Healthy Scratch = Misuse........

I know we're on a little streak here and i'm happy for the team. But I still have serious problems with AM's head. I simply don't understand this guy with his decisions, and if it's pride thing, well you know what I think!

Issue 1: Mike Cammalleri.......What the ***** is it now? He had an unbelievable camp, he came in beyond fit, and he came back from an injury earlier than expected. Nah, let's sit him, ***** he only makes over a million a year. I know there are some Cammy haters, but he will be another Chris Drury in this league mark my words. He's twenty one and he's already rotting in this BS system. Some may think send him down so he gets more time in Manchester and my question is why? He already taunted that league in the short amount of time he was there. This is the perfect time to get a proper assessment on the guy. We're depleted up front, so give him 18 minutes a night and see what he can do. Even then he'll have a bullsh*t window to produce in under AM! Cammy - Armstrong - Robitaille were one of the better lines in pre-season. All that is gone! Solution Brad Chartrand second line center!

Issue 2: Kip Brennan.........Some may think he doesn't deserve a shift, my question is why not? We're already the softest team in this league, nobody comes close. Yes, we're a tough team to play against because of our never say die attitude, but our key players will continue to go down like the plague. I've said it a million times here..we have no one out there to police the situations. AM is the only person in this league that thinks we have four scoring lines. And last time I checked Kip brings entertainment to the fans. Yeah, nobody likes fighting! Just ask 18,000 fans at the next home game. Fighting is not my main concern, but knowing you have someone sitting on the bench that can go kick ass if need be is a beautiful thing.

Issue 3: Alexaner Frolov......Maybe if he's lucky 13-16 minutes a game. He can be very dominant if confidence was given to him. ***** he's going to make mistakes, that's the only way he'll learn. Punishing him by playing him on the fourth line, and now second line with Chartrand and Klatt is a disaster.

Issue 4: Jaroslav Modry.....Simply a joke, no other way to describe him. Yet he gets the most playing time on this team....go figure! His decisions are beyond slow, and his new no angle blast is retarded. In the near future those shots will cost us a goal. When you go in from no angle these goalies are just to big and 10 times out of 10, they'll save it especially since he's shooting high. Not to mention when he misses the net he cripples the other four players as the puck goes ripping around the boards, and yes it will one day cause a break away for the other team.

Issue 5: Team Softness.....Probably my biggest concern. I feel like i'm beating on a dead horse here. But wow, seeing Kings' players fly all over the place getting smashed and nobody doing a thing about it is just sickening. Palffy, Robitaille, Stumpel...the list goes on and on and seeing these guys (our finesse payers) getting pounded night in and night out sucks. It's really sad that they have to protect themselves with nobody sticking up for them......Oh yeah, I forgot there is nobody there. Unless they jump over the boards with a suit on.

Ziggy, Army, Lubo, and a couple of others is the only entertainment we have right now, and seeing two 19 year old kids (Brown, and Gleason) smashing other players is a great surprise. Other than that, there are way more exciting teams and games going on. I'll continue to bleed these colors and i've seen it all with this team since 1980. But AM, who I think is a great coach with a stubborn ass attitude, seriously needs to wake up.
Like Marcellus Wallace once said..."***** Pride"........So AM please start playing some imortant players and prospects. Not just a bunch of Chartrands and Klatts!...........As always folks just my opinion!

These are all great points and I tend to agree with you. The problem is that AM is also winning games when we have a team with key players missing and does even better when we are at full strength. IF we weren't playing above 500 then you can bet that we all would be screaming about these things. The problem (or positive) is that we win "just enough" to make everything look alright.

I don't question AM's skills in general. I do question how he uses his players and especially his young talented players. You stand a better chance at getting good ice time by being a grinder with marginal skills then you do a talented young stud.

Games like last nights (I think) where Frolov gets 20 mins are only done to up his average from the ATOI of 12 per game that he had before last night. Still, he wasn't given the time with the kind of players that he is better suited to playing with and it sure looks like AM is saying "see, I gave you 20 mins and you didn't score, why do you think I should play you more and why with Ziggy"? I know I am doing some serious speculating but it does make me wonder. What will happen when Aulin/Cammo/Frolov/Brown/Anshankov/Push/Kanko and Hogeboom are all NHL ready right around the same time and are looking for ice time and their chance to play with the team? Will AM be able to bring them in and use them in the propper manner?

