I think it’s safe to say his was the worst game of Kopitar’s career. He’s suddenly not generating offense and his defense has fallen off a cliff.
Pretty much every season, this has kind of been his thing since forever. It's an old retread of arguments held on here from some years ago, but...he has ALWAYS disappeared for long stretches of a season. Right now, it's more pronounced because of how great the Kings looked at the beginning of the season. Is the Kings collapse all on his shoulders? No. But a large part of it is. That C bears a heavy weight, and since he's carried it, this team has done nothing of merit. That's not to take away from how good of a player he is, but that doesn't always translate into being a great leader.
[Just about] the whole team looks like crap right now. They sprinkle in a win here and there, but overall they just look uninspired and lost. Why wasn't Doughty benched for a few shifts after that stupid pass? As Kopi's minus kept dropping and his offense has been MIA for weeks now, why hasn't he been dropped to a lower line and even sat out some shifts as punishment? There has been little to no consequence to the guys wearing the letters for YEARS. If I'm on a team and I am playing my butt off on a lower line and get benched for making a mistake...and I'm watching the leaders go unchecked by management over and over and STILL getting all the powerplay AND playing time...it's going to affect me on some level.
I'm not saying to give PD all of Kopi's time, but I'd definitely put another center out there on the first line and have him watch for a while. You can't bench everybody, but you can send a message that no matter who you are, halfassed-ness will not be tolerated and inspired play can and will be rewarded. It doesn't mean you have to always be scoring goals, but if you are consistently making the right plays, the smart plays, doing all the little things correctly...you will be more important to this team.
Drew smiling after his ridiculously boneheaded play only a few games removed from calling out players for being "selfish" is one of the exact reasons this team has no core identity. The team is missing leadership like Williams, Greene, Richards, Scuds, and yes, Quick. They need guys who hate to lose more than they love to win. They need guys that step on the opponents' throats when they are up, and don't play "not to lose". Until some of these kids step up or we get some leaders through trades I feel this team won't make that next step. I really hope I'm wrong about that, but it's been that way since the 14-15 season.
