Thank Goodness For A Hockey Writer

[Rogie-Vachon]

Although she's retired from the LA Times-Helene Elliot still writes about sports. Here's her take on our KINGS:

"And so it begins in Buffalo on Thursday for the Kings: their eighth season under general manager Rob Blake and indisputably their most crucial season since Blake succeeded Dean Lombardi and Luc Robitaille was elevated to the role of club president in April of 2017.

Yes, eighth. Hard to believe it has been that long, isn’t it?

But time flies, it seems, when you wait too long to tear an aging roster down to the studs and then lurch through rebuilds and retrenchments and make some solid free-agency moves (in addition to a couple of colossal mistakes named Ilya Kovalchuk and Pierre-Luc Dubois). The Kings haven’t won a playoff series last postseason since they won the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. They’ve arguably regressed over the past three seasons, losing to Edmonton in seven games in 2022, in six games in 2023, and most recently in five games. There’s no way a first-round loss this season could be seen as any kind of progress.

Blake has had enough time to rebuild a depleted farm system and capitalize on the prime draft draft picks the Kings earned while missing the playoffs three straight seasons. He’s had time to develop and stockpile those young players and to shape his roster into a team that can be a force in the West. It’s difficult to say he has succeeded after analyzing their roster, which was announced on Monday and updated on Wednesday, when defenseman Drew Doughty (ankle surgery) was placed on long-term injured reserve and winger Andre Lee was recalled from Ontario of the American Hockey League:

Because they’re opening the season with a five-game trip, it makes sense for them to start with eight defensemen while they work out how to compensate for the minutes they will lose because of Doughty’s months-long absence. Moving Doughty to long term injured reserve opened salary cap space to recall Lee, who had a strong training camp, and allow them to have a full 23-man roster. ankle surgery. Forward Arthur Kaliyev (fractured clavicle) also could be moved to long-term injured reserve later.

Losing Doughty will hurt not only on the ice—he ranked second in the NHL last season with an average ice time of 25 minutes and 48 seconds per game—but in the locker room, too. He has long been blunt and is willing to deliver wakeup calls to teammates when he sees things going wrong, as he memorably did on this occasion last season.

The Kings’ off-season moves were a mixed bag. They let steady defenseman Matt Roy walk as a free agent and tried to address a lack of physicality on the back line by trading for Kyle Burroughs and signing free agent Joel Edmundson. Those moves should make the Kings beefier but at the expense of mobility. They’ll need big contributions from youngsters Jordan Spence and Brandt Clarke to stay competitive.

Up front, they lost Dubois and the oft-injured Viktor Arvidsson but added winger Warren Foegele, who scored a career-best 20 goals last season for Edmonton (plus three goals and eight points in the Oilers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final). He has some speed and is considered a hard worker, though he’s not likely to stand out on a nightly basis. The Kings also acquired winger Tanner Jeannot, who scored 24 goals in 2021-22 but hasn’t hit double figures in goals since then.

Team captain Anze Kopitar will return for his 19th season (yikes!) and remains the No. 1 center because of his two-way ability and leadership. Phillip Danault and Quinton Byfield—who’s coming off career-bests with 20 goals and 55 points and is poised for even better this season—will provide depth up the middle. Alex Turcotte figures to be the fourth-line center, though that’s probably not the best fit for his creative game.

Winger Akil Thomas, coming off a 22-goal, 64-point season with minor-league Ontario, figures to get a good look on that fourth line. Samuel Fagemo came to training camp as a depth candidate on the wing but didn’t excel in training camp and was sent to Ontario. He should have been able to push hard enough for a spot to displace veteran Trevor Lewis, but being demoted to Ontario should light a fire under Fagemo. In the meantime, Lewis is a safe choice and known commodity.

The goaltending should be adequate, though not likely inspiring. The Kings have had a different playoff starter in each of the last three seasons (Jonathan Quick in 2022, Joonas Korpisalo in 2023, and Cam Talbot in 2024), and it’s time for someone to claim the job and provide some stability until projected goalie of the future Erik Portillo is ready for the Show.

