GDT ***Washington Capitals vs. LA Kings GDT 12/2/25 7:30pm on FanDuel***

ICE24 said:
I'm not upset about this loss as clearly the better team won. The Kings as a whole are getting out hustled and out muscled to the puck. The coach can't teach desire and the players don't have much at this point. The team they played tonight is a playoff team with a great goalie so can't fault the Kings as they made it tight. December is going to be a rough month for the Kings.
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I don’t think they have the desire because of the coach. I think some of the players have tuned him out entirely (e.g. Danault). I may be 100% wrong about that, but from the outside that’s what it looks like to me. And I don’t blame them.
 
Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed any of 1 goal in the first and second, and/or 2 goals combined in the third:

1 goal first (1 point):
Birdman
mugs
pray4mojo
Forum Gold
DRice
VCRW
Drum4Pigs
motalare
KernCoKingFan
Rusty
Liz4LA

1 goal second (1 point):
McSorleyFan
beady eye
Forum Gold
Cross Traffic
randdog
DRGinLBC
Nyssa42
hornman
CIrvine

2 goal third (1 point):
Symbology
Rogie-Vachon
McSorleyFan
Birdman
mugs
pray4mojo
Forum Gold
DRice
Cross Traffic
VCRW
Drum4Pigs
sonnyboy11
AngelEyes
randdog
DRGinLBC
Hockey53
RoS
empire
Rog or Reg?
hornman
Chateau Bow Wow
Liz4LA
CIrvine

Congratulations to Forum Gold being the only poster to get all 3 points, several of you got 2 of 3. Was chatting with another fan who was adamant that the propensity of the PP to give up high danger scoring chances was far more damaging to the kings than their ability to score on it, they now seem very prescient. That mistake turned out to be the game winner, I'd say everything was effectively over though when the kings lost their composure on the missed slash with Moore in the slot. I'll be honest I can believe the ref was not watching Moore when that happened, but it sure seems like someone should have been aware of a baseball height swing happening on the ice.
 
King of Pentacle5 said:
I don’t think they have the desire because of the coach. I think some of the players have tuned him out entirely (e.g. Danault). I may be 100% wrong about that, but from the outside that’s what it looks like to me. And I don’t blame them.
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While we’ll never know what tuning out the coach means from our perspective we do know what tuning out a coach looks like on the ice because we’ve seen Kings teams do it several times over the past 25 years.

The play on the ice becomes uninspired and lackadaisical for long stretches. The players stop responding to “big” wins or “tough” losses. They get a kind of a shellshocked type of look to them on the bench and in the post game media scrums. Lastly the coach runs out of anything resembling patience with the media.

I believe we’re almost at this point with Hiller. His media responses post 2024 Playoffs collapse were the textbook example of what we’ve seen from every Kings coach once they enter the Dead Man Walking inevitability phase. Andy Murray, Marc Crawford, Terry Murray, John Stevens, and Todd McLellan all had some form of this.

It never really applied to Sutter because he was obstinate with the media from day 1 but when his team checked out it looked a lot like what we’re seeing from this Kings team.
 
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Kings need to stay in hotels when they're in LA, I think ...
 
Statue4Deano said:
While we’ll never know what tuning out the coach means from our perspective we do know what tuning out a coach looks like on the ice because we’ve seen Kings teams do it several times over the past 25 years.

The play on the ice becomes uninspired and lackadaisical for long stretches. The players stop responding to “big” wins or “tough” losses. They get a kind of a shellshocked type of look to them on the bench and in the post game media scrums. Lastly the coach runs out of anything resembling patience with the media.

I believe we’re almost at this point with Hiller. His media responses post 2024 Playoffs collapse were the textbook example of what we’ve seen from every Kings coach once they enter the Dead Man Walking inevitability phase. Andy Murray, Marc Crawford, Terry Murray, John Stevens, and Todd McLellan all had some form of this.

