Training camp got underway today for the LA Kings. It has seemed like forever and a day since the disappointing end of the regular season, but here we are, just 20 some odd days away from the commencement of new life, a new opportunity, and a new season.
The Kings embark on another year, but this time with a professed, possible, "New way of thinking".
What exactly does that mean? Is it distancing themselves from the style that has got them two rings? Is it embracing the new direction of some teams with speed and skill? GM Dean Lombardi has been under tremendous criticism recently, what with the recent results of the Los Angeles Kings and the results of an embattled Team USA squad that failed to win a game at the World Cup of Hockey. However, his...exit interview...if you will, was full of what we have come to expect from Dean Lombardi as Kings fans. Acceptance, a profession to learn from mistakes, and a positive future outlook.
In reality, Lombardi said some very good things during his post-elimination press conference. Many will ignore them in an effort to focus on the overwhelming negative. Let's get one thing out of the way right now, Team USA could have been different, they could have done better, and they probably should have. Everyone will have to shoulder some blame, coaches, management, and players alike. However, there is truth to the fact that there ARE different ways to win. It does not always have to be the most skilled team wins. The Kings have made their way to two Stanley Cups not on skill, but on structure, discipline, and an unyielding mentality. In the world of hockey, the trends are the trends. When the L.A. Kings came from nowhere to win the cup, teams started gravitating more towards size and speed. Now that Pittsburgh and Washington have taken hold of the league, it is speed and skill. It is a copycat league. Adapt or die. The Kings have never been the most skilled lineup, but they have made it work. Dean Lombardi tried to do that with the USA World Cup roster, and he unfortunately failed at that. Should we tear him down for it? Eh, if he wins he is a genius, if he loses he is the goat. Playing armchair GM is fun, but in reality, it is never an easy job. Regardless of what you think of the Team USA roster, there are plenty of reasons to point to, not just the selection of the team. We live in a world where Leicester City won the premier league on one of the cheapest rosters in the Premier League. The most skilled team doesn't always win, and that is the end of it. There IS such a thing as buy in, there IS such a thing as character, and there IS such a thing as style and structure trumping that of skill. Skill can mask a lot of things though, and in a tournament format, perhaps a different approach should have been taken.
If you have yet to listen to the most recent All the Kings Men Podcast, do so, because Jon Rosen does an excellent job in going over some of that.
With that in mind, the Kings embark on a season where they have mentioned perhaps a different approach to things.
So where does that leave some of the old stand-bys of the Los Angeles Kings? In a recent article outlining the position battles of the bottom six and the bottom pair, we touched on this.
The Kings have some choices to make. Do they go young? Do they go analytics based? Do they go more future oriented? Do they go with what has worked and hope for the turnaround?
In reality the Kings can pull from multiple areas and see what works. We maybe have no better example of this than Dwight King.
Dwight King is 27-years old. After back to back seasons where he was a fairly useful third line player, worth 30 or so points, minutes in the mid teens, and decent overall statistical numbers, he took a big step back. 2016 was not kind to the power forward, but he embraces a simplistic, fundamental aspect of the Kings game. Big, hard, North-South hockey. He battled injury through the first portion of the year, which surely slowed his overall trajectory on the season, but he also put up his worst possession metrics of the last three years in 2016. With a lot of the new additions and potential promotions on the Kings, the possibility of Dwight King starting the year on the 4th line is probably more likely than ever before. If you wanted to be a little more aggressive in your thinking, he also looks like a man without a spot on the roster potentially.
Statistically, King had defensive numbers that spiked to a five year high.
(And for the record, his offensive production also hit a five year low.)
From a pairing standpoint, King came back into the lineup after injury and spent time with a multitude of forwards. Lewis, Brown, Carter, Toffoli, and Lecavalier were all players that King spent time with, and he honestly never got settled in. However, his time with Vincent Lecavalier stood as the most detrimental of line combos on the season.
The trends are not strong with King at the moment. However, he has been a prominent fixture on the Kings bottom six lines over their years of success, and probably deserves a healthy shot at being a relevant forward yet again. Do they give King another, full season, of opportunity? He does, after all, embrace the ideal of the Kings heavy, north-south style.
In the same vein, this quote stood out in one of the more recent LA Kings Insider posts in regards to the Kings' third pairing.
Full article here
Given what the Kings currently have in terms of developing players, with Gravel, Forbort, and perhaps Trotman, that may be a tough idea for some to swallow. The statistics do not back it, and neither does the more forward thinking idea.
It is this push and pull between new and old that most teams will battle with at some point in time. At what point do you step away from old standbys and embrace the new? At what point do you open up your roster to new looks, new ideas, and new styles even when you have to consider the success of the past. It is a difficult question.
Training camp gives everyone, fans, GMs, etc. a chance to think about these ideas. In what direction is my team going this year?
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