The Kings are a pretty experienced team. While they have a number of "older" players, almost all of them are "vets" in a manner of speaking. Even the young guys.
Drew Doughty is 25 and has seen numerous deep playoff runs and two Stanley Cups.
Likewise with the 23-year olds Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson.
Heck, even Anze Kopitar is a freshly turned 28, and has experienced more playoff hockey than a lot of guys in the league.
However, there is a new wave that is coming in that has yet to really see that sort of deep playoff contention and have yet to gain that sort of invaluable experience. Nick Shore, Andy Andreoff, and Derek Forbort are the trio of which we speak, (okay, toss Weal in there also if you must). All three have had their fair share of critics over the beginning of their young careers, and all three have had their ups and downs.
In the end we are talking about three players with 90 games NHL experience between them. (Shore 51, Andreoff 34, Forbort 5) The criticisms often come with little to no respect for just how limited their time in the NHL has been.
Nick Shore is probably the most prominently focused on of the three, simply because he has played the most elevated role within the team and is expected to take over for what was a formerly solid group of centers. Shore and Andreoff are trying to step in and replace Mike Richards and Jarret Stoll, and that is a lot to ask of players who are still within rookie eligibility.
For that reason, the approach of patience with these young guys is key, and should always be. I know there are folks out there who are saying "We need to win now, there is no time for patience!", but that is simply the reality of the Kings right now. They do have an aging "Win-now" core, but the next wave has to be integrated somehow, and they cannot step in and immediately play at a level of greatness that is to be expected of a team playing in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks.
But there are always positive signs of that maybe becoming the case one day.
Shore, for example, has been absolutely fine so far.
With two goals in 17 games in 2015-16, how am I able to say this? You have to look at little things. You have to look at the smallest on ice things to see signs of improvement, adjustment, and trends in the right direction.
Some little, yet very important things, in Nick Shore's game right now are trending in the right direction. As are a lot of very key statistics:
Faceoffs
2014-15: 53.8 2015-16: 54.1
Shooting percentage
2014-15: 3.0 2015-16: 9.1 Shots THROUGH percentage
2014-15: 57.9 2015-16: 71.0
Shots per 60
2014-15: 5.3 2015-16: 6.3
Corsi for per 60
2014-15: 51.3 2015-16: 64.0
Corsi against per 60
2014-15: 48.7 2015-16: 42.2
Avg Time on Ice
2014-15: 11:05 2015-16: 13:08
Dzone starts
2014-15: 40.8 2015-16: 43.7
Everything, and I mean practically EVERYTHING, is trending in the right direction for Nick Shore. Is it enough to silence critics? Probably not, and that is mostly because when you look at his points column, you see a big fat 2 next to a 17. That does not cut it for many critics on a team that struggles offensively. However, that responsibility does not and should not lie mainly on the shoulders of the 23-year old ROOKIE.
Slowly but surely he is morphing into the NHL as a legit player. He is a cognitive two-way forward, and that kind of game can take a little bit to translate. So far though it has been all fairly positive, but relatively easy to overlook from Nick Shore. He is coming along.
With Derek Forbort it is a bit more of a game-to-game evaluative thing. You have to look at decisions to pinch, safe outlets versus risky ones, decisions to jump into the play or stay back. Some of these things take YEARS to develop for defensemen, unless you are named Erik Karlsson or Drew Doughty. Sometimes all that these young players lack is a bit of killer instinct and confidence with what they are doing. Who remembers the first years of Alec Martinez? Ya know, the rookie year in which everyone was ready to throw him to the wolves for turnovers and hesitant play? He has turned into a pretty good defenseman right?
You have to be patient with players. Even a guy like Brayden McNabb, who has some decent NHL experience at this point in his young career and is starting to look very solid, made a terribly glaring turnover in the Arizona game. Something you expect out of a first year player. It happens.
Mistakes will be made. Ultimately it is about how you react, how you approach the game the next time, that really matters. Does Brayden McNabb go for one of the two safe options next time rather than the risky cross ice? You would hope so. That is the dividing line between someone like Jack Johnson, and someone like Alec Martinez. Safe and smart versus risky and perhaps over-confident. These players are still finding out about their own ability in the NHL as much as scouts and development staff are.
It is a very fast game and the panic threshold and decision making under pressure of players, especially defensemen and centermen, is a slow developing facet that has to endure growing pains.
Does he fumble under the puck pressure? Does he make the right decisions under pressure? Is he confident under pressure? If I had to do a quick and rudimentary venn diagram of developing defensemen it would probably look something like this.
(Sorry Matt Greene, your health and mobility scares me so)
It takes time for younger players to develop a certain feel for the spacing and speed of the NHL game. When it comes to centers and defensemen, you want to really see confidence building things. Plays where you see perhaps an assertiveness with the puck or a second nature reaction that is a good play. Drew Doughty leads the Kings with carry outs and ins amongst the Kings defensemen. Why? Some of it has to do with ability, but other aspects are a pure confidence in that ability. That comes naturally for players like No. 8, but others have to work into it. Doughty sees the ice and takes it. He almost never second guesses himself, which is a rare thing for such a young defenseman. Another outstanding example of a young and relevant player like this is Dallas's John Klingberg. He is taking the league by storm this year, and it is because of plays like this that we saw last year during his rookie campaign (One in which he should have won the Calder for but different debate for a different day):
He did not dump the puck, he skated into space provided by the opponent, and even got down below the red line. It was an altogether safe, yet opportunistic play from a defensemen who has settled into being a fairly safe and risk-free player in his prospect career. Very positive things.
Even with Andreoff, a player in which I have been somewhat critical of, there are times when he makes plays where you stop and say "Okay, there could be more to this player than what he is currently showing if we give him some time."
There will not always be a statistic to accurately show that sort of thing. Assertiveness, confidence, opportunity taken etc. etc. We can get an idea based on certain things, but you would have to sit down and really focus on a game to game basis to see it happen. Last season, in his limited showings, I do not think Andreoff is attempting that play. Forbort is just five games into his NHL career and he has shown, on a few occasions, a willingness to jump into the play. These are all good things, but we have to maybe turn a blind eye to the stat sheet at times in order to let the development process play out and not taint the overall positive curve of certain things.
With Nick Shore we have day to day and year to year statistics that help guide us in seeing his development. With players like Forbort and Andreoff, where we have either very very limited statistics and/or a bevy of poor ones, you turn to little things. I.E; A confident zone exit, a wise decision with the puck, a really good penalty kill shift. It really is a shift to shift basis with some of these younger players.
If you are worried about Forbort, Andreoff, Weal, Shore, or any other young player that may or may not make his way into the Kings lineup at some point of the season, relax. Development is a long process. These players are investments, and you have to be patient before deciding to buy in or sell off. There are signs of good and signs of bad. Embrace the good, and try to take the bad with a grain of salt. If it is bad forever that's a different thing, but for many of these younger guys it is simply the inevitable lumps that must be taken when becoming an NHL player.
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