News Article: What Should We Expect From Kopitar This Year?

[HolyShot*]

Zetterberg, Toews, and countless other top players have long goal scoring droughts.

Your point? Since other great players have droughts then its ok? Illogical.

 

[HolyShot*]

This is....I don't even have the words.

Keyboards right in front of you bud. Waiting...

 

[damacles1156]

Kopitar Went a full year without a PPG goal that is unacceptable as it gets.

Kopi really needs to shoot more, he should be potting 30 to 35 goals a year.

Brown/Drew/Kopi are the reason the Kings lost to the Hawks.

They had about a 60% drop in production this last postseason.

Drew had the worst playoff series of his career.

I hope they pick it up this next postseason. Should be another fun season watching Kopitar progress (hopefully).

I would like to see 33g 55A out of him.

 

[FrozenRoyalty]

No need to be condescending. I read this a long time ago and I still disagree. Teams and players are always forthcoming about injuries, right? I respect that he owns up to it, but no, it just doesn't pass the eye test, Kopi was not 100%. If he himself flatly denies that he was hurt, there is certainly more than one conclusion. Maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe he was lying. Maybe he wasn't 'injured' but it was a lack of conditioning due to the earlier injury, I don't know. What I do know is that for a long time, he had a noticeable limp on the ice or was at least favoring one side more than the other, had no burst or breakaway speed (he's not a speedster and he looks lumbering, but Kopi is fast), and he got pinned along the boards by anyone and everyone where in the past his forte was board work and shaking off checkers.

Agreed.

Edit: I guess not that it matters. For whatever the reason, Kopi's production was way down and he wasn't even creating outside the points. I expect big things from him this year as a bounceback with a summer of rest. 90+ pts.

At the time he made the comments, he had absolutely no reason to deceive or try to hide an injury. The Kings' season was over. There was no point in trying to hide any injury, so the conclusion that he was lying is rather far-fetched.

And yes, I saw the same things you did, and I was among many in the local media murmuring about him being injured. However, knowing the player after having covered him for his entire NHL career, and under the circumstances, I think it's very clear that he was quite honest when he told the media that he was not injured, which Lombardi confirmed.

 

[lumbergh]

There's no excuse for going 20+ games without a goal.

I don't understand what you mean. Should the Kings trade every player who goes 20 games without a goal? Doesn't make any sense.

 

[KingsFan17]

I don't understand what you mean. Should the Kings trade every player who goes 20 games without a goal? Doesn't make any sense.

Not every Kings player who does this makes almost $7 Million a year. I get that he does a lot more for our team than score goals but it is frustrating that your #1 center making this much money has such big scoring slumps year after year.

 

[lumbergh]

Not every Kings player who does this makes almost $7 Million a year. I get that he does a lot more for our team than score goals but it is frustrating that your #1 center making this much money has such big scoring slumps year after year.

Mike Richards, Jan. 14-Mar. 13 2012, 25 games, 0 goals
Justin Williams, Jan. 19-Feb 27 2013, 18 games, 1 goal
Dustin Brown, Dec 29 2010-Feb 2 2011, 17 games, 1 goal

These are just the guys that score ~20-30 goals per year.

Let's assume that a player that scores 25-30 goals per year scores about every three games on average. Roll a die 82 times. Every time it comes up 1 or 2 let's say the player scores, anything else he goes scoreless. You'll likely end up with a streak of 7 or 8 in a row. Now extend that to 522 games.

Long story short. Streaks will happen.

 

[KingsFan17]

None of the 3 guys you listed are $7 million a year #1 guys. I get that streaks happen and I love everything that Kopi brings to the team which is a lot more than just goals. I was just trying to help you understand where Hitman47 was coming from when you responded with:

I don't understand what you mean. Should the Kings trade every player who goes 20 games without a goal? Doesn't make any sense.