management’s tone deaf end of season availability

For a fanbase searching for answers after its team’s third straight exit in the first round of the playoffs, LA Kings’ General Manager Rob Blake and Team President Luc Robitaille took the microphone on Monday afternoon to provide very few if any at all.

How do you assess a season that starts 16-4-3 only to finish the rest of the year 28-23-8? How do you assess a season in which you fire your head coach, the highest-paid coach in the league, with three wins in a 17-game span? How do you assess a season where you lose in the first round of the playoffs to the same team for the third year in a row, but this time in fewer games? Well, according to Rob Blake…progress.

“I think we’re making progress. The progress is not showing in the playoffs. That’s up to us to keep driving it home with this group right now. And we’ve got to take that next step,” Rob Blake stated responding to The Fourth Period’s Dennis Bernstein’s question on why they should continue in their roles. Face meet palm.

Sure, you could sell individual progress. Second overall pick from the 2020 draft Quinton Byfield had a breakout season with 55 points, young defenseman Jordan Spence looked great in the playoffs following up a solid first full season, and hometown favorite Trevor Moore put up his first 30+ goal season. But to spew overall progression only comes across as tone-deaf as Jojo Siwa’s singing career.

The hold Kings’ management has on their job status with little to no growth to show for it would make a U.S. Senator jealous. Any other organization across the NHL wouldn’t allow this to continue. They’d want more. The fans certainly do.

Pierre-Luc ‘Dubacle’

As the Kings delve further into what feels like mediocrity, they’ve become a laughing stock across the league with fingers pointing directly at Rob Blake’s big acquisition Pierre-Luc Dubois. Just one year removed from an eight-year $68 million contract, Blake was forced to make clear there were no intentions to buy out the centerman.

“We need to make him better. He’s had a consistent performance over his career so far and deviated from that this year. So it’s up to us as staff, coaches, and management here to help him become more productive for us.”

Later in the availability, Blake mentioned the need for the coaches to better incorporate him into the game. Something that should’ve been realized or planned before the season, not after.

System Change?

As much as it feels doom and gloom at the moment, there’s still a chance for improvement. Blake talked about the need to inject youth into the lineup, propping up players like Brandt Clarke, Alex Turcotte, and Akil Thomas. All of whom are expected to take on more important roles for the Kings next season. Even though they should’ve had more prominent roles this past year.

And then there’s the topic of a system change. Among the mostly non-answers given during the 30-minute-long press conference, the need for a system change is at the top of the list of things Kings management will look to evaluate in the summer.

“Systematic changes will be discussed in different ways. If you look we gave up the third least amount of goals against. So that pattern is good. We don’t want to deviate too far away from that. On the offensive side, we’ve gotten better but we’re still league average.”

Of course, there was also talk of getting away from the maligned 1-3-1, “We have to have a deep discussion about that,” stated Blake. Listening to the fans and even the players who were quite open with their criticism of that style, the removal of the 1-3-1 would be welcomed.