The official LA Kings thread

[gotbeer]

NHL trade grades: Pierre-Luc Dubois lands with Kings and Jets do well on return

Quote

But now that Dubois has settled in L.A. and signed an eight-year deal, worth $8.5 million per season, he isn’t going to be looking for the next best thing anymore. 

 

[arch stanton]

He's an upgrade over Vilardi and eventual replacement for Kopi. I guess Iafalo is just money out

[Slegnaac]

I found this LA Kings Fanzine from March 1992 this week.

The Patience is no Virtue article could easily apply to the Los Angeles Angels. 

[Tank]

a lot of silence in this forum, which is too bad because they've been playing terrific hockey.

they really look like a good and complete team right now. scoring from all four lines and the defense has been solid. 

[arch stanton]

Kings are a pretty complete team and I’d expect them to be first or second in the Pacific. The big question is can a top line of Kopitar, Byfield, and Kempe and having Talbot in goal get you deep in the playoffs 

[Slegnaac]

[deepdrive]

21 hours ago, Slegnaac said:

Get tickets to the next home game.

Wouldn't you be better off getting tickets to the next away game ?

[Tank]

this has been a pretty amazing start to the season. 

they're playing like a complete team. everyone is contributing and they don't ever seem to be out of any game.

congrats to kopitar on setting a new team record for career assists.

[Angel Oracle]

Biggest shock is scorer Kempe becoming passer Kempe (15 assists).

Remarkable balance on offense.

+/- is tops in the NHL with both offense and defense at the top.

[Tank]

1 hour ago, Angel Oracle said:

Biggest shock is scorer Kempe becoming passer Kempe (15 assists).

Remarkable balance on offense.

+/- is tops in the NHL with both offense and defense at the top.

what strikes me is this: they're not intimidated by anyone. 

remember when the '02 angels showed no fear and took on all comers? i get the same vibe from this team.

[Angel Oracle]

9 minutes ago, Tank said:

what strikes me is this: they're not intimidated by anyone. 

remember when the '02 angels showed no fear and took on all comers? i get the same vibe from this team.

Tuesday night was exhibit A.

Down 3-0 after 2 periods, and tie it up in the first 6+ minutes of the 3rd period 

[tdawg87]

This is possibly the best Kings team I've seen. 

[Angel Oracle]

6 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

This is possibly the best Kings team I've seen. 

Same

And I’ve seen every Kings team back to the expansion season.

[Angel Oracle]

The 21 year-old Byfield is having a great start, 8 goals, 13 assists, 21 points in 23 games.

So much balance at both ends of the ice

On to the Islanders tonight and Rangers tomorrow night in NY

[tdawg87]

On 12/7/2023 at 9:18 PM, tdawg87 said:

This is possibly the best Kings team I've seen. 

Dumbass.

[gotbeer]

OK. What happened? Went from world beaters, #1 in power rankings to if they keep this up they may not make the playoffs. Every youtuber I follow has come out with the disaster of the Dubois contract. Is it just that? Or is it something more?

[arch stanton]

Too much reliance on Talbot and even though they're deep they don't have any true elite forward talent

[Jeremiah]

It’s lucky that they banked so many points earlier. It seems losing Copley and Arvidsson really hurt them. They bet on lowering opponents shots on goal to help mask the weak goaltending. It hasn’t worked out Hopefully, Arvidsson will be back before much longer, though. The way McClellan and Doughty were calling out players publicly makes me wonder if McClellan may be losing the locker room. I know PLD hasn’t been what we’d hoped, but I also think they’re not using him correctly. He scored a goal against BUF, but he’s a distributor, not a wing, though I do think playing him alongside Kopi is best if they keep PLD on the wing. So, some of it is coaching (rotations, usage, message), some of it is injuries, and some of it is roster construction. If they don’t come out of this very soon, McClellan is likely gone.

[Slegnaac]

McLellan relieved of his Head Coach duties.

It will be interesting to see how the team responds. 

[deepdrive]

Seems like a bit of a Bob Murray move. If your the GM messes up in the trade/ team assemblage area, just deflect to the coach when things go wrong.

Maybe they have someone in line to take over. It's not like McLellan is so special he can't be replaced. 

[arch stanton]

Problem with the Kings is that if Kempe and Fiala aren’t scoring they struggle to keep up. I know his cap hit is high but in anyone could use Jake Guentzel it’s the Kings

[Tank]

people who are better at dissecting these things than i am can do so. i thought the early success was a surprise, just i think the recent collapse is equally a surprise.

for me, the 800 lb. gorilla in the room was the goaltending. they've skated on the edge with who they've used, and not a single one of them would be strong enough to take this team on a successful playoff run.

i'm guessing todd got the ax because you can't fire the whole team. but i wonder if he lost the room and their recent play is connected to that.

whoever comes in, i hope he can light a fire under PLD, and i hope blake can find the right goalie to move forward.

[tdawg87]

Talbot is a good 2nd goalie. He started off amazingly but he's just been awful the last month. 

The defense also needs to pick it up.

[Slegnaac]

The 39th anniversary of Rogie Vachon Night is approaching. 

The Kings retired #30 on February 14, 1985.

[Tank]

12 hours ago, Slegnaac said:

The 39th anniversary of Rogie Vachon Night is approaching. 

The Kings retired #30 on February 14, 1985.

they passed out mini-megaphones to the crowd that night. still have mine somewhere.