In this week’s edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, one of the proposed questions centered around the possibility of the Los Angeles Kings parting ways with current head coach Todd McLellan. Hoping to compete for a Stanley Cup this season, the Kings have produced a 1-5-4 record since December 28th, which has led some to speculate that a change behind the bench could be on the horizon in Los Angeles.
Unlike most teams that have made an in-season coaching change this year, the Kings still find themselves within a playoff spot in the Pacific Division, but the gap has certainly tightened over the last few weeks. Keeping together much of the same core over the offseason and bringing in Pierre-Luc Dubois, it’s safe to say that Los Angeles is not meeting their expectations up to this point in the season.
One of the main drivers in the team’s current misfortune has been the offense, which has only averaged 2.3 goals per game in their last 10 contests. In the year, the Kings rank 14th in the NHL with 3.27 GF/G, which does not appear to be enough firepower to take down a team such as the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, or Vancouver Canucks. With little salary cap mobility and a coaching change seeming unlikely, the Kings will have to do their best to handle this downturn internally.
Other notes:
- Another team in the Pacific Division that has dealt with some unfortunate play of late would be the Vegas Golden Knights. In their last 14 games, the Golden Knights have produced a 5-9-0 record, now falling well short of the first-place Canucks. Nevertheless, in some positive news for the organization, the head coach of the team, Bruce Cassidy, suggested that starting goaltender Adin Hill is back practicing and should participate in a game sooner rather than later (X Link). Getting Hill back into the lineup should give the team quite a bit of much-needed stability, as he produced a 10-2-2 record in 15 games before going down with an injury in mid-December.
- Sticking in Vegas, Jesse Granger of The Athletic reported that forward Michael Amadio would miss the team’s game tonight against the New York Rangers with an upper-body injury. One of the most valuable depth players across the league this year, Amadio has scored six goals and 17 points in 43 games.
Shawn Hutcheon
@ShawnHutcheon
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Tonight’s #COLvsBOS game is being scouted by TOR, TBL, VAN, SJS, DET (2 scouts), NJD, CHI, DAL, and OTT.
Every game for the next 6 weeks will be well scouted by NHL clubs. Be it in the NHL, AHL, ECHL JRs, or internationally. Tis the busy time of the year for scouts. Buyers need to find some hidden gems to steal trade wins, and sellers do as well. Every team wants that next Sharangovich + 2nd for Toffoli (even if it happened on the trade floor, not deadline day, that’s the deal they want to find). If Conroy can find one or 2 more of those types of deals the Flames will be back in healthy shape quickly.
Blake should be on the hot seat for thinking that it’s okay to have Kling and Clang as your netminders!
Not that Talbot’s numbers are awful, but he has been highly inconsistent over the last few years, with some injury issues. I don’t count his time in Nodefense, Alberta, which is turning into a goalie graveyard. If I were Campbell I would lose my confidence too if left all alone for a plethora of shots every night.
That doesn’t seem right. Edmonton gives up the fewest shots against 5v5 and Calgary is in the middle of the pack.
Talbots numbers aren’t bad but I feel the Kings are special and Blake went out and got Dubois and gave up alot, I can’t understand why he didn’t think it was important to upgrade the defense/goaltending.
Sorry, but Talbots .912sv% and 2.74gaa in his 3.5 years in Edmonton (which is probably where you declare “Nodefense, Alberta” comes from considering Calgary had a top 5 or so defense on paper for his 1 season there) are at or above his career normals except for his one down year there. And as others have said, Edmontons systems have their defense well above average this season. And his numbers in the AHL have sunk his value to the point reports suggest it would take 2 firsts for a team to take Campbell’s contract back. It’s not the Oilers that are broke, it’s Campbell. Could their play the first 6 weeks have helped break that? Sure. But it could also be Campbell’s play for those 6 weeks that broke them.
Although he started strong, there is no reason to believe Talbot was going to tbe the answer. Instead Blake put his salary cap eggs into DuBois and Garykov. Garykov has worked out, Talbot and DuBois not. I get you can’t be perfect, but damn the Talbot and DuBois situations have handicapped this team. This was also fueled by the bad contract they gave Cal a couple of years back.
Agreed on Dubois. But Talbot and his 915sv% is not an issue.
Craig Berube incoming.
Goaltending is the least of the Kings problems right now! PP and scoring are major issues!
You mean the Kings and their 2nd fewest goals against in the entire league is not an issue? But so many here are saying it’s Talbot and their defenses fault.
If McLellan can’t get that lineup to score more than 2 goals a game (if that), then he needs to go.
Kaliyev needs to be on the power play. I get that he hasn’t “earned it” with his 5v5 play. But when you’re struggling on the PP you need to put your best weapons out there.
Goes back to sinking too much into Cal who bombed out which forced them to pivot to their current tandem of goalies. Then they seemed to have misfired on DuBois, but give them credit for Garikov. They have no cap space and have not developed any goalies. They will need to part with someone and some draft choices to fill their holes.