Rob Blake is out.

Jran said:
They should pull the statue and the rafter jersey as well...does not belong in the rafters next to real kings stars...
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Come on now......

I booooo Blake for years and years like many around here. (It's deserved)
Thought he was a horrible pick when he was selected to be GM.
Thought he was an average at best GM....at best.
Thought he was horrible in selecting coaching talent. Among the worst.
Thought he should have been canned seasons ago.

Very happy the organization finally got rid of him.

That being said, as a player, his jersey in the rafters is earned. It stays.
 
With Kopi's contract expiring at the same time as McDavid's, the next GM needs to make a play to bring him to LA. If ya can't beat 'em, trade for 'em. What better way to win the long game against Edmonton. First Gretz and now this! Do it De... umm, new GM!
 
Moog said:
Come on now......

I booooo Blake for years and years like many around here. (It's deserved)
Thought he was a horrible pick when he was selected to be GM.
Thought he was an average at best GM....at best.
Thought he was horrible in selecting coaching talent. Among the worst.
Thought he should have been canned seasons ago.

Very happy the organization finally got rid of him.

That being said, as a player, his jersey in the rafters is earned. It stays.
Click to expand...

Let's not forget him burning the team twice. I say pull it, despite his play.
 
Blake hater here. Let’s not forget we were riding high through the first 30 games of the season, with the media even taking notice and calling us potential Stanley Cup candidates. Then came the January slump, we nearly fell off the map, only to surge again in the final quarter of the season. Particularly bolstered by the acquisition of Kuzmenko at the deadline. Rob Blake has been fine, Jim Hiller proved to be a decent coach taking his first crack at the NHL level.

My take is this. Our defense is average, with very little offensive dynamism coming from any of those guys. Clarke might pan out eventually, but his skating is quite suspect. The real issue with our young core is that we did not get anything close in talent and impact to a Draisaitl, Makar, Scheifele, or anything even remotely close, with a 2nd overall, a 5th overall, and an 8th overall. Such is the whimsy of fate. The drafts were not particularly strong during our down cycle, and we were not bottomed out long enough to draft a very high end talent. Couple that with a defensive anchor in DD who has never even approached being worth his 11mill cap hit, and it’s a bit of a mess.

The first thing we need to do is get Doughty off this roster asap, even if it means trading a first round pick away with him. Then target a bona fide high-end defender coming up for free agency. Not some guy making legacy money. Someone with many years left of impact. Those guys rarely hit market, so it’s a unicorn, but that’s what we lack.

Our forward core is strong in my opinion, but would be very formidable had we actually struck paydirt with either the Byfield or Turcotte pick. Unfortunately, we did not on either, but I cannot fault management for drafting those players with those picks.

In summary, I guess I’m glad to see Blake exit, but as several posters have said above, it can always be worse. And as a long suffering Kings fan, until Dean Lombardi came along, it definitely was always worse. As far as Hiller is concerned, we learn from our mistakes, and I hope that he learned from this, regardless of what he says in the press conferences about player usage, etc. it would be a shame to see him thrive elsewhere, after having learned some critical lessons this playoff disaster. But for everyone advocating for a rebuild, I really don’t think I can stomach that roll of the dice. In my estimation, it’s as simple as the coach learning from his mistakes, and replacing our 11 million dollar ankle weight with a defender who’s actually a true tier 1 guy. Drew Doughty did not even look like a 7-8 million dollar defender, particularly given his ankle issues. In fact, as I have suggested several times over the last couple of months, and other posters have as well, I think our defense actually played a bit more dynamically before Doughty returned. In this case, simple addition by subtraction might actually make us better, let alone replacing his ridiculous cap hit with someone who is actually a difference maker.
 
Maybe Rob can help the sharks?

Rob-Blake-Stats.jpg
 
Statue4Deano said:
It’s kind of perfectly poetic that he gets the axe after he builds his best roster and his choice for head coach flushes a playoff series win down the toilet.

Hiller should absolutely be the next to go.

I’m completely prepared to have an underwhelming hire for the next GM. Luc is going to make the safest pick possible.
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Is Lombardi available? I’d love to see him back compared to what we’ve witnessed for the past 8 years.
 
Reminder: Dave Taylor drafted Dustin Brown (03), Jon Quick (05) and Anze Kopitar (05). Gets fired in 2006. Lombardi builds around those players to bring 2 Cups to LA.

Blake drafted Byfield (20), Clarke (21) and Slukynsky (23). Could the next GM build around these three to bring LA its 3rd Cup?
 
DarkLeftHand said:
Blake hater here. Let’s not forget we were riding high through the first 30 games of the season, with the media even taking notice and calling us potential Stanley Cup candidates. Then came the January slump, we nearly fell off the map, only to surge again in the final quarter of the season. Particularly bolstered by the acquisition of Kuzmenko at the deadline. Rob Blake has been fine, Jim Hiller proved to be a decent coach taking his first crack at the NHL level.

My take is this. Our defense is average, with very little offensive dynamism coming from any of those guys. Clarke might pan out eventually, but his skating is quite suspect. The real issue with our young core is that we did not get anything close in talent and impact to a Draisaitl, Makar, Scheifele, or anything even remotely close, with a 2nd overall, a 5th overall, and an 8th overall. Such is the whimsy of fate. The drafts were not particularly strong during our down cycle, and we were not bottomed out long enough to draft a very high end talent. Couple that with a defensive anchor in DD who has never even approached being worth his 11mill cap hit, and it’s a bit of a mess.

