disappointed in what??? that he played injured and then couldnt score because he kept pressing but lets forget the fact that he played stellar defense on whoever was out there.... dude you need to **** and realize this kid comes to play and will bring it next year guys like you make KINGS fans look bad we lost not because of Kopitar but rather because we didnt have the speed to match up, our D was missing Willie and quick made a few mistakes but we still had our chances so just get ready for next season!
Conf . Call with Lombardi, Richards , Kopitar (Kopi -no injury/no surgery)
- Thread starter deeshamrock
- Start date
disappointed in what??? that he played injured and then couldnt score because he kept pressing but lets forget the fact that he played stellar defense on whoever was out there.... dude you need to **** and realize this kid comes to play and will bring it next year guys like you make KINGS fans look bad we lost not because of Kopitar but rather because we didnt have the speed to match up, our D was missing Willie and quick made a few mistakes but we still had our chances so just get ready for next season!
Lol what are you talking about his knee didn't seem that bad that he took off the brace so quickly. He made tons of turn overs defensively. He was better in the Chicago series but was a no show the whole season. Stop being a homer.
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Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
A no show the entire season? Are you serious?
He played nothing like Kopitar of the past season. Don't bring points into this. His play wasn't good. He didn't have that step this season.
Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
The Kings had a better season this year than they did in the previous season. Even with a bum knee, Kopitar was more than a "no show" as you suggested.
Scottkmlps
Registered User
Add another to the list:
jonathan davis @westcoasthky 2m
Darryl Sutter tells the media that Robyn Regehr will have surgery for an arm injury #surprise
jonathan davis @westcoasthky 2m
Darryl Sutter tells the media that Robyn Regehr will have surgery for an arm injury #surprise
Raccoon Jesus
Todd McLellan is an inside agent
Okay, so you don't care about his points, but you can clearly see from the eye test that he's injured...what exactly are you complaining about here? That Kopitar sucked because he was injured and he needs to 'bring it' more?
The guy will relax and recover in the offseason and I'm sure he'll be back to good ol' Kopi in no time. Complaining about oh goodness he's entering his prime trade him or we're doomed is premature at best and most likely an absolute waste of breath. Accusing him of lacking heart/hunger is actually just disgusting.
no name
Registered User
This is absurd. He had a major inijury compounded by having to play an unheard of amount of games in 80 days. It was inevitable that it was going to wear. To say he was a no show all year is simply infuriating. Sensationalism only benefits a person with a beef.
Wooty
Registered User
KINGS17
Smartest in the Room
- Apr 6, 2006
- 32,449
- 11,484
Let's hope he is better than the good ol' Kopi that disappears in the offensive zone for 20-25 games a season.
I love the guy, but he really needs to work harder in the offseason IMO. He has all the tools to be one of the best in the game, not just good, but great. Does he want it bad enough?
I would be nice to give him a pass for this season, but no one can deny that he has had a major slump each and every season. That points to something systemic, not just an anomaly that occurred this season.
I'm with the angry mob on this one. You are selling WAY short a man who has given this organization everything and your expectations are absurd. Kopitar is a living legend in my book and deserves a lot more respect than your are giving.
I'm not trying to stir anything up or be too harsh but I've felt like many of your posts this season are sensational and hard to take seriously.
Ollie Weeks
the sea does not dream of you
- Feb 28, 2008
- 13,255
- 2,552
agentfouser
Playoffs?!?!
To all the people saying that Kopitar needs to train more in the offseason, I'm not sure at all that's the issue. Kopitar was slower this year, but that's the knee injury and not strictly a fitness issue. Recall seasons past, or watch the highlights of him playing in Sweden, and it's obvious that his physical fitness is not a big problem. He blows by defenders with his skating, and outmuscles them with his strength. Granted, Swedish league defenders are not NHL defenders, but there are no shortages of guys there who skate well and are strong. Plus, we've seen him do it to NHL players before, so it's not that Kopitar is exactly unfit.
