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Confirmed with Link: The koala has been fired!! Todd McLellan fired, Jim Hiller named Interim Head Coach

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Telos said:
I am open to Hiller, but it does bother me, on some level, that nepotism is still there. Hiller was drafted by the Kings and played with Blake on the Kings in 92-93. Cool story, but it just bothers me that practically every single person in the entire organization has that line to draw.
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He also has ties to McClellan in the Det org.. so its a double nepo hire. He has done a good job w PP wherever he went. He's prob just an interim ala tank commander Willie D... Im sure he was told that he will have a chance to earn the full time HC job depending on how he does.. which is a good way to motivate him.
 
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BigKing said:
Why would they be happy about it? They are still getting all the minutes they want and T-Mac is their biggest cheerleader.

Oh, you mean Fiala and PLD? Have to be more specific when you are talking about players that shouldn't currently be here in the first place. I legit thought you meant 11 & 8.

PLD for sure. Fully expect him to be seeing some new line mates first game after the break.

Blake is not allowed to hire another coach. All on the players to try and turn this around. Blake needs a PLD breakout and a good second half/playoff appearance to keep his job. Hiller gets the chance to earn the full-time gig but he is to do Blake's bidding since he owes Blake for the opportunity.

Problem here is that if there is a short-term pop this season and we see Hiller get the job full-time, we are looking at Stevens 2.0 since it is still the same flawed roster.
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The last two players who would be happy by this would be Kopitar and Doughty. McLellan's defensive based systems have allowed them to retain their top spots on the team. If the Kings adopted a more offensive style you would quickly see those two struggling to remain key cogs on this team. Hell, Anze has struggled to keep up with the pace of the 1-3-1 at his advanced mileage.

We just saw a coach whose team was purring totally lose focus by two players who went into business for themselves instead of maintaining something that was working.

Now don't get me wrong, they were going to fold quickly in the playoffs again, and young players progress was clearly being thwarted in favor of immediate results. A new coach was necessary - just not for the reasons that ultimately got him fired.
 
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Not really a fan of promoting an assistant coach, feel like they need a new voice in the room. But the critique can wait until we see how Hiller does. Gallant or Berube would have been solid choices, would've rather seen either of them.
 
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Lol. Well it's a good start and it isn't Sturm taking over... yet.

Blake about 2 weeks ago: "we aren't getting rid of Todd, he's been great here."
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Omni Owl said:
Not really a fan of promoting an assistant coach, feel like they need a new voice in the room. But the critique can wait until we see how Hiller does. Gallant or Berube would have been solid choices, would've rather seen either of them.
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Hiller is very respected so I think it’s not that bad, I agree they should have brought in someone or has something lined up at this point. Promoting Stevens killed the Kings. Strange Blake hasn’t learned or at this point it’s expected.
 
McLellan is not a bad coach, he's just not a winner. He's the Jeff Fisher of the NHL, a competent coach who complies career wins just being ok enough. His lack of adjustments, refusal to use timeouts, and just overall stubbornness puts a ceiling on the type of success his teams can have. Is this all his fault? Absolutely not. But I won't shed any tears over him being gone because he was never going to lead the Kings to the mountaintop. And if this all leads to Blake and Luc being gone as well, even better
 
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Omni Owl said:
Not really a fan of promoting an assistant coach, feel like they need a new voice in the room. But the critique can wait until we see how Hiller does. Gallant or Berube would have been solid choices, would've rather seen either of them.
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Want to be happy about Todd getting canned, but Hiller vs a coach with experience as a head coach seems like bailing on the season.

Also, doubt new coach will improve much without a new goalie.

Kid's should play more at least.
 
Omni Owl said:
Not really a fan of promoting an assistant coach, feel like they need a new voice in the room. But the critique can wait until we see how Hiller does. Gallant or Berube would have been solid choices, would've rather seen either of them.
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Blake isn't getting another "real" coach that's going to need a deal. This is throwing shit at the wall to see if it works with a guy already under contract
 
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AbsentMojo said:
If AEG is wide awake, they'll move Luc to team ambassador and bring in a new president who will work with AEG to do a thorough GM search in the offseason when assistants are available. It will have to happen fast because they need to decided whether to buyout PLD and hire the best coach before other teams do. I really concerned that just Blake is fired we get the Bergovin Luc shit show.
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This!!!!
 
