GDT: 2021-22 season game 48 LA Kings vs Edmonton Oilers @7:30pm 2/15/22

[King'sPawn]

They are far ahead of schedule? Pretty sure they are supposed to be "competitive" this season. Actually making the playoffs this season is ahead of schedule but merely being competitive is not.

Making the playoffs isn't ahead of schedule, in my opinion. This is Blake's 5th season.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Making the playoffs isn't ahead of schedule, in my opinion. This is Blake's 5th season.

Right, but did he start the rebuild right away? I'm going off of when they started the rebuild, not when he was hired.

 

[BigKing]

Making the playoffs isn't ahead of schedule, in my opinion. This is Blake's 5th season.

Far from a Blake apologist, but 2019 is the start of his unexpected rebuild so this is Year 4 of said rebuild.

Lombardi made it in Year 4 but Byfield isn't Doughty.

 

[King'sPawn]

Far from a Blake apologist, but 2019 is the start of his unexpected rebuild so this is Year 4 of said rebuild.

Lombardi made it in Year 4 but Byfield isn't Doughty.

I understand the sentiment. I just disagree.

Blake expected to make the playoffs this year. The Kings are foregoing giving prospects key minutes to lean on the vets making the playoffs.

These are the expectations set and his behavior reinforces it. Otherwise, if developing/building was the key focus, he should have put players like Kaliyev, Byfield, Turcotte, etc in more prominent roles, supported by vets. Which is what I and several others have pointed out if development was a priority.

People defending TMac have even said "of course he's going to put in the vets. He's trying to win."

Making the playoffs is the bare minimum at this point.

 

[BigKing]

I understand the sentiment. I just disagree.

Blake expected to make the playoffs this year. The Kings are foregoing giving prospects key minutes to lean on the vets making the playoffs.

These are the expectations set and his behavior reinforces it. Otherwise, if developing/building was the key focus, he should have put players like Kaliyev, Byfield, Turcotte, etc in more prominent roles, supported by vets. Which is what I and several others have pointed out if development was a priority.

People defending TMac have even said "of course he's going to put in the vets. He's trying to win."

Making the playoffs is the bare minimum at this point.

Well, they are trying to do both which is what is upsetting so many people. Your thought is if they are going to dick around on the full-blown development front then they better make the playoffs. I'm not so sure that Management feels it is a must. They will internally feel that it is a win if they are in the race up until the end and you see Kaliyev, Durzi, Byfield, Bjornfot become regulars with Danault looking great.

Blake will then most likely make his first difficult decision in the off-season by moving one of his draft picks for immediate help to push for a playoff spot that will definitely be a must for Year 5.

 

[Herby]

I understand the sentiment. I just disagree.

Blake expected to make the playoffs this year. The Kings are foregoing giving prospects key minutes to lean on the vets making the playoffs.

These are the expectations set and his behavior reinforces it. Otherwise, if developing/building was the key focus, he should have put players like Kaliyev, Byfield, Turcotte, etc in more prominent roles, supported by vets. Which is what I and several others have pointed out if development was a priority.

People defending TMac have even said "of course he's going to put in the vets. He's trying to win."

Making the playoffs is the bare minimum at this point.

Making the playoffs while at the same time developing 4-5 young players is a tough proposition for any team because development usually requires plenty of rope to make mistakes and quality icetime to develop.

That is why, despite as well as he has played for the Kings it is a valid point to question if the Danault signing is going to help or hurt the Kings win a Stanley Cup. It is obviously helping Blake's goal of making the playoffs this season. But the Kings have two centers signed for the next two years beyond this one at a combined $16m after he drafting four centers in the 1st round in 17-18-19-20.

 

[Sol]

Far from a Blake apologist, but 2019 is the start of his unexpected rebuild so this is Year 4 of said rebuild.

Lombardi made it in Year 4 but Byfield isn't Doughty.

whats worse is that Blake had Kopitar Doughty and Quick to use as a structure for the rebuild. Blake isn’t on time if anything considering he had a lucky foundation to build on.

Byfield isn’t no Doughty or Kopitar so if anything the top prospects just seem to be a bit underwhelming than what we were blessed to get.

 

[Sol]

Making the playoffs while at the same time developing 4-5 young players is a tough proposition for any team because development usually requires plenty of rope to make mistakes and quality icetime to develop.