Thinking about it more, and listening to what he was saying, I think it's more of a mental issue. Kopitar needs to go to the net. He needs to play in the middle, and not get himself stuck to the boards. You don't need to be fast to park yourself in front of the net, and on the rare occasions in this year's playoffs when he did that, he scored goals. Plus, when Kopitar goes to net, he draws defenders and opens up space for his linemates. This past playoff, he got stuck in the habit of going to the boards, the one place where he's easiest to defend. He wasn't skating well enough to make much happen on the rush; he got into the habit of playing along the boards, got tied up there, and had his space taken away; thus, he created little offense, could not sustain any pressure, and his linemates weren't particularly successful either. (Williams did very well, obviously, but a lot of his success came without Kopitar.)
Kopitar needs to relearn the habit of driving hard to the middle, of playing for and occupying the middle of the ice. When he's struggled in the past, it's because he fell back to the perimeter. Being fit is a necessary condition for his success, but it's not sufficient, because all the fitness and strength in the world won't do anything if he doesn't start coming off the boards and driving to the net on a consistent basis. And that's a mental issue. That's a habit of mind one has to cultivate and maintain.
Thinking about it more, and listening to what he was saying, I think it's more of a mental issue. Kopitar needs to go to the net. He needs to play in the middle, and not get himself stuck to the boards. You don't need to be fast to park yourself in front of the net, and on the rare occasions in this year's playoffs when he did that, he scored goals. Plus, when Kopitar goes to net, he draws defenders and opens up space for his linemates. This past playoff, he got stuck in the habit of going to the boards, the one place where he's easiest to defend. He wasn't skating well enough to make much happen on the rush; he got into the habit of playing along the boards, got tied up there, and had his space taken away; thus, he created little offense, could not sustain any pressure, and his linemates weren't particularly successful either. (Williams did very well, obviously, but a lot of his success came without Kopitar.)
Kopitar needs to relearn the habit of driving hard to the middle, of playing for and occupying the middle of the ice. When he's struggled in the past, it's because he fell back to the perimeter. Being fit is a necessary condition for his success, but it's not sufficient, because all the fitness and strength in the world won't do anything if he doesn't start coming off the boards and driving to the net on a consistent basis. And that's a mental issue. That's a habit of mind one has to cultivate and maintain.
Let's see how Kopitar does this season. I know what you guys are saying, but that's not good enough for me. He's been a king for a long time, and has had 25 game slumps every year. I just don't like using years excuse to excuse one bad season. He's very good but he has slumps every year, and that's big slumps. He's our top player and it doesn't look good when you are invisible for 25 games every season and pretty average to what you're capable of this season. Which was 48+ games. That's no excuse for a top 5 center. If he was as okay as he said he was then that's bad if he's not it explains a lot for this year's performance. I hope he does better next year. He should be hitting his prime so I'm expecting a big rebound.
Axl Rhoadz
Binky distributor
- Apr 5, 2011
- 4,942
- 3,808
I'm willing to give Kopitar and the entire team a free-pass this season, due to what they accomplished last year.
But if you got this same playoff performance, yet the Kings hadn't won the cup last year, we'd have some pretty pissed off fans. Guys like Kopitar and Brown who really raised their performance bar last playoffs, looked NOTHING like 2012.
Their were only two really solid team efforts this team had during the playoffs...I believe it was game 3 vs STL, and game 5 vs SJ. That's 2 games out of 18! Last year, you had a complete solid effort every game.
But if you got this same playoff performance, yet the Kings hadn't won the cup last year, we'd have some pretty pissed off fans. Guys like Kopitar and Brown who really raised their performance bar last playoffs, looked NOTHING like 2012.
Their were only two really solid team efforts this team had during the playoffs...I believe it was game 3 vs STL, and game 5 vs SJ. That's 2 games out of 18! Last year, you had a complete solid effort every game.
Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
It's rather telling that the team got to the final four with their top players not playing their best. The play of Quick, Richards, Carter, Williams, Doughty and Voynov really stood out to me in these playoffs.
We're not always going to see a playoff run like they had in 2012 and I'd like to think that we're not always going to see so many top guys struggling at the same time like we did in this year's playoffs.
Hell, look at how Toews and Kane struggled during the playoffs up until Game 4 and Game 5 of this series. You just need your big players to come through and make big plays when they're needed and those players did just that. We saw Kopitar come out of his vegetative state in Game 5 as well, but alas it wasn't nearly enough. Still, I'm not going to make ridiculous claims like a poster above did that Kopitar was lazy and didn't bother to show up the entire season.
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