Rob Blake is out.

Statue4Deano said:
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.
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Clarke's skating looks weird as hell. But his edge work is very good and he is very deceptive.
 
What party? said:
The Kings: Sashay away

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Rob Blake: "Miss Vannnjeee, Miss VAAAAANNJIE"
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Wtf
 
K-Man #32 said:
Will never forgive him for how he did Quick and for his hard on for Dubois...
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Yeah, that was tough with Quick. For DuBois, I can understand the appeal of trading for a player like Dubois in theory. Kopi won't be around forever, so you trade for another big center who can score. If Dubois would have worked you have a pretty good 1-2 punch at center for years to come. But in the end, you traded Vilardi, Iafallo, and Kupari for Kuemper.

In the Fiala trade, would have preferred to keep Faber instead of Clarke.
 
K-Man #32 said:
Will never forgive him for how he did Quick and for his hard on for Dubois...
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He did what he should have with Quick. Blind loyalty to an atrocious player is no way to run a franchise. And Quick was atrocious when he got traded.

PLD is more suspect, but what he is doing in Washington is exactly why Blake traded for him. I still would not have done it, but seeing him blossom for the Caps makes Blake's reason for the trade look a whole lot better.
 
Statue4Deano said:
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.
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Fair enough, and I agree that not everything about Clarke’s skating is terrible. He definitely has great edge work, when he does his 10-2 pivots, and his glide stride is very deceptive. His backwards skating is trash though, and his acceleration is definitely well below average, very noticeable watching him try to quick burst down low from a stand still from net front into the corners to beat a fore checker to pucks. I also think he lacks the actual physicality to protect net front, but then again, Doughty has been getting abused there as well for quite some time now.

All in all, I think Clarke is probably a 7-8 mill guy when he fully seasons, if he can improve his reads. Definitely not a 10-11 mill guy who is the total package. Of course these $$ figures are using the cap average over the last 4-5 years, before it balloons this off season. I realize that a guy like Makar is a one-off, but we could use a defender or two who can make crisp breakout passes, and possesses an accurate, booming cannon of a shot. We have no one that does both.
 
santiclaws said:
He's smack dab in the middle of the bell curve. Not exactly speedy, but not really slow, either.

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Do they track ‘first three step’ acceleration bursts? Or short distance bursts like net front to down low corners? That’s where his skating seems most suspect to me. Also, as mentioned above, he definitely does not seem confident skating backwards, which even most NHL forwards struggle with doing at a high degree of grace and speed
 
K-Man #32 said:
Wtf
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Hey K-man, clarity needed? No prob, my guy.

Rupaul's drag race is a competition based show. At the end of each episode the two lowest performers must "lipsync for their life"; they share the stage and sing and dance to see who stays and who goes. The winner hears Rupaul say: Shantay you stay and the loser hears: Sashay away.

The reference is that the Queen Vanessa Vanjee Mateo was the first person to be eliminated during season 9 but her exit was so memorable she became a freaking LEGEND (she walked backwards onstage just saying her name: VANNJIEE, Miss Vanjjeee. It was awesome--google it). And RuPaul asked her back for season 10.

I guess my abstract symbolism point was, just because Blake is gone, does not mean this Organization won't hire him back, despite themselves.
 
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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Good post. I myself mentioned numerous times that the D chemistry which was so obvious and effective for the whole season would suffer the moment Doughty returned....and particularly when it counted most. I was sad to be right.
 
DoubleMinor said:
What do you believe the strategy was? Just asking for clarification because I’d like to hear what you think it was.
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The strategy is very basic and uncomplicated. Passive forecheck to maintain gap control. Clog the neutral zone to slow down zone entry and hold the blue line. Push attacking forwards to the boards.

This strategy in theory should work when sitting on the lead. The problem with the theory is it doesn’t account for McDavid and Draisaitl. That’s where the Kings own experience should’ve informed Hiller that it wouldn’t hold.
 
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