Kings CAN do all of that. They have shown it this season, just not consistently enough. When Kings are playing the best they can, they are just as "dynamic" as any other team in the league.
Yep. We've seen how they can play when they put the effort in. Great breakouts, offensive pressure, stifling defense.
Problem is, they rarely put out the effort - which is why so many people on the boards are down on them. It's not a lack of support for the team, it's watching guys put out 70% effort when the other team is putting out 100%. I don't know if the team thought the acquisitions were going to make the season easy, but they are sure playing like it.
dating back to san jose has this guy ever made his team better at the deadline..... all he knows how to do is sell, pick up picks or character veterans.
Getting Selanne for Friesen/Shields/2nd was pretty big back in 2001. Acquired Vinny Damphousse at the deadline in 1999 and he had a productive stay in San Jose.
In the post-lockout capped environment, there haven't been too many blockbusters at the deadline. Forsberg, Hossa, and Kovalchuk were probably the biggest names with Hossa being the only one that helped his team get anywhere.
Carolina brought in Doug Weight and Mark Recchi for their Cup, but those guys were more "character veterans" than guys who were in their prime at that point. Ditto Pittsburgh with Bill Guerin and Philippe Boucher for theirs--Guerin didn't mesh as a deadline acquisition two years prior with San Jose.
Boston was active last year. They brought in Chris Kelly who fit well. But they also spent a ton to get Tomas Kaberle who wasn't a pivotal cog in their championship. Because of Kaberle, they traded away Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart for Rich Peverley to create cap space.
Kings CAN do all of that. They have shown it this season, just not consistently enough. When Kings are playing the best they can, they are just as "dynamic" as any other team in the league.
Just because they scored 5 goals in a game once or twice isn't the same. Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Vancouver consistently play dynamic hockey. I'd throw in Chicago but the defense is not as good this year and I also omitted St. Louis and Nashville because they don't score as many goals. Ditto the Rangers...
Just because they scored 5 goals in a game once or twice isn't the same. Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Vancouver consistently play dynamic hockey. I'd throw in Chicago but the defense is not as good this year and I also omitted St. Louis and Nashville because they don't score as many goals. Ditto the Rangers...
And it's even tighter in the playoffs. The Kings will struggle to score a goal IF they make the playoffs. Way too many grinders, a huge lack of character, a huge lack of dynamic wingers. They've played better under Sutter, no doubt about it but in the last few games they've gone back to being incredibly boring and putting up a lackluster effort. And they have the least amount of home games between the 8 current playoff teams with 11 at home and 18 more on the road. Lombardi has his work cut out for him.
dating back to san jose has this guy ever made his team better at the deadline..... all he knows how to do is sell, pick up picks or character veterans.
Yes, Selanne and Damphousse were great deadline trades for DL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by savemefromtears
Not to go backwards or anything...
But I can't help thinking of where The Kings would be if Penner & Gagne had been scoring some goals.
And yet, I guess hardly anyone is scoring goals on the team anyways...
Yeah, this.
I understand the point of this thread, and I'm not trying to let DL off the hook as I think he's part of the problem, but no GM in the league would have thought that after a combined 75 games that Gagne and Penner would have 11 goals and 29 points. Even on these boards both the Penner trade and the Gagne signing were generally approved of by the masses (especially the Penner trade).
I agree to blaming a GM for things that are clearly his fault, and I didn't like the Penner trade myself, but those two players really have crippled him and no one would have expected that little production. Gagne's concussion could have been predicted, but not the production of either player.
I also blame the system, both under TM and Sutter, but even then, many of our players are having very sub-par seasons. Once again, hard to predict that.
No one on these boards would have guessed we'd have the worst offense and I bet if all the GM's in the league were polled there'd be no one who expected LA to have even a bottom five offense.
It's not all DL's fault. This is a collective cluster****.
dating back to san jose has this guy ever made his team better at the deadline..... all he knows how to do is sell, pick up picks or character veterans.
Amen !!!!!!!!
It's same like Murray.
He is capable of teaching a team some defense to a point when it comes to 2 way hockey and doing the next step.
Just the lack of vision and adapting to modern hockey
same with Lombardi,
he can takle a team to a certain point but not beyond this because of lack of vision.
Not taking the slightest risk isn't helping either.
We reached this point and can decide to play around 5 more years like we did with Murray
or put the gun on his chest to deliver results.
I still remember him saying words like "Powerhouse"
Just because they scored 5 goals in a game once or twice isn't the same. Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Vancouver consistently play dynamic hockey. I'd throw in Chicago but the defense is not as good this year and I also omitted St. Louis and Nashville because they don't score as many goals. Ditto the Rangers...
Isn't the same, but it is the ability we are talking about. If they can, they should. I am not a fairy tale guy but I believe there is a small chance that whole team just starts playing great hockey and they do it every game. As I said, I wouldn't bet on it, but there is the ability and they have shown that they can play great hockey. Some of the Richards' fans will disagree by default, but I believe that is his problem at the moment: lack of confidence. I don't buy the whole injury thing. It's the lack of confidence. He doesn't look as cool and sharp out there as he did in the past. He looks like someone who... well is not confident. And once he starts scoring, he will get the confidence back.
I wouldn't bother thinking about a Jeff Carter deal. He's a center- Philly tried to get him to play wing a few times when he was there and it looked like he just wasn't interested. I think with his shot, he'd be a great winger but he's not a great board player and, as a center, he's not a great play-maker IMO. You bring him in and you have 3 centers; where would you slot him, ahead of Richards? Big potential problem there, if you ask me.
Oh don't worry - with Lombardi at the helm there is no shortage of ammunition to fuel the negative speculation.
