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As fate would have it, I blathered extensively on this very topic last week

Yeah, Quisp, that’s why I called your attention to this, to connect the dots. “I hope Kopi would become this player”, but “Kopi don’t do it”, this is a crappy scrambled egg of a message.

It’s not too soon to want more from this team. But maybe it’s too soon to expect more?

for some reason i’m not getting a reply button after your reply below, so i’m replying above it.

i don’t think TM is telling players not to instigate. He and Lombardi are always extremely supportive and encouraging whenever the team steps up to defend a teammate. Part of leadership on the ice is knowing what’s needed and taking the initiative. The coach doesn’t or shouldn’t have to tell you, go get that guy now. It’s up to Brown, Stoll, Simmonds, Johnson, SOD, Greene, Ivanans, Segal. You need to have a retaliatory capacity and you have to have the PK to kill off instigating penalties and the PP to make them pay for the penalties (like thornton’s) they take.

so then, slightly different topic…

add to that the crosscheck to Doughty’s ear… (the no response here REALLY pissed me off!!!)

So, was there no response because TM doesn’t want the instigator penalty to put us on the PK? If that isn’t it then where was Ivanans? Well I think we all know he can’t figure out the timing to “his job.”

I thought TM was heading in the right direction as far as having a tougher team. (I HATED watching Palffy beat down night after night until he limped out of town because Andy Murray and our wonderful captain, Blake, wouldn’t retaliate!!!)

If Westgarth was up do you believe last night/this situation would be resolved?

Trust me I understand the whole PK things, BUT……..

peace!

agreed totally re the need for a hero. so far our heroes are all rookies, Doughty, Moller, Parse, Richardson, Quick…I even saw Johnson trying to take over the game last night. That was probably the best thing about last night. A little teaser of JMFJ as he was in college and when he was Crosby’s protector. Maybe he’ll seize the mantle and be our next captain.

Re smothering:

TM’s model does not say to keep the puck to the perimeter as some kind of over-riding golden rule. And it doesn’t say “don’t try to create.” But it defines where the opportunities for “creativity” present themselves. It’s like you’ve got a jazz tune and your soloist thinks he can’t take the solo during the solo break because he’s not supposed to solo over the verse. The system makes creativity possible. Why is Moller able to get to the open spots, or Parse, or Richardson? Because they are moving their feet. Because they have a knack for finding the gap, the crack in the defense, whatever. Brown and Kopitar have that knack, too. But, at least in Kopitar’s case, I think he’s taking the path of least resistance (and Moller, for example, doesn’t do this), i.e. the shot when he enters the zone, instead of plowing through, lowering his shoulder, driving, etc.. Why make that choice, when you CAN drive to the net, when you CAN lower your shoulder?

I don’t believe Kopitar is being discouraged from being creative or driving to the net or “doing more.” Look, maybe he’s just not that swift and he’s having to think too much and it just gets overwhelming. Maybe it’s making him too “left brain” — analytical, as one often is when one is trying to learn and be a good little pupil and all that — when to do what he needs to do it needs to be “right brain,” instinctive…which is what happens when you’ve encorporated what you’ve learned. It goes from left brain to right; like when you drive home from work and you get there and you don’t remember driving. The first time you make that drive, left brain; the thousandth time, right brain.

But I doubt that Lombardi or Murray have that long to wait it out. It’s not like Kopitar has several more years to learn the system. Everyone will be fired by then.

But I want to underline: I don’t think it’s the system’s fault. Or Murray’s. Just because Brown and Kopitar are not stepping up within the system doesn’t mean that they’re not stepping up because of the system. And it’s not a reason to tear down the system. The system is the reason the Kings are so much better than they have been in years. And I guess “the system” really means “the coach.” The problem is not the system. The problem is the experience of the “core” group.

I think Brown is an excellent third line winger, a pretty good second line winger, and a lousy captain. Three runs at Kopitar by Clowe last night, and where was the response? That’s but one measly example.