What Now?
What Now?
It has not been a good season. Obviously the position of the Kings at or near the bottom of the standings for nearly the entirety of 2019, and now a continued slide in 2020 says more than I ever could. Our woes seem to reach ever deeper though.
I mused to a friend of mine that I had themed this season "We Can't Win." Sadly, it fits. I keep looking for bright spots, but the truth is, I simply am not enjoying watching the games. The Kings' play in their own zone is so bad that I think we should check Soupy and Quicky for both whiplash and concussions. Both are having to move pipe to pipe and back again so often, it's almost as if we are watching tennis.
When the Kings do manage to enter the offensive zone, sometimes they look ok. There are bright spots, but it is never enough it seems. Here we easily see the biggest disappointment of the season in Tyler Toffoli languidly miss quality opportunity after quality opportunity. I honestly attempted to sell his jersey the other night for $20. No takers. Guess I'll risk the humility and use it for pickup hockey. I'm really hoping that whatever is going on with Tyler doesn't carry over to his buddy Justin Turner.
The other enigma is Kempe. There is something there if he can just find some sort of scoring touch. Sadly neither of these two players brings it in the defensive zone. Too bad for Kempe that it isn't 1980 where he can pull a Ron Duguay and sell tickets by skating around helmetless making all of the females and some of the males cringe anytime a stick or puck get's close to his face.
Looking up, Salad (Kale Clague), Prokhorkin (not sure if he becomes Corky, or Le Sommelier) and Lizotte look to be solid contributors for years to come. Lizotte, despite being a personal favorite of mine for his energy, and play-making, will drastically need to improve his scoring touch and prowess if he is to breach the top six. Prokhorkin appears to have that touch, with grit and skating to boot. The jury is still out on Villardi, Anderson Dolan, and Durzi. I still have hopes that each can bring something valuable. It may be possible, and at this point even likely that three years from now all three will be long shots to make the team, or elsewhere. Our younger crop seems poised to eclipse them. My fingers are crossed.
Whatever happens, Kopi and Brown need some help. They are still extremely valuable, but shouldn't be expected to lead the scoring load as we move forward. Father time is largely the culprit here, and he only gets more greedy each year.
It's going to be a rough spring. It's going to be a rough next two to three years. That's fine. I'm used to it. I've been a Raider fan since I was twelve and that makes me ever the optimist, well at least until week four of the regular season. Hey, it could be worse. We could be Astros fans.
It has not been a good season. Obviously the position of the Kings at or near the bottom of the standings for nearly the entirety of 2019, and now a continued slide in 2020 says more than I ever could. Our woes seem to reach ever deeper though.
I mused to a friend of mine that I had themed this season "We Can't Win." Sadly, it fits. I keep looking for bright spots, but the truth is, I simply am not enjoying watching the games. The Kings' play in their own zone is so bad that I think we should check Soupy and Quicky for both whiplash and concussions. Both are having to move pipe to pipe and back again so often, it's almost as if we are watching tennis.
When the Kings do manage to enter the offensive zone, sometimes they look ok. There are bright spots, but it is never enough it seems. Here we easily see the biggest disappointment of the season in Tyler Toffoli languidly miss quality opportunity after quality opportunity. I honestly attempted to sell his jersey the other night for $20. No takers. Guess I'll risk the humility and use it for pickup hockey. I'm really hoping that whatever is going on with Tyler doesn't carry over to his buddy Justin Turner.
The other enigma is Kempe. There is something there if he can just find some sort of scoring touch. Sadly neither of these two players brings it in the defensive zone. Too bad for Kempe that it isn't 1980 where he can pull a Ron Duguay and sell tickets by skating around helmetless making all of the females and some of the males cringe anytime a stick or puck get's close to his face.
Looking up, Salad (Kale Clague), Prokhorkin (not sure if he becomes Corky, or Le Sommelier) and Lizotte look to be solid contributors for years to come. Lizotte, despite being a personal favorite of mine for his energy, and play-making, will drastically need to improve his scoring touch and prowess if he is to breach the top six. Prokhorkin appears to have that touch, with grit and skating to boot. The jury is still out on Villardi, Anderson Dolan, and Durzi. I still have hopes that each can bring something valuable. It may be possible, and at this point even likely that three years from now all three will be long shots to make the team, or elsewhere. Our younger crop seems poised to eclipse them. My fingers are crossed.
Whatever happens, Kopi and Brown need some help. They are still extremely valuable, but shouldn't be expected to lead the scoring load as we move forward. Father time is largely the culprit here, and he only gets more greedy each year.
It's going to be a rough spring. It's going to be a rough next two to three years. That's fine. I'm used to it. I've been a Raider fan since I was twelve and that makes me ever the optimist, well at least until week four of the regular season. Hey, it could be worse. We could be Astros fans.
Comments
Post a Comment