PLD and how I learned to quit worrying about the bomb

Johnnysuede71 said:
The conundrum for management regarding Tmac is that his team was arguably the best in the NHL for 30 games before all this craziness. It's not like Edmonton's sitch were the team comes out of the gate like a wet fart and then firing the coach is an easy call. I wouldn't want to be in Blake's shoes....even though he may have earned it by trading for PLD...who makes me angry on a shift by shift basis. Even when he scores its annoying. lol. Point is I don't see Todd going anywhere until/if the Kings miss the playoffs.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with any of that. I mean, I get it. And Blake already came out and said, point blank, Coach Todd isn't going anywhere…

…but this is a business, so if the Kings start winning again everything will be daisies, honeybees and sunshine. But if we keep losing, especially in the fashion they lost the last game…that wasn't just predictable and demoralizing, that was flat-out depressing…this will eventually have financial repercussions and people WILL start staying away from the arena. It's a fact.

I personally have canceled a few games I was planning on attending because I've already seen enough Kings losses in person this season to last me for quite a while. The Winnipeg game in particular still really pisses me off because they came out in the second period like they already had the game won, and they subsequently got pushed around all night after that.

I was hoping it wouldn't become a trend, but losses like that have become the new normal.

So we’ll see……
 
hokiecat said:
I do think some of the complaints were illustrative. The 1-3-1 tends to grind the game down to low scoring and counterattacks. Maybe more and more of the Kings players are getting sick of it and we're seeing that on the ice.
Click to expand...

The underlying stats over the entire season show that the 1-3-1 has not limited the Kings scoring opportunities. In fact it's the opposite. The Kings are generating high danger scoring opportunities on par with the best teams in the league and they're limiting those opportunities on the other end at an elite level. The problem is the Kings aren't scoring on those chances. Meaning the system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. The system can't put the puck in the net. And over the course of the last month the goalies aren't stopping those chances against.

Bad goaltending and bad goal scoring = 2 wins in 14 games.


Some more team stats over the last 14 games (12/28/2023)
Kings PDO 96.7% (31st) Opp PDO 103.7% (30th)
Kings GP/G 2.29 (30th) GA/G 3.36 (20th)
Kings SHOOTING 6.8% Opp SH 10.3%
Kings PP 26.8% PK 88.9%
Kings Sv 89.93% Opp Sv 93.43%
 
Last edited:
Statue4Deano said:
The underlying stats over the entire season show that the 1-3-1 has not limited the Kings scoring opportunities. In fact it's the opposite. The Kings are generating high danger scoring opportunities on par with the best teams in the league and they're limiting those opportunities on the other end at an elite level. The problem is the Kings aren't scoring on those chances. Meaning the system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. The system can't put the puck in the net. And over the course of the last month the goalies aren't stopping those chances against.

Bad goaltending and bad goal scoring = 2 wins in 14 games.


Some more team stats over the last 14 games (12/28/2023)
Kings PDO 96.7% (31st) Opp PDO 103.7% (30th)
Kings GP/G 2.29 (30th) GA/G 3.36 (20th)
Kings SHOOTING 6.8% Opp SH 10.3%
Kings PP 26.8% PK 88.9%
Kings Sv 89.93% Opp Sv 93.43%
Click to expand...
Yeah we knew it was just a matter of time before Talbot fell back to earth and that time has definitely come (likely a few weeks ago). I don't really understand why the Kings don't go to the hot hand, Rittich, and move Talbot to the backup role until he improves.

On the goal scoring side, the Kings are generating the chances they just haven't been able to finish. They are also horrible when it comes to the shootout which hasn't helped. Hopefully the coaching staff is focusing heavily on shooting drill in practice, because they need it (along with confidence).
 
Statue4Deano said:
The underlying stats over the entire season show that the 1-3-1 has not limited the Kings scoring opportunities. In fact it's the opposite. The Kings are generating high danger scoring opportunities on par with the best teams in the league and they're limiting those opportunities on the other end at an elite level. The problem is the Kings aren't scoring on those chances. Meaning the system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. The system can't put the puck in the net. And over the course of the last month the goalies aren't stopping those chances against.

Bad goaltending and bad goal scoring = 2 wins in 14 games.


Some more team stats over the last 14 games (12/28/2023)
Kings PDO 96.7% (31st) Opp PDO 103.7% (30th)
Kings GP/G 2.29 (30th) GA/G 3.36 (20th)
Kings SHOOTING 6.8% Opp SH 10.3%
Kings PP 26.8% PK 88.9%
Kings Sv 89.93% Opp Sv 93.43%
Click to expand...
We all should not need these stats. Just think back about the last game(s). How many good scoring chances did Moore have? 3-4? How many did defensemen Manson have for Colorado? I think that was 1 and he scored on it. This stretch of games would look a lot different if they could just hit the net, go to the net and freaking score some goals and get some better goaltending.
 
The story of January when it comes down to it I think is the inability to score on our chances - the 2 on 1's, breaks, shootout situations, etc. Just can't put the puck in the net. Fairly obvious I admit but damn.
 
Pevsfreedom said:
The story of January when it comes down to it I think is the inability to score on our chances - the 2 on 1's, breaks, shootout situations, etc. Just can't put the puck in the net. Fairly obvious I admit but damn.
Click to expand...
That’s right and the question remains, does firing Todd put more pucks in the net? Does it bring back the Talbot from Oct.-Dec.? If we can be sure that it does, then by all means fire his ass. If we can’t be sure then we’re introducing even more chaos and in some ways starting from scratch.
 
