***Seattle Kraken vs. LA Kings GDT 11/29/22 7:30pm on BSW***

Despite a horrendous 3 periods of defense/goaltending, Kings somehow make it to OT. Coach starts the same OT crew who proved (again) as recently as 2 days ago they are not fit for 3x3. I do blame the coach for that remarkably stupid decision.
 
Nyssa42 said:
THIS ^^^ I didn't want to bring it up last night because it wasn't the really the problem, but... What the heck is wrong with Drew?? He's invisible this season. Is it his age? Injury? I can count on one hand the number of times the crowd has chanted "Drewwwwww" this season on a play. It's not that he's playing terrible just not playing with any fire at all.
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agreed. To me, it looks like he's lacked urgency and pace. So many times he's coasting to pucks in the corner. And many of those times there's little to no pressure, but it does feel like he's content to go at his pace, rather than to push the pace and maybe get some of these teams on their heels a bit. I think he's doing a decent job of defending, but his transition game has lacked that killer instinct.
 
What is Blake going to do???

Players + coaching staff all know the resources are there to improve the team. It's got to grind on you to some point, there are clear holes in this team that can be filled.
 
Pickle_Pucks said:
What is Blake going to do???

Players + coaching staff all know the resources are there to improve the team. It's got to grind on you to some point, there are clear holes in this team that can be filled.
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He tied his own hands by doubling down on a team that somehow made the playoffs last season, so there isn't much he can do without an overpayment of assets. Not sure why he made a bunch of trades and free-agent signings at forward when the strength of the prospect pool was at forward. On the other hand, building championship teams are really just luck; I don't think there were that many quality defensemen to be had via trade or free agency. What leadership should have done was to play as many of the prospect as they could for the past few seasons and surround them with veterans to help teach them, seeing what they had, and then dealing from a position of strength to shore up holes. From Kovalchuk to the usage of Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick, I just see a fundamental deficiency in the evaluation of talent. This team will not compete until Kopitar is either a 3rd line center, facing easier competition, or off the team entirely. The highly suspect defense for the past few seasons has already ruined one goalie, and the other one is quickly aging out of the league, too.

This is a black hole team.

EDIT: To be fair, there are a lot of bright spots on this team, but from management to coaching, those bright spot are just not being maximized. A few examples: Kaliyev has had an NHL-level shot ever since he was drafted, but it's taken until now for coaching to figure out that they should be running the power play through that shot. The irony is that they identified this with the Kovalchuk deal and yet failed to see the solution for 3-4 years. Another one is Vilardi. He's breaking out this season, so coaching's decision is to put him on the ailing Kopitar/Kempe line in hopes that he would invigorate that duo, which hasn't worked and only served to dampen Vilardi's development. Just a lot of mismanagement.
 
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Also the number one thing leadership needs to do is stop chasing the playoffs. The message is righting the ship and not hoping for a Cup lottery ticket.
 
DD unfortunately isn't going anywhere. No team will take his contract on. Clearly DD is on the downside of his career. Personally I think TM has taken this team as far as he is capable of. But TM has one year left on his contract and Blake will keep him. Ut will be more of the same this year.
 
That delay of game penalty is all on Moore. He's the one who came over the boards. He saw where Kempe was. He had to wait.
 
jgs said:
DD unfortunately isn't going anywhere. No team will take his contract on. Clearly DD is on the downside of his career. Personally I think TM has taken this team as far as he is capable of. But TM has one year left on his contract and Blake will keep him. Ut will be more of the same this year.
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I think the problem is that the Kings' D is so bare that they're playing Doughty like a 1D when he would be a better 3-4D. He also shoots less accurately now.
 
HeadInjury said:
That delay of game penalty is all on Moore. He's the one who came over the boards. He saw where Kempe was. He had to wait.
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Sadly, it is on Moore to be aware of where Kempe was before joining the play. But there was nothing good about that ugly first shift until Kempe’s defensive zone hit. Bummer it came when he was so spent.

On the other hand, the Kings have been victimized several times in overtime by no calls against opposing players who were obviously abusing the 5’ rule. Go figure…
 
Illegal_Stick said:
And can I just say as someone whose favourite player is Doughty - man, he can be frustrating. When he thought he could make the olympic team, he showed what he could be. To me, he appears to be absolutely floundering. So he's willing to work hard for that, he's willing to kick ass in "meaningful" games, wanting to come back injured to play in the playoffs etc., but he seems to need a reminder that he gets paid ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS to play 82 games and to be ready and in shape to do so.
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Doughty is real bad this year, and I can't wait for this old ass "core" to be gone and the new core to finally step up.

Need acetone to unhinge the glue between Kopitar and Kempe, they are awful together.

So many problems.
 
Well I've given it 5 years or more with this TM system...it sucks...you would think they would fix it
 
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