So far it doesn't look like he will. Who knows though, maybe (as usual) AM knows something that we don't and he IS doing the right thing. I have faith, it is hard sometimes though.

These are all great points and I tend to agree with you. The problem is that AM is also winning games when we have a team with key players missing and does even better when we are at full strength. IF we weren't playing above 500 then you can bet that we all would be screaming about these things. The problem (or positive) is that we win "just enough" to make everything look alright.

I don't question AM's skills in general. I do question how he uses his players and especially his young talented players. You stand a better chance at getting good ice time by being a grinder with marginal skills then you do a talented young stud.

Games like last nights (I think) where Frolov gets 20 mins are only done to up his average from the ATOI of 12 per game that he had before last night. Still, he wasn't given the time with the kind of players that he is better suited to playing with and it sure looks like AM is saying "see, I gave you 20 mins and you didn't score, why do you think I should play you more and why with Ziggy"? I know I am doing some serious speculating but it does make me wonder. What will happen when Aulin/Cammo/Frolov/Brown/Anshankov/Push/Kanko and Hogeboom are all NHL ready right around the same time and are looking for ice time and their chance to play with the team? Will AM be able to bring them in and use them in the propper manner?

So far it doesn't look like he will. Who knows though, maybe (as usual) AM knows something that we don't and he IS doing the right thing. I have faith, it is hard sometimes though.

Great post! The thing that baffles me the most is what system do we really want here. We say we're building for the future, but when? We say we want to build like the Colorado's, Ottawa's, NJ's of the world. But we don't have a clue as to what we're doing. Colorado always have future stars, but it's more or less how they raise them into the system. Drury, Tanguay, Hejduk, Vrbata, Nedorost...the list goes on and on? It's not rocket science, they inject a youngster into their top lines and voa-lah you have a new up and coming badass that also becomes a good bargaining chip. Same for Ottawa and same for the Devils. Hey i'm no coach and I don't have all the answers. But some of the answers are easy enough for the casual fan to answer. Sending Cammy down is just another one of AM's lame ass moves. And, it shouldn't have to do with aything but playing hockey and who the best players are. Everybody seems to be jumping on Lubo's bandwagon but he's always had it! He's now getting the time he deserves, but look how long it took, and look who we had to lose to see that (Schnieder) when all along it should have been Modry. I seem to remember lots of Lubo bashing, same for Karalahti, Berg and others. Mistakes happen just look at Modry everynight. But it seems to me that certain players get coddled. Johnson and Potvin were on that same list as Modry last year. I'm not one for drama, but it seems like there are other things going on behind closed doors that are keeping players in or out of the line-up.

Issue 3: Alexaner Frolov......Maybe if he's lucky 13-16 minutes a game.

Actually Frolov got over 20 mins. of ice time in last nights game, 20:50 to be exact. He had the most ice time for a Kings forward last night against the Lightning. AM is gaining more confidence in him, and he has now become a regular on the P.K., and P.P.

Sending Cammy down is just another one of AM's lame ass moves.

Maybe because the fact that Cammelleri was injured for 6 weeks and he's a little rusty, so they sent him to Manchester to get back into the groove of things.
The team is winning and people keep complaining about something. Can't we just be satisfied that they ARE winning?

Maybe because the fact that Cammelleri was injured for 6 weeks and he's a little rusty, so they sent him to Manchester to get back into the groove of things.

That's what I was thinking as well. He goes down to Manchester gets to get back in full game shape, get's a lot more ice time to get back in the swing of things, and when he comes back to LA he will be more ready to contribute

.You cant use the ONE night in his time as a King as the example. He did get 20 mins the other night its true. But his AVERAGE has been in the 12 1/2 to 13 neighborhood for his duration here. He also has only been averaging around 45 seconds of PP time per game. Now, in the game before this one he had over 3 mins of PK time to go along with his 42 seconds of PP time (of course, Sim and Pirnes, our energy line guys both got more than three minutes each worth of PP time).

