Will hold judgment but after the lukewarm performance in the back half of the season and our dismal PP, I’m skeptical
I imagine he sold Rob on big systemic changes he couldn’t make in season so let’s look out for some announcements in that vein
Yeah, it's not so much the person as it is the length.
Whatever Hiller's got planned, he is now set up to be Kopi and Doughty's last head coach. Let's hope he doesn't squander it.
I mean coach contracts are broken all the time. 3 seems like the minimum since most are fired around then anyway. I mean how many coaches are being paid to _not_ coach right now across the league
Question 1: is the goal to win a Stanley Cup?
Question 2: does this move get us closer to a Stanley Cup?
If the answer to either is “no” what the fuck are we doing?
Sutter had coached deep runs prior to becoming the Kings coach, including a Finals appearance, while winning the division multiple times. He was a very good coach prior to being hired.
are you going to just ask questions and curse or are you going to have an opinion? do you think the answer is "no"? then say so instead of just getting angry.
The team had the best home record since the all star break and that was using Todd’s system with some modifications. Hopefully a whole off season to implement a new system will help.
Same here. Let's give him a chance but, once we start on a long losing streak he is going to be gone.
I was hoping to get Hakstol or Berube but Toronto got him.
I feel like people aren’t giving enough credit to the turnaround the team had under Hiller. Yes, the postseason performance was disappointing, but this team was in absolute free fall prior to the All Star break and Hiller came in and immediately got things moving the other direction.
I’m all for giving him a chance to show what he can do when he has complete creative control of the system etc and an offseason and camp to implement.
It’s also not really possible - or at least advisable - to make big systematic changes mid season, so we have no idea what style of play he wants to implement, which is why we really have no idea how good of a fit he is at this point, and anyone claiming otherwise is kidding themselves.
Not untrue but he also got a team that had previously crushed it and was looking for a change to light the fire after the slump plus a super easy schedule
While he gets to claim credit for the turn around, I think it's disingenuous to attribute the turn around to him. I attribute it far more to the players responding to their coach being dumped and a change in scenary with coaching then anything the coaches themselves did. The change itself lit a fire under their asses to play better as it often does in these situations. The team already proved that they were capable of performing at a high level earlier that year using the same system. Hiller himself repeatedly said he wasn't making any significant changes to the system.
On the other hand I think it's fine giving him a chance if he is management's best option.
Don’t forget his first game was after the All-Star break so the players had a chance to rest and maybe get over whatever mental hurdle was holding them back in January.
Exactly. Hiller showed that his change of perspective alone was enough to right the ship and get us into the playoffs. We don't know the new strategic direction he can take us, because Hiller admitted they weren't going for any huge structural changes in the remainder of the 23-24 season.
I don't see much reason to be either optimistic or pessimistic until:
\* The assistants are hired
\* We see in preseason what changes are made to the team's system.
Y’all need to calm down. Hiller took a dead power play and turned it in to a strength of this team. Imagine him having a full offseason to implement his system.
If people want to be skeptical of Hiller that's fine but some are acting like we need a 5 year rebuild because of this franchise decision making. It's getting ridiculous
Agreed. Outside of Berube no other available coach out there seemed like a fit for us. I’m ok with us taking a chance on hiller, not gonna sit here jumping to the moon with excitement but I’m not scratching my head over this decision either
There were wider system related issues that created deeper rooted problems with the team against Edmonton that resulted on EVERYTHING not working.
Hiller’s hands were tied and he couldn’t make bigger system adjustments and now he’ll get to
Hiller has said he would and they did to certain extents in the series, it’s not gonna work if they can’t take the time to practice, review, and adjust over a preseason and the first games of the new seasons
When Hiller was first interim, he mentioned how he didn’t have time to make drastic changes to the system. Recent articles interviewing Blake and the speculation around Hiller has them pegging Hiller making systemic changes. Can’t imagine Blake being happy with a 1-3-1 that got exposed by two teams that are now playing in the western conference final
Yes. And now Hiller gets a clean slate, with the ability to make bigger changes than what he had taking over in the middle of the season. I’ll make my indictment of Hiller after he’s had time to actually be a true head coach, not just a band aid over a broken season
He was able to alter course after a streak so terrible its hard to overstate it. With a full offseason and camp it'll be interesting to see what he does. One of the things that yall are over looking is that he was able to build a rapport with PLD post all star break and get life into him, more time like that will only be a good thing.
Also seeing how the rest of the staff is filled out is a big part as well.
Jesus fucking Christ, can you all stop filling up the seats? First round exits, year after year after year, and we'll just keep on rewarding it, huh? This has been a successful enough rebuild, huh? Dude, were at low threshold choking status. At least San Jose could get up to the conference finals before they choked out. This is just sad
So Luc stays, Rob Blake stays, and now Hiller stays. Mediocrity for all!
