GDT: 2021-22 season WESTERN CONFERENCE QUARTER FINALS Game 3 LA Kings vs Edmonton Oilers @7:00pm Series Tied 1-1

[DoktorJeep]

We’re now in this weird spot where we’re half in, half out of a rebuild. Making the playoffs was a great accomplishment for a team like ours, but getting our teeth absolutely kicked in round one probably wasn’t the goal. There’s nothing to learn from here except that Kopitar can’t defend the best players in the league anymore.

I’ve posted it before but I wonder if there’s a bit of the Patrick Ewing effect in play here. Kopitar’s been number one for so long that he is the de facto all situations player. No one can step up and be that guy because no one will ever get the chance. Now if we hadn’t signed Danault and traded for Arvidsson we would have been brutal this year. But are we going to be even more brutal next year and the year after with a 36 year old declining 1C?

What would the team look like without Kopitar, Doughty, Brown, and Quick?

I see more Larry Bird in Kopitar than Ewing. Once he lost his McHale (Mike Richards), the team couldn’t overcome Magic.

 

[tny760]

Vilardi was electric out of camp and they sent him down after what six games? Iafallo was not electric for months and took months and months to even drop down a line. The kids have been given a very narrow margin for error while being put into roles they have never been asked to play. And are being expected to bail out a mediocre top six while sometimes not stepping on the ice for 10 minutes at a time between shifts.

todd does seem to almost enjoy kicking the kids in the teeth when they succeed. i have a lot of trouble finding rhyme or reason for any of his decisions.

i'm just a bit worried about extending the inevitable here. if they refuse to let the kids play in serious roles, are they just gonna fire todd and pretend another coach is gonna solve this team's problems again? then we're back in the same position at the beginning of the following season. another year lost, no value gained on the prospects, net value lost. can we afford that song and dance again? i think that's my hangup, a full season is a long time

 

[SaltyElkHunter]

Play the players that are answering the bell. Anyone who is loafing needs to sit the rest of the series. Two blowouts has sealed anyones fate. Edler for Bjornfoot to start!!!!!

 

[bouncesonly]

If the Kings can manage to get this to 6 games, series/playoffs won’t be a complete disaster. But after two disgusting games on the road and at home, I think this ends in 5. If it goes to 7, they have more heart than I’d give them credit for. Either way, this series is looking like a loss

 

[crassbonanza]

They just brought in Arvidsson and Danault and its rare players get moved so soon. Why bring them in in the first place if you already have your veteran leaders would have been the better question. But its too late to question that now.
Kopitar is better sure but points dont tell the whole story if you are a minus player most nights. I dont think at this point it would be smarter to keep him over Danault if you have to decide between the two. And with the centers in the pipeline that need looks they should decide.

I am not talking about deciding between the two though. I am saying that if you get rid of Kopitar, Doughty and Quick the team might as well sell off the rest of the 30 year old pieces they have. Who is replacing those points from Kopitar? Can Cal be the full time starter with a sub .900 sv%? Can this Dcore hold up over the course of a whole season? Despite only playing 39 games, Doughty still led the blue line in scoring this season.

 

[crassbonanza]

I don't get how so many people have been ripping Kopitar for these playoffs, while at the same time singing Danault's praises. Danault had the worst CF on the team last night with a 26.09%, his rel was -27.76%. His xGF was equally atrocious with an 18.06 and a -22.85% rel. The same thing happened the game before, where Danault had a team low 24% CF and a -20.29 CF Rel. His xGF for that game was the second lowest on the team at 26.34%. He has been getting absolutely slaughtered possession wise.

 

[Mats26]

Quick's cap hit has been extended via Petersen's contract, we have over $16m off the books this summer (Brown, Athanasiou, Maatta, Edler, Stecher), so if we wanted to, we can fix this team.

The problem isn't Kopitar's contract, and Quick's can be bought easily, the biggest problem is Blake's lack of a vision; what's the Kings' identity?

Remember when DL took office and at his first conference he explained the vision and pointed to Mattias Norstrom as a true warrior with Dustin Brown sitting next to him. He explained how you actually build around these types of players to create a winning atmosphere first.

From that conference you already knew he was serious and he was going to change Kings culture

Blake did none of that
Blake wanted to collect draft picks and have them solve the Kings issues on its own. This is further evidenced by his inability to improve his roster via the abundance of prospects at his disposal

Year 5, this is Year freaking 5

it's time to fire the entire staff, unfortunately many will see this season as a success and a step in the right direction

To those that think this way, expect LA's woes to extend another half decade

But it wasn't extended. Next year we pay Quick 5.8 and Cal 5, that's 11 million on the cap for these 2 darlings. Add Kopitar's 10 mil at 35-36 years of age for the next 2 years and that is not what a true rebuilding team should do. Time to move on... 21 million for 2 positions both in a decline. I won't even touch Blake and his lack of vision.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Was at the game.