It never really applied to Sutter because he was obstinate with the media from day 1 but when his team checked out it looked a lot like what we’re seeing from this Kings team.
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I'm not sure thats the correct read here. The team is offensively frustrated, to the point of recklessness on the powerplay. But their defensive buy in hasn't slipped at all. Their ability to execute defensively has some holes but there's no doubt that they've been excellent in rebounding their PK numbers from October. Additionally at the end of October they had spent 50% more time on the PK than the PP, now that number has evened out to 139pp mins against 137pk mins (was 61pk mins to 40 pp). That doesn't happen without making other teams take penalties (egregious missed call last night excepted). If Hiller has lost the room, hes not lost it to players looking to pad their own stats.
 
jammer06 said:
I'm not sure thats the correct read here. The team is offensively frustrated, to the point of recklessness on the powerplay. But their defensive buy in hasn't slipped at all. Their ability to execute defensively has some holes but there's no doubt that they've been excellent in rebounding their PK numbers from October. Additionally at the end of October they had spent 50% more time on the PK than the PP, now that number has evened out to 139pp mins against 137pk mins (was 61pk mins to 40 pp). That doesn't happen without making other teams take penalties (egregious missed call last night excepted). If Hiller has lost the room, hes not lost it to players looking to pad their own stats.
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Hiller has the team playing a conservative and fundamentally safe style of hockey that keeps them in most games but does not put them in any position to win unless the other team makes several mistakes. It’s passive, reactive hockey that has no place in the NHL in 2025.

Last night’s game was a perfect example. 45+ minutes of the game was the Kings playing strong defensive hockey and doing almost nothing once they crossed the red line. Shot attempts from non-dangerous parts of the ice are not productive.

There was a 10 minute stretch of inspired play by the Kings in the 2nd when they pounced on a turnover and scored a goal off the rush. They pushed the pace after that goal for a few shifts but the Caps weathered the storm and outside that 2nd period the Kings were in no way shape or form dangerous in the offensive zone. This is all by design.

Hiller has the team playing no risk hockey that overly depends on counter attacks and the Power Play to score goals. So yes the team defense is good but playing defense takes far fewer unique skills than generating quality offensive plays. In a system like Hiller is running, generating those quality offensive chances takes the most effort. And that’s what I mean when I say these guys look checked out right now.

They’re putting the necessary effort out to play responsible defensive hockey but they aren’t willing or able to do the heavy lifting of generating quality scoring opportunities. Why? Can’t say for sure but to me it reads like there’s just very little reward for that extra effort under this coach.
 
Statue4Deano said:
Hiller has the team playing a conservative and fundamentally safe style of hockey that keeps them in most games but does not put them in any position to win unless the other team makes several mistakes. It’s passive, reactive hockey that has no place in the NHL in 2025.

Last night’s game was a perfect example. 45+ minutes of the game was the Kings playing strong defensive hockey and doing almost nothing once they crossed the red line. Shot attempts from non-dangerous parts of the ice are not productive.

There was a 10 minute stretch of inspired play by the Kings in the 2nd when they pounced on a turnover and scored a goal off the rush. They pushed the pace after that goal for a few shifts but the Caps weathered the storm and outside that 2nd period the Kings were in no way shape or form dangerous in the offensive zone. This is all by design.

Hiller has the team playing no risk hockey that overly depends on counter attacks and the Power Play to score goals. So yes the team defense is good but playing defense takes far fewer unique skills than generating quality offensive plays. In a system like Hiller is running, generating those quality offensive chances takes the most effort. And that’s what I mean when I say these guys look checked out right now.

They’re putting the necessary effort out to play responsible defensive hockey but they aren’t willing or able to do the heavy lifting of generating quality scoring opportunities. Why? Can’t say for sure but to me it reads like there’s just very little reward for that extra effort under this coach.
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That all reads like buy in and in no way that Hillers lost the room was my point.
 
ICE24 said:
The drop off of play by Danault, Moore, Fogele, Kuz and Byfield is mindboggling. I am not sure any of the Kings are having a good season, except for Kuemper.
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This to me really is the issue. 5-on-5, PP, doesn't matter... these players are significantly under performing compared to last season and we're seeing the results of that night in and night out. Kopitar is also off of his pace but at his age and considering the wear and tear of twenty seasons you can understand it. Kempe, too, has had a long stretch where he just didn't appear to be feeling it. Maybe that has a lot to do with his PP utilization up high (a Hiller string being pulled) but none the less, the lack of scoring right now is the issue. The staff is constantly jumbling line combos but it's a chicken/ egg type of issue here. They're not finding the back of the net so they are constantly seeing new linemates which makes it hard to gel and gain a foothold in terms of chemistry which in itself is hindering scoring.

