Enjoy a free replay of this week’s Mayor’s Minutes on NHL Network Radio. John Hoven joined host Jim ‘Boomer’ Gordon to talk about the Jarret Stoll situation, who might be the next head coach in Los Angeles, Mike Richards potentially being bought out, Dean Lombardi, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Winnipeg Jets, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, and much more.
You can give today’s segment a listen using the player below or download any of our audio files for free on the MayorsManor iTunes page located here.
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In regards DL needing to learn how to manage a championship team as opposed to building a championship team, there are some things that come to mind.
Most sports teams organizations tend to over- value their own players. This is particularly true when the team is a winning team or a poor team. They tend to evaluate more realistically when the team is kind of a middle of the pack team. There are reasons for this which I won’t get into too much except to say that enthusiasm and disappointment tend to cloud the reality of viewing a team objectively. Both of those conditions can, and do, exist in either circumstance.
In sports like hockey, soccer, and basketball, successful teams are often built around five to six really good players and most of the time, the rest of the players play a complimentary roll. In hockey it’s usually a goaltender, a wheel horse D-Man who plays in all situations, two very good centers and maybe a goal scoring winger or two. In 2012 that was the situation with the Kings. In the 2014 Cup victory, it was similar but Carter replaced Richards as one of the two top centers.
Kopi’s play declined a bit this season. JQ was also a little inconsistent and some of the role players didn’t play as well as before. Lombardi needs to realize, going forward, this is not the same team as in 2012 or even 2014. Many of the role players are gone and he’s going to have to replace some of the others with less expensive younger players. This is a league-wide problem.
The big question is can DL effectively evaluate his team now and get Sutter on board with the “new” cap governed NHL? If he doesn’t start moving more experienced players out (including players like possibly Lewis -Greene), plus be very careful about overpaying Kopi, he could end up slowly sinking the entire organization downward despite the good drafting and excellent development of those players. It’s great to let the young players develop in the minors but if he leaves them there too long it can be disastrous as well.
DL better re-sign Sekera who is a legitimate #3 D-man and can play either side with any of the Kings other defensemen. If necessary he should let Greene go and move Voynov, but he better keep Sekera on board. The problems on defense can be worked out with Sekera as a key member as the center position is really the big question mark. He had better be careful there!
In hockey, most GMs/scouts believe the five key players are goalie, two centers, two defensemen.
They may believe it, John, but in recent years that hasn’t exactly been the case.
When Boston won the Cup recently who was the other top-player D-man other than Chara?
With the ‘Hawks’ Seabrook is good but not the player Kane is or Hossa. Kane won the Conn Smythe.
The Kings have won it twice with two (Scuderi-Muzzin) different D-men in the top pair neither of whom were among their five or six best players. JW won the Conn Smythe in 2014 and it could have just well have been Gaborik.
What the GMs/scouts believe has not been what’s happened with the last five Cup winners.