Is LA intentionally giving less than 100% in the regular season and is it right ?

[KCC]

Hasn't Sutter pretty much said this? They can't play like they do in the playoffs all season long, they're good enough to coast into the playoffs and go beast mode when it matters. Whatever it takes to win the cup.

Well they sure love to make it hard on themselves to actually get into the playoffs.

 

[Nasti]

So because of their positioning, the Kings go through the top 3 seeds in the west in 2012 and 3 top western contenders in 2014 without home ice and you're complaining that it's not fair?

 

[scryan]

So because of their positioning, the Kings go through the top 3 seeds in the west in 2012 and 3 top western contenders in 2014 without home ice and you're complaining that it's not fair?

Its definitely not classy.

 

[x Tame Impala]

The Kings will do this until it stops working for them. Can't argue with results.

 

[ottawa]

To say it's unethical in sport is to say that resting your stars on the last game of the season is unethical. If so, than most teams are unethical.

I guess if 1 game = 1 season

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

The Coyotes have been playing rope-a-dope this season. Just letting everyone but Edmonton wear them selves out early in the season. We'll catch them on the home stretch.

 

[terex]

I have zero issues with it. The punishment for coasting in to the playoffs is that you lose home ice for at least one round, typically. In the Kings' case, it's been every round/multiple rounds.

I can't argue with their results. As a Pens fan, I'd rather see Malkin or Crosby win more Conn Smythes than Hart or Art Ross Trophies.

I don't give a **** about "class." You play to win the Cup. You do whatever it takes. I don't care if Crosby sits the entire regular season just to be fresh for the playoffs. I don't care if Dustin Brown floats all day erryday, as long as he brings it in the playoffs. If that's what it takes to win the Cup, so be it.

Some fans just can't help but whine about every. single. thing. Good gravy.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

I wish the Blues would take notes

I see what you did there.....

 

[capebretoncanadien]

Probably not dogging it but I'd say that the motivation to win amongst the players isn't at 100% right now.

How could it be?

 

[Team_Spirit]

Once upon a time a coach had a talk with his star player :

Coach : Don't go for 35 goals this year. We will be happy with ~20. We need you in top shape for the playoffs. It's gonna work trust me, look at the LA Kings.

Player : **** no my contract is up this summer i'm pushing for 40.

The end.

 

[swerdnase]

I find it difficult to believe that professional athletes who have probably been ultra competitive their entire lives are dogging it during the season intentionally. Each and every one of them hates to lose and know that in professional sports nothing is a sure thing. No one is going to make it more difficult on themselves to win the ultimate prize on purpose. Now I will say that the coaches can affect the teams record with his decisions and if he wants to rest certain players or decides to play younger players to the detriment of the team in order to give them more experience or for some other reason then that is his choice. But the players themselves taking it easy? I find that ludicrous.

 

[Muzzinga]

In simple terms. When you play vs your buddy for $ in nhl 15, you give it your full focus. The next day when you play vs the cpu in your season mode, do you give the same attention and focus?

Its tough to play to your 100% effort every shift when playing game 20 of the regular season @Carolina, as opposed to game 7 of a playoff series against the Ducks

 

[bigwillie]

The only thing that isn't right here is Daryl Sutter saying "I don't give a hell." Seriously, who the **** says that? Say "I don't give a damn" or literally anything else: darn, crap, ****, ****, whatever. But who says hell?

Seriously, that's a little weird to me.

No problem if that Kings are "coasting." Whatever works. Wish SJ would.

 

[dubey]

Whether its 80% or 90% or 95%. I think they are making an effort to lift their foot off the gas in the dog days of the regular season and I don't think its right.

"I don't give a hell about the regular season"- Daryl Sutter

^Coach Sutter said it best himself and if I was Bettman, I would have a word with him for uttering those words.

They over-play their young players. All of their star players have bad numbers. Kopitar and Brown are prime examples. They are always worse then they should be in the regular season. Listen to any of the interviews of the players when they are asked about their position in the standings. They aren't phased. Then they come out guns a blazing in the playoffs.

The paying fans go to these games to watch professionals play at 100%. And nothing less. I personally think they are making an art of dogging it in the regular season and its BS.

lol

You think their fans care as long as they keep winning when it matters? What a thread

 

[Anglesmith]

I guess if 1 game = 1 season

Huh? No, the one game would be a microcosm of mailing it in for a whole season. Not sure what's difficult to understand about that.

Anyway, I still see people making the implication that you can be bad and still make the playoffs. The fact is it is very difficult to make the playoffs still, and you still need to win more games than you lose by a healthy margin in order to get in. I don't think anything that LA is doing is wrong. I do feel that losing as many games as you can is unethical.

 

[MasterDecoy]

Is it right? Do whatever you have to do to win. The end

 

[Marina]

I really doubt it.

Maybe they just suck in the regular season, it's certainly possible.

 

[Kopiterror]

They don't seem like they are coasting to me. It seems like they are feeling the effects of losing Voynov and Mitchell from last year's squad. On top of that, Gaborik, Kopitar, Muzzin, and Regehr have all missed time now, and Doughty is being forced to play 30+ minutes a night. It seems to me they are just struggling to click after a disjointed start that included injuries, a very disturbing suspension, and new players.

