In one move, Kings get bigger, meaner and much much slower
by Quisp on Feb 10, 2012 1:31 PM PST
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PrintDwight King and Jordan Nolan are up. Slava Voynov is down. Jarret Stoll is hurt. Here's the thing: I assume Voynov is down mostly because he's waiver-exempt and Alec Martinez is not. I don't like seeing one of our best defensemen sent packing, but I expect there to be more room for him after the trade deadline.
I just got finished saying I think Jordan Nolan would look good on the fourth line next season, so I'm excited to see him on this road trip. Dwight King, I have an unfair bias against him because of his short visit last season, which of course wasn't his fault (he was thrown in and spat out of the Kopitar LW revolving door). The funny thing is, his numbers in Manchester are actually uniformly down from last season (the team is down too, so maybe that has something to do with it). I'm going to assume that Lombardi saw something in King in his visit last week.
And Stoll? What does his injury do to Lombardi's trade deadline position? I guess we don't know how hurt he is; and in any case, the fact that he's hurt doesn't affect his utility as a salary dump.
When I heard Nolan and King were both on the way, I (like the rest of you, I'm sure) started generating mental line combinations. I had a lot of ideas, some boring, some interesting, some terrible...but none of them was King-Richards-Nolan.
Friday practice lines " LA Kings Insider
Here’s how the Kings lined up in practice today…
King - Richards - Nolan
Penner - Fraser - Hunter / Westgarth / Richardson
Martinez - Greene
I guess Brandon Kozun wasn't so impressive when Lombardi visited. And Linden Vey is still physically immature. But I don't even know what kind of line King-Richards-Nolan is supposed to be. Richards has been doing the hard defensive minutes (a la Handzus). Is Sutter going to throw Nolan and King into that? I just remembered that Sutter himself was in Manchester during the All-Star break, so he and Lombardi are that much more likely to be on the same page with regard to the new second line.
Maybe I understand it though. Maybe the idea is that there is no stopper line. Every line is a stopper line. Kopitar's line is the stopper line with finesse. Richards' line is the stopper line with muscle. Loktionov's line is the stopper line with speed. And Fraser's line is...the line with Penner on it. Seriously, though, Penner and Trent Hunter with Fraser in the middle is a grinder line with skill (Hunter had softish hands once, I seem to recall). So in a way, it's four stopper lines, which makes sense on what is essentially a stopper team.
Still, it's weird.
(I would actually like to see Loktionov and RIchards switch places; Lokti played well with Nolan in Manchester; and Richards flanked by Clifford and Lewis is a more energetic version of Penner/Richards/Stoll.)
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Smash-Mouth Hockey...
Hold on to your mouth protectors, folks!
…But, will they score goals?
Their shutdown line strategies have been a mystery for a while now. Like why injured Penner over Gagne at first? Why Penner at all if you want to get him going? IDK.
Richards’ line has been outshot for a while now…give the heavy lifting back to Kopi and just tell MR to score. Or get a Handzus type back again. That seems to be the only model they can handle.
They have put rookies on the shutdown line before though (Simmonds, Clifford) and that’s unusual compared to the rest of the league.
Dinglebarnin' It JftC
by Niesy on Feb 10, 2012 2:06 PM PST via mobile reply actions
...
This feels like an effort to get Blasts From The Past, the old Kings, bigger, slower, wear you down & win in the third period.
There Just Aren't Any Available Options
in Manchester with both Moller and Holloway in the SEL and Kozun and Vey apparently too young (and little) to try anything else.
At least they get to get their feet wet against the Islanders.
Before they fly halfway across the country to play a division rival in the second matinee of the back-to-back.
Could be a tough one on Sunday.
Richards
Just my own observation, but it always seems like Richards is short a winger that plays that fast paced, down your throat, type hockey.
I’d like to see Brown play some games with him and see what develops.
Brown played with him earlier in the year, with good results IIRC. But Brown can’t be in two places at once, and he’s looking good on the top line.
by lnickerson88 on Feb 10, 2012 2:59 PM PST up reply actions
Richards
Couldn’t find Richards (under “Players”) which I thought strange … goes from Richards, Brad to Richardson, Brad.
Found it with your link though … /shrug.
Not a big fan of that website anyway, usually leads me to paralysis by analysis.
it could be that...
nolan will eventually be shifted to the first line, with either jw or brown back skating with the ricker…
more importantly is the whole team breaking out of these predictable offensive formations where the opposing defense seems to be able to predict where the play is heading…during the second period in florida, the panthers were on to the kings and started to anticipate with great effectiveness…
also, activating the defense has to start happening more consistently…if we can rediscover passing into the slot where a player is creating space, rather than constantly deferring back to the blueline, we will get more prime scoring opportunities…
you start to wonder if certain players on this team have the confidence to ’know when to say when" when it comes to entering scoring lanes/areas…there comes a time when you have to start creating yr own space, instead of waiting for the opposition to create it for you…
variable from deepinsidethekings.com
you start to wonder if certain players on this team have the confidence to ’know when to say when" when it comes to entering scoring lanes/areas…there comes a time when you have to start creating yr own space, instead of waiting for the opposition to create it for you…
you’re 100% correct with that.
i have some irrational hope that King and Nolan will somehow infuse the top 3 lines with necessary energy and confidence, if not skill. i don’t really think it’s likely, but at this point, i need to hand on to something. anyway, if they somehow pocket a couple of goals, if Loki finally hits the net, well, maybe the boys will remember that they’re able to move their legs even when they don’t have the puck.
alright, back to reality.
Free Marc Andre Cliche
And Kozun wasn’t called up because we can’t have nice things…
Now we’ll just have to grind people to death…
Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.
"So what if we're boring?" says Tim Duncan before taking a nap.
yeah, i’m not sure why cliche hasn’t been given a chance this year either…he’s on a two-way contract, too…
i don’t know,,. the monarchs aren’t exactly a scoring machine as a team, ranking in the lower-third of the league in goals for…
i know this isn’t baseball…
but it’s not soccer or futbol, is it…?
variable from deepinsidethekings.com
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