Hey Tomd,
I was wondering what your positiives are in regards to the Kings. Do you have a fav player? goal? jersey? coaching era? style? I dont hate your negativity. Negativity is needed in a forum like this to allow for proper critquing. Though if your conclusions are always negative or if your comments are always painted with gore it comes off slightly bias. So what do you like about the Kings? Why L.A? Ive always wanted to be the guy seeing Stalin hold a flower
Hey Tomd,
I was wondering what your positiives are in regards to the Kings. Do you have a fav player? goal? jersey? coaching era? style? I dont hate your negativity. Negativity is needed in a forum like this to allow for proper critquing. Though if your conclusions are always negative or if your comments are always painted with gore it comes off slightly bias. So what do you like about the Kings? Why L.A? Ive always wanted to be the guy seeing Stalin hold a flower
Been a fan since the early 70s and seen the hockey version of the Clippers ever since.
Lombardi has been the biggest disappointment in almost 40 years of watching the Kings. He has built a border-line playoff team and maxed out at the cap to do it. He has continually misjudged talent. He has built a team that is both frustrating and boring to watch. Hopefully he will be gone at the end of this year but the damage he left behind will not be remedied quickly.
Been a fan since the early 70s and seen the hockey version of the Clippers ever since.
Lombardi has been the biggest disappointment in almost 40 years of watching the Kings. He has built a border-line playoff team and maxed out at the cap to do it. He has continually misjudged talent. He has built a team that is both frustrating and boring to watch. Hopefully he will be gone at the end of this year but the damage he left behind will not be remedied quickly.
How about finally building a great defense and goalie pipeline? The biggest one you're forgetting is Quick, an LA KINGS GOALIE MADE THE AS TEAM! First time in forever since Mario freaking Lessard!
Not even having a top 5 defensive team for like the last 4 or 5 years?
Or actually MAKING the playoffs. I mean....remember before Lombardi...that whole 6 or 7 years without a playoff appearance was pretty cool **** right. Lots of positives from that era.
Jesus some people.
Acting like we don't do anything worth a ****. If it were easy to win a cup and build a fantastic franchise then I think more then 16 franchises would have a cup since the 70s, and more then 10 would have multiples cups.
But no there are no positives in this era.
Not returning to the playoffs, having some fantastic young players in Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick or Drew Doughty..
or having a fanbase that sells out almost all of its home games. No no, it's all garbage and we are the worst franchise in the world.
How the **** did you live through the late 90's and the late Taylor era without killing yourself?
You're acting like this team is a basement dweller.
How about finally building a great defense and goalie pipeline? The biggest one you're forgetting is Quick, an LA KINGS GOALIE MADE THE AS TEAM! First time in forever since Mario freaking Lessard!
he will point out that DL did not draft Quick while ignoring the fact that it was DL who brought up Quick when we had Bernier as everyone's "next one" to get the job.
somehow that will even be spun into a negative tho
How about finally building a great defense and goalie pipeline? The biggest one you're forgetting is Quick, an LA KINGS GOALIE MADE THE AS TEAM! First time in forever since Mario freaking Lessard!
he will point out that DL did not draft Quick while ignoring the fact that it was DL who brought up Quick when we had Bernier as everyone's "next one" to get the job.
somehow that will even be spun into a negative tho
Bernier was 20...he was 2-3 years away from being the "next one". Quick played himself on to the team...it wasn't any devine knowledge that Lombardi possessed to give him a chance.
One thing, and this is completely fair to say, is that Lombardi mishandling the goaltending in the first place is what allowed Quick to emerge. It didn't take much to realize that Quick was the best option by default.
Not even having a top 5 defensive team for like the last 4 or 5 years?
Or actually MAKING the playoffs. I mean....remember before Lombardi...that whole 6 or 7 years without a playoff appearance was pretty cool **** right. Lots of positives from that era.
Jesus some people.
Acting like we don't do anything worth a ****. If it were easy to win a cup and build a fantastic franchise then I think more then 16 franchises would have a cup since the 70s, and more then 10 would have multiples cups.
But no there are no positives in this era.
Not returning to the playoffs, having some fantastic young players in Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick or Drew Doughty..
or having a fanbase that sells out almost all of its home games. No no, it's all garbage and we are the worst franchise in the world.
How the **** did you live through the late 90's and the late Taylor era without killing yourself?
You're acting like this team is a basement dweller.
Giving Lombardi credit for Kopitar or Quick is nonsensical. Doughty was the pretty obvious pick at #2 so how much brains does that take?
What other "fantastic young players" are there?
His trades have generally been horrible with maybe one or two exceptions (Williams was a win and JJ was a wash; Richards will go down as a bad trade before all is said and done).
Granted, he built a strong defense but without Quick they would look much more average.
His choice of coaches and system makes it necessary to take amphetimines before each game to stay awake.
They are clinging to one of the last two playoff spots in year 6 of his master plan. how impressive is that? And without Quick, they'd be down with Anaheim in the standings.
And worse yet, they only have about $3 million in cap space left to try to improve this 7th place juggernaut.
How about finally building a great defense and goalie pipeline? The biggest one you're forgetting is Quick, an LA KINGS GOALIE MADE THE AS TEAM! First time in forever since Mario freaking Lessard!
And who is it that has been preaching character since day one?
We can spend an eternity (I've been a fan since '67) feathering out which person is responsible for this current collapse just like we spent months arguing over Murray's failure. What this franchise needs more than anything is accountability. We fans have the possibility to hold ownership accountable by our refusal to accept a crapped out product. Ownership has the possibility of holding management accountable by firing Lombardi. He's had five and a half years to produce. Enough already. What we have is a first line that disappears for long stretches, a second line with Penner and Stoll on the wings and a third line that couldn't put a puck in the ocean if they were on the Titanic.
So, Lombardi it's your move and I'll call the moving van.
