alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Rob Scuderi, vocal leader? It doesn’t seem likely. By all accounts, Scuderi is a very intelligent guy and, given that he won the Stanley Cup last season, he clearly knows something about winning, but if you spent any amount of time in the Kings’ locker room, you certainly wouldn’t identify Scuderi as a vocal leader. He does almost nothing to draw attention to himself and might have a quiet conversation with a guy sitting around him, but that’s about it.
He’s great to deal with, by the way. The day he signed with the Kings, I talked to him, and he had a bad cell-phone connection. He apologized profusely for something that happens to everyone, every day. Still, Scuderi didn’t seem like the type who would be getting his teammates going between periods, which made this anecdote from Terry Murray interesting to me…
MURRAY: “He’s been a real good player for us, a good addition on the back end with his play. In my conversations with him, when we first made the deal, by phone, there was not a lot of chatter. Same in meetings when we first actually met and had an opportunity to sit down and talk. There was a pretty quiet player, in my view.
“But by chance, I walked in at the end of a period, and he’s the guy that’s leading the way with the vocal part of it, what we need to correct, what we need to do better, what we need to give a big focus to going into the next period. It kind of caught me by surprise. It’s great to hear. When you sign a player as a free agent, a veteran player, you’re hoping that there is a lot more to the deal than just a good hockey player, that there’s leadership in the dressing room, contribution on the verbal side of it. I was very pleasantly surprised.”
Great to hear.
Hopefully the team doesn’t play so lackadaisical again that the quiet guy has to get riled up. Love that Scuderi did it, hate that he needed to.
[Reply]
Scuderi is a very solid player and a winner. He’s been playing in a new system with young players like Johnson and Doughty who have made a lot of mistakes. As time goes by he will be recognized in L.A. as a valuable asset as he was in Pittsburgh.
There have been a lot of problems on defense this year…more so than with the forwards and goaltending. Scuderi,Drewiske, O’Donnel and Greene have been pretty solid. Greene and O’D will always have trouble with speedy wingers that’s why,though valuable,they are really fifth and sixth defensemen on a top tier team.
Scuderi and Drewiske are capable third and fourth defensemen and Doughty should be a number one guy eventually. The jury is still out on Johnson. He has talent but dosen’t seem to fit the system. Having said that, Scuderi was a great pickup by DL.
[Reply]
Maybe he’s trying to make a statement early. Everyone knows he’s quiet, so if he speaks up, there must be something wrong or important to talk about.
Glad to hear it! Nice work Scuds.
[Reply]
I hate to say it but I wish we had spent some of that money on more offence, I know that we are the top team in the leauge in goals but seems to come in huge bunches. Seems like we get 1 goal or 5 or is it just me?
[Reply]
Scuds called a real a-hole who didn’t deserve it to apologize for the unintentionally low hit he delivered. That speaks volumes.
[Reply]
@ Chris Bond — That sounds like emotion making the difference. When they score, they have confidence, and score more. What they need is more confidence, which they have to earn by playing with more discipline and scoring consistently (irony: rinse, wash, repeat.)
[Reply]
I agree with Cynic, when the quiet dude starts chirping, you know something is up. Plus, I think I heard one of the Penguin players saying that Skuds can be very vocal in the dressing room when necessary, which caught my attention.
[Reply]
I hate to be negative, but am I the only one who thinks Scuderi is one of our worst D-man? I think he’s been underachieving since he’s been a King…anyone else?
[Reply]
“I hate to be negative….”
I find that hard to believe.
“…am I the only one who thinks Scuderi is one of our worst D-man? I think he’s been underachieving since he’s been a King…anyone else?”
I’m not seeing that, myself. On what evidence do you make that assertion?
[Reply]
I agree with you WWAMD. I think Scuderi has played rather poorly as a King.
My Los Angeles Kings Active Roster Defensemen Rankings:
1. Doughty
2. Drewiske
3. Greene
4. Harrold
5. O’Donnell
6. Scuderi
7. Johnson
[Reply]
I need to see Jones play with the Kings before I can rank him.
[Reply]
I for the most part agree with RocknRoll, but I would put JFMJ up to the 3 spot. In my humble opinion.
[Reply]
Sorry to go off topic on ya, but I figured some of you might enjoy this. It’s Westy’s blog from The Hockey News.
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/29214-Kevin-Westgarths-Blog-Working-towards-the-next-step.html
[Reply]
Outside of Doughty I can see why people would have vastly differing lists of the the next top 5 dmen on the team. But Harrold over Scuderi? That’s just, we…
Nevermind.
[Reply]
Wow! That’s pretty hard on The Piece…but…having said that, I must confess…I haven’t been impressed.
[Reply]
Anyone remember this quote from Crosby on Rich’s blog from the other day?
CROSBY: “He’s a piece to the puzzle. He brings a lot of leadership. He’s a quiet guy, in terms of in the room and things, but he brings a lot of leadership out there on the ice.”
Kind of funny that he refers to him as “A Piece,” given the whole “the piece” thing.
And it also relates to what Murray said.
[Reply]
He might have blocked shots last year like crazy in the Cup, that said he didnt block shots with his face like Greene did in a regular season game….I will never forget that he blocked a shot with his face to save the game and tried to do it…That is balls and heart makes Greene a stud just for that at a 1/3 of the price.
[Reply]
Bond …. I remember last year Scuds blocking one to the face as well. In fact he was lucky he didn’t lose an eye…. just sayin.
Also …. (granted my opinion) just because a guy isn’t putting up numbers offensively doesn’t mean that they are not an asset to the team. Every team needs someone (or two) who is going to work hard regardless of stats. If Scuds was doing that bad do you really think he’d be consistantly getting 18-20 minutes a game. More offensive power, although nice, doesn’t neccessarily equate to more wins.
[Reply]
I have been reluctant to bring this up, because I think Brown is great and I would not know who else could take the C. It just seems to be that the pressure of the C is a bit much for Brown, I believe if that pressure is lifted, he will break out and become a holy terror on ice. Give Scud the C and free up Brown.
[Reply]
That, or home life–btw, we haven’t really had an update on the baby, have we?
[Reply]