Like I said, if it is for a few conditioning games then sure, why not. If we don't see him back here in a three or four games though it is going to be a very bad sign. Frolov had two goals three games ago and was dead solid in his own end (on a nigh when we scored seven Frolov had his two goals but was +3) even though he only saw 13 mins 22 seconds of ice time. He came back the next game to less than 12 and a half mins and was never placed on the ice with any of our skilled forwards.

My point is that IF Am is gaining confidence in Frolov then he sure has a weird way of showing it. The thing with rooks is consistency. Frolov is being bounced back and fourth from our "energy" line to our scoring line and seeing so many line mates that I would bet that there isn't a forward on our team he hasn't played with.

Now consider the fact that Frolov scores the majority (vast) of his points when ZP is on the ice and it makes you wonder why AM has him out with our "energy" guys. I love AM as a coach and think he has a solid system in place but so far I just don't think he is giving our young snipers half of the respect that he does the grinders. IF Frolov was bad in his own end I would see why he is being treated this way, it would be up to him to learn the system. That just ins't the case though. AM is giving him more PK time than PP time every game and while that is a great sign of AM's confidence in him where his D game is concerned it sure doesn't help a young gifted sniper develope the rest of his game.

So no, I won't consider his ONLY game so far where he has been played 20 mins as a sign of how he is getting a ton of ice time nor will I consider the several games where he was used for less than 12 mins either. He IS averaging between 12 and 13 mins (approx) a game and for his skill level and the way he has performed so far he sure is deserving of more ice time than Pirnes/Chartrand/Sim etc.

I meant to number my responses, sorry guys. For some reason I can't get the edit page to load.

I decided to look through this forum because LA is playing the Canes tonight. I found some of the stuff I've read very interesting. I think Andy Murray is the best coach in the NHL, hands down. He wins games with his best players out of the lineup. And you guys have your best players out of the line-up a ton. Whatever he's doing is good, even though it may seem stupid to everyone else. From what I've derived from what you guys have said is basically he is challenging his veterans and making sure his young forwards realize they need to work to get playing time. They won't get ice time because of talent alone. This team seems like they will never quit on Andy, so I wouldn't either ;)

Thanks for the outsiders pov 16. May the best team win tonight.

Scott, if you don't like what is in the thread then skim through and don't bother with it. I mean, to say something like "we are winning and people still need to complaign blah blah blah" is nutty. We are HERE to talk about what the team is doing and what we think should and shouldn't be done. So if you don't like it then don't worry about it. You don't have to read the posts or respond. Leave that for those of us who have our concerns or critique's.

I mean the two things AREN'T mutually exclusive. We are winning some games and that is great. Some people have issues with the way that AM is and has been using his kids. It's OK to be happy about the good things and still see what might be wrong.

I think that our guest WH16 makes some good points and that as an outsider (not meant as an offensive statement by the way) he sees our strengths (and AM's) based on what he sees. Some of us see this issue with how AM manages our kids as a problem that is constantly happening. I mean, if it was just this one kid and this one time nobody would even begin to question what is happening. The fact that AM tends to pick his favorites (CJ getting more PP time than Frolov and other talented players last year to name one situation) isn't unusual, allot of coaches do it. The fact that he tends (according to some of us and how we see things) do this to the detriment of the developement of our talented kids and then questions their skills and ability is what some of us have a problem with.

All good observations though and again, that is why we come here, to talk about what we see happening and see what others think.

Remember, it isn't like that garbage LGK site where all that happens is ignorant bashing with the odd well thought out post. Here, we like seeing the different points of veiw. I guess I would say that this is where the adults come to play.

And Cammalleri was the NUMBER ONE star tonight in Manchester. He strings a few of those together over the next week or so, and I am PRETTY certain you will see him get ice time with the Kings over Chartrand and Pirnes...

Didn't Cammo have 22 points in 14 games or something like that in the Ahl last year?

Didn't Cammo have 22 points in 14 games or something like that in the Ahl last year?

Yes, and he had 5 goals on 50 shots for a 10.00 SP% and was only a -4.
His NHL SP% was better last year than his AHL. If he hadn't missed the last 30 or so NHL games last season due to injury, he probably would have had 20+ NHL points.

www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/player_bio.asp?player_id=2476&hubname=LA#stats