-Kings came out physical, even Kopitar was.

-Lemieux challenged Kassian to a fight after the first two goals.

-AA has been terrible.

-Kings had the same amount of changes as Oilers except they have more skill and actually finishing the plays and setups.

-Kings need a top 4 big LH D and a scoring forward.

-Vilardi, Byfield, Kupari - no comment. Not happy with the play of all them all year. Inconsistent. Turcotte was invisible in his few regular season games imo. Not looking good for the past 4-5 years of first round draft picks. None of them making an impact. I’ll give Byfield a pass since he’s young still.

 

[johnjm22]

Vilardi was electric out of camp and they sent him down after what six games? Iafallo was not electric for months and took months and months to even drop down a line. The kids have been given a very narrow margin for error while being put into roles they have never been asked to play. And are being expected to bail out a mediocre top six while sometimes not stepping on the ice for 10 minutes at a time between shifts.

Vilardi wasn't electric out of camp. He was terrible. The Kings did the right thing by sending him down so he could convert to wing.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Vilardi wasn't not electric out of camp. He was terrible. The Kings did the right thing by sending him down so he could convert to wing.

No...OP was correct. Vilardi was impressive coming 'out of camp'...absolute dogshit once the season started. You are both correct, ha.

 

[Mats26]

No youth has been traded yet.



Is that determined in a year? If they were a bottom 5 team, again, would that have been an example of stalling as a bottom 5 team?



Some also underachieved. Some weren't even in the lineup most of the time.



But the Kings won't? Will teams around the Kings stall, or will other teams only progress?



Yeah, if the picks are busts, like it Turcotte is hurt forever, and Byfield turns into the project that never will be, then yeah, obviously that's not going to help. The Kings lucked out to get what should've been a top 2/3 pick in Kopitar at #11, which certainly helped soften the blow of completely missing on the 4th pick in 2007. All the current eggs were put into the top 5 picks though. There was no safety blanket in an inherited 1C prospect.

When your GM said the rebuild is over when not a single prospect has made an impact on the team....yes we are fast tracking. You think Spence or Durzi touch NHL ice this year if Walker or Doughy were heathy? This team had Iafallo, Brown, AA taking prospect spots all year. We made the playoffs..so what. Besides Durzi ,most kids were riding Pine , shuttling between AHL and NHL or will be clapping in the press box for Brown's last game at Crypto on Sunday. This team is all about the veterans, adding players to help them instead of creating a new core for the youth.

As long as Brown-Kopitar-Quick and Doughty are here it will always be their team. I am hoping they realize they can't win with them anymore and move on. This team now belongs to Danault, Moore, and possibly Doughty who might have a few good years left. Time to find more long term core members and cross our fingers that the kids can crank it up another level.

 

[crassbonanza]

This team now belongs to Danault, Moore, and possibly Doughty

Danault will be 30 next year and his highest scoring season is 53. Trevor Moore just had his career year of 48 points at 27 years old, with his previous high being 23 points. This is now there team? That is the plan? They're fine players, but that statement just seems crazy to me, especially with you following up by saying maybe Doughty, whose rate stats far surpassed either of the other two forwards.

 

[Herby]

At this point I just want to see something different. Mix up some lines and put the younger guys into roles you want them in, ideally. Sit AA because he doesn’t help us when we are getting dominated and he’s not likely here anyway. Brown? Harsh, but sit him also.

Play Byfield, Vilardi and Kupari (+ Grundrstrom if fit) and put them in meaningful roles and give even ice time to those top 3 lines. Let them sink or swim because either way they will be better for it. If it’s a one goal game in the last 10 minutes DON’T shorten the bench because thats those really key minutes where they will learn so much.

For the top 3 ‘scoring’ lines I‘d do some thing like… (Assuming Arvidsson is fit )

Kupari - Kopitar - Kempe
Moore - Danault - Vilardi
Iafallo - Byfield - Arvidsson

Then give them 15 mins each and roll them throughout including pp time. Because if they just try the same stuff again I’ll be off the TMac train completely. He‘s done some good things and I like him but he’s got to show he can be creative in what he’s trying to do. If he try’s something different and we lose heavily again I’d be absolutely fine but if we do the same and lose by a couple of goals then I’m really not going to be impressed. Even a win doing the same old thing won’t excite me all that much at this point.

It’s extremely unlikely that the Kings are a playoff team with that stand pat lineup.

You have young players who are unproven and all struggled mightily this season on each of the lines. Kopitar is still the 1C. What are the odds Danault matches his 27 goal year?

That lineup would be another Kings lineup not skilled enough to score enough goals.

