GDT: 2023-24 season game 50 LA Kings vs Buffalo Sabres @4:00pm 2/13/24

[Johnny Utah]

Remember when they tried to promote ticket sales by claiming that this team is ready to compete for the Stanley Cup? I’m sure this is just a minor blip in that direction. Maybe after taking over a month off the soon to be champions will get on a roll, most likely a roll that is headed downhill.

My season ticket rep just called and told me prices are going up. LOL.

 

[FrozenKing18]

Eh move on to the next game. Kings blew their load on that 4-0 win against the Oilers and weren't ready for the next one. They have a longer refractory period.

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

People are saying Dubois played well.

I think it's less that Dubois played well and more that the rest of the roster looked absolutely terrible so by comparison Dubois looked half decent. For me, Dubois' game last night was about on par with what we're used to from him.

Worst effort I've seen from a Kings team in a longgggggg time. Team was completely out of sorts.

I want to see drastic lineup changes, it's long overdue honestly. Anderson and Doughty have looked bad for weeks - split them up. Kopitar's struggling - push him down the lineup or sit him a few games if he really is injured. Get Kaliyev back in the top 9. Get Clarke in the lineup regularly. There's no excuse to not implement at least some of these kinds of changes.

(Assuming they want to keep PLD at Center)
Moore - Dubois - Kempe
Byfield - Danault - Arvidsson (if healthy)
Fiala - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

OR (Moving Byfield back to center)
PLD - Byfield - Kempe
Moore - Danault - Kaliyev
Fiala - Kopitar - Arvidsson
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

Gavrikov - Doughty
Anderson - Clarke
Roy - Spence

Time for a big shake up.

 

[Bandit]

I woke up to this not long ago… I’ve got nothing

I wouldn't worry about it too much. The Kings had nothing either, and still haven't woken up.

 

[chris kontos]

we could be montrel canadiens 1976-77 team of skaters and with these two goalies they are going nowhere. i have nothing against talbot/rittich personally but as pro hockey players they are what they are. numbers dont change the fact that talbot displayed the same quality of goaltending way back as an edmonton #1 and rittich has never been able to stick year to year as a #2. too much is expected of these guys. the skaters know it, they are playing like they know they have no shot and i wouldnt expect them to bust thier asses. yeah there pros and they know any hockey teams success ultimately comes down to goaltending.

 

[Pucknut50]

People are saying Dubois played well.

I think it's less that Dubois played well and more that the rest of the roster looked absolutely terrible so by comparison Dubois looked half decent. For me, Dubois' game last night was about on par with what we're used to from him.

Worst effort I've seen from a Kings team in a longgggggg time. Team was completely out of sorts.

I want to see drastic lineup changes, it's long overdue honestly. Anderson and Doughty have looked bad for weeks - split them up. Kopitar's struggling - push him down the lineup or sit him a few games if he really is injured. Get Kaliyev back in the top 9. Get Clarke in the lineup regularly. There's no excuse to not implement at least some of these kinds of changes.

(Assuming they want to keep PLD at Center)
Moore - Dubois - Kempe
Byfield - Danault - Arvidsson (if healthy)
Fiala - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

OR (Moving Byfield back to center)
PLD - Byfield - Kempe
Moore - Danault - Kaliyev
Fiala - Kopitar - Arvidsson
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

Gavrikov - Doughty
Anderson - Clarke
Roy - Spence

Time for a big shake up.

Super Bowl hangover.

 

[tny760]

My season ticket rep just called and told me prices are going up. LOL.

last chance to rope a few suckers in before the ship starts listing

 

[BigKing]

My season ticket rep just called and told me prices are going up. LOL.

Fantastic. I'm dropping my three retail ones since my parents and sister can't really go anymore and will just keep my four Die Hard seats. Was already planning on this but this is the clincher.

Another thank you to Rob Blake for spending AEG's money wisely.

 

[Herby]

People are saying Dubois played well.

I think it's less that Dubois played well and more that the rest of the roster looked absolutely terrible so by comparison Dubois looked half decent. For me, Dubois' game last night was about on par with what we're used to from him.

