The Kings forward lines are very depleted and lacking depth RIGHT NOW, and that's one of the primary reasons they're not scoring.
Nearly all our production has come from Kopitar, Willliams, Brown and Richards. There's no secondary scoring here. Statistically speaking, the Kings production has come from a smaller percentage of players than nearly any other team in the league; that's the very definition of lacking depth.
It's not about injuries or "what ifs" or "former scorers"; the lineup the Kings are icing RIGHT NOW is very shallow, and they're playing a system that is conducive to offensive production.
How can you judge a team, entering the season, based on anything but past performance?
Stoll had 20 goals last year playing under TM. It's fair to assume you'll get that same production next season. We haven't. When you have one link in the chain like that disintegrate, it means everyone else has to pick up the slack, and they haven't. Most everyone on this team, save for Kopitar really, is on pace for fewer goals than last year. That's a collective failure which I think has less to do with talent than you're implying.
This team lacks scoring until they start scoring. If they start scoring, everything will be well again. Unless the defense falls apart. Then the posts about defense will outnumber the posts about offense ten to one and we'll be back to talking about firing the GM and the coach and trades and etc. all over again. It's just such a cyclical thing. Goaltending was this team's Achilles heel for decades and now it's not a concern. One day, it might be again. Every team, save for maybe the two Cup finalists, has some kind of weakness. Our weakness is goal-scoring. DL is trying to address it by bringing in a top talent without trading away a forward, easing the load on everyone up front. What more can he do?
Good trade, fills a need. Jack will be replaced and potentially upgraded with Voynov. Voynov is just as good as Jack offensively and it would be hard to say that his defense is any worse (i personally think he is better on offense and defense but we have a limited sample size).
We picked up two top six forwards in the past two years, we gave up nice assets but I think they were the right moves
The first round pick is conditional, but it seems like no matter what we will probably lose this year's pick.
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"It has not been a good day. I lost my glasses early this morning and I had to go buy a pair of 79 dollar reading glasses today. 79 bucks. You can literally get them at Costco, three-for-20." - Darryl Sutter's response to going up 2-0 in the series.
Essentially Kings traded two 1st's, a 2nd, Schenn, Teubert, Simmonds and Jack Johnson for Richards, Carter, and Penner.
How can anyone like that?
I am with you, I dont like it. I want dean gone. I just dont see this team being successful. I really hope I am wrong, and would love to have to eat my words when all is said and done, but this feels like nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction from a desperate GM