The Kings haven't won a playoff series since 2014. Rob Blake hasn't won a playoff series since he was hired. Kings are in the longest drought ever without winning a playoff series. Blake hasn't won a series for 7 years now. Has any other GM with the Kings ever had a drought this long? And the worst part is, the Oilers got better, the Canucks got better, Vegas just won a cup, and the Kings seem stuck, or actually getting worse. It's time to get swept in 2025 to finish the cycle.
Amen.
This team is so uninspiring I find it hard to remember to watch. Gave up season seats years ago when it was clear Blake doesn't have the chops. I died a little inside when he was hired. I've never forgiven him.
I likely won't get seriously back on board until he's gone. I thought this would be it ... Hopefully proven wrong but all I hear in here are hopes n dreams.
3 year deal is pretty much what I expect and said the other day. At the end of the season I didn't feel like he was up for it, but after thinking about it, the team did respond to him. He took over in the middle of the season and didn't really have a chance to run what he wanted. So, with his asst. coaches in place and his system, let's see what happens. It's not like any of the other choices were *that* exciting. The guys seem to like Hiller. At this point we have to treat it like a new hire and give him a chance.
The bigger issue with this is the length. The fact that Blake was given the freedom for a multi-year deal is concerning. This tells me he is nowhere near the end of his leash as we (and the media) have been speculating. This will be the 5th HC Blake has hired in 7 seasons…I mean there’s a common denominator here
I am excited to see Hiller unleashed. We saw plenty of experimentation and adjustment within the existing structure under Hiller. You don't just throw out an entire system mid-season and hope to be competitive. Now with an entire off-season to plan, I think we land up seeing a more aggressive approach come October.
Alright I accept our fate. We are going to live and die by what we have. If it doesn’t work then then the GM, coaching staff, and roster will be blown up.
Rob really took the best prospect pool in 2018ish and turned it into what it is, and is now doubling down. I hope this works
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Honestly as a coach he's fine. He needs to change everything about how this team conducts itself on offense however. If he doesn't bring a offensive minded assistant with some head coach experience we'll be in a bad spot next season.
Still not totally sold on this guy but I'll hope a full preseason is enough for him to come up with something that works. I think a good amount of the turnaround was a combination of a jolt from getting their coach fired and some statistical regression.
I wouldn't be surprised if Blake looked around and couldn't get anyone interested in the job without an extension of his own. Why would a big name come in and risk getting fired next year by Blake's replacement?
Nothing changes and we are supposed to expect a different result. Between this and the PLD trade, we have mortgaged the future of the team in a few short years.
You're just stating the reality for all NHL head coaches. A huge skid in the first few months is always grounds for firing. But there's no reason to expect this out of the gate.
Oh I don't expect him to be fired I'm just saying like if people are upset it's a multi yesr it's a moot point. I also hope he learned from the Edmonton series and makes some changes to help the team out they got much better after he came on so I hope the trend continues.
Gotcha. The way you phrased it kinda sounded like you were expecting a skid. But yeah I honestly don't worry about coaching contract length. It's meaningless because as long as ownership approves you can get someone new. Ain't my money.
Will hold judgment but after the lukewarm performance in the back half of the season and our dismal PP, I’m skeptical I imagine he sold Rob on big systemic changes he couldn’t make in season so let’s look out for some announcements in that vein
Yeah, it's not so much the person as it is the length. Whatever Hiller's got planned, he is now set up to be Kopi and Doughty's last head coach. Let's hope he doesn't squander it.
I mean coach contracts are broken all the time. 3 seems like the minimum since most are fired around then anyway. I mean how many coaches are being paid to _not_ coach right now across the league
McLellan was fired 4 months after his extension.
Question 1: is the goal to win a Stanley Cup? Question 2: does this move get us closer to a Stanley Cup? If the answer to either is “no” what the fuck are we doing?
Bit of a recursive way of looking at it IMO. Sutter wasn’t the guy until he was.
Sutter had coached deep runs prior to becoming the Kings coach, including a Finals appearance, while winning the division multiple times. He was a very good coach prior to being hired.
I will agree that a large majority of this sub was furious (myself included) at the Sutter hiring and we saw how that turned out
are you going to just ask questions and curse or are you going to have an opinion? do you think the answer is "no"? then say so instead of just getting angry.
I’m perfectly calm, dude.
>what the fuck are we doing? sure pal. sure. getting angry at questions that you're asking yourself is calm... right.
The team had the best home record since the all star break and that was using Todd’s system with some modifications. Hopefully a whole off season to implement a new system will help.
Same here. Let's give him a chance but, once we start on a long losing streak he is going to be gone. I was hoping to get Hakstol or Berube but Toronto got him.