That is why, despite as well as he has played for the Kings it is a valid point to question if the Danault signing is going to help or hurt the Kings win a Stanley Cup. It is obviously helping Blake's goal of making the playoffs this season. But the Kings have two centers signed for the next two years beyond this one at a combined $16m after he drafting four centers in the 1st round in 17-18-19-20.

thats the main problem. Danault has been a rare amazing pick up by the Kings but it also insured byfield is going to go through the idiotic la kings development process where regardless
Of how good you are that you will never make the team after draft. And if you do your role is never gonna be meaningful. It is possible they end up ruining byfield by taking away his icetime which you can say was a very short sighted move by Blake. Looks good now but this will hurt byfield. Danault is playing too good to lose his spot to byfield who has look okay at best but he’s not really given a shot.

 

[BigKing]

whats worse is that Blake had Kopitar Doughty and Quick to use as a structure for the rebuild. Blake isn’t on time if anything considering he had a lucky foundation to build on.

Byfield isn’t no Doughty or Kopitar so if anything the top prospects just seem to be a bit underwhelming than what we were blessed to get.

DL inherited Brown/Kopitar/Quick before their primes and then got Doughty so he was in a better position from a pure rebuild point of view.

If Byfield was a Kopitar/Doughty type player, then the Kings are competitive last season and are a playoff team this season.

By DL's 3rd draft, he got Doughty. Took Blake four drafts to get as high of a pick but we haven't got immediate results. Blake's 1st pick is similar to DL's in terms of impact (Vilardi/Bernier) and the same goes for Lewis/Kupari and Turcotte/Hickey as far as impact post-draft year except at least Turcotte has dropped his stick like 7-8 times at the NHL level while Hickey never played for the Kings.

So each GM really relied on the same core group except DL had them at the start and Blake has them later on. Blake has missed with his first round picks just like Lombardi did but Doughty made it not matter on top of already sitting on a future HHOF #1C and potential HHOF goaltender.

No surprise though since it is basically Dean's f***ing scouting staff still in place. They were good back then outside of the first round and it is kind of looking like more of the same now.

 

[Sol]

DL inherited Brown/Kopitar/Quick before their primes and then got Doughty so he was in a better position from a pure rebuild point of view.

If Byfield was a Kopitar/Doughty type player, then the Kings are competitive last season and are a playoff team this season.

By DL's 3rd draft, he got Doughty. Took Blake four drafts to get as high of a pick but we haven't got immediate results. Blake's 1st pick is similar to DL's in terms of impact (Vilardi/Bernier) and the same goes for Lewis/Kupari and Turcotte/Hickey as far as impact post-draft year except at least Turcotte has dropped his stick like 7-8 times at the NHL level while Hickey never played for the Kings.

So each GM really relied on the same core group except DL had them at the start and Blake has them later on. Blake has missed with his first round picks just like Lombardi did but Doughty made it not matter on top of already sitting on a future HHOF #1C and potential HHOF goaltender.

No surprise though since it is basically Dean's f***ing scouting staff still in place. They were good back then outside of the first round and it is kind of looking like more of the same now.

Well here’s the real problem. The best player in recent history that has made their presence known is Durzi. Kings havent been drafting as well as everyone praised them to be. Even though Stutzle is the more talented player, they chose byfield for center AND then signed Danault solidifying the top 6 for the foreseeable future all the while taking Byfields ability to potentially shine or to prove us wrong.

i don’t understand the signing of danault even though he’s amazing

 

[BigKing]

thats the main problem. Danault has been a rare amazing pick up by the Kings but it also insured byfield is going to go through the idiotic la kings development process where regardless
Of how good you are that you will never make the team after draft. And if you do your role is never gonna be meaningful. It is possible they end up ruining byfield by taking away his icetime which you can say was a very short sighted move by Blake. Looks good now but this will hurt byfield. Danault is playing too good to lose his spot to byfield who has look okay at best but he’s not really given a shot.

What you do--for like the millionth time--is reduce Kopitar's minutes.

Kopitar - 21 minutes
Danault - 18 minutes
Lizotte - 12 minutes
Byfield - 11 minutes

Byfield is averaging 16 seconds more a game than TJ Tynan did in his two games this year. Patrice Bergeron has averaged under 19 minutes the past four seasons. Kopitar played over 22 minutes a night for the 2019 team that finished 2nd worst overall.

Bottom line is that Kopitar shouldn't be playing 20 minutes a night still. If you want him to be effective in the final years of this contract--which Blake wants and needs--then they need to lower the wear and tear.

