The Los Angeles Kings - For Real or a Mirage?

[chris kontos]

kevin fiala will lead us to the promised land of comedy on ice
seems like a commentary on the obvious but goaltending will be huge going forward. maybe luc will hang a banner that reads- Before christmas great potential to make the playoffs champions

 

[Czechboy]

he's had moments but much like the rest of the Kings...would you expect him to be better than his opposition in a playoff series? And it's hard to call him a backup when it's a platoon, especially when Darcy gets hurt once a week.

So many of these guys are great players, but not great enough.

That's our real problem with these guys. We're not just pessimists. We've seen a championship team and recently and we know these guys just don't have "it" and Blake sold out the long term for a short term lottery ticket that was an immediate failure. In this league, if you aren't getting better and/or younger youre likely just getting worse and that's where they've landed--not good enough to overtake teh true contenders but starting to get caught by younger teams while leveraging/selling off almost all the younger better assets they've stockpiled

Gentle reminder of the trade tree that brought us here

Outgoing
Vilardi
Faber
Iafallo
Kupari
MTL 2nd
Durzi
Walker
Grans
Petersen
LA 1st
LA 2nd
PLD

Incoming
2 million+ of Provorov's salary
Hayden Hodgson
Kevin Connauton
Kevin Fiala

AND Kuemper the goalie you traded to start the cycle above

I totally agree he isn't carrying LA to a Cup or is a Vezina candidate. I may have misinterpreted the post. I thought the post was based on preseason and many of 'us' (HF people) claining King's won't be good and they have been. Based on the the season, so far, Rittich has definitely done his part of exceeded his expectations. He started in the AHL last season on a 2 way contract and had been written off after the stickflip and some rather hillarious memes of him skating into his own goal posts.lol

Nonetheless:

I feel the 1 million dollar backup deserves some love.lol That's all. Totally agree this isn't Jonathon Quick.

 

[Trash Panda]

he's had moments but much like the rest of the Kings...would you expect him to be better than his opposition in a playoff series? And it's hard to call him a backup when it's a platoon, especially when Darcy gets hurt once a week.

So many of these guys are great players, but not great enough.

That's our real problem with these guys. We're not just pessimists. We've seen a championship team and recently and we know these guys just don't have "it" and Blake sold out the long term for a short term lottery ticket that was an immediate failure. In this league, if you aren't getting better and/or younger youre likely just getting worse and that's where they've landed--not good enough to overtake teh true contenders but starting to get caught by younger teams while leveraging/selling off almost all the younger better assets they've stockpiled

Gentle reminder of the trade tree that brought us here

Outgoing
Vilardi
Faber
Iafallo
Kupari
MTL 2nd
Durzi
Walker
Grans
Petersen
LA 1st
LA 2nd
PLD

Incoming
2 million+ of Provorov's salary
Hayden Hodgson
Kevin Connauton
Kevin Fiala

AND Kuemper the goalie you traded to start the cycle above

Every single time I read that trade tree, I get physically sick.

Quite possibly some of the most gross mismanagement of assets in Kings history.