Thread: How much experience was gained by losing Kopitar in 2011?

Originally Posted by Dr. Naysay

3 of the 4 Centers on the Kings 2012 Stanley Cup winning team didn't play for the Kings in the 2011 Playoffs.
King, Nolan, Fraser, Carter, Richards, Voynov, Loktionov and Gagne didn't play for the Kings in the 2011 Playoffs.
Scuderi, Penner and Williams had all won the Stanley Cup prior to the 2011 Playoffs.
Dustin Brown was a different player after the trade rumors.

Clifford was the big surprise in 2011.... barely factored into 2012.


The older the get and the more teams get overhauled each off season the less I believe the "you got to learn to lose before you learn to win" mantra that some people love so much.

Quick is really the only player who arguably used the previous season as a springboard into 2011-12. Brown, and Doughty to a less obvious degree, "flipped the switch" heading into the last quarter of the season and throughout the playoffs.

I still say that the Richards acquisition wasn't made with the intent of fast-forwarding the team's development as much as it was an indictment of the players that fell apart over the course of the previous two playoff years. There had to be some grit and win-at-all-costs attitude at the top of the lineup that was either flat-out missing or needed to be coddled out. Maybe Schenn would have brought it eventually, but there had to be a personality change, more of a respected killer instinct attitude that was missing in Kopitar and Brown. Maybe Dustin had it all along and just didn't know how to channel it, maybe Richards' presence allowed him to ease into that kind of approach, or maybe the trade rumors woke him up. Probably all three. But I don't think the previous series losses were valuable as "experience" as much as they were a course in What Needs To Change.

Originally Posted by Mondo Blando

Quick is really the only player who arguably used the previous season as a springboard into 2011-12.

You know there's still some people who will argue that Bernier should have started Game 5 against the Sharks?

Experience gained by the Kings losing Kopi in 2011 > Experience gained by the NHL losing a season in 2004

Originally Posted by Dr. Naysay

3 of the 4 Centers on the Kings 2012 Stanley Cup winning team didn't play for the Kings in the 2011 Playoffs.
King, Nolan, Fraser, Carter, Richards, Voynov, Loktionov and Gagne didn't play for the Kings in the 2011 Playoffs.
Scuderi, Penner and Williams had all won the Stanley Cup prior to the 2011 Playoffs.
Dustin Brown was a different player after the trade rumors.

Clifford was the big surprise in 2011.... barely factored into 2012.


The older the get and the more teams get overhauled each off season the less I believe the "you got to learn to lose before you learn to win" mantra that some people love so much.

The supporting cast changed quite a bit but other than Johnson, the core was the same. Kopitar, Brown, Doughty, and Quick. They were arguably the top 4 players in the playoffs and they all got Conn Smythe consideration.

Also, I cannot think of the last time a team won it all without it's core players experiencing some kind of difficult loss beforehand.

Originally Posted by NastiMarvasti

The supporting cast changed quite a bit but other than Johnson, the core was the same. Kopitar, Brown, Doughty, and Quick. They were arguably the top 4 players in the playoffs and they all got Conn Smythe consideration.

Also, I cannot think of the last time a team won it all without it's core players experiencing some kind of difficult loss beforehand.

But isn't that just a fact of life? How many true prodigies simply appear on the big stage and dazzle everybody without any learning curve or early failures?

I don't think you "have to lose" in order to "learn how to win".... I just think 99.9% of people in the world ultimately suffer some form of failure or setback in every human endeavor anyone attempted ever. At anything.

So yes... inevitably those who succeed will look back and say "Well we had to lose first."

It's like finding your keys and then suggesting "It's always the last place you look" as some kind of insight.

I thought the Kings only learned how to get by without a "passenger," right, folks?