In what qualifies as a minor miracle, Blake reacquired Darcy Kuemper when he foisted Dubois off on Washington. Getting anything more for Dubois than a bag of used pucks made the trade a win. Kuemper, a King in 2017-18, got his name on the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2021-22 but played for a bad, non-playoff Washington Capitals team last season. He should benefit from playing behind a better defensive team. David Rittich (13-6-3, 2.15 goals-against average and .921 save percentage with the Kings last season) should be a solid backup again.

This will be the first full season for coach Jim Hiller, who replaced Todd McLellan in February. He has said he will transition away from the 1-3-1 season that made them too predictable to opponents, and now he has the chance to put his own stamp on a team that needs to change its recent postseason history.

Last, but certainly not least: a stick tap and standing ovation to Kings play by play announcer Nick Nickson, who said this week that this season—his 44th with the team—will be his final season. "

 

[Clif]

A well-written version of the same article anyone not on the Kings payroll has written to preview this season.

I think the truer angle is one nobody is managing to really capture: Blake showing signs of the Prodigal Son. When he took over he appeared dead-set on steering the team away from Lombardi’s ethos. He emphasized speed, skill, and scoring. All sound great on paper, but if it were that easy everyone would be a contender. What he repeatedly downplayed was size, and he never spoke much about character or culture. He said the team “played big,” but this was delusional.

What he did this summer is not a GM scrambling, it’s a GM coming back to some of his predecessor’s principles that made the team a winner. PLD could have finally been the very expensive mistake that showed him the real value of character. Not just being a nice guy in the room, but having true grit and will to win.

To get the players he did who, as Hiller noted, give everyone more confidence to play physical because they have backup, is seriously what we have been waiting for. I’m excited about this season. I’m excited Blake is showing signs of learning making adjustments. This doesn’t mean he hasn’t screwed up royally, but that’s low hanging fruit and honestly tired retread at this point.

Whether this recalibration works or not is why they play the games. But not paying proper heed to what’s actually happening and how Blake got here is missing the whole picture.

 

[Bollocks]

A well-written version of the same article anyone not on the Kings payroll has written to preview this season.

I think the truer angle is one nobody is managing to really capture: Blake showing signs of the Prodigal Son. When he took over he appeared dead-set on steering the team away from Lombardi’s ethos. He emphasized speed, skill, and scoring. All sound great on paper, but if it were that easy everyone would be a contender. What he repeatedly downplayed was size, and he never spoke much about character or culture. He said the team “played big,” but this was delusional.

What he did this summer is not a GM scrambling, it’s a GM coming back to some of his predecessor’s principles that made the team a winner. PLD could have finally been the very expensive mistake that showed him the real value of character. Not just being a nice guy in the room, but having true grit and will to win.

To get the players he did who, as Hiller noted, give everyone more confidence to play physical because they have backup, is seriously what we have been waiting for. I’m excited about this season. I’m excited Blake is showing signs of learning making adjustments. This doesn’t mean he hasn’t screwed up royally, but that’s low hanging fruit and honestly tired retread at this point.

Whether this recalibration works or not is why they play the games. But not paying proper heed to what’s actually happening and how Blake got here is missing the whole picture.

This.

Everybody knows about the f***-ups and can write about them. I'm sure some even enjoy them.

The recognition of these f***-ups and fixing them in a way that isn't super bad for this team, especially when you compare this situation with quite a few other teams's f***-ups and what those cost them, OTOH, requires to have a bit more objective outlook on things, if you're not a Rob fan to begin with (which many, especially Kings' fans, aren't, and you can't blame them).

Could things be significantly better at this point? Absolutely. Is that a very much unrealistic scenario? Very much, all things objectively considered.

Could things be significantly worse? Absolutely. Is that a very much unrealistic scenario? Not at all. Failed rebuilds happen much more often than we, LA Kings fans, think. The only proper one in the Kings' history worked, and it worked wonders. People fail to realize how f'ing rare that kind of successful rebuilds actually are...


