Where Do We Go From Here?


Where Do We Go From Here?

For those of us not playing tonight, the future looms a bit tenuously.  The ride home Sunday night was a rough one.  Fans, myself included, were bitter and disillusioned.  I heard people railing on our fourth line, and granted, they didn't have their best game, but they did not play terribly, and even created some scoring opportunities.  I heard people railing on Carter's lack of offense and seemingly inability to have an effect on the game.  It is obvious that Carter was lacking, but I think it's pretty clear that he is hurt and playing through some pain.  Toffoli's name crept up throughout the game as he too seemed unable to be effective.  Toffoli isn't much of a creator though.  He needs line mates that  will create opportunities for him to finish.  He had  a few chances but never looked sharp, which is partly due to the Knights defense that didn't give him much space or time.  There was and is a great deal of head scratching going on among Kings fans.

I heard one fan espouse the idea of needing to blow the team up and rebuild.  I don't recommend this at all, and for several reasons:

1.  After seeing the difference between the King's play from game two to game three, even though the end result was similar, there can be no doubt about Doughty's importance to this team.  As I have mentioned before, his talent has always been readily visible, but it is only in the last several years that he has truly begun to reach his potential.  He makes fewer mistakes, fewer mistakes in the no-turnover zones, and creates more opportunities than ever.  His brain has caught up with his body.  Without him, we instantly become the Arizona Coyotes, irrelevant and ineffective.  The Kings would be fortunate to hold on to Doughty, to hold on to the best two way defenseman in the NHL through his free agency.

2.  Kopitar scored ninety two points putting him in seventh position overall for the entire NHL.  The next closest King was Brownie who, having a resurgent year, was sixtieth in scoring.  From a purely offensive standpoint, there is no replacing Kopitar.  None of our prospects have the strength, poise, vision, or hands that he does.  From a purely offensive standpoint, there are only two or three players in the world that I would even consider replacing Kopitar with.  However, this isn't football.  Sorry Bernie Nicholls (the prince of one way players) fans, the NHL is a two way game, and everyone must play defense.  Anze Kopitar is by far the best two way player in the game.  It isn't even close.  If he played on the East Coast, he would be the runaway favorite for the league MVP.  Dumping Kopitar for lesser players isn't silly, it's a fire-able offense, and would make the Kings competitive in the OHL, maybe.

3.  Quick...nuff said.

4.  The rest might be questionable, but I see a great deal of quality on this team.  Muzzin played significantly better this year on defense.  Phaneuf was an important contributor and a quality blue liner that brings toughness and scoring ability.  Martinez and Folin were solid.  Even Cheese (Fantenberg sounds like a type of cheese) has played well.  Carter is a scoring machine when healthy, so that is a question mark.  Lewis is a grinder that wreaks havoc with opposing teams, and has really good instincts and doesn't make many mistakes.  Iafallo is a total keeper, doing all of the dirty work for the top line, creating time, space, and opportunity for Kopi and Brown.  Brownie more than earned his paycheck this year.  Kempe played like a man on Sunday night showing for the first time a new and valuable dimension to add to his mostly speed based game.  Reider, Toffoli, Pearson, aren't expendable.  The team would have to get something worthwhile for each.  Amadio has power and instincts, and plays for peanuts.  There are a lot of positives on this team, but we don't seem to be good enough to win the cup.

Blowing this team up to rebuild is ridiculous.  Rebuilding the support staff from within and the occasional free agent is the far better choice, but the trick is not to find different players, but better players, which may not be as easy as fans would hope.  Keep in mind that we, like every other team in the NHL, will likely loose one really good player to Seattle (and don't ask me why they chose Totems over The Kraken), which might very well make the West even deeper.  Can you imagine if Taylor Hall hadn't left Edmonton?  I guess that Lucky and Blakey will earn their paychecks this summer.  At least, I hope that they do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Is the Most Improved King?

Image
  Sometimes surprises are sweet.  One of the most interesting stories in hockey is the development of the so-called role players of the Los Angeles Kings.  Too bad the Toronto Hockey League Network would never know this, because they can’t see past the blue haze of their favorite sons. Our gain is their loss, and a lot more losses for Kings’ opponents.    Earlier this year, I felt like there was one stand out as The Most Improved player.  Now the water is muddied by the continued, almost astonishing, improvement in play by multiple players. I have to start out with a player that drove me nuts last year, Mikey Anderson.  Game after game last year he made bad pass after bad pass and appeared to be a human turnover.  His play moving backwards in our zone was pretty good, but he really struggled to see the ice and make timely decisions to get the team out of the zone.  Largely that problem was solved over the summer.  Anderson has been ...
Read more

Vilardi Must Help

Image
The bad news is that the Kings need some help.  I know, not exactly an astute observation, especially since we are watching other teams play in round two from our couches.  They need scoring.  The good news is that Gabriel Vilardi appears ready to step in and get it done. Vilardi, the first round draft pick from last year, had been projected as a top four pick.  For one reason or another, he dropped.  He dropped all the way to 11, where the Kings happily snapped him up.  His summer and subsequent fall were plagued by injuries.  Maybe that is what kept teams from picking him up, or maybe it was his supposed lack of skating ability, a denigration that I find hard to give too much credence too.  Either way, neither his injuries, nor his supposed lack of skating could keep him down forever.  In the second half of the season, he was a juggernaught for the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL. In 32 games, he tallied 22 goals and 36 assists, nea...
Read more

The Potential Is There

The Potential Is There       On Thursday night the Kings faced a Columbus team that is fighting for a playoff spot in the hotly contested Metropolitan division with a scant 17 points separating the top from the bottom.  The Blue Jackets came out firing, and the Kings came out ready for a nap.  For twenty minutes, we watched the good guys in the black jerseys chase the visitors around the defensive zone.  Breakout after breakout was a complete disaster.  I was a bit disheartened as this has been a major problem since the holidays.       Luckily, the fans got to see a different team come out for the second period.  The Kings were flying, denying space and creating turnovers.  Then, a role player, a new to our team role player stepped up.  Thompson unleashed a wicked shot over the pad and rang it off the post.  The Kings were back in the game.  Later, Iafallo and Pearson responded with tip ins.  A grim night...
Read more