What's wrong with Kopitar?

[Kingspiracy]

Stepan + 1st

Gets you Gasper

 

[MadFerIt95*]

Meh. We all wrote Giroux off after his early season struggles and now we're eating crow. Same will probably happen with Kopitar. Struggles happen

 

[Fergus]

Kopitar blew Toews out in a poll and Toews is currently the better player. Who's more overrated?

Sample size is this season?

 

[Lyons71]

Kopitar will be there in the playoffs, don't worry.

 

[Nasti]

Really early but, if the playoffs started today, the Kings would play the Blackhawks. I'm pretty sure fans of both teams do not want this to happen. Everyone else would love it.

 

[Vikke]

Meh. We all wrote Giroux off after his early season struggles and now we're eating crow. Same will probably happen with Kopitar. Struggles happen

Only ignorant people wrote him off.
Also, Kopitar's never been on Giroux's level.

 

[Bullseyes]

Kopitar has been extremely overrated for 2 years now. People putting him over players like Giroux, Getzlaf, Tavares, Seguin and Stamkos were delusional. If any of the aforementioned players went on a stretch like Kopitar has they'd be ragged on and receive much more criticism than Kopi is currently getting

He's definitely avoided a lot of the criticism that other players have gotten when they have a rough start or stretch. Hell, he had a terrible post season in 2013 but I rarely heard anything about it.

 

[SwollenGoat]

Not sure but i know his dad isn't happy with his play...

[/IMG]

 

[bouncesonly]

lol @ reading quoted posts of Sasso09. Saw his avatar...now it makes sense.

 

[Scouter]

Well people are saying come playoff time he will be good, but their might not be playoffs if he doesn't get it together, I mean he's at least one of if not their best player, there is no room for slacking off in the West.

 

[hawkeyexp]

Most everyone on the Kings Roster has played A LOT of hockey the past three years. Hes probably tired. Maybe a little unmotivated after all that hockey. Who knows, hell be ok.

 

[SirloinUB]

What's wrong with Crosby ? He's 2nd in scoring.

We are doing a weekly head to head. All his points came early. Had 2 goals over 20 games before going to with the mumps or whatever.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

He's pregnant.

 

[KJS14]

i dont think 3 bad months out of one season takes him out of the top 5 conversation. hes top 5 no doubt. he's been the best center in the playoffs 2 out of the last 3 years

He never belonged in the conversation to begin with. He's top 10 no doubt, but there's a decent margin between the top 5 and Kopitar.

 

[Jyssy]

Nothings wrong with him, just a slow start to a season.

 

[fsanford]

3 deep playoff runs, plus olympics, perhaps kopitar and many of the kings players are simply worn down

This, and yet they sit in a playoff spot today..
Still about 2 months away from Kings kicking it into gear.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Kopitar has been extremely overrated for 2 years now. People putting him over players like Giroux, Getzlaf, Tavares, Seguin and Stamkos were delusional. If any of the aforementioned players went on a stretch like Kopitar has they'd be ragged on and receive much more criticism than Kopi is currently getting

How often you come into Kopitar threads and stomp your feet trying to push your Giroux and Toews agenda is becoming comical. Relax.

 

[blinds]

How often you come into Kopitar threads and stomp your feet trying to push your Giroux and Toews agenda is becoming comical. Relax.

You can attack the poster for having an agenda, but is he wrong? If any of those players had 13 points in 28 games it would be a huge spectacle here.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

You can attack the poster for having an agenda, but is he wrong? If any of those players had 13 points in 28 games it would be a huge spectacle here.

The last statement is not wrong but it's completely incongruent with the first two sentences.

Using a slow start to further "see he's overrated, you guys are crazy" is just dishonest. That's where the agenda takes over.

 

[Krnuckfan]

Just a case of a player getting in a slump which happens to every player. People just bought into the narrative that he's somehow "clutch" after the playoffs and expected him to be a top5 player when in reality he's a very good player who had a decent hot streak in the playoffs but not in the conversation for the top 10 players in the league.

 

[NikF]

You can attack the poster for having an agenda, but is he wrong? If any of those players had 13 points in 28 games it would be a huge spectacle here.

And if they led the playoffs in scoring en route to two Stanley Cups it would be a huge spectacle as well.

 

[Derrty]

I dunno, but he was invisible last night.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

There's a suggestion from LeBrun that he's been fighting something, FWIW:

"Kopitar has just 13 points (6 goals, 7 assists) in 28 games, although word is he has played through some ailments that may still be affecting him."

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/1...es-kings-look-plagued-fatigue-stanley-cup-run

Not an excuse, but an explanation that would make sense.

 

[eklunds source]

Kopitar on-ice shooting percentage, 5v5:

season|on-ice sh%|points/60min
07-08|8.17|1.67
08-09|8.01|1.88
09-10|7.46|1.76
10-11|10.65|2.69
11-12|7.55|2.07
12-13|8.16|2.04
13-14|8.03|1.95
||
14-15| 5.85 |1.17

Generally, elite players have a better on-ice sh% than plugs, but in any one season, the amount of noise swamps talent. Over a 30 game sample -- less than half a season -- you get all sorts of crazy outliers.

Through 30 games... Sometimes elite players are near the top (Rick Nash, 14.69%), sometimes AHL defensemen are near the top (Nate Guenin, 14.41%). Sometimes AHL players are near the bottom (Zac Rinaldo, 2.53%), and sometimes elite players are near the bottom (Kopitar 5.85%, EStaal 3.93%, Patrick Sharp 4.17%).

Sometimes, those low on-ice %s are caused by injury - players just aren't able to create scoring chances like they could when healthy. When Getzlaf had lingering wrist problems in '11-'12, his on-ice sh% was 6.9% (his career average is 10.1%). Sometimes it's random chance. The goalies manage to make those crazy saves; your teammates go post-out instead of bar-down; the puck bounces on 2-on-1s; those deflections and rebounds end up getting smothered rather than kicked out to a teammates stick...

Whatever the reason, unless it's fully caused by injury and the injury will never heal properly, I fully expect Kopitar to be as useful a player as he was previously. Even if the point totals aren't there.

 

[londonHK]

Never understood why threads are made when a player has a slow point in a season. This coming from a Hawks fan.

Reminds me of the knee jerk people saying "trade Kane" "trade Kane for Ryan miller (lol!)"

Kopitar will be fine. Both our respective teams will likely win many more cups being the two elites of the NHL and both will do it with their stars producing in the PO's where it counts. Unlike the Crosby/Malkin/Stamkos of the world they get compared to who fail to come through in the PO's.

Did you intend to sound this smug? This also coming from a Hawks fan.

Stamkos is several years younger than the rest of these guys, so let's wait and see before labelling him a playoff failure.

Malkin won a Conn Smythe, so I'm not sure how he's a failure in playoffs....

As for Crosby, I take your criticism of his past performance in the playoffs, although I think saying he fails to come through is a bit strong (not to mention his injury in this past postseason) but that's mostly semantics and a matter of opinion.