Sol
Smile
- Jun 30, 2017
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Even other teams don’t take Kopitar seriously anymore. What a time to be alive
GDT: 2022-23 season Game 2 LA Kings vs Seattle Kraken @7:30pm 10/13/22
- Thread starter kingsboy11
- Start date
Even other teams don’t take Kopitar seriously anymore. What a time to be alive
Man, I just remember it so much differently. Maybe it was just the public spin at the time but I could of sworn that Williams repeatedly implied that he wanted to play on the east coast closer to his family.
Pucknut50
Registered User
- Jun 13, 2007
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Let them settle in. Yes Kempe looks like a guy who signed a 4 year deal. Danault and Moore will be fine. Fiala is getting chances he will get on a roll soon. Real worry is the defense. I agree they should send Walker to Ontario if he makes it past waivers. If not good luck Walker. Durzi needs to be in as he creates offensive chances which we sorely miss on the back end. Doughty will be fine as soon as he gets into game shape.
cyclones22
Registered User
The thing about regression is a lot of it can just be traced to puck luck or unsustainable shooting percentage. What we've seen the last two games is no compete. No battle. What made last year's team successful is that they were animals around the puck. That has nothing to do with percentages regressing. That has everything to do with motivation.
AbsentMojo
F-ing get up and hunt! Cmon Todd!
I dug up this old LA Daily News article - see the 4th paragraph .. Kings wanted to go in a different direction Capitals were best fit for former L.A. Kings forward Justin Williams
DD was great last season, he was only behind Kopi in P/GP. Hopefully the injury did not affect him too much, but I still think he will be a dominant force. The guys I am worried about are Moore and Danault, they are both forwards in their late 20's who had career years, it's highly likely that those were aberrations and they fall back closer to their career averages.
johnjm22
Pseudo Intellectual
- Aug 2, 2005
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Last year wasn't even a career high in points for Danault.
He probably won't score 27 goals again, but he's been an excellent 5v5 producer for awhile. Better than Kopitar.
Moore's S% last year was below his career average. He had a chronically low GAE. That would indicate that it's pretty unlikely that last year was an aberration. Keep in mind he was pretty bad for the 1st quarter of last season.
Danault had a 14% shooting percentage last season, which was almost 50% higher than his career average. In fact, he had never topped 10% in any season ever and he is also about to turn 30. He scored 51 points last season which was his second highest, just behind his highest total of 53 that he scored when he was 25. He also more than doubled his career high in goals last season, do you really not expect a regression?
Also, Danault was promised more offensive opportunities in order to get him to sign with the team. This has led to him(and Moore) getting prime opportunities, which we have seen play out this season, with Danault and Moore 4th and 5th in O zone start% at 60%. This is also the reason why he had the 5th highest PP time on ice last year, despite having one of the worst PP P/60 rates of any regular in the league.
You obviously know that Kopitar has had to log the toughest minutes of any forward in the entire league over the past decade+, so why would you compare him to someone who has a career ATOI that is more than 4 minutes less?
Moore's S% last year was below his career average. He had a chronically low GAE. That would indicate that it's pretty unlikely that last year was an aberration. Keep in mind he was pretty bad for the 1st quarter of last season.
Trevor Moore doubled his previous career high in points last season at the age of 27. It is totally possible that he is unique in being a forward that blossoms at 27, but that is not very common. Should we expect a .59 PPG forward or someone closer to his career average of .22? I would like him to succeed since he is a Thousand Oaks kid, but let's be real it is not usual for forward to blossom this late.
Axl Rhoadz
Binky distributor
- Apr 5, 2011
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Always get a kick out of statements like this...with all due respect, how the f*** would you know what the team 'promised' him??
Danault said it.......90% sure he mentioned it in a few interviews, that he was looking for a place that would let him have more of an offensive role.
Axl Rhoadz
Binky distributor
- Apr 5, 2011
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Yes, I'm aware of all that...I just think 'promised' is a pretty strong word and I doubt anyone promises anyone else anything. Are they on the same page and have the same intentions and goals? Of course.
Maybe we should just say that the Kings org has promised Kopitar that he will be the #1 center for the length of his contract, then we don't have to argue any more on why he's playing there.
Not even remotely the same.....Kopitar had no intention of leaving....
Danauly had his pick of 32 teams.
FSL KINGS
Registered User
- May 10, 2021
- 2,576
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I'm half joking about firing Todd 2 games in. What isn't funny is Todd putting up a solid F so far. Team not ready to go day one. Some guys in the minors that can outplay the garbage on the defense. His lineup choices are a joke so far, specifically adjustments after game one. He doesn't have the team ready to fight.
Meh, don't disagree with that, but as a professional player, if you aren't ready to in the first game, and compete, that's on you, not the coach
Raccoon Jesus
Todd McLellan is an inside agent
It's been reported in several places, and yes, the word 'promised' was used. It's also not hard to surmise that he would be given more offensive opportunity given he was absolutely buried in the defensive zone in MTL. But yeah, especially in a signing context, selling a player on his role on a new team with 'promises' makes complete sense, though of course everyone will agree player and mgmt to be on the same page. And in this context--Danault's increased production--yes, he is being used in a different capacity as promised hence the uptick in points (though IIRC it's actually really close to his career pace anyway, just with more opportunity).
You're picking a completely unnecessary fight over semantics. You're right, you DON'T have to argue any more!
I remember it being mentioned by both Blake and Danault. He was used in a primarily defensive role with Montreal and one of the reasons he chose to sign with LA was that he would be given more offensive deployment.
KingsFan7824
Registered User
But look where almost every goal Danault scored came from. 5 feet of the net. All he did was go to the net. If he keeps doing that, and guys can get the puck to him, the puck will end up behind the goalie. Nothing he did required an immense amount of skill. He didn't score off the rush. He wasn't doing a Bjornfot out there. It was ultimate garbage man stuff.
If a terrible organization would make a stupid promise to a player because they're desperate for him to sign here, why would such a franchise go back on that promise and not give Danault every chance to score? I guess because they're a terrible organization, which means they would inherently go back on their word.
It's certainly possible that he can maintain his high shooting percentage and I certainly hope he does, but it's very likely that it drops. He scored 27 goals last season when his previous career high was 13, that is a fairly large jump for a forward to have at the age of 29. I've been trying to think of players who had that kind of bump this late in their careers and maintained it and have been having trouble.
johnjm22
Pseudo Intellectual
- Aug 2, 2005
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As I said, Danault probably won't score 27 again, but his overall point totals aren't an outlier. He's been a good ES producer for years, so there's no reason to think it's going to suddenly fall off.
Moore is playing on the second line with underlying metrics that indicate his production last year was plenty reasonable.
The most probable point totals for both players this year, if they remain healthy, is in the 40-60pts range.
KingsFan7824
Registered User
It was a high sh%, but he also had 60 more shots than he's ever put up.
None of the goals he scored were anything special. They were mostly tip ins, tap ins, deflections. Why didn't he score anything close to 27 in Montreal if he's the same player he was there? I don't know, I'm not a scientist. Did they have him play more defense? Did he choose not to drive the net? Was last year insanely lucky with bounces? What was his 27g a product of? It was just him going to the net. That's repeatable. Unless he's told not to, that's just a want to get to the net.
AbsentMojo
F-ing get up and hunt! Cmon Todd!
I agree this seems like an aberration, but isnt it possible his deployment at MTL was different.. ie his line had typically harder assignments there than he does here? That could explain some of it.
