The Elephant on the ice

[Bill Hicks]

We are Charmin soft.
Last night, Viktor runs Kuemper and high sticks Gavy in the face.

And what happens?
He skates the rest of the game with not a care in the world.
I was as furious at that as much as anything else.
He should have wound up in the dressing room with ice packs all over his body and probably something broken.
f*** this pp is our enforcer bullshit.
How many teams would allow that to occur? Us and us alone. We are gutless.
No pride, no heart, no fight, no looking out for teammates.
This falls directly on leadership, such as it, is on this team. Is there any?
As captain and leader where is Kopi? Name me a captain that would let this be the norm.

G-damn embarrassing.

 

[toma_13]

It's obvious we're a finesse team that is NOT built for the grind of the playoffs. But didn't we say that last year as well?? They got one dude (Jeannot) who ended up not playing in the playoff series. Look at our defense. Softer than sh**. Doughty, Anderson, Gavi, Spence, Clarke, etc. don't scare anyone in front of the net. Edmundson the only guy back there with some size. But even he doesn't evoke memories of McSorley or Jay Wells or Ken Baumgartner. Yeah, a different game and time people say. But I say you can't have a defense corps of a bunch of Larry Murphy wannabes either. You old timers know what's up. Protect the front and make em pay. This team was built for the regular season. Sucks cuz we're all so invested. But Charmin soft indeed......

 

[emsomaso]

We are Charmin soft.
Last night, Viktor runs Kuemper and high sticks Gavy in the face.

And what happens?
He skates the rest of the game with not a care in the world.
I was as furious at that as much as anything else.
He should have wound up in the dressing room with ice packs all over his body and probably something broken.
f*** this pp is our enforcer bullshit.
How many teams would allow that to occur? Us and us alone. We are gutless.
No pride, no heart, no fight, no looking out for teammates.
This falls directly on leadership, such as it, is on this team. Is there any?
As captain and leader where is Kopi? Name me a captain that would let this be the norm.

G-damn embarrassing.

100% this!! I feel ashamed being a Kings fan when they let Kane, Perry and Nurse do whatever they like to us without any repercussions at all. And when they don’t even stand up for themselves against effin’ Arvidsson, who is like 4’2”, that says it all…

They will NEVER win in the playoffs when they let other teams scumbags beat the crap out of our best players. I mean Nurse crosschecked Byfield in the head so he went to the concussion protocol, did this bunch of softies even check him the next game???

Embarrassing!!!

 

[Earl]

This is why I want Bennett as he has both skill and grit, really sad Jeannot got hurt as I think he would have thrived and this series was exactly why we got him. We need a Gudas type, someone who when they step out the other team on their bench goes "heads up Player X is out there....."

 

[SOBER]

There is not a single player or two that is going to change things enough to make a difference. This team needs to be rebuilt from scratch, this version isn’t a winning team.

Unfortunately the philosophy has to change and that can’t just be done with roster changes but needs personnel changes in upper management.

 

[SOBER]

Where are Richards, Brown, Williams?

Kempe’s the only really skilled player on the team with heart and he’s not going to be able to do it himself all alone. He was playing as a defensemen for a good part of the third period, which is something I have never seen before and can’t explain.


This team is not much different than a previous Kings team that lost in the first round that featured Ryan Smyth, Scott Parse, Michael Handzus and Wayne Simmonds.

 

[Dr. Tran]

We are Charmin soft.
Last night, Viktor runs Kuemper and high sticks Gavy in the face.

And what happens?
He skates the rest of the game with not a care in the world.
I was as furious at that as much as anything else.
He should have wound up in the dressing room with ice packs all over his body and probably something broken.
f*** this pp is our enforcer bullshit.
How many teams would allow that to occur? Us and us alone. We are gutless.
No pride, no heart, no fight, no looking out for teammates.
This falls directly on leadership, such as it, is on this team. Is there any?
As captain and leader where is Kopi? Name me a captain that would let this be the norm.

G-damn embarrassing.

I wouldn’t use quite the angry words you did. But yeah, I see what you’re saying. I get that we don’t want to give them unnecessary power plays. (Meanwhile we give them an unnecessary power play.) But every time they started something physical, or had some kind of scrum at the end of a whistle, most times we didn’t respond. Or if we did & we had 1 Kings player involved, a 2nd Oiler would come in. And if you just want to keep it between the whistles, I think they out hit us there too. I wish we would’ve had Jeannot in the lineup. But I wish more that we had a team of Jeannots in terms of attitude & physicality. And that not having 1 4th liner in the lineup wouldn’t make that much of a difference. The thing also is this isn’t new in this matchup. They’ve been more physical & more intimidating at least the last few series, if not all of them. The getting uncomfortable I get. You have to withstand punishment to score goals in the playoffs. But you have to dish out punishment too & make them pay that way.

 

[spudboy]

More worried about the lack of defense in this series, by this "defensive" team. Especially, when Byfield gets beat down the ice by Janmark, I believe.

 

[Pevsfreedom]

The Lady Byng captain doesn't seem to fly in the playoffs, tho I'll agree nobody on this team has any GRIT I feel is the word. Several games the Oilers were just literally laughingly steamrolling through us physically, including our "big" guys like QB. I won't blame Kopitar specifically tho, it's the whole organization at this point.

 

[Birdman]

There is not a single player or two that is going to change things enough to make a difference. This team needs to be rebuilt from scratch, this version isn’t a winning team.

Unfortunately the philosophy has to change and that can’t just be done with roster changes but needs personnel changes in upper management.

I actually don’t think it’s the whole team.

It’s all the midgets we drafted that everybody keeps raving about Hiller needing to play.

 

[Rog or Reg?]

Our lack of size and grit was never more evident than in Game 5. As my buddy said, it was like "men vs boys".

And I just had to laugh at some of the comments during the series ...people were saying how the Kings were "mentally and physically exhausted".

Mentally and physically exhausted? In Round One?

Wow. Getting pushed around game after game definitely took its toll.

The Kings have a lot of good players... high-end talent ...but we're not going to the promised land unless we add a few big, nasty bodies into the mix. Or we will continue to be manhandled by teams like the Edmonton Oilers.

Okie doke. Over and out. I hope all my Kings friends here have a happy and safe summer!

 

[Sultanic]

The most respected player in the franchise, the captain, the team's best player - doesn't play to win, his entire style is based on not losing. Cheating offense for defense, bending until breaking, never daring for greatness.

The only success in his career was when a shrewd GM correctly analyzed the lack of fortitude in his team and imported as much killer instinct as he could. The Cup core was soft before they arrived, and were soft again after they left.

There is a huge difference between being respected and being able to lead. This team has had leadership issues for a decade now. The single worst decision the franchise has made since the Cups was extending Kopitar instead of trading him and retooling a team with prime, quality players. Instead they chose the loooooong descent into an area where mediocrity was the absolute ceiling - and they were stuck with a leadership group that couldn't inspire any kind of success OR overachievement.

We celebrate a career of longevity here, and don't look at the cost.