***Seattle Kraken vs. LA Kings GDT 12/20/23 7:00pm<< on TNT & BSW***

[Clif]

100% spot-on.
Just like the Caps game in November this is all about a goalie single-handedly winning the game. I'm not remotely upset either. It's hockey. It happens.

Yep. The old cliche. Not if you lose but how you lose.

 

[ChiKingFan]

Fiala . . . what the hell happened to him? His play is atrocious. He just outright loses the handle on the puck now and I’m starting to consider him a greater liability than Durzi.

Yeah, the guy leading the team in scoring is clearly a huge liability.

 

[Halfwall]

I'm beginning to think Fiala doesn't seem to gel with Danault and Moore out there, what with Arvidsson out on LTIR. Maybe putting him back with PLD could help him recapture the form he had earlier this season. But Todd won't do that until Arvy is back at 100% health. So for now, we'll have to endure Fiala and PLD toiling away with their sloppy and uninspired performances. Also, the loss of Durzi, Vilardi, and Kupari has really negatively affected the Kings performance on the PP this season. Sure, the PK has improved thanks to Lewis being back, but that's the price Blake paid in order to retool this team.

You mean like last game?

 

[orpheus]

Home games tho.

 

[JC6388LAKings]

You mean like last game?

Well, it seemed to worked that way yesterday. But Todd, for some reason, thought Fiala would be better off playing with Danault and Moore, and so he put him back there on the 2nd line. And as I've noticed in today's game, Fiala's performance declined as he tried to be too fancy with the puck and Danault and Moore for the most part not giving themselves enough anticipation to read Fiala's plays, resulting in Fiala messing himself up.

As for Dubois, though Laferriere does make good plays at times, what the 3rd line seems to lack is either a power forward or a sniper to complement PLD's game. If such a scenario had happened, then that line would be really dangerous and can give other teams some fits. If you ask me, the league should bring back the power forward position to be emphasized as an important piece in a team's roster as speed and skill alone does not always win games.

 

[Hipcheck]

Pld has all the makings of the worst trade in nhl history.

 

[DryKing]

Pld has all the makings of the worst trade in nhl history.

Yep, should have been PLD for Vilardi straight up. I said it at the time of the trade and I'll say it again, Vilardi > PLD but on the bright side it is nice to have a player who can stay healthy. His reaction speed just seems poor for a player of his caliber.

 

[Halfwall]

Pld has all the makings of the worst trade in nhl history.

Way, way too early to give up on him. How many people wanted to dump Trevor Moore? ....and finally bury Kopitar the corpse. One glimmer of hope is his FO%--he is inching closer and closer to 50%. I think he may be fighting some ailment (like Byfield last year). I don't believe for a second the Kings traded for a guy at that price whose puck-handling is that bad. He cannot keep the puck on his stick without it rolling away.

 

[Rog or Reg?]

Pld has all the makings of the worst trade in nhl history.

The morning I woke up and heard about the trade I wondered if I was still sleeping...or maybe it was April Fool's Day and it was a joke...or more than likely a typo.

My favorite player...and Iafallo...and Kupari...and a prime draft pick...for one player I was vaguely familiar with. I got a text from my buddy: "This guy better be the Second Coming of The Great One."

I miss Gabe...but players get traded...it happens. But I still don't get the trade.

 

[bbfrc77]

Bowed at 40+ shots? No, goalied hard. Wanted to see more net crashing but that’s an after game correction. Plus the hockey god goal of a bouncing puck off a faceoff win to a rookie’s skates for the Kraken’s first. Happens.

There are losses that really p*ss me off but this isn’t one of them. Daccord won that game in the first period and sometimes that’s just hockey. But Kings win more games than they lose playing like that so that’s why I’m not mad.

Yes bowed with 40+ shots. Todd even alluded to what I’m saying in his presser. That was Sutter era hockey. Volume of shots but a lack of quality. All shots were from the outside and we were pressured away from the goal all game.

Sure we got goalied in the first but there’s still two periods of hockey and the rest of the game was not the goalie.

The Kings will lose more games like this because the effort wasn’t there. We got out played period.

 

[Pevsfreedom]

I'm beginning to think Fiala doesn't seem to gel with Danault and Moore out there, what with Arvidsson out on LTIR. Maybe putting him back with PLD could help him recapture the form he had earlier this season. But Todd won't do that until Arvy is back at 100% health. So for now, we'll have to endure Fiala and PLD toiling away with their sloppy and uninspired performances. Also, the loss of Durzi, Vilardi, and Kupari has really negatively affected the Kings performance on the PP this season. Sure, the PK has improved thanks to Lewis being back, but that's the price Blake paid in order to retool this team.

Nonsense. Fiala is tied for first on the team in points and Moore's having a career year in goals.

The morning I woke up and heard about the trade I wondered if I was still sleeping...or maybe it was April Fool's Day and it was a joke...or more than likely a typo.

My favorite player...and Iafallo...and Kupari...and a prime draft pick...for one player I was vaguely familiar with. I got a text from my buddy: "This guy better be the Second Coming of The Great One."

I miss Gabe...but players get traded...it happens. But I still don't get the trade.

I was mad at the time and everyone told me how wrong I was because PLD is so good on paper despite his stats being similar to Vilardi's, who always misses part of a season. I never got it. But yeah, PLD looks terrible.

Yeah, the guy leading the team in scoring is clearly a huge liability.

I firmly don't understand the Fiala bashing but I'm a big Fiala fan. Why? Because he's been top 3 in scoring all year and gives it all every shift. Fiala's not the problem, lmao.

If you ask me, the league should bring back the power forward position to be emphasized as an important piece in a team's roster as speed and skill alone does not always win games.

