***LA Kings @ Washington Capitals GDT 10/22/22 4:00pm on BSW***

[Illegal_Stick]

The only thing keeping me level headed is that this is how the season started last year. They looked like an uncoached team and every aspect of their game was a mess, then it settled. The difference this time is while they?re playing like this they?re stealing some wins. Hopefully they start to figure it out soon. How long until we were good last year? 10? 11?

 

[Illegal_Stick]

The D is making big mistakes but if you’re fine with Quick’s performance I don’t get it. Not saying it’s all on him but we need a goalie who is not going to let in four in the third. That goalie likely is Quick but for now he doesn’t get a pass. The team messed up but then worked hard to tie it only to have the fourth goal go in. That is stoppable. He knows it but I don’t think everyone here does.

 

[jammer06]

Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed the PIM awarded in the game would be 8 and/or +/-2 minutes

Dead on 8 (2 points) :
SirJW
LeftyKing
dannybuoy1

6-10 pim (1 point) :
kingsmen93
TooCool
Liz4LA
waynet

I dont know what you can say about a game that you give up 4 in the third to lose it.... Was that worse than the penguins game?

 

[salami]

When Fox was talking about the record of 6 out of 60-something 5 game roadtrips ending up 4-2 I thought to myself "I hope the team doesn't think about it that way". Well, turns out they looked like they were thinking about the flight home in the third period.

Aside from the goalie problem, the defense is abysmal and certain players look uninspired. Also, somebody needs to coach the stupid penalties out of Fiala's game similar to what we saw with Kempe around midseason last year.

 

[jgs]

I am wondering how long before Blake looks at the head coach as the problem. This team hasn't looked prepared from opening night. The mistakes on defense and in goal are not improving. It is the head coaches job to make sure the team is ready to play and understands the system very well and gets them to execute it correctly. I look at Tortorella, what he is doing with the Flyers a team that no one has picked to be a winner this season and he has that team playing great with less talent than the Kings have. TM loyalty to the veterans is a big problem. I like Torts way. He doesn't care how much experience the player has. It is the players that produce that dress and are put in the game. Kopitar is slow, he is paired with Fiala and Kempe, two speedsters and they have not jelled, mainly because Kopi is too slow. and the whole line is a nonfactor. Te Danault line is starting to get it going and The third line with Vilardi has been the only line hot so far. The D-men are mainly veterans who know the system and yet are making the mistakes. Quick, well he is 37 years old, he is on the downside of his career and it is crazy to put a very big burden of winning games on him. He isn't super human and he has no back up. But this team is capable of being much better than they are and TM is failing at getting them there.

 

[Statue4Deano]

I am wondering how long before Blake looks at the head coach as the problem. This team hasn't looked prepared from opening night. The mistakes on defense and in goal are not improving. It is the head coaches job to make sure the team is ready to play and understands the system very well and gets them to execute it correctly. I look at Tortorella, what he is doing with the Flyers a team that no one has picked to be a winner this season and he has that team playing great with less talent than the Kings have. TM loyalty to the veterans is a big problem. I like Torts way. He doesn't care how much experience the player has. It is the players that produce that dress and are put in the game. Kopitar is slow, he is paired with Fiala and Kempe, two speedsters and they have not jelled, mainly because Kopi is too slow. and the whole line is a nonfactor. Te Danault line is starting to get it going and The third line with Vilardi has been the only line hot so far. The D-men are mainly veterans who know the system and yet are making the mistakes. Quick, well he is 37 years old, he is on the downside of his career and it is crazy to put a very big burden of winning games on him. He isn't super human and he has no back up. But this team is capable of being much better than they are and TM is failing at getting them there.

TM has enough leash to get him through this season imo. This is year 4 of his 5 year deal. If the team misses the playoffs I think he's given the boot in the offseason.

 

[Illegal_Stick]

I foolishly thought that after getting the team to over achieve last year and working some rookies in, who are now starting to perform either a) lgk would realize TM is a damn good coach or at least b) realize it would take a lot to get him fired.