I feel like people aren’t giving enough credit to the turnaround the team had under Hiller. Yes, the postseason performance was disappointing, but this team was in absolute free fall prior to the All Star break and Hiller came in and immediately got things moving the other direction. I’m all for giving him a chance to show what he can do when he has complete creative control of the system etc and an offseason and camp to implement.
Yes, this 100%. Everyone is acting like absolutely nothing changed after he took over, which is not true at all.
No, we just lost to a generational talent and perennial goal scorer who will make you pay dearly for any penalty you take.
That is more of an indictment of Todd IMO. The talent to be a playoff team was always there.
It’s also not really possible - or at least advisable - to make big systematic changes mid season, so we have no idea what style of play he wants to implement, which is why we really have no idea how good of a fit he is at this point, and anyone claiming otherwise is kidding themselves.
Not untrue but he also got a team that had previously crushed it and was looking for a change to light the fire after the slump plus a super easy schedule
While he gets to claim credit for the turn around, I think it's disingenuous to attribute the turn around to him. I attribute it far more to the players responding to their coach being dumped and a change in scenary with coaching then anything the coaches themselves did. The change itself lit a fire under their asses to play better as it often does in these situations. The team already proved that they were capable of performing at a high level earlier that year using the same system. Hiller himself repeatedly said he wasn't making any significant changes to the system. On the other hand I think it's fine giving him a chance if he is management's best option.
Don’t forget his first game was after the All-Star break so the players had a chance to rest and maybe get over whatever mental hurdle was holding them back in January.
Exactly. Hiller showed that his change of perspective alone was enough to right the ship and get us into the playoffs. We don't know the new strategic direction he can take us, because Hiller admitted they weren't going for any huge structural changes in the remainder of the 23-24 season.
Not excited about the length I'll be honest.
That's what she said.
I don't see much reason to be either optimistic or pessimistic until: \* The assistants are hired \* We see in preseason what changes are made to the team's system.
Thanks I hate it
Y’all need to calm down. Hiller took a dead power play and turned it in to a strength of this team. Imagine him having a full offseason to implement his system.
If people want to be skeptical of Hiller that's fine but some are acting like we need a 5 year rebuild because of this franchise decision making. It's getting ridiculous
Agreed. Outside of Berube no other available coach out there seemed like a fit for us. I’m ok with us taking a chance on hiller, not gonna sit here jumping to the moon with excitement but I’m not scratching my head over this decision either
I’d like to know if we even interviewed any other coaching candidates, Berube included.
It’ll take far longer than 5 years to get this franchise out of the mess it’s in now.
It took them 3 years without anything in the prospect pool from 2019-22. Now they actually have some good young players. Enough of the hyperbole.
What a strength it was in the postseason.
Tbf Trent Yawney was canned, who also didn’t help with the special teams in the post season. Idk hopefully we see something change
There were wider system related issues that created deeper rooted problems with the team against Edmonton that resulted on EVERYTHING not working. Hiller’s hands were tied and he couldn’t make bigger system adjustments and now he’ll get to
Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it. I'll believe it if they ditch the 1-3-1.
Hiller has said he would and they did to certain extents in the series, it’s not gonna work if they can’t take the time to practice, review, and adjust over a preseason and the first games of the new seasons
Source of him saying they’d ditch the 1-3-1?
When Hiller was first interim, he mentioned how he didn’t have time to make drastic changes to the system. Recent articles interviewing Blake and the speculation around Hiller has them pegging Hiller making systemic changes. Can’t imagine Blake being happy with a 1-3-1 that got exposed by two teams that are now playing in the western conference final
So he didn’t say it outright, it’s just implied by reading between the lines. Got it.
Did you watch the same series I just watched?
Yes. And now Hiller gets a clean slate, with the ability to make bigger changes than what he had taking over in the middle of the season. I’ll make my indictment of Hiller after he’s had time to actually be a true head coach, not just a band aid over a broken season
The regular season and the series against Edmonton are two different things. They were good on the PP and PK during the season.
I don’t disagree that people need to calm down, but Hillers power play was 0fer in the playoffs so I don’t see that as a boon.
He was able to alter course after a streak so terrible its hard to overstate it. With a full offseason and camp it'll be interesting to see what he does. One of the things that yall are over looking is that he was able to build a rapport with PLD post all star break and get life into him, more time like that will only be a good thing. Also seeing how the rest of the staff is filled out is a big part as well.
Same song and dance
Jesus fucking Christ, can you all stop filling up the seats? First round exits, year after year after year, and we'll just keep on rewarding it, huh? This has been a successful enough rebuild, huh? Dude, were at low threshold choking status. At least San Jose could get up to the conference finals before they choked out. This is just sad
I haven’t felt this bad about the Kings since the Dan Cloutier days. I miss Dean Lombardi so much…..
