Rob Blake is out.

Bill Hicks said:
Many to go, imo.
Luc and Bergavin must as well but I'll settle for Marc.
Luc is an icon so i dont see him going.
The development staff needs an overhaul in philosophy.
I'd like to expand the scouting dept. as well.

Guarded optimism that just maybe the higher ups realize
the same old does not work. And that playoff wins equals
more money.

Fingers crossed.
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Hopefully another team comes in and grabs Bergevin
 
“It’s a hard day,” captain Anze Kopitar said Monday. “I’ve known Blakey for 20 years now. He was my teammate before he was our GM, but more importantly, he’s our friend. I think he did a good job building this team. I think we showed it this year. It (stinks) to see that we didn’t deliver and didn’t move on, and he paid the price for it, really. He’s a very exceptional human, and looking back now, he’s done a lot for me as a player, as a GM, as a mentor. At least for a little bit next year, it’s going to be weird not having him around.”


A working relationship? yes
A friend? no

I've been done with this kumbaya attitude for a long while now.
Hire a real GM who will tell a player to kick rocks when needed.
 
I'm shocked but not surprised. With that loss I knew something had to happen. Normally the coach would be fired. But this is his 3rd coach, I think. (Don't remember if he hired Desjardins or not.) So how many coaches does a GM get? And it's his 8th year & was at the end of his contract.

My immediate thought was bring back Dean, & then bring back Futa. But maybe someone outside the organization will have a fresher perspective. I thought he did great for the moves he made this year. But we do have flaws in our roster. I don't want to rebuild. I don't want to get rid of Drew & Kopi. But it would be better if they were lower in the lineup & got less minutes. We just need players to replace them at the top. I hope they get in someone soon so they can work on the draft & free agency. Or at least have some influence. I hope it's not Bergevin. He's up for the Islanders job so I hope he takes that. With Hiller I'm not sure if he's staying or going. GM's like to hire their own coaches. So even if he stays he's going to have a short leash.

I know a lot of people here don't like him, not just as GM but for other reasons. But he did a good job, at least not the worst since I've been watching. His mistakes stood out because they were big. But he made a lot of smaller quieter moves that helped build this team. He's no Lombardi but Lombardi made huge mistakes as well. And he's definitely no Disaster McMaster. So anyway, bye bye Bowlby.
 
Johnnysuede71 said:
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.
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For sure. But it’s hard to justify not playing your top paid player. How can a coach sit an $11mill vet player that is actually putting in effort even though he’s past his prime?

And how many years does he have left? 3 iirc? Yikes.😬
 
There many things that Blake did wrong. Like the Quick situation. Fact is the Kings don't win those those two Cups without Quick. Quick singlehandling carried the whole team to the first Cup win and was instrumental in the second, more than Kopi or DD were. Blake traded Quick for a bag of pucks because he had fallen off in his play, he should have been consistent with Kopi and DD. DD has done absolutely nothing the past 2 years, why is he still with the Kings. and Kopi is way too slow, I mean heck he would loose a race to a turtle. Yet both are treated as royality by te Kings and both are washed up and another mistake is the Kings with the picks they had should have already developed Kopi and DD's replacement. but don't have one
 
Statue4Deano said:
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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Good reply. I don’t disagree. Thanks.
 
Crazy thing is Mike Futa's friend sold me my engagement ring In Mississauga Ontario Canada. My ring salesman's dad also coached the Slovenian national hockey team with Kopitar's dad. He said Mike is a great hockey mind and a genuinely awesome person
 
King of Pentacle5 said:
For sure. But it’s hard to justify not playing your top paid player. How can a coach sit an $11mill vet player that is actually putting in effort even though he’s past his prime?

And how many years does he have left? 3 iirc? Yikes.😬
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I think Hiller has done a good job attempting to respect the two veterans on this team. There is no doubt they have big egos and a first year Coach has to be careful with that.
Next year I am hopeful that Hiller can begin to transition away from those two guys. I hope we will see Kopi more on a second or third line with less minutes (and the harder minutes), and see less of Doughty on the ice or even on the top pair (and I cannot stomach seeing Drew on the PP again). But…I am hesitant to judge DD too quickly based on the significant injury and will edit to see how he looks next year after the full off-season recovery.

These two guys have the Cups and the money. But four straight first round losses, the diminishing returns, tell us it’s time for Hilier to have some potentially difficult conversations.

Hiller had a good first year as a head coach. The playoff series exposed him a bit. There’s a learning curve. And the NHL playoffs are a completely different beast (in my opinion) than other pro sports playoffs. I know I wasn’t perfect the first year in my job but I got wiser as I went through it. I think (hope) Hiller will gain from this experience. Smart people do.
 
jgs said:
There many things that Blake did wrong. Like the Quick situation. Fact is the Kings don't win those those two Cups without Quick. Quick singlehandling carried the whole team to the first Cup win and was instrumental in the second, more than Kopi or DD were. Blake traded Quick for a bag of pucks because he had fallen off in his play, he should have been consistent with Kopi and DD. DD has done absolutely nothing the past 2 years, why is he still with the Kings. and Kopi is way too slow, I mean heck he would loose a race to a turtle. Yet both are treated as royality by te Kings and both are washed up and another mistake is the Kings with the picks they had should have already developed Kopi and DD's replacement. but don't have one
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One big difference with Quick vs Kopi and DD is that Quick was on an expiring contract. Quick was leaving anyway.
I think real fans understand Quick’s value to the organization and appreciate that the Kings don’t win two cups without him.
It is a tough business when stuff like this happens. No one feels good about it. But Quick should he held in the same regard as Kopi and Dewey.

I have no real disagreement with these comments. I do think the Kings have been guilty of giving too much respect to certain players. Loyalty and respect are not bad traits. But you can’t expect to win when you put too much emphasis on them.
That (to me) was Lombardi’s weakness and downfall.
 
Woo! I can watch next year as long as Hiller is gone. Good news after a weird day. Guess 4th time was the charm. Get a new GM in here with some balls and make sh*t happen (rebuildy the bear the right way!).
 
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VCRW said:
The “second” time you are citing was a LGK invention. Lombardi was definitely not re-signing him before Blake accepted the San Jose offer.
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For me, the "second" time is not Blake signing with SJ. It was him and his NTC rejecting a trade to SJ in exchange for a goalie... (am I remembering this correctly???) And THEN he goes and signs in SJ where he could've been anyway for just a few months more.

To me, that once again showed a lack of character which could have benefited the team he later came in to fumble around with for 8 years as GM. I was genuinely disappointed when DL brought him in as Asst GM. I know the crony crowd of the LA Kings thinks he's got tremendous character, etc. but he didn't show that to us fans.

I boo that man.

And am immediately more of a fan of the team now that he's been jettisoned. (screw the "parting ways" label -- We don't wantchu no more. You're dunzo, Blakey.)

FOUND IT! - Edit: Kings ask Blake to waive no-trade clause
Can anyone remember the intended target from SJ?
 
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