Leadership

The old guys aren't quite ready to hang them up yet.

 Over the last couple of years, most Kings fans have wondered how much time Kopitar and Brown had left.  At times, it has seemed as if the end was just around the corner.  After all, they have been grinding away, leading this team for quite some time now.  Yet, they keep surprising us.

Kopitar has never had the type of game that the media loves (Yes that means the NHL network...er the Maple Leaf network).  However, he has the kind of game that coaches salivate over, and opponents sweat buckets over.  Instead of going quitely into his good night, he is taunting old age and his doubters that barely even acknowledge that hockey exists this far to the South West.  Regardless, Kopi has decided to keep dishing out goals, and scoring a few himself.  

Brown seems to be an enigma.  At times, he has looked sloppy on the puck, and really slow, which is one of the reasons he got moved down to the second line for a while.  No one can argue with goals though.  He's fifth in the league.  That has never happened...ever.  He's putting himself in the right place, he's making plays, and he is finishing.   Mike dropped.

These two are showing the pups the ropes, and leading by example.  I hope that some of the younger guys want to take their roles from them at some point, but I'm glad that neither Kopi, nor Brown are ready to relinquish their roles just yet.  Maybe if the NHL network stopped suckling on the tite of Canadian hockey elitism, they might just sit up and take notice that these two are leading this team in a very, very promising direction.  

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