The first thing we need to do is get Doughty off this roster asap, even if it means trading a first round pick away with him. Then target a bona fide high-end defender coming up for free agency. Not some guy making legacy money. Someone with many years left of impact. Those guys rarely hit market, so it’s a unicorn, but that’s what we lack.

Our forward core is strong in my opinion, but would be very formidable had we actually struck paydirt with either the Byfield or Turcotte pick. Unfortunately, we did not on either, but I cannot fault management for drafting those players with those picks.

In summary, I guess I’m glad to see Blake exit, but as several posters have said above, it can always be worse. And as a long suffering Kings fan, until Dean Lombardi came along, it definitely was always worse. As far as Hiller is concerned, we learn from our mistakes, and I hope that he learned from this, regardless of what he says in the press conferences about player usage, etc. it would be a shame to see him thrive elsewhere, after having learned some critical lessons this playoff disaster. But for everyone advocating for a rebuild, I really don’t think I can stomach that roll of the dice. In my estimation, it’s as simple as the coach learning from his mistakes, and replacing our 11 million dollar ankle weight with a defender who’s actually a true tier 1 guy. Drew Doughty did not even look like a 7-8 million dollar defender, particularly given his ankle issues. In fact, as I have suggested several times over the last couple of months, and other posters have as well, I think our defense actually played a bit more dynamically before Doughty returned. In this case, simple addition by subtraction might actually make us better, let alone replacing his ridiculous cap hit with someone who is actually a difference maker.
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I disagree.
 
Statue4Deano said:
Reminder: Dave Taylor drafted Dustin Brown (03), Jon Quick (05) and Anze Kopitar (05). Gets fired in 2006. Lombardi builds around those players to bring 2 Cups to LA.

Blake drafted Byfield (20), Clarke (21) and Slukynsky (23). Could the next GM build around these three to bring LA its 3rd Cup?
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Only if it’s Lombardi.
 
DarkLeftHand said:
Blake hater here. Let’s not forget we were riding high through the first 30 games of the season, with the media even taking notice and calling us potential Stanley Cup candidates. Then came the January slump, we nearly fell off the map, only to surge again in the final quarter of the season. Particularly bolstered by the acquisition of Kuzmenko at the deadline. Rob Blake has been fine, Jim Hiller proved to be a decent coach taking his first crack at the NHL level.

My take is this. Our defense is average, with very little offensive dynamism coming from any of those guys. Clarke might pan out eventually, but his skating is quite suspect. The real issue with our young core is that we did not get anything close in talent and impact to a Draisaitl, Makar, Scheifele, or anything even remotely close, with a 2nd overall, a 5th overall, and an 8th overall. Such is the whimsy of fate. The drafts were not particularly strong during our down cycle, and we were not bottomed out long enough to draft a very high end talent. Couple that with a defensive anchor in DD who has never even approached being worth his 11mill cap hit, and it’s a bit of a mess.

The first thing we need to do is get Doughty off this roster asap, even if it means trading a first round pick away with him. Then target a bona fide high-end defender coming up for free agency. Not some guy making legacy money. Someone with many years left of impact. Those guys rarely hit market, so it’s a unicorn, but that’s what we lack.

Our forward core is strong in my opinion, but would be very formidable had we actually struck paydirt with either the Byfield or Turcotte pick. Unfortunately, we did not on either, but I cannot fault management for drafting those players with those picks.

In summary, I guess I’m glad to see Blake exit, but as several posters have said above, it can always be worse. And as a long suffering Kings fan, until Dean Lombardi came along, it definitely was always worse. As far as Hiller is concerned, we learn from our mistakes, and I hope that he learned from this, regardless of what he says in the press conferences about player usage, etc. it would be a shame to see him thrive elsewhere, after having learned some critical lessons this playoff disaster. But for everyone advocating for a rebuild, I really don’t think I can stomach that roll of the dice. In my estimation, it’s as simple as the coach learning from his mistakes, and replacing our 11 million dollar ankle weight with a defender who’s actually a true tier 1 guy. Drew Doughty did not even look like a 7-8 million dollar defender, particularly given his ankle issues. In fact, as I have suggested several times over the last couple of months, and other posters have as well, I think our defense actually played a bit more dynamically before Doughty returned. In this case, simple addition by subtraction might actually make us better, let alone replacing his ridiculous cap hit with someone who is actually a difference maker.
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Mostly agree with all of this. I would just say the criticism of Clarke’s skating is overblown. He has league average mobility for a d-man. What makes his skating seem slower is his decisiveness. If he can get more confident in his reads and more importantly make the correct choices against defenders his average foot speed won’t hold him back from being a top pairing d.

For reference you can check the NHL edge website and Clarke’s skating stats are very similar to another young d-man with first pairing dreams like Thomas Harley. Harley just makes better reads and is more decisive in general. That’s where Clarke needs more work imo.
 
santiclaws said:
Deano is 67. That's a bit long in the tooth for my taste.

I wonder how this gig is viewed vs. the Isles' gig. Hope they offer Bergevin a boatload of money so he can f*** right off. Because as far as I'm concerned, he's the odds-on favorite to be the new GM. I would take Deano over him in a heartbeat.
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Last DL interview I heard he sounds like he’s very happy in his post hockey life as a cattle rancher. I can’t imagine him having much interest in coming back.
 
McSorleyFan said:
Yes, good point. Kings compete with them. I was trying to convey going thru them to make it out of the West. But Kings need to walk before they run. A 1st round win would be the next big step. No matter what team they get next year (🤞)
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Until the Kings get the Edmonton monkey off their back they will do nothing in the playoffs. Once they do I’d look out. I thought they had gotten tougher mentally this year but I was wrong.
 
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