'It just sucks losing'

Hours after the news that their general manager would not be returning, the LA Kings players took to the podium to answer questions about the 2024-25 season.

Many of the players spoke about how strong the culture of the team was, and about adding the new players to the locker room. This was a close-knit team that genuinely felt this was the year they could get over the playoff hump.

Not surprisingly, it was Mikey Anderson who summed up the playoff loss best. “It just sucks losing I think,” said Anderson. “It’s not fun losing to the same team every year either, but at the end of the day, it’s the same result, the same situation. Just couldn’t find a way to get it done.”

This was the theme when discussing the end of the season. These players thought this was the best team they had to compete with Edmonton, and to a man thought they were the better team, but just could not finish the job. This added to Anderson’s frustration.

“Since I’ve been here, this is probably the best team we’ve had top to bottom,” he said. “It sucks to have that good of a group, the way the guys are in the room, it’s probably the tightest room we’ve had too. It makes it a little bit harder for sure.”

There were some interesting comments throughout on a handful of other topics as well.

On Rob Blake

Unsurprisingly, many players spoke highly of Rob Blake, particularly LA Kings captain, Anze Kopitar, who referred to him as an “exceptional human.”

“It’s a hard day,” said Kopitar. “I’ve known Blakey for 20 years now. He was a teammate before, he was our GM, and more importantly, our friend. I think he did a good job building this team, I think we showed it this year. It sucks to we didn’t deliver.”

“Not a fun day for him, especially, or the organization,” said Anderson. Adding that, “it felt like a team he really put together well. Super thankful to him.”

“I owe a lot to Rob,” said Trevor Moore, who Blake acquired during the Kings’ rebuilding years. “As a person, everyone really liked him. He was just a great guy who treated everyone super well. He assembled a really good team; I think we let him down in a lot of ways.”

“You know, one of the first guys in the organization to believe in me,” said Quinton Byfield, giving the nod to Blake for picking him second overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. “What he’s done for the team, he built a hell of a hockey team in there, and a lot of good characters as well. He was really good to me…..I’m forever thankful for what he did for me.”

Sitting back in the playoffs

“The coaches weren’t telling us to back off and sit back,” insisted Doughty. “There was no talk about doing that. That is just human nature to sit back. Me and Kopi were telling the group, ‘Don’t sit back, let’s be on our toes, let’s keep working for offense.’ I don’t know why it doesn’t happen; it just doesn’t sometimes.”

“It’s so easy to watch and say whatever,” said Kevin Fiala. “We tried our best. We had them. Especially those two games (three and four), one of those games we should have won. Bottom line is we had to get the job done and we didn’t.”

“It’s hard,” said Anderson. “I feel like no matter who you’re playing, if you’re up, they’re going to have a tendency to push a little bit harder, and instinctually you kind of pull back a little bit. We weren’t just sitting there saying we’re trying to stand and basically let them keep coming, sometimes that just happens. It’s not like we were getting told or trying to or wanting to as a group sitting back.”

Injuries

It was no secret that Drew Doughty‘s ankle never fully recovered after missing the bulk of the LA Kings season.

“I was obviously not 100%,” said Doughty. “I felt like I could still play well, and thought I did at times. I thought I could have played better. This summer will be very important, especially early in the summer to get back my range and all these things with my ankle then have a good offseason and training.”

Doughty added that he’s hoping it takes about a month to get the ankle back to 100% and get to back to strength training.

Tanner Jeannot confirmed his injury was a groin injury that held him out of the playoffs. “It really sucks,” said Jeannot. “Obviously you work the whole season trying to get to this point in the playoffs and to not get the opportunity to be out there and help the guys, it really sucked.” Jeannot is an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Contracts

There are a handful of LA Kings who have contract situations upcoming this summer.

“For now, I’m here, yes,” joked Vladislav Gavrikov, who kept his media availability as light-hearted as possible. “We’ll see what’s going to happen in the next weeks or months. I don’t have a deadline to make a decision. I’m not in a rush at all.”

“Same as (Gavrikov),” said Andrei Kuzmenko. “We’ll see.”

“I haven’t really thought much about it,” said Alex Laferriere, who is a restricted free agent. “This is my first time going through it. Luckily, I have a really good support staff to kind of help me get through that, my family, my agent.”

“Haven’t thought too much about it,” said Jeannot. “We really liked our year here, we’ll see what happens from here.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Trevor Lewis answered when asked if this season was it. “We’ll see what happens this summer. I still feel good, so we’ll see what’s out there. I’d love to keep playing.”

“I’ll be here next year for sure,” Kopitar said. “We’ll see what happens after that.”

“I haven’t thought about it that much yet,” said Kempe, who is eligible to negotiate his next contract beginning on July 1st. “I love it here. I’ve only been here, but I want to stay here. I want to take the next step with this organization.”

On the shortened bench

Though Adrian Kempe said he felt fresh, he acknowledged that the shortened bench could have played a factor.

“Playing three lines through almost a full series could be tough,” admitted Adrian Kempe. “It could be tough if you go further in the playoffs. I think that you maybe need to play more lines and some more guys to not have the top guys get too tired.”

The LA Kings’ two young defensemen were about as open as you could expect when talking about the difficult subject.

“For me, maybe not being able to contribute as much in the playoffs, it’s unfortunate,” said Jordan Spence. “Whatever the coaches give me, I try to do the best at. It’s always about the team first. At the same time, I think I had more to give during the playoffs.”

Spence noted that it was hard with the minutes being much less compared to the regular season. He acknowledged the challenge of going up against the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and the “worry about that in how we wanted to defend.”

“I thought I did pretty well in the regular season to be able to have trust with the coaches,” he said. “It was a big drop off with the minutes.”

“I love challenging myself,” said Brandt Clarke. “I love being put in spots where I don’t fully know what’s going to happen. I like being thrown into the deep end. I feel confident when I’m on the ice. I can make a difference at both ends of the ice. At the end of the day, I want to win.”

“I was ready for what I was asked to do,” Clarke added. “In the playoffs, it was not as big of a role as maybe I had earlier in the year, but I just wanted to win.”

Spence added, “I think I’ve kind of given (the Kings) what I can bring to the table and the trust that they should give me. I want a bigger role, I’m ready to take the step again next year. I wish I was able to contribute more in the playoffs. It was unfortunate for me to just kind of sit there and not be able to be on the ice. There was more to bring that I could probably have done in the playoffs. But we move on.”

Ultimately, the LA Kings season ended in another disappointing loss, but as Warren Foegele put it, “there’s a hunger in this dressing room.”

It’ll be up to a new general manager to satisfy that hunger this offseason before the 2025-26 season.

Main Photo Credit: Andy Devlin, NHLI