They very well may click soon, but that doesn't mean that they were "coasting" to this point. It just means they were struggling a bit until they figured out how to put a few of the new pieces together.

Furthermore, even if they weren't giving 100% (which I am very far from allowing), there wouldn't be anything "unethical" about their performance. Teams are allowed to strategize as they wish. If other teams want to discourage it, they should use their home ice advantage as, you know, an advantage.

 

[The Perfect Paradox]

We will never be able to say with certainty that this is the case. A member of the organization isn't going to come out and say: "Yeah, we tell the players not to bother giving it 100% during the regular season. They need to save themselves for the playoffs when the games are of greater importance."

Logically speaking, it doesn't seem that this is a message that the coaching staff and management team would like to broadcast to the players. While the roster is loaded with playoff experience, portraying any type of attitude that isn't along the lines of "play your hardest" is detrimental to motivating players who weren't apart of the championship teams. Hockey is a business and you really never know which player will be traded/join another team and spread word about the poor philosophy the Kings have instilled.

With the risk in reputation and player performance, I find it hard to believe that this is the case. The more likely scenario in my mind is that many of the players feel this way. When you've gone all of the way twice, it must be very hard to become pumped up for regular season games. Even if you promise yourself you will go out on the ice and give it your all, there is still a part of you that naturally feels like you are participating in something that is relatively meaningless.

 

[wabwat]

I think that it's giving them too much credit to suggest that they've "figured it out," that they're "pacing themselves" or that it's done "intentionally." They've most certainly figured out how to win in the post-season, but I think that what they haven't figured out is how to translate such success to the regular season. Sure, they're going to say that the regular season doesn't matter to them, especially when they're very average during it, but I'm certain that, privately, they would love and prefer to be a top team in the regular season, like Chicago, as well... or, at least, a lot better than they have been. Some teams spend years struggling to figure out how to translate regular season success into the post-season. LA has the opposite problem: they struggle to translate post-season success into the regular season. I view their regular season averageness as one of the few glaring weaknesses that they have and have yet to solve, not as part of some strategy. As I said, suggesting the latter is giving them too much credit, IMO.



One of these days (perhaps even this year), I suspect that this annual playing with fire is going to burn them--they're either going to miss the playoffs or exit in round 1 or 2 to a top team (thanks partly to that team's home ice advantage)--and they're going to be shocked. They might learn to take the regular season a bit more seriously after that. Coasting and then flicking the switch is only acceptable until, eventually, you flick it and the light fails to come on when you desperately need it to.

lol.

 

[MoreOrr]

@ the question in the title... Why isn't it "right"? What's wrong about it?

And yes, it kind of seems obvious that that's what they're doing. That team knows that in the Playoffs it can win, regardless if it has home-ice advantage or not... So why not conserve a bit of energy for a long Playoff run. When was the last time a team won the Cup two years in a row... No doubt that the Kings have that as their objective.

Not sure they'll be successful with the plan, as there are quite a few other good teams, and every year that passes gives those other teams a better idea as to how to potentially handle what the Kings throw at them.

 

[GFiP*]

The Kings are doing it the right way. If the NHL wants the regular season to be more meaningful, reduce the amount of teams that get in.

It's that simple.

 

[notsocommonsense]

Whether its 80% or 90% or 95%. I think they are making an effort to lift their foot off the gas in the dog days of the regular season and I don't think its right.

"I don't give a hell about the regular season"- Daryl Sutter

^Coach Sutter said it best himself and if I was Bettman, I would have a word with him for uttering those words.

They over-play their young players. All of their star players have bad numbers. Kopitar and Brown are prime examples. They are always worse then they should be in the regular season. Listen to any of the interviews of the players when they are asked about their position in the standings. They aren't phased. Then they come out guns a blazing in the playoffs.

The paying fans go to these games to watch professionals play at 100%. And nothing less. I personally think they are making an art of dogging it in the regular season and its BS.

BS? I'm a Van fan like you and I'd sure as hell trade all those pres trophy seasons for mediocre seasons and a cup.

They play 82 games in the season before the REAL season begins. Can you really blame the guys whose ultimate goal is the cup for not wasting their energy on largely meaningless games vs Buffalo, Edmonton, Carolina etc? The regular season is wayyyyyyyyyy too long.

Save it for when it matters, good for them.

 

[G0AT]

Honestly, who cares?

It doesn't matter how/why you make it to the post season, you just make sure it happens. Final results are all that matter in the end.

 

[islesforlife]

Honestly, I think they're just getting a bit tired. They're still a great team, and I like to watch them every now and then, but lets look at the past few seasons. They've been mostly the same team, and if you go back to their first cup, they have played 2 full 82 games seasons, plus the lockout 48 game season, adding up to 212 games. Now you add in the SCP: 20 in '12, 24 in '13, 26 in '14 totaling to 70 games. That's 282. Then there is also THIS season, with 35 games down. That makes 317. That's basically playing a game every day of the year, but taking every 8th day off. That's gunna be tiring after a while.