I'll also say that save for Clarke, the Kings really don't have any D-men right now that can get the puck up and out. You need to have an effective break out to feed the offensive effort. As it stands, they're really just relying on mistakes on the part of the opposition, with turn overs leading to counter attacks. If that's your entire offensive paradigm, you're naturally going to lack the ability to score regularly.
 
McSorleyFan said:
View attachment 13356

Kings need to stay in hotels when they're in LA, I think ...
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And I’ve heard of real hard line task masters like Tortorella trying things like this before.

Hire me as the coach, and I’ll start every practice by saying.. “ I’m gonna make this practice session as uninspired as your gameplay has been on the ice lately’, blow my whistle, and just tell every body to start skating end to end until practice is over. Next stop, pack your bags boys, tell your wives and children that even when you’re home, you’re not home. We’re staying at the best Western up the street, since you can only get your dicks up when you’re on the road. We’re gonna do this for the rest of the season until you start showing up and winning, or until Luc fires me, so strap yourselves in tight.
 
I think Hiller needs to sit Danault for a game or two. Because of his faceoff numbers, Phil plays as though he is entitled to his position whether he puts up points or not. It’s gotten really hard to watch him just drifting around, not actually engaged, shift after shift.

Start Turc at 3C and Sami at 4C. Bottom 6 couldn’t do much worse right now so… why not?
 
MiketheKing said:
We worked the puck into danger, then immediately took it back out of danger to the perimeter for a easy goalie stop that's 2025 Kings hockey for you
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Gonna quote this one too because it is 100% correct. Kings finally get the puck into the slot and then they'll pass it back to the point for a crappy shot where they hope to get a tip (with no player in front of the net 90% of the time).

That's been Kings hockey for a decade. Along with if you are defenseman who gets the puck at the blue line just stand there and either pass it or shoot. Never consider walking it in towards the net if the defense has sagged off. Pass or shoot are the only options. Never change Kings, never change.
 
hokiecat said:
Gonna quote this one too because it is 100% correct. Kings finally get the puck into the slot and then they'll pass it back to the point for a crappy shot where they hope to get a tip (with no player in front of the net 90% of the time).

That's been Kings hockey for a decade. Along with if you are defenseman who gets the puck at the blue line just stand there and either pass it or shoot. Never consider walking it in towards the net if the defense has sagged off. Pass or shoot are the only options. Never change Kings, never change.
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Yep, its like the net is on the blue line.
 
jammer06 said:
That all reads like buy in and in no way that Hillers lost the room was my point.
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Again I have no idea if he’s lost the room from where I’m sitting but I’m not sure how anyone can watch what the Kings are doing on the PP and call that buy in.

The PP is extremely important to Hiller’s gameplan as that’s where the vast majority of the high danger chances are designed to come from. The team looks disinterested and unwilling to put in the effort to execute on the PP.

Especially true when you factor in the Short Handed shots, chances and goals they’ve allowed this season. They lead or are near the top in the league in all those categories. There’s no buy in there at all. Could that be considered tuning Hiller out? I think so.
 
Statue4Deano said:
Again I have no idea if he’s lost the room from where I’m sitting but I’m not sure how anyone can watch what the Kings are doing on the PP and call that buy in.

The PP is extremely important to Hiller’s gameplan as that’s where the vast majority of the high danger chances are designed to come from. The team looks disinterested and unwilling to put in the effort to execute on the PP.

Especially true when you factor in the Short Handed shots, chances and goals they’ve allowed this season. They lead or are near the top in the league in all those categories. There’s no buy in there at all. Could that be considered tuning Hiller out? I think so.
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When I watch the Kings I do not see a team that lacks effort. What I see is a team that lacks proper strategy. That said I do no think the team have given up on the coach but rather that things got too tough for the coach and he has given up on helping the team win.
 
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