Worst effort I've seen from a Kings team in a longgggggg time. Team was completely out of sorts.

I want to see drastic lineup changes, it's long overdue honestly. Anderson and Doughty have looked bad for weeks - split them up. Kopitar's struggling - push him down the lineup or sit him a few games if he really is injured. Get Kaliyev back in the top 9. Get Clarke in the lineup regularly. There's no excuse to not implement at least some of these kinds of changes.

(Assuming they want to keep PLD at Center)
Moore - Dubois - Kempe
Byfield - Danault - Arvidsson (if healthy)
Fiala - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

OR (Moving Byfield back to center)
PLD - Byfield - Kempe
Moore - Danault - Kaliyev
Fiala - Kopitar - Arvidsson
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

Gavrikov - Doughty
Anderson - Clarke
Roy - Spence

Time for a big shake up.

Noble effort but you are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Kopitar is not going to get 3rd line minutes, Danault has been bad for awhile now too.

Putting weak defensive forwards (Fiala and Kaliyev) with players who would be playing against other teams top lines makes us defensively weaker.

Any QB move to C is going to happen next season, he’s played at a much lower level as a C vs as a winger and a team desperately clinging to a playoff spot isn’t going to pull him from wing where he’s been excellent to put him at C where he hasn’t, especially not a team paying its top 3 C’s roughly $25m. Any QB to center move is probably only going to happen when one of the expensive centers is moved or retires.

A lot of stuff has already been put in the blender the last month, and the results aren’t improving at all, TM himself said he was out of answers and Blake did as well, which is why he made the last ditch Hail Mary to fire Todd. It’s just painfully obvious that this team is so far from where management and some fans expected it to be.

My season ticket rep just called and told me prices are going up. LOL.

Imagine having to be those poor guys, making those phone calls right now as the team is completely collapsing.

I think I’d rather be a Jehovah’s Witness door-knocker.

 

[lexlavender]

 

[shuchukfan]

 

[Sol]

It’s over boys lol. Kopitar is dead essentially. Danault is on IG learning to make ice cream. PLD is wear a knitted sweater hugging a miniature dog.

These guys are donezo

 

[chris kontos]

It’s over boys lol. Kopitar is dead essentially. Danault is on IG learning to make ice cream. PLD is wear a knitted sweater hugging a miniature dog.

These guys are donezo

With a team of talbot & rittich backing em up

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

Noble effort but you are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Kopitar is not going to get 3rd line minutes, Danault has been bad for awhile now too.

Putting weak defensive forwards (Fiala and Kaliyev) with players who would be playing against other teams top lines makes us defensively weaker.

Any QB move to C is going to happen next season, he’s played at a much lower level as a C vs as a winger and a team desperately clinging to a playoff spot isn’t going to pull him from wing where he’s been excellent to put him at C where he hasn’t, especially not a team paying its top 3 C’s roughly $25m. Any QB to center move is probably only going to happen when one of the expensive centers is moved or retires.

A lot of stuff has already been put in the blender the last month, and the results aren’t improving at all, TM himself said he was out of answers and Blake did as well, which is why he made the last ditch Hail Mary to fire Todd. It’s just painfully obvious that this team is so far from where management and some fans expected it to be.



Imagine having to be those poor guys, making those phone calls right now as the team is completely collapsing.

I think I’d rather be a Jehovah’s Witness door-knocker.

So Herby, would your suggestion be to blow it up?

Fire Blake, Fire Luc, hire a new GM, trade Kopitar (unless he's willing to retire), trade Doughty (even if you need to retain 50% and have $5.5m in dead cap for the next 3 seasons??), trade other players if you get a good return, etc etc.

And just accept that the team will likely be pretty bad for at least a couple years but hopefully come out of it as a true contender?

Kinda feels like its that or stay the course and follow a same fate as a team like the Penguins (barely miss/make the playoffs over the next few years but never come remotely close to winning anything until eventually becoming a true bottom feeder again).