 

[BigKing]

Well here’s the real problem. The best player in recent history that has made their presence known is Durzi. Kings havent been drafting as well as everyone praised them to be. Even though Stutzle is the more talented player, they chose byfield for center AND then signed Danault solidifying the top 6 for the foreseeable future all the while taking Byfields ability to potentially shine or to prove us wrong.

i don’t understand the signing of danault even though he’s amazing

None of the center prospects have Danault's skillset when it comes to overall game. Maybe Turcotte can develop into that but, in my opinion, it was a hedge on Turcotte as Management would be lying if they think everything has gone as expected with that pick.

Danault becomes an elite 3C or remains a good-to-great 2C when Byfield claims the #1C status. Kopitar rides out this contract and maybe becomes the 3C or is--at best--in a 2A/2B situation with Danault with Byfield at 1C.

Byfield is supposed to be ELITE. The whole rebuild hinges on him hitting his potential. I have zero issue with signing Danault because he should not be keeping the Kings from developing Byfield properly and should slot behind Byfield sooner rather than later. What we are seeing so far with AA and Brown on his wings is a travesty and, honestly, the former is more of a problem than Brown even if the latter is the favorite whipping boy right now.

 

[Sol]

What you do--for like the millionth time--is reduce Kopitar's minutes.

Kopitar - 21 minutes
Danault - 18 minutes
Lizotte - 12 minutes
Byfield - 11 minutes

Byfield is averaging 16 seconds more a game than TJ Tynan did in his two games this year. Patrice Bergeron has averaged under 19 minutes the past four seasons. Kopitar played over 22 minutes a night for the 2019 team that finished 2nd worst overall.

Bottom line is that Kopitar shouldn't be playing 20 minutes a night still. If you want him to be effective in the final years of this contract--which Blake wants and needs--then they need to lower the wear and tear.

Here’s the thing regardless of the icetime he’s getting shitty linemates so if they give him more icetime they should remove his linemates and give him better ones

 

[apocalypse]

Here’s the thing regardless of the icetime he’s getting shitty linemates so if they give him more icetime they should remove his linemates and give him better ones

Here's the thing: I don't care about the playoffs this season. Would it be cool to see the Kings make it? Absolutely. But what I want to see is Byfield develop into that rookie star this season and he can't do it unless he gets more ice time. So at the behest of the playoffs, let QB play. Next season, we bring up Vilardi and put him on QB's or Kopi's wing and let him take off. Then we bring up Turcotte. I know everyone wants the playoffs, but they're not going to do anything for this team. LA needs to see Brown out. See Kopi out (in a couple years, but downgrade his ice time). See Doughty downgraded in ice time in a couple years. LA is handing the reigns over to the youth. That's what I see happening. Making the playoffs this season for this team, would be completely a veteran effort. We don't care about the vets anymore right? We want the youth to develop, so who cares. Play them.

 

[King'sPawn]

Here’s the thing regardless of the icetime he’s getting shitty linemates so if they give him more icetime they should remove his linemates and give him better ones

The idea of redistributing the ice time is also making sure the wingers get redistributed. Vets with young players, and ensuring they have responsibilities to go along with their skillset:

Kempe - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Turcotte - Danault - Moore
Iafallo - Byfield - Arvidsson
Lemieux - Lizotte - Brown

All the rookies get a veteran presence/someone to help compensate for defensive lapses. But with more ice time, the players expected to score will get opportunities.

Lizotte's line doesn't get a rookie, but it puts Brown, who at this point should be providing more of a physical presence, in an appropriate role.

And then, if a rookie can't cut it, then move players around.

Right now, the biggest issue I have with the rookie handling up front is putting players in roles they don't belong in. Imagine bringing Durzi up and not letting him play on the powerplay until he becomes a shutdown defender on the bottom pairing. That is what's happening right now with the forward prospects.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Todd, it's time to give yourself permission to ice the best possible lineup to win.

Put the best powerplay weapon the Kings have had in years, on PP1. And be real about reality and sit Brown a game. Tell him, he'll be in next game. This needs to start now. right now, right now.
No, it's not disrespect. Taking his C may have been disrespect, but this is not

PP1:

Kopitar (yes, left side) Arvidsson - Kempe
Durzi (yes, left side) Doughty

I've seen Kopi a few times on that side and his azz was not on the wall....gets different looks. Durzi is too good to get crumbs on PP2.