Statue4Deano said:
That’s right and the question remains, does firing Todd put more pucks in the net? Does it bring back the Talbot from Oct.-Dec.? If we can be sure that it does, then by all means fire his ass. If we can’t be sure then we’re introducing even more chaos and in some ways starting from scratch.
Click to expand...
That's a bit silly though as you can never be sure that a change will lead to success, but we have ample data at this point to indicate that Todd, and his system, are not going to get us to where we need to go. Sitting back and accepting these shortcomings and just letting it ride out is not the answer - leaders lead through change, not complacency or fear of the unknown.
 
What’s going on here..?? 🤔
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6175.png
    IMG_6175.png
    2 MB · Views: 86
Pevsfreedom said:
The story of January when it comes down to it I think is the inability to score on our chances - the 2 on 1's, breaks, shootout situations, etc. Just can't put the puck in the net. Fairly obvious I admit but damn.
Click to expand...
They also couldn’t keep the puck out of the net when it mattered. How many 2 goal leads were squandered?
 
DarkLeftHand said:
What’s going on here..?? 🤔
Click to expand...
Dubois and Laf have been extremely unlucky this season. Both players are close to 4 goals below what their expected goal total should be. They lead the team at goals below expected (3.7) And Kaliyev is right behind them at 2.5 goals below his actual goal total. This is part of why I believe Dubois is due for a big second half. Especially if Arvidsson can return healthy and playing near the level he was last season.
 
Statue4Deano said:
Dubois and Laf have been extremely unlucky this season. Both players are close to 4 goals below what their expected goal total should be. They lead the team at goals below expected (3.7) And Kaliyev is right behind them at 2.5 goals below his actual goal total. This is part of why I believe Dubois is due for a big second half. Especially if Arvidsson can return healthy and playing near the level he was last season.
Click to expand...
Maybe Hiller can get Dubois to compete for every second of the game. He'd probably get closer to his expected goal total if he was working harder and doing the little things.
 
Statue4Deano said:
In 5 on 5 situations:

Kings goalies had an .889 save percentage in January.

Kings were #2 in scoring chances for/60 in the month of January. They were #15 in scoring chances allowed/60.

They were #30 in goals for/60 and #30 in goals allowed/60.
Click to expand...
I mentioned this in another thread. If over the last 6 weeks the Kings got a little better goaltending, they would have been at least a .500 team. This would have them sitting in 3rd in the pacific and close to Vegas in 2nd. The Oilers would be a bit behind still. Talbot and scoring went cold. More mistakes crept in, etc....
 
symbology said:
I mentioned this in another thread. If over the last 6 weeks the Kings got a little better goaltending, they would have been at least a .500 team. This would have them sitting in 3rd in the pacific and close to Vegas in 2nd. The Oilers would be a bit behind still. Talbot and scoring went cold. More mistakes crept in, etc....
Click to expand...
100% agree. Now imagine average goaltending and average goal scoring over that same time span. Kings are probably still in the hunt for 1st in the West.

I just can’t buy the narrative that the team as a whole has fallen off. None of the data shows anything resembling a team collapse. What it shows is abysmal goaltending, abysmal goal scoring and average defense.

If Hiller can get these guys to tighten things up on defense it’ll certainly help but it’s far more important to get average goaltending and PLD, Kopi and Arvidsson to score 5v5.
 
Statue4Deano said:
100% agree. Now imagine average goaltending and average goal scoring over that same time span. Kings are probably still in the hunt for 1st in the West.

I just can’t buy the narrative that the team as a whole has fallen off. None of the data shows anything resembling a team collapse. What it shows is abysmal goaltending, abysmal goal scoring and average defense.

If Hiller can get these guys to tighten things up on defense it’ll certainly help but it’s far more important to get average goaltending and PLD, Kopi and Arvidsson to score 5v5.
Click to expand...
Not sure I can fully get behind this as Rittich has not been average, or even below average, though Talbot has been. Where the argument on goaltending falls apart for me, though, is that in the wins we did get in Jan Rittich had to stand on his head to do so.

I do agree with the goal scoring comment, however, which is where the true failure is (along with McLellan not shifting from Talbot to Rittich soon enough).

The other glaring weakness was Clarke on defense. Clarke just doesn't have it yet in the defensive zone and the team fared far better when Spence was in the lineup and Clarke was out.

It'll be interesting to see what Hiller can do with the team and if he can get team buy in. It also may be a good time to evaluate the leadership effectiveness of those wearing the "C" and "A" and potentially make a change, if warranted.
 
Statue4Deano said:
That’s not how expected goals work but go off my man.
Click to expand...
Well obviously. But what is that saying "opportunity is often disguised as hard work". I think PLD would benefit by having his compete level match guys like Danault and Moore. Even if he didn't get the points due to bad puck luck, then at least the media and fans wouldn't be calling him out for doing things like dogging it getting off on line changes.
 
I don't think the goaltending has been that much worse during the skid. What I'm seeing is way too many grade A shots given up right in the slot. And yes, the offense is missing its share of grade A chances.
 
Halfwall said:
I don't think the goaltending has been that much worse during the skid. What I'm seeing is way too many grade A shots given up right in the slot. And yes, the offense is missing its share of grade A chances.
Click to expand...

I think if you go back and look at some of the older games, even just the highlights on YT, you will see that Talbot was better earlier in the year. For sure though, it is probably a combination of both that has caused the Kings to loose games this last little bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Now Chirping

Share this page

Back
Top