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

It’s over boys lol. Kopitar is dead essentially. Danault is on IG learning to make ice cream. PLD is wear a knitted sweater hugging a miniature dog.

These guys are donezo

Well, let's be real...you would be saying the exact same thing if last night was a preseason game.

No real comments about the game as I fast forwarded through 2/3 of it...definitely killed the buzz generated from Sat....but we got a long ways to go.

 

[BigKing]

So Herby, would your suggestion be to blow it up?

Fire Blake, Fire Luc, hire a new GM, trade Kopitar (unless he's willing to retire), trade Doughty (even if you need to retain 50% and have $5.5m in dead cap for the next 3 seasons??), trade other players if you get a good return, etc etc.

And just accept that the team will likely be pretty bad for at least a couple years but hopefully come out of it as a true contender?

Kinda feels like its that or stay the course and follow a same fate as a team like the Penguins (barely miss/make the playoffs over the next few years but never come remotely close to winning anything until eventually becoming a true bottom feeder again).

It was always the destiny of an organization run by the 1999-00 Kings to become the 1999-00 Kings.

 

[Schrute farms]

‘Fire the coach!’, they said. It will be fun.

When the whole house is a mess, you have to start somewhere. The beginning for the Kings org was the coach/TM. Hopefully they eventually move to start cleaning the rest of the house (Luc & Blake).

 

[Lt Dan]

It was always the destiny of an organization run by the 1999-00 Kings to become the 1999-00 Kings.

You are promoted to MonolithicKing for this post!

Right on the f***ing money. We are in a black hole. Trading futures for quick fixes that aren't working. Fiala is essentially Palffy at this point. PLD is Eric Rassmussen and like the Andy Murray era...we have no f***ing goaltending.
We are a first round team and management is convinced that we are one player away and keep trading futures for guys that aren't working out.
History is repeating itself

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

When the whole house is a mess, you have to start somewhere. The beginning for the Kings org was the coach/TM. Hopefully they eventually move to start cleaning the rest of the house (Luc & Blake).

Except everyone forgets that this team was deemed a Stanley Cup contender 25 games in and nobody had an issue with Rob Blake and the construction. (show me a post in Oct/Nov that was calling for Blake's head) -- Fast forward 30 games later, the coach is fired because everyone was convinced that was an issue - now that we see TM had nothing to do with it, it's Rob Blake's fault. Hilarious.

Who will be blame after Blake is fired? The equipment manager?

 

[Schrute farms]

Except everyone forgets that this team was deemed a Stanley Cup contender 25 games in and nobody had an issue with Rob Blake and the construction. (show me a post in Oct/Nov that was calling for Blake's head) -- Fast forward 30 games later, the coach is fired because everyone was convinced that was an issue - now that we see TM had nothing to do with it, it's Rob Blake's fault. Hilarious.

Who will be blame after Blake is fired? The equipment manager?

Umm, you are either clueless or blatantly playing your 'game' if you think "everyone" was calling the Kings a SC contender and "nobody" had an issue with Blake during their early season run.

 

[tny760]

Umm, you are either clueless or blatantly playing your 'game' if you think "everyone" was calling the Kings a SC contender and "nobody" had an issue with Blake during their early season run.

he literally just makes shit up and acts like its factual, it's actually an incredible skill

 

[Bandit]

It was always the destiny of an organization run by the 1999-00 Kings to become the 1999-00 Kings.

 

[bmr]

People are saying Dubois played well.

I think it's less that Dubois played well and more that the rest of the roster looked absolutely terrible so by comparison Dubois looked half decent. For me, Dubois' game last night was about on par with what we're used to from him.

Worst effort I've seen from a Kings team in a longgggggg time. Team was completely out of sorts.

I want to see drastic lineup changes, it's long overdue honestly. Anderson and Doughty have looked bad for weeks - split them up. Kopitar's struggling - push him down the lineup or sit him a few games if he really is injured. Get Kaliyev back in the top 9. Get Clarke in the lineup regularly. There's no excuse to not implement at least some of these kinds of changes.