 

[VCRW]

Now that the second line is clicking, what are the options for breaking up 22-11-9?

It seems to me from watching replays that the defensemen are simply not good enough to have both Kempe and Fiala on a line with an obviously aging Kopitar. Those damn minuses are starting to add up again...

 

[STONE]

Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed the PIM awarded in the game would be 8 and/or +/-2 minutes

Dead on 8 (2 points) :
SirJW
LeftyKing
dannybuoy1

6-10 pim (1 point) :
kingsmen93
TooCool
Liz4LA
waynet

I dont know what you can say about a game that you give up 4 in the third to lose it.... Was that worse than the penguins game?

Howdy Jammer, can you hook a brother up? I picked 10 too.

"Thanks, Nyssa!

Penalty minutes: 18 or 10

Go Kings Go!"


There were a lot more good things in this game than the Pens game for sure, but the D is still not tight enough. Not even close.

 

[Clif]

Hurt so much more the Pens game. I’m relieved they don’t play tonight. And sad they play tomorrow.

 

[Statue4Deano]

I foolishly thought that after getting the team to over achieve last year and working some rookies in, who are now starting to perform either a) lgk would realize TM is a damn good coach or at least b) realize it would take a lot to get him fired.

Darryl Sutter is a great coach. Certainly one of the finest of his generation. And still there came a point when he needed to be let go. It happens to great coaches. It happens to good coaches and it sure as hell happens to bad coaches. Firing a coaches doesn't necessarily mean they're bad at their job. If you can't fire the players, you might have to fire the coach.

 

[Illegal_Stick]

Darryl Sutter is a great coach. Certainly one of the finest of his generation. And still there came a point when he needed to be let go. It happens to great coaches. It happens to good coaches and it sure as hell happens to bad coaches. Firing a coaches doesn't necessarily mean they're bad at their job. If you can't fire the players, you might have to fire the coach.

But surely we all realize TM is going to get the majority of this year to figure this out? He clearly has earned himself a lot of rope. No doubt, every coach gets fired, but Blake loves him and he helped the team overachieve last year I can't see him in any kind of job trouble for a long time.

 

[jammer06]

But surely we all realize TM is going to get the majority of this year to figure this out? He clearly has earned himself a lot of rope. No doubt, every coach gets fired, but Blake loves him and he helped the team overachieve last year I can't see him in any kind of job trouble for a long time.

Thats what Dean thought about TeMu, then the team went on that skid and Dean basically doubled down on the identity and culture he'd been trying to build by bringing in Sutter. At the time there were so many people talking about how the core were coach killers and all that. It was the last time there were legitimate expectations coming out of an upswing where they'd made the playoffs (and had some success without their top players being injured). So sure Todd's going to have runway, but if within that locker room there's a chaos moment where they can't right the ship under Todd, Blake will absolutely find someone else. The biggest difference between then and now is that so far this season the style of hockey has been so high event as opposed to what they did in the beginning of that season where Quick and the collective D effort was losing games 1-0 and 2-1.

 

[Illegal_Stick]

Thats what Dean thought about TeMu, then the team went on that skid and Dean basically doubled down on the identity and culture he'd been trying to build by bringing in Sutter. At the time there were so many people talking about how the core were coach killers and all that. It was the last time there were legitimate expectations coming out of an upswing where they'd made the playoffs (and had some success without their top players being injured). So sure Todd's going to have runway, but if within that locker room there's a chaos moment where they can't right the ship under Todd, Blake will absolutely find someone else. The biggest difference between then and now is that so far this season the style of hockey has been so high event as opposed to what they did in the beginning of that season where Quick and the collective D effort was losing games 1-0 and 2-1.

You may be right, but I don't know. Blake and TMac's relationship seems more akin to DL and Sutter's, where he had a hard time doing it - now, obviously, Sutter had done some pretty special things and to this point, TMac has not. I just get the sense Blake would wait too long on this one (if it's even needed, because I still expect TM to turn this around personally). We shall see.