Toggle sidebar

Kings Article: What's Wrong with the Kings?

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
Sheng Peng

Sheng Peng

Registered User
Mar 25, 2013
448
317
San Francisco, CA
Hopefully, this article is moot after the Minnesota game. But I broke down LA's problems so far this year with entries and breakouts + other bloopers:

What's Wrong with the Kings?

Mistakes-2-Shore.gif
Click to read more...
 
What's wrong with the Kings?
Kopitar/Carter/Toffoli is one line not a top 6.
They aren't scoring enough to allow any room for error with their defense.
Their defense isn't going to play a perfect game with the current line up.
Goaltending is ****ed.
They have one goal from a forward so far, on the PP.

Now that I think about it, "What isn't wrong with the Kings" might be the easier question. Nail that down then start on the rest.
 
Great writeup sheng. It's mostly just flat-out mistakes, and good footage to show that. I think the personnel is there, but when they're not executing our very predictable system, they're easily beatable. Not to mention the Sharks full-on sell out and just wait at our usual 'spots' with no fear since there's no improvisation to keep them honest.

I'm more shocked and miffed with their lack of effectiveness on dump-and-chase. Not enough quick up-ice support to support those plays.
 
Trolfoli said:
What's wrong with the Kings?
Kopitar/Carter/Toffoli is one line not a top 6.
They aren't scoring enough to allow any room for error with their defense.
Their defense isn't going to play a perfect game with the current line up.
Goaltending is ****ed.
They have one goal from a forward so far, on the PP.

Now that I think about it, "What isn't wrong with the Kings" might be the easier question. Nail that down then start on the rest.
Click to expand...

can I call you Ziggyfoli from here on out? you got his shtick down pat
 
Raccoon Jesus said:
Great writeup sheng. It's mostly just flat-out mistakes, and good footage to show that. I think the personnel is there, but when they're not executing our very predictable system, they're easily beatable. Not to mention the Sharks full-on sell out and just wait at our usual 'spots' with no fear since there's no improvisation to keep them honest.
Click to expand...

Thanks! You make an interesting point about improvisation.

In the Clifford clip of him being swallowed up by four Sharks in the NZ, I thought going backward might've been the best option for him...but knowing his north-south game and Sutter's expectations, there's no way he'd ever do that. Kudos to San Jose for forcing him into bad or very uncomfortable options.

Of course, in the Doughty/Hertl clip, we see the negative side of improvisation. Doughty is one of the few Kings given the license to improvise like that with little fear of repercussion.

An aside, but I'm not sure how a player like Dowd will flourish under Sutter. He needs license to be daring, that's his game, but I'm not sure if Sutter will ever grant it to a third-line type.
 
Right now the top players, are not playing like top players. That is a problem

Muzzin looks to be, the only defender that doesn't make a catastrophic mistake nightly.
 
johnjm22 said:

That says a lot.
Click to expand...


I failed to add that those stats were after two periods. It didn't get any better in the 3rd for Forbort-Greene against Flyers. FWIW, I was encouraged by most of what I saw tonight against Wild. Better entries & breakouts, improved coverage, less silly mistakes, except from Zatkoff, who probably can't be worse. They could've won, which I can't say about the first two games this year. It was garbage time, but here was a textbook Kings dump-in tonight:

 
Butch 19 said:
They have not been the same team since Voynov left.
Click to expand...

Interesting to look at the series of events that happened in different places.

Gagne gets hurt, which moved Brown to LW, opening up a spot on RW, which was filled by Carter, who was acquired for Johnson and a 1st, because they felt Voynov was ready to take his minutes.

Brown stops scoring a year before his new contract kicks in, and Richards had fallen down the depth chart, resulting in Carter moving to center, so a winger was needed, and that guy was Gaborik. He goes on to have a great playoff, and since Brown was a question mark, they had to re-sign Gaborik.

Voynov gets suspended, but the team is coming off a Cup, and if you could just get another defenseman to replace him, the rest of the team is basically the same as the team that won. Even though Gaborik had a good year, Brown didn't, Kopitar didn't, Sekera got hurt, and they missed the playoffs, which sent the 2016 pick to Carolina instead of the 2015 pick, which I think resulted in them getting Lucic(he was what Brown was still supposed to be), even though I'm not sure Lombardi truly believed in the team after 14-15. What if Carolina wins the lottery with the Kings 2016 pick if they missed the playoffs?

To me, what happened with Brown, Richards, and Voynov is what's wrong with the Kings. It screwed with the cap, and it screwed with the roster. I think it's made Lombardi do things he wasn't planning on having to do. I don't think he thought he'd have to find a top 4 right handed defenseman during the window of contention, or only get 2 years worth of a player out of trading Simmonds and Schenn, or that he'd get zero good years from Brown's new contract.
 
Nothing is wrong with the Kings, they are who I thought they were. The real question is what is wrong with fans who thought this was an elite team coming into the season? All you had to do was look at Lucic walking away and not being replaced-1 non move and anybody could see this team was not as good as last season. Then subtract Gaborik and Quick and this is what you should expect. When you turn on the Kings game you will be bored, there will be no creativity, D still not allowed to pinch, lineup full of muckers (these guys don't even grind-tell me the last time Nolan, Shore, Lewis, King, etc hit somebody hard) and bad goal tending. This is a losing team, led by a coach who is stuck in a defunct era of hockey (just watch last nights Winnipeg-Toronto game) and a GM who put together an awful USA hockey team that was devoid of offensive talent in favor of grinders who couldn't score or keep up with the current talent level of professional hockey.
 
They're not an elite team...at the start of this season. But that's not really my concern. My concern is how they finish. Way too many ??? for rookies and sophomores to make up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom