Sharks blogger tries to figure out why the Kings let Handzus walk
by Quisp on Sep 1, 2011 9:44 AM PDT
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Kukla's Korner (Talking Stick): New Shark Michal Handzus?
The first question I have is why didn’t the Kings keep Michal Handzus? There was that thing about not being able to guarantee him enough minutes but that sounds a lot like a weather prediction: probably only half right.
With Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards centering the top two lines, the choice was between Jarret Stoll and Handzus for the third line. Stoll has another year on his deal and is invaluable on face-offs. In past years, Handzus has been looked to as the shut-down center. With the addition of Richards, the idea is (sort of) that he and, to a lesser extent, Kopitar, will function as offensive/shut-down hybrids, leaving the third line to be more offensive. Even though Handzus has been no slouch offensively, Stoll is faster and younger, so is (hopefully) a better fit in that role.
He wasn’t supposed to get so many minutes last year either, but look how that worked out. If I had a player slated for lower line minutes who wound up playing top six minutes in the playoffs I don’t think he’d be high on my let go list. Yes, the Kings recently picked up some skilled forwards, and presumably will have most of their injured top line back this season, but it still seems like a disconnect.
Maybe Handzus was tired of LA.
GIven how much he was counted on by Terry Murray, and how successful the Kings were with Handzus bearing so much responsibility -- not to mention what a great guy Handzus seems to be -- I find it hard to believe he wanted to leave the Kings, all things being equal.
Handzus was my personal pick for MVP two years ago, and was frequently the best player on the ice last season. He was the hub of Terry Murray's defensive system. It would be hard to overstate his importance. There were long stretches of each of the past two seasons in which Kopitar, Brown and company disappeared and, without Handzus and others (e.g. Wayne Simmonds, Brad Richardson, Scott Parse), the Kings would have missed the playoffs.
Strangely, I think it's fair to say the Kings loved Handzus and letting him walk had to be a painful decision. It's also a decision that could easily backfire. Handzus is older, and will not have many more years of playing at his recent level. But he could easily have two or three more great or at least very good years.
When you think of the Kings' maneuver as upgrading Handzus with Richards, it makes a lot more sense, and it's a decision that I think you would make every time. It's not done without regret, though.
[...] Jonathan Quick promises us that Handzus can block a lot of shots: "...I think Zus blocked more shots than I did this year, best of luck…" [...] Handzus is one reason I’m looking forward to games against the Kings this season. I don’t expect bitterness or old team rivalry, but they picked up some fairly clever players this summer and I deeply want to see them thwarted anyway, yet again.
Zus is a huge pick-up for the Sharks. He will make a much bigger contribution than Rob Blake ever did.
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I always love reading things like:
Maybe Handzus was tired of LA.
Because not only does it absolve a player from any shortcoming he may have that his former team saw as reason not to re-sign him, but it’s also a nice little passive aggressive snip at a rival city.
I guess it’s easier than just being honest.
www.prosportsblogging.com
by Great Ice-Pectations on Sep 1, 2011 9:50 AM PDT reply actions
I once saw Handzus go into Phillipe’s, wait in line for an hour JUST to buy a french dip sandwich, spit on it, then leave. True story. #noitsnot
www.prosportsblogging.com
by Great Ice-Pectations on Sep 1, 2011 10:00 AM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
agreed ... i will absolutely cheer for him till my voice goes
I have nothing but the greatest respect for Zeus and am happy for him that he landed on another good team.
The Working the Corners guy was convinced that they ‘stole’ him from the Kings. Uh, if the Kings had wanted to give him two years, they would have. It was the length of term.
I miss Zeus already, but there was always some ambivalence about where he was going to fit. Mike Richards takes over.
In Dinglebarn We Trust -- JftC
It's nice to have a classy retrospective on the dearly departed
But I have no problem calling the boat anchors what they are, slow and slower.
I’m real happy both are gone and upgrades were made.
by Cirtes on Sep 1, 2011 10:21 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
this
if anything is going to upgrade the Kings’ offense and power play next season, i think it’s going to be an improved team speed.
You wanna tell me that to mah face?!
YET ANOTHER Detroit Red Wings blog.
Zues was my Favorite King
But I expected the organization to let him go this offseason, and don’t think the Kings made the wrong move. Hell, we all thought he was gone even if there was no Richards deal and the Kings were just bringing up one of the youngsters like Lotkiononv to play center. So yes, Sharks, it was a good pickup for you, but no, it was still a good move by the Kings to let him walk.
Yes, he was a bridge signing who worked out better than expected
Kind of an anti-Alyn Macauley, I guess. I think Zus falls under the heading, “We knew he was going to help, but we didn’t know he’d help us this much.” He was here to mark time until the younger guys were ready, so it was always unlikely that he would stay with the Kings beyond his initial contract.
I’m not sure that Zus can sustain a high level of play for another three years, as Quisp suggests. He kind of admitted at one point last season that he had slowed a bit. He will probably have a solid year with the Sharks next season, but after that, I don’t know. At his age, he’s an asset with a declining value. Given the old GM’s wisdom that it’s better to part with a player a year too early than a year too late, I think the Kings made the right decision.
"I think you just outed yourself as Dean Lombardi. I knew it all along." — Rudy Kelly
Great point. What I respected most about Handzus was he knew his role (PK, face-offs, shutdown line, etc.) and played it well. Definitely not the fastest guy but he worked hard. Not to mention the fact he has the coolest nickname IMO. I have friends who aren’t really hockey fans and they get a kick out of the Zuuuuuuus chants, lol.
i kinda like the guy...
…a lot.
and i still think we did the right thing.
stay gold Zusinator… stay gold.
What Would JeZus do?
Gann Matsuda had an interesting comment from Terry Murray the other day:
In short, Kopitar would have helped the Kings offensively, but his absence was felt the most on defense.
"That’s the biggest part of it," Murray lamented. "You lose the offense, that’s very noticeable for our hockey club. But that’s a big body matching up against their big body. [Center Michal] Handzus did a real good job, but, at the end of the day, the Kopitar and Thornton match up is more comfortable. Again, injuries happen, and we didn’t get the job done."
Murray would have preferred Kopitar out there against Thornton instead of Handzus. Huh.
(Note: You can read a bunch of stuff over there from Murray, but be warned that he talks about how the Kings got too cute in the offensive zone and they need to shoot more and I swear to God you’ll want to murder something.)
by RudyKelly on Sep 1, 2011 11:58 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I don’t know that I would have put Kopitar instead of Zus on Thornton, but I do agree that the Kings missed him more on defense than offense.
"I think you just outed yourself as Dean Lombardi. I knew it all along." — Rudy Kelly
About the same defensively, except you’ll spend a lot more time in the Sharks end
For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.
by Nut on Sep 1, 2011 3:46 PM PDT up reply actions
I’ve been throwing things ever since I read his latest comments about the power play.
a ) Our system is predictable because they always set up shots from the point
b ) PKers took advantage of this pattern, and it reeeeally didn’t work last year, but
c ) WHAT WE NEED IS MORE SHOTS FROM THE POINT, THEN THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT
He’s a robot, because there will never be a new quote out of his his programming. No, that’s not fair to robots. Even Zoombas change directions when they bump into something.
In Dinglebarn We Trust -- JftC
I’ve been throwing things
You need to let it go. From the point.
It is that thing that I sent to you.
by whine_country on Sep 1, 2011 2:38 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
This part made my eye twitch
"On the offensive part of the game, he is one of our best forwards," Murray explained. "He is creative, he can score, he’s very, very confident with the puck.
Well no shit, Terry, he’s the only one that can be creative without getting benc-
Sometimes, he puts himself into situations high in the offensive zone, trying to do a little bit too much, rather than getting it at the net, but he’s a very gifted player."
Gah!
My favorite person in the world right now is Matjaz Kopitar.
The coach remains Terry Murray who will lead the Kings in the upcoming months, you’ve been critical of him before in our past conversations. It seems like the excuses are now over for him too?
Before the season he was able to get two players he coached in Philadelphia that he knows very well in Gagne and Richards. His assistant John Stevens is also familiar with them, so there shouldn’t be any excuses regarding that. That said both of them probably had a word as far as the acquisitions went. As far as I know there was a big desire in the club to bring in Brad Richards who I rate very highly and would have made an excellent addition to this team. Like I said, for Murray this is the last chance to prove himself. Simply said it’s sink or swim for him now.
No excuses left, Terry. The team might be good enough to gloss over everything regardless. But this is it.
In Dinglebarn We Trust -- JftC
The other thing that’s weird is that when Sharks writers want to underline how great a PKer he is (and he is terrific) they cite how well the Kings’ PK did overall last year (4th).
Was he a bad PKer when the Kings ranked 20th in the league in ’09-10, and the Sharks were 5th? Of course not.
In Dinglebarn We Trust -- JftC
3rd Line
I find it interesting that 2 years ago the Kings had a third line that was both very productive and able to shut down other teams’ offensive guys. That line featured Michal Handzus, Wayne Simmonds, and Alexander Frolov. And now they are all gone.
I liked all those guys too. I think that was one of the best, if not the very best 3rd line in the NHL, though admittedly Frolov should not be a third line player so that certainly helped to have him down there.
I do think there is something to be said for the offensive production a third line featuring players like Stoll, Parse, and Loktionov may bring, but losing that defensive solidity could hurt. We’ll see.
2nd line
I would much rather see the Kings with one of the best 2nd lines than one of the best 3rd lines.
Gagne-Richards-Brown <—- This line can do everything.
I kinda expect Gagne to be on the top line with Kopitar and Williams and for Penner to be playing on the second line, but yes it will be nice either way for the Kings to have a decent 2nd line for the first time in almost a decade.
I do think you are undervaluing the importance of the 3rd line though. Take a team like the Red Wings with all the talent in the world the last 20 years. If they didn’t have the Grind Line playing for them I don’t think they’d have won any of the Stanley Cups they did. The work the 3rd line does is very important. If Stoll and his linemates can’t play solid defense in addition to putting up some offense the team could be in some trouble, even if the top two lines are as amazing as we all seem to expect them to be.
Handzus’ line was the 2nd line 2 years ago. Don’t get caught up on ranking lines by offensive potential.
For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.
by Nut on Sep 1, 2011 3:47 PM PDT up reply actions
Murray broke that line up,
and never fully re-united them again. Even when we were starving for goals, he refused. Seems to do that a lot with lines that form chemistry. He breaks up the 3rd player from the pair. It’s almost like he doesn’t want anyone acting on instinct, because they might start playing the player, and not the system.
Hahaha, you know that grievance thing?
According to the HF Oilers board wisdom, the only info being given out by this is through Helene, so obviously she is a shill for Lombardi.
A shill for Lombardi.
I may faint from the laughter, or the shock.
In Dinglebarn We Trust -- JftC
by Niesy on Sep 1, 2011 5:38 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Love the Zus.
I’ve seen him at his best (witnessed half of his two career hat tricks live) and worst (I was in the United Center when his Blackhawk career came to a ligament-tearing end).
Unfortunately for Zus, he’s in that “grizzled veteran” stage, which is where the salary cap has had the most impact. I wish him well in San Jose, except when he’s playing the Blues.
Zeus
My favorite Kings player, unassuming, hard working, always gives his all. I will miss you in LA. Good luck with the Sharks.
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