble playoff squad in 18-19, but they just flat out never showed up.

We saw in 17-18 what a bump in enthusiasm did to the vets. We could see that same bump this year, but on a team two years older with a group of defensemen that are a whole lot worse. I don't expect anything other than a black hole pick in next years draft.