Sol said:
I don’t think for a second this firing came from Blake and his buddies. This came from up top, 100%. I think this is Blake getting the rest of the season to make shit work or they’re gonna can him too. Blake has been completely behind Todd at all times and this move suggests that he was forced.
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you might be right about that because all indications were they were gonna use the break as a reset and weren't gonna do a damn thing.

Also, look at how long this all went on for. Almost a quarter of the season. How much time did Stevens get - and that was a stumble out of the gate. This was a collapse
 
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I would also say:

-Blake said he'd stick with Todd, then Todd was fired 13 days later

-Blake says Hiller is the coach for the season, but we have a long break and things can change on the phones

Right now it seems a lot of quality coaches are out there looking for work, maybe Blake can snag a Gallant or something in the break time
 
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bland said:
The last two players who would be happy by this would be Kopitar and Doughty. McLellan's defensive based systems have allowed them to retain their top spots on the team. If the Kings adopted a more offensive style you would quickly see those two struggling to remain key cogs on this team. Hell, Anze has struggled to keep up with the pace of the 1-3-1 at his advanced mileage.

We just saw a coach whose team was purring totally lose focus by two players who went into business for themselves instead of maintaining something that was working.

Now don't get me wrong, they were going to fold quickly in the playoffs again, and young players progress was clearly being thwarted in favor of immediate results. A new coach was necessary - just not for the reasons that ultimately got him fired.
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It’s awesome to see how many guys are in the same page with a finger on the pulse of what’s going on!

I feel if things are this obvious hopefully Breckerman has come home like dad and told Blake and Luc to go get the belt!
 
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don't claim to know shit about hiller as a coach but if he ran at least PP2, he was giving the kids a fair shake so i'm cool with that

unique position to be in having watched the faults in front of him but still having a full roster to make his tweaks with now

please for the love of god lighten the load on kopi and danault, they won the other night by just rolling 4 and letting the kids work
 
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Statto said:
If the right guy isn’t available now you wait until the off season. Until then they maybe turn it around with Hiller and/or the younger guys get bigger roles. I have no problem with Hiller taking the reins as long as they don’t make silly moves trying to hang on for the playoffs. It’s an opportunity for Hiller to step up also and certainly means Stürm isn’t the coach in waiting as people assumed was definitely the case.

They wait until the TDL and if they are out the move Roy, RV and Lizotte to fill other needs.
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AEG is not allowing Blake to hire a full time coach. End of story.

It's like the Kovalchuk deal where the argument is "the Kings didn't lose anything to try though". Well, Blake burned a bunch of AEG's money so, yes, there is a cost to it. T-Mac was the highest paid coach in the league. Blake's burning money on this roster.

He isn't allowed to do shit at this point that impacts the future because there is a very good chance he won't be part of it next year. The roster he's put together is going to have to save his job.

bland said:
The last two players who would be happy by this would be Kopitar and Doughty. McLellan's defensive based systems have allowed them to retain their top spots on the team. If the Kings adopted a more offensive style you would quickly see those two struggling to remain key cogs on this team. Hell, Anze has struggled to keep up with the pace of the 1-3-1 at his advanced mileage.

We just saw a coach whose team was purring totally lose focus by two players who went into business for themselves instead of maintaining something that was working.

Now don't get me wrong, they were going to fold quickly in the playoffs again, and young players progress was clearly being thwarted in favor of immediate results. A new coach was necessary - just not for the reasons that ultimately got him fired.
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That's why my first reaction was "what are you talking about?!" but then I realized it was Fiala and HIV, I mean PLD.
 
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BigKing said:
AEG is not allowing Blake to hire a full time coach. End of story.

It's like the Kovalchuk deal where the argument is "the Kings didn't lose anything to try though". Well, Blake burned a bunch of AEG's money so, yes, there is a cost to it. T-Mac was the highest paid coach in the league. Blake's burning money on this roster.

He isn't allowed to do shit at this point that impacts the future because there is a very good chance he won't be part of it next year. The roster he's put together is going to have to save his job.
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I will say this. I kind of wish I could go with Blake to the strip club with the company credit card and get him drunk off his ass. The way he spends money even Vince McMahon would say slow down homie!
 
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