Todd McLellan Fired; Jim Hiller Interim LAK HC

[Little Psycho]

I'm so happy for you Kings fans.

We just wanted the simple things during games. Wanted to see less Doughty and Kopitar playing 3 minutes of OT, want younger players to get more ice time. It’s not rocket science.

 

[Bleedred]

Anecdotal evidence that you need more caffeine: When you read that Jim Hitler is taking over as Head Coach of the LA Kings.

I actually read his name correctly, it’s just that my first thought when seeing that name in something hockey related is this guy. Someone people across the freeway are very familiar with. Between the last name and both first name’s beginning with J.

 

[TageGod]

So the thing that's off to me is how poor LAK's home record is. They're 15-10 away and 8-15 at home.

This is what makes me think that this is a coaching issue. Because at home you get the last change, so you can actively coach. And if you perform this much worse at home, I feel like you're probably outsmarting yourself, and sawing your own branch.

The kings are doing a Sabres impression. Give you hope they are great, absolutely crap the bed. Also bad home record.

 

[ijuka]

McClellan has always been a not great coach. He squandered the years when the Sharks had a dominant roster and similarly did nothing in Edmonton. I'm sure LAK fans are happy right now.

He's had pretty dominant rosters. Maybe that's why he has an overly strong reputation.

He probably couldn't do what Tortorella is doing with the Flyers, with that kind of a roster.

 

[Little Psycho]

With Hiller remaining the coach for the rest of the season me thinks ownership has Blake on thin ice.

 

[Bleedred]

He went from the sharks to the oilers to the kings. So what pacific team will Todd coach next?

He smells like a future Rangers hire, since they always go for the biggest name available.

That’s assuming Sullivan wasn’t available first.

But there’s a decent chance McLellan is hired before the Rangers are done with Lavi.

 

[DingDongCharlie]

Not a fan of Todd but he just got canned cause of Blake’s terrible moves.

 

[Osprey]

This season is a macrocosm of McLellan for you. His teams start strong, then start to coast, then blow a tire. It just usually plays out in the playoffs, where a series lead quickly turns into a series loss. The only difference is that it wasn't due to being outcoached here. The team just imploded all on its own, without any pressure.

I don't expect a big turnaround like the Oilers--it'll take a while to un-learn what Todd has saddled them with, the 1-3-1, for one--but if they can just hold onto their playoff position, which seems very doable, there's at least some hope for the first round. With McLellan, there was almost no hope because you knew that he'd eventually be outcoached by the guy on the other bench.

 

[Bleedred]

With Hiller remaining the coach for the rest of the season me thinks ownership has Blake on thin ice.

I don’t follow the Kings, but someone mentioned back in the summer (I think Friedman?) that it was believed Rob Blake doesn’t want this job long term and that his contract expires in 2025, and that either way, whether he’s offered a new contract or not, he’ll decline because he wants to be able to surf all day and not have a full time daily position in hockey like that of a GM.

 

[tfwnogf]

I'd say goodbye but he will get hired by another team for reasons unknown to anyone with a brain.

 

[kingsholygrail]

I am actually surprised. Todd was Blake's pick. He must be feeling the heat.

Anecdotal evidence that you need more caffeine: When you read that Jim Hitler is taking over as Head Coach of the LA Kings.

The Kings will finally take back the Rhineland.

 

[Zerotonine]

Woodcroft gonna replace him in the offseason??? Lolol that would b comical

 

[wasup]

He's had pretty dominant rosters. Maybe that's why he has an overly strong reputation.

He probably couldn't do what Tortorella is doing with the Flyers, with that kind of a roster.

LOL Tort's is shit . Philly had the same record and are on their way down and that's after adding Drysdale . I would trade Tort's for Todd straight up .

 

[red devil]

 

[TropicOfNoReturn]

I read that as Hitler jesus

Quick, someone have AI make an image of Hitler Jesus

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Switching to the assistant coach is such a lazy move, doubt this changes anything

 

[Cool Hand Puke]

to do this while everyone is taking a break during on all star's weekend? classless move by LAK.....

Firing him in the middle of a game would be even more classless. This at least gives him the weekend to get his ducks in a row.

 

[Sol]

Well, his defensive style of hockey took a poor team into the playoffs in 20-21, then plateaued.

Blake's recent prized acquisitions showed over and over again that they had no interest in playing defensive hockey. Its a shame that Fiala and Dubois have that much stroke.

Never been a fan of McLellan, but you can't coach the uncoachable for very long.

Lol bro has lost the room much earlier and the team has choked consistently under Todd. Kings have problems but Todd and PLD are the biggest problems. You need to hop off your Fiala hate.

 

[Choralone]

to do this while everyone is taking a break during on all star's weekend? classless move by LAK.....

This is the best time to fire him. Well, except for further in the past.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Why are people blaming PLD? Yeah, he's having an awful year but at quick glance this seems the first time he's actually on a team where the coach got fired.

 

[FlameChampion]

Switching to the assistant coach is such a lazy move, doubt this changes anything

Promoting an assistant doesn’t seem to have the same effect that often

 

[Carbooja]

Kings fans, what happened? This team was an absolute wagon for the first 2.5 months. How did the wheels fall off so suddenly? I remember a game against my Avs in early December, it felt like you guys dummied us. But this recent game a week ago it just felt like playing against a totally different team.

See last years Jets: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-jets-choke-record-1.6800165

 

[Osprey]

He's on his 4th coach as well I thought I read somewhere?

Yes, if you count interims. He promoted John Stevens, then fired him after a year and hired Willie Desjardins as interim, then hired Todd McLellan and is now on Jim Hiller, another interim.

Todd was the same way in Edmonton. Never took advantage of what home ice offered him as a coach. Drove Oilers board nuts.

He also almost never used his timeouts. In 5 seasons as Kings coach, you could probably count on one hand the number of times that he called a timeout. It's as if he was saving them to use in some future game.

 

[AM]

From the frying pan into the fire move. I guess we will see if the team responds to a different voice.

 

[BigKing]

Todd's good at installing his system. The system can make a less-talented team better. There is no deviation from the system: it's all he knows. He can jumble the lines but it is still the same system. During a playoff series, the other team makes adjustments to beat the system while T-Mac just stays true to it, hence the Reverse Sweep, the choke job against the Ducks while in Edmonton and two consecutive choke jobs the last two playoffs against Edmonton.

The talent he had in San Jose was pretty ridiculous. To not make a SCF with that squad only to see a lesser squad finally do it the first season after he was canned was an insane indictment of his coaching, yet here is Rob Blake giving him a five year contract as the highest paid coach in the league: and that's after the Edmonton flame out.

Rob Blake is the real issue. He is too player friendly and hired his old coach who was most likely kid gloves with Robbie in San Jose. Blake hires all of his old buddies all over the organization. The Kings are legitimately being run in 2024 by the player roster of the 1999-2000 LA Kings and, to no surprise, we are seeing the same results we did back then.

This would have never started in a real hockey market but, if it did, this shit would have been ended a long time ago.