kingnut
Top Forward
Already cleared, No?
Q has arrived. Now if PLD can land sometime soon....
- Thread starter kingsjohn
- Start date
Already cleared, No?
Clif
Super Star
Perfect storm for their first real losing streak. However they are capable of winning 4 of their next 6, Jets game included.
I’d imagine it’s Toby time left of Roy. Gotta weather that.
EDIT: It’s Moverare. He’s okay. Still have a tough ask.
JayWells24
Top Forward
PLD's inept play is more noticeable when the team loses.
kingnut
Top Forward
At least we get them on their 2nd of the back to back, but yeah. The Montreal gm could have been a lot closer or diff if they had not hit like a half dozen posts/crossbars
Hopefully PLD will be up for this one
DryKing
Power Forward
Actually, he got claimed off waivers both times he was placed on them this year but no team other than the Kings claimed him the second time. That was before he put up 18 points in 12 AHL games (so far) this season so that combined with if he were to do well during his stint up with the Kings increases the risk of another team claiming him should the Kings once again pull him up only later to place him on waivers.
kingnut
Top Forward
Thanks for clarifying
Clif
Super Star
Ah thanks - didn’t realize it was back-to-back for them. PLD played strong last game I’d expect a good one from him this time. I don’t expect his linemates to finish, but they have to score again at some point.
SaltyPuck
Castaway Kings Fan
Given the injury situation, talk about a game where we HAVE to be able to lean on PLD to be a difference-maker. While I'm still in Camp Patience with PLD, he needs to come in with some fire to earn the trust we gave him in advance with that contract.
I think he's capable of pulling it off... prove me right PLD!
I think he's capable of pulling it off... prove me right PLD!
kingnut
Top Forward
Was wondering what the scouts and mgmt saw that doesn't translate to what we perceive as floating? I saw Jumbo in the same way. Heres hoping that PLD can have the same impact while optically seeming to float!
Illegal_Stick
Super Star
I have said this about PLD. The player he often reminds me of when moving is actually Kopi. Everyone here may want to forget, but there was a time this board was all over Kopi for floating etc, which he never was. He just doesn't have that Dustin Brown-style of skating or body type, so it often looks effortless, even though it isn't.
symbology
TEAM LGK
Not sure that I remember to much about Kopi floating, but I do recall the discussions of him being a passenger more than a driver.
Last edited:
kingnut
Top Forward
Thats probably a better synopsis
Everytime a younger Kopitar started to disengage from the game and stick to the perimeter, Terry Murray would put him on a line with Simmonds and Richardson to get more involved in direct hockey. Sutter would occasionally do so with Dwight King.
Dubois struggled with a shooter waiting to be fed in Kaliyev and a maverick, one man band creative dynamo in Fiala, so McLellan tried something similar by putting him with the two most direct wingers on the team in Grundstrom and Laferriere. Neither has worked. All it has managed to do is to cool off Grundstrom.
Dubois is not now nor has he ever been a self-starter. Expecting him to change is a fools errand. He is a part timer who goes on one heater per year, then lives on that promise until frustration with his performance mounts again. Happened in Columbus, happened again in Winnipeg.
This was the wrong type of player to make an 8 year commitment to, you only get so many kicks at that can.
The good news is that he is playing within the system, and isn't a cancerous outlier like Kovalchuk or Roenick. It was a terrific idea to bring in a prominent personality in Dubois' age range to bridge the life experience gap between the kids and the grizzled older core who have little in common with 20 year olds. By all accounts Dubois and Byfield have gotten on well, and if that comfort level has played a part in Byfield's emergence, that's wonderful.
But as far as Dubois' play, its been extremely disappointing. Its nothing the Kings couldn't have received by signing a Lars Eller type.
Kopitar has already slowed down noticeably since October. He has a lost a step and because of it he is absorbing more contact than any other time in his career. It is inevitable.thst his output will slow over the coming months, and it is very important that Dubois get going ASAP or else the Kings could find themselves out of a potential home ice spot.
Almost like he was playing pick-up with his buddies
He is a single effort player. Disrupt his Plan A, there is no response, just meekly skates back to his zone instead of battling.
Dubois was villified for his last shift in Columbus, but if you watch that clip it isn't anything out of the ordinary for him. We have seen 7 or 8 shifts exactly like that one so far.
Dude's not even on the downwind leg of the airport.