The league needs to change for PLD to be good? Well sh*t. Two lines / about 5-6 players he's been useless with. It's him. Have you seen him try to carry the puck, ever? Let alone into the zone on a PP? Lol.

 

[kingnut]

Pld has all the makings of the worst trade in nhl history.

Im.hoping u r wrong, but everything points to that narrative.

 

[Pevsfreedom]

Im.hoping u r wrong, but everything points to that narrative.

We're getting everything from him that the fans of teams he was on said about him at the trade.

Regarding struggling against the Kraken:

From what we've seen so far this seems like a Toddfather coached team problem. We struggle against playoff built, tough, grinding teams. It's either in the system or the mindset, or just the players at this point, but we lack that playoff toughness, which I bring up Todd because well, all his teams have lacked that playoff touch that is required to beat said teams in the regular season and also to go anywhere in the playoffs.

 

[JC6388LAKings]

The league needs to change for PLD to be good? Well sh*t.

PLD needs someone to complement him into making plays that lead to goals as he has trouble generating offense without a sniper or power forward flanking either wing. Though he's been using his frame to protect the puck at times, it's not enough. Laferriere provides sparks of making plays in the attacking zone at times but his finishing scoring touch is hit-or-miss. I hope Blake will find a goal-scoring winger before or when the trade deadline comes by to provide more scoring depth for the team.

 

[jammer06]

Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed within +/- 2 minutes of 6:27 of the third for the game winner:

5:57-6:57 (3 Points):
AngelEyes
VegasHockey
Rusty
katydid213
forum gold
Symbology

5:27-7:27 (2 Points):
puckoff
Guinevere
KernCoKingFan

4:27-8:27 (1 Point):
SirJW
rfischer
randdog
Drums4Pigs
pray4mojo
notbob
mugs
TooCool
Shackleford
VCRW

Special kudos to both @AngelEyes and @forum gold for tying as the closest guesses within 8 seconds each.

As for the game, its clear that Dave Hakstol has circled pacific division foes and concentrated on the kings in particular. They are 4-4-1 lifetime against the kings. Against the pacific they are only 22-35-5 but went 13-11-2 last year and are 3-4-3 this year. When you're a team that's seen as playing with less talent and facing an uphill battle you concentrate on the foes you play the most for the biggest bang for your buck. Especially when the path forward in the playoffs is through those divisional foes. The Kraken play an extremely frustrating rope a dope style that encourages the Kings to play to their possession strength, but invites only chaos plays inside home plate which they turn for counterstrikes. At some point Todd's going to have to concede "control" of the outcomes and rely on their talent in tight spaces to turn those battles in 50/50 space to their advantage. That game was not about being on the backside of a b2b, but a crash of styles and execution of limited high grade chances. Turning the game to a literal game of chance benefitted the Kraken as it closed the odds of the outcome. The staff has to figure out what to do about it, the problem won't be going away any time soon.

 

[kingnut]

We're getting everything from him that the fans of teams he was on said about him at the trade.

Regarding struggling against the Kraken:

From what we've seen so far this seems like a Toddfather coached team problem. We struggle against playoff built, tough, grinding teams. It's either in the system or the mindset, or just the players at this point, but we lack that playoff toughness, which I bring up Todd because well, all his teams have lacked that playoff touch that is required to beat said teams in the regular season and also to go anywhere in the playoffs.

Agree that this team can be little tougher

 

[Hipcheck]

The morning I woke up and heard about the trade I wondered if I was still sleeping...or maybe it was April Fool's Day and it was a joke...or more than likely a typo.

My favorite player...and Iafallo...and Kupari...and a prime draft pick...for one player I was vaguely familiar with. I got a text from my buddy: "This guy better be the Second Coming of The Great One."

I miss Gabe...but players get traded...it happens. But I still don't get the trade.

Totally agreed…a self inflicted wound. Needless trade across the board magnified by the contract extension on a player with a million red flags.

 

[Clif]

Yes bowed with 40+ shots. Todd even alluded to what I’m saying in his presser. That was Sutter era hockey. Volume of shots but a lack of quality. All shots were from the outside and we were pressured away from the goal all game.

Sure we got goalied in the first but there’s still two periods of hockey and the rest of the game was not the goalie.

The Kings will lose more games like this because the effort wasn’t there. We got out played period.

I disagree on the effort not being there. They got pushed to the outside and didn’t have an answer. I said I “wanted to see more net-crashing but that’s an after game correction.” Losing out in a systems battle is not a lack of effort or bowing down. We saw bowing down against WPG. They bring that same energy most games it goes right for them.

I’ll concede the real goalie-ing happened in period 1 like you said. But considering they could have had 2-3 goals that period and Kraken only scored 2 goals themselves including a fluke, I’m not seeing some huge gap in effort.

 

[VCRW]

I disagree on the effort not being there. They got pushed to the outside and didn’t have an answer. I said I “wanted to see more net-crashing but that’s an after game correction.” Losing out in a systems battle is not a lack of effort or bowing down. We saw bowing down against WPG. They bring that same energy most games it goes right for them.

I’ll concede the real goalie-ing happened in period 1 like you said. But considering they could have had 2-3 goals that period and Kraken only scored 2 goals themselves including a fluke, I’m not seeing some huge gap in effort.

It wasn't about effort. It was about execution, or lack thereof, and coaching. The Kraken were anticipating every careless cross-ice pass the Kings tried making in center ice or the o-zone. They were especially attuned to Fiala's penchant for making lazy plays in the middle of the ice.

 

[LB49er]

Yeah, the guy leading the team in scoring is clearly a huge liability.

And he’s a -1.