Basically everything rides on the success (or failure) of Byfield, Clarke and Kuemper. If QB improves to near PPG territory, if Clarke manages to find a top 4 level of play towards the end of the season and Kuemper shows ups as solid as he was the last time he was with the Kings, this could be the best season in years, and by a wide margin.

And this isn't unlike many other teams who find themselves on the cusp of black hole. But you can't just dismiss these chances completely and force a rebuild that could take 5 years and alienate much of the casual fan base in the process (with DD and AK still with the team and going nowhere else), and very possibly not produce a contender at the end of it. These are the facts of this sport.

 

[Clif]

This.

Everybody knows about the f***-ups and can write about them. I'm sure some even enjoy them.

The recognition of these f***-ups and fixing them in a way that isn't super bad for this team, especially when you compare this situation with quite a few other teams's f***-ups and what those cost them, OTOH, requires to have a bit more objective outlook on things, if you're not a Rob fan to begin with (which many, especially Kings' fans, aren't, and you can't blame them).

Could things be significantly better at this point? Absolutely. Is that a very much unrealistic scenario? Very much, all things objectively considered.

Could things be significantly worse? Absolutely. Is that a very much unrealistic scenario? Not at all. Failed rebuilds happen much more often than we, LA Kings fans, think. The only proper one in the Kings' history worked, and it worked wonders. People fail to realize how f'ing rare that kind of successful rebuilds actually are...


Basically everything rides on the success (or failure) of Byfield, Clarke and Kuemper. If QB improves to near PPG territory, if Clarke manages to find a top 4 level of play towards the end of the season and Kuemper shows ups as solid as he was the last time he was with the Kings, this could be the best season in years, and by a wide margin.

And this isn't unlike many other teams who find themselves on the cusp of black hole. But you can't just dismiss these chances completely and force a rebuild that could take 5 years and alienate much of the casual fan base in the process (with DD and AK still with the team and going nowhere else), and very possibly not produce a contender at the end of it. These are the facts of this sport.

Yes. And clearly we’re not saying Blake hasn’t made his mistakes. The fact that he has to essentially recalibrate the character and culture of this team is testament to his errors, since the group he built up to last year met a full-on locker room crisis.

That said, 2022 had to be considered a success. 2023 was disappointing and Game 4 was a red flag, but no one was panicking yet. Last year simply went off the rails. Rather than doubling down and just bringing back Toffoli, he is now rethinking how to build this team. That’s the story.

 

[jammer06]

Yes. And clearly we’re not saying Blake hasn’t made his mistakes. The fact that he has to essentially recalibrate the character and culture of this team is testament to his errors, since the group he built up to last year met a full-on locker room crisis.

That said, 2022 had to be considered a success. 2023 was disappointing and Game 4 was a red flag, but no one was panicking yet. Last year simply went off the rails. Rather than doubling down and just bringing back Toffoli, he is now rethinking how to build this team. That’s the story.

Don't forget this team was top 3 in the league just before Christmas last year and near the top of the league in goals scored per game. How much of that was smoke and mirrors vs reality before the fall is open to debate. It was all still true information though.

 

[Ice Rhino]

Last years pre and post holiday performance is a testament to how important goalkeeping is to not only the scoreboard, but to over all team performance and mentality.

When you have confidence in your goal keeper, you play with more confidence and poise, knowing they'll be there to back you up. Yes, and extra goal loses games, but it also loses the swagger the team had during the first few months. Hopefully more performances by Kuemper will bring it back.

 

[Clif]

Don't forget this team was top 3 in the league just before Christmas last year and near the top of the league in goals scored per game. How much of that was smoke and mirrors vs reality before the fall is open to debate. It was all still true information though.

And to that point, a GM is going to look at the team who was top 3 for a reasonable stretch and see what he can fix to get it back. All this blowup the team talk is such fanfiction. The many pieces like the above are typically cited as justification for that fantasy.