 

[Vamos Rafa]

and please no more The Black Parade pre-game “hype”

 

[johnjm22]

I'm not an expert, but it does look to me like the Oilers made a schematic change after game 1.

All night long Oilers forwards found a way to get open around the Kings net.

I'm not sure if the Oilers are exploiting something in the Kings structure, or if the Kings players are just getting beat.

 

[kinghock]

I'm not an expert, but it does look to me like the Oilers made a schematic change after game 1.

All night long Oilers forwards found a way to get open around the Kings net.

I'm not sure if the Oilers are exploiting something in the Kings structure, or if the Kings players are just getting beat.

Oilers are exploiting in the Kings structure that LA defense with exception of Spence is really bad.

In my view for next year only 3 defensemen Kings should keep: Doughty, Spence and Bjornfot.

I am not talking about prospects (Clarke, Faber, Grans, etc.).

Kings should get creative and trade not for stars, but for good fast physical defensemen preferably <28 years.

 

[shuchukfan]

and please no more The Black Parade pre-game “hype”

That and the Miracle on Manchester stuff was annoying. Quit living in the past and on past glories.

 

[Vamos Rafa]

That and the Miracle on Manchester stuff was annoying. Quit living in the past and on past glories.

Yep exactly. Majority of the players on our championship teams are now either on different teams or retired.

 

[Mats26]

Danault will be 30 next year and his highest scoring season is 53. Trevor Moore just had his career year of 48 points at 27 years old, with his previous high being 23 points. This is now there team? That is the plan? They're fine players, but that statement just seems crazy to me, especially with you following up by saying maybe Doughty, whose rate stats far surpassed either of the other two forwards.

Then it's worse then I thought. Who is going to lead this team in 2 years... let me guess... 22 year old Byfield?

 

[crassbonanza]

Then it's worse then I thought. Who is going to lead this team in 2 years... let me guess... 22 year old Byfield?

I have no idea honestly, but I don't think it'll be them. If it is though, I can't see us going for.

 

[AlphaBravo]

The future is bleak for this franchise. We spent many years rebuilding and got high draft picks, and none of the forward prospects have panned out. With the new and old vets on this team we will finish in the bubble area and maybe squeeze in, which means no more high draft picks.

The biggest thing to address in the off-season is changing our scouting staff and trying this again. We are going to have to get lucky with late 1sts and 2nds.

 

[Mats26]

I have no idea honestly, but I don't think it'll be them. If it is though, I can't see us going for.

I think Danault will still be a gamer for the next several years., why not make him captain after Kopitar? We have no clear path for the future leadership right now but at least play the kids and see what you really have, playoffs or not.

 

[tny760]

The future is bleak for this franchise. We spent many years rebuilding and got high draft picks, and none of the forward prospects have panned out. With the new and old vets on this team we will finish in the bubble area and maybe squeeze in, which means no more high draft picks.

The biggest thing to address in the off-season is changing our scouting staff and trying this again. We are going to have to get lucky with late 1sts and 2nds.

yeah it's getting hard to defend these picks, but i've got at least this offseason in me

getting toby and kaliyev is a major stroke of luck but even then, they're flawed players and i'm not sure it offsets the miss on the laundry list of instant impact players following turc's pick. given, i'm not writing turc off but i'm genuinely concerned about his long term health and a miss on him is a disaster honestly

byfield turning a corner is essential to this team's ability to compete in the near future and that's kind of a shitty pressure to put on a 19 year old

 

[jgs]

I don't think the owner is concerned about winning another Cup. He is more concerned with this team making him a profit. Why I think this is is because giving Luke the keys is not the right move, second putting Blake as GM a position that he has no prior experince in is not a winning formula. If you want to biuld a winner in this league you have to have a real smart GM that knows what he is doing. Both Luke and Blake don't have the smarts to achieve this. The Kings keep talking about all the good young talent they have but none of them is nowhere ready to play in big league and truth be told most of that talent will not mature into being good NHL caliber players. When they spend more than 1 year in the minors and are still not ready, that is bad drafting.

 

[bland]

The future is bleak for this franchise. We spent many years rebuilding and got high draft picks, and none of the forward prospects have panned out. With the new and old vets on this team we will finish in the bubble area and maybe squeeze in, which means no more high draft picks.

The biggest thing to address in the off-season is changing our scouting staff and trying this again. We are going to have to get lucky with late 1sts and 2nds.

The future isn't bleak at all. Its just clouded by hanging on to the past for far too long.

There is nothing wrong with the players the Kings picked, just the way they are being developed to fit into a model designed to prolong the current vets chances at making the playoffs.

You never blame the players for trying to win, you hold management accountable for trying to win in a situation that obviously called for patience and a shift in priorities from patronizing heroes to developing a new team. That takes patience and a willingness to accept growing pains and not holding every skilled forward out until they are ready to play a minor role in the old guys story.