Enjoy a free replay of this week’s Mayor’s Minutes on NHL Network Radio. John Hoven joined host Jim ‘Boomer’ Gordon to touch on all the latest happenings in the Western Conference. Among the highlights were a potential fork in the road with Slava Voynov’s criminal case, Mike Richards present and future, Tanner Pearson and Jarret Stoll returning to practice, the Kings signing a college sniper, Shane Doan deserving an award, the Dallas Stars already getting one, should Dustin Byfuglien be suspended, Patrick Kane’s return to the NHL, 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 your recent radio interview Mike Richard’s name came up again so a few more thoughts on that subject.
In the interview you mentioned how Kings fans wanted to get rid of him, then were happy to see him come back and then became frustrated with him very quickly once again. With a cap hit of $5.7 million dollars a year for the next five years this problem is not going away. If DL can’t move him, then DL is going to have to help fix him. MR is not, at this point, capable of fixing himself.
Richards is a smart player and speed (which he seems to be lacking) is not the single most important requisite for a center. As Jaques Lemaire (not my favorite coach) used to say,” It’s more important to have speed on the wings.” Stoll isn’t much quicker than MR and Richards has actually been better statistically this season on the penalty kill. Stoll has slipped as much as Richards but the perception is different because of the offensive numbers MR used to put up (better than Stoll) and more significantly because of the huge salary differential between the two of them. Also it should be noted that Stoll’s tendency to skate with his stick naturally impending his defensive assignments (players) when back checking is quite effective for him despite garnering him more than his share of hooking penalties. DS seems to give him a pass on those penalties?
Richards is not playing well but he is not a lost cause. DL is going to have re-think this from outside the box or be left with the biggest blunder of his GM career. There are ways to improve Richards, let’s see if DL can figure them out.