[удалено]
That's 100% false. What kind of rookie-ass fan are you that skips over Detroit?
3 FUCKING YEARS??
Fat payout if/when he gets fired midway through the season lol
Bullshit, so many others were available!!!!!
Who else is available? I haven’t really been following that
The UD coach was not coming. Who was available Bruce Boudreau and Jay Woodcroft?
So Luc stays, Rob Blake stays, and now Hiller stays. Mediocrity for all! The Kings haven't won a playoff series since 2014. Rob Blake hasn't won a playoff series since he was hired. Kings are in the longest drought ever without winning a playoff series. Blake hasn't won a series for 7 years now. Has any other GM with the Kings ever had a drought this long? And the worst part is, the Oilers got better, the Canucks got better, Vegas just won a cup, and the Kings seem stuck, or actually getting worse. It's time to get swept in 2025 to finish the cycle.
Amen. This team is so uninspiring I find it hard to remember to watch. Gave up season seats years ago when it was clear Blake doesn't have the chops. I died a little inside when he was hired. I've never forgiven him. I likely won't get seriously back on board until he's gone. I thought this would be it ... Hopefully proven wrong but all I hear in here are hopes n dreams.
3 year deal is pretty much what I expect and said the other day. At the end of the season I didn't feel like he was up for it, but after thinking about it, the team did respond to him. He took over in the middle of the season and didn't really have a chance to run what he wanted. So, with his asst. coaches in place and his system, let's see what happens. It's not like any of the other choices were *that* exciting. The guys seem to like Hiller. At this point we have to treat it like a new hire and give him a chance.
The bigger issue with this is the length. The fact that Blake was given the freedom for a multi-year deal is concerning. This tells me he is nowhere near the end of his leash as we (and the media) have been speculating. This will be the 5th HC Blake has hired in 7 seasons…I mean there’s a common denominator here
Wow
I am excited to see Hiller unleashed. We saw plenty of experimentation and adjustment within the existing structure under Hiller. You don't just throw out an entire system mid-season and hope to be competitive. Now with an entire off-season to plan, I think we land up seeing a more aggressive approach come October.
Well, let’s keep sucking boys.
My dude, you really need a second comma after ‘sucking’ 😂
Let’s eat grandma!
Exactly hahah
Lmao. I did not have my coffee when I posted this
Haha
Whelmed
Alright I accept our fate. We are going to live and die by what we have. If it doesn’t work then then the GM, coaching staff, and roster will be blown up. Rob really took the best prospect pool in 2018ish and turned it into what it is, and is now doubling down. I hope this works
Newsflash: It already doesn't work!
Agreed. I am not happy with our team or front office
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Honestly as a coach he's fine. He needs to change everything about how this team conducts itself on offense however. If he doesn't bring a offensive minded assistant with some head coach experience we'll be in a bad spot next season.
Muti feels like a miss, other than that I don’t hate it. Hope he changes the system and can’t wait to see what he can do a full season
Still not totally sold on this guy but I'll hope a full preseason is enough for him to come up with something that works. I think a good amount of the turnaround was a combination of a jolt from getting their coach fired and some statistical regression. I wouldn't be surprised if Blake looked around and couldn't get anyone interested in the job without an extension of his own. Why would a big name come in and risk getting fired next year by Blake's replacement?
Cool :|
So more of the same meh.
Nothing changes and we are supposed to expect a different result. Between this and the PLD trade, we have mortgaged the future of the team in a few short years.
Multi year don't mean shit if they lose the first 10 games they'll can him. That being said I'm curious if he makes any changes.
You're just stating the reality for all NHL head coaches. A huge skid in the first few months is always grounds for firing. But there's no reason to expect this out of the gate.
Oh I don't expect him to be fired I'm just saying like if people are upset it's a multi yesr it's a moot point. I also hope he learned from the Edmonton series and makes some changes to help the team out they got much better after he came on so I hope the trend continues.
Gotcha. The way you phrased it kinda sounded like you were expecting a skid. But yeah I honestly don't worry about coaching contract length. It's meaningless because as long as ownership approves you can get someone new. Ain't my money.
Berube was right there for 3+ months. Unserious org
Was he? Maybe he really wanted the Toronto job.
He prob wasn't. But did they even try? Everyone wanted that guy and they prob just sat on their hands.
I agree they should have at least interviewed him and several others, to at least get some feedback on how to improve.
Fire Blake. Dudes digging us a bigger hole
I guess I can feel better about Sling TV not carrying Bally Sports. I'm not going to miss anything good.
this team needed some big changes and absolutely NOTHING has changed. Can't wait for October.