(Assuming they want to keep PLD at Center)
Moore - Dubois - Kempe
Byfield - Danault - Arvidsson (if healthy)
Fiala - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

OR (Moving Byfield back to center)
PLD - Byfield - Kempe
Moore - Danault - Kaliyev
Fiala - Kopitar - Arvidsson
Laferriere - Turcotte - Lewis

Gavrikov - Doughty
Anderson - Clarke
Roy - Spence

Time for a big shake up.

That could be part of it but Dubois definitely looked better than his normal self. He was hitting and still pretty active. He also wasn't on the ice for any goals against but they did score on the PP after the one penalty he took at the end of the 1st.

 

[Herby]

So Herby, would your suggestion be to blow it up?

Fire Blake, Fire Luc, hire a new GM, trade Kopitar (unless he's willing to retire), trade Doughty (even if you need to retain 50% and have $5.5m in dead cap for the next 3 seasons??), trade other players if you get a good return, etc etc.

And just accept that the team will likely be pretty bad for at least a couple years but hopefully come out of it as a true contender?

Kinda feels like its that or stay the course and follow a same fate as a team like the Penguins (barely miss/make the playoffs over the next few years but never come remotely close to winning anything until eventually becoming a true bottom feeder again).

Yes, that is absolutely what they should do, and I am cautiously optimistic that is what happens beginning this summer, assuming a competent manager is brought in and given a mandate to actually build this thing correctly the way other teams (including this one once upon a time) were built. The only thing I disagree with is I don't see Kopitar traded, I am hoping he retires but he could decide to stay on and collect that $14m he was foolishly gifted by our incompetent GM.

This team is not a contender now and won't be the next two seasons (just to many huge holes that have to be fixed through the draft) and it has many assets in the prime of their careers that could be traded tomorrow for future assets. Guys like Kempe, Moore, Gavrikov, Roy, Fiala, Danault aren't useful for this teams future championship aspirations, but a team that has star players and a solid lineup who needs a piece or two? You bet. They would bring in some really nice secondary assets and picks that are more in the age range of Byfield, Clarke and the really high picks you should plan on having in the 25, 26 and 27 drafts.

Doughty's retention cap hits mean nothing, as the Kings won't be contending for the next 3 years. Trading him accomplishes the goal of making your team worse to draft higher, to open up a permanent spot for someone like Clarke and to officially turn the page on that era of Kings hockey, instead of trying to pretend you can still win with him, you can't. It also lets a guy who clearly wants to win, to go to a team that has a chance to win. I think most people here would love to see Drew win another cup.

I don't know why you (and others) seem to afraid and hesitant to go scorched Earth, it's worked here and it's worked for the teams that have dominated the sport for the last 20 years. Does it have a 100% success rate? No, could we become Buffalo or Ottawa? Yes. But we could also become Pittsburgh, Chicago, Tampa or the Kings, there is a path to a championship that way, there was never a path to a championship with this turn of the century black hole Kings build through trades and free agency path that Blake foolishly went down almost 3 years ago.

Just think if he trades Doughty instead of appeases him, this is your core right now, a mere 3 years later.

High 1st in 2023
Faber
Byfield
Clarke
High first in 2022
Whatever pick you got for Doughty
Anderson
Spence
Vilardi
Kaliyev

It's just sad to think about, yes. But also just know that any year that passes that the Kings delay fixing it is another year that a gap grows between the ages of Clarke/Byfield/Anderson/Spence and the next wave of high picks. If we blow it up this summer the high picks will still be 4-7 years younger than Clarke and Byfield, enough where they can coexist and still have a championship window, if you wait much longer there won't be as much time where they all are in their primes. It's obviously not as ideal as having guys like Faber and whoever they got from Bedard/Fantilli/Carlsson/Smith/Michkov and putting them with Clarke and Byfield for a decade, but its still possible.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Umm, you are either clueless or blatantly playing your 'game' if you think "everyone" was calling the Kings a SC contender and "nobody" had an issue with Blake during their early season run.

Ok, show me.