As discussed earlier, Willie Mitchell’s return to the Kings’ lineup is likely only a matter of days away, at which point — barring another injury between now and then — the Kings will be faced with a lineup choice. Which defenseman will Mitchell replace? The most obvious answer is either Alec Martinez or Peter Harrold, but Martinez has been strong since being called up from the AHL — more on that later — and Harrold has proved to be a responsible partner for Jack Johnson. Then there’s Davis Drewiske, who has also been steady this season but has been a healthy scratch in two of the last three games. One idea dismissed by Terry Murray today was dressing seven defensemen in Mitchell’s first game back, although he left the door open for possibly playing Harrold as a forward, as something of a safety net in Mitchell’s first game back.
MURRAY: “I think if you have seven defensemen, you really get out of a rhythm, out of flow, and it makes it very difficult for those seven guys. If you have a defenseman as a forward, and he’s going as part of your fourth line, that’s different. Then you have him as an option, if you need to throw him back there, but I don’t like going into games with seven defensemen. That really is disruptive. … (A defenseman at forward is) something I would consider. We’ve done it in the past and it was worked pretty well. I think Harry is a very responsible right winger, whenever he’s playing in that position. Same thing with Drewiske. He’s been up on the left wing a few times and played very responsible. So there is that scenario I could look at.”
What to do? It’s simple, keep Martinez right where he is.
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Jack Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
@Sparman, What he said!
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KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
@Sparman, /signed
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The Kings should play five D-men plus one. DD and JJ twenty-five minutes each. Greene gets the other ten on the right side. Greene killing penalties and matched against big forwards. Scuderi, Mitchell, and Martinez twenty mintues each. Drewiske should be scratched for now and Harold becomes an extra forward.
Problem is Greene is difficult to play with and so is JJ. Props to Harold for doing a good job paired with JJ but for now the six I mentioned first should be the six to go with on defense.
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KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
@Crown Royal, Excellent observation. I agree completely. It’s proven whenever Greene and JJ are pared together … they are terrible together.
If I had to pick the defensiveman who is the weakest link I’d say Greene at this point in time. No way TM sits him though because of his leadership skills.
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BringBackTheShieldJersey Reply:
December 11th, 2010 at 9:01 am
@KC23, Greene and Johnson both make important “niche” contributions. Greene is important in the locker room. He’s our current version of Derek Armstrong. And he can lift a team by playing with reckless abandon while blocking shots. JJ does well in the shoot-out. Leadership is harder to replace. Martinez is making JJ replacable; put Hanzus higher in the shoot-out rotation.
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This idea was mentioned in a previous post from somebody, and I think Harrold is the right call.
I don’t know what to do with DD2. He’s starting to look expendable, IN SPITE of the fact that he has looked good, and that is a rare opportunity for a savy GM to move him for maximum possible return. Nothing against the guy, but we have too many good defensemen up. The safe move is to send down Martinez, but Martinez has the wheels and the shot, and the offensive nose (Very DD like). That compliments the stay at home play of Greene much better. So Martinez wins, not really by quality of play, but by having the style that suits the situation. That leaves DD2 as the odd man out, and I think DL HAS to make a move, because with the way DD2 has played, he will NOT clear waivers.
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puck73 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
@Bill M., Thats the kind of take I hope for, when I come on this site..Great post.
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KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
@Bill M., Spot on. I see it the same way. I’m betting DL is shopping young defenseman around like mad trying to get a scoring winger.
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If Greene doesn’t cut out the mistakes he has to be considered as trade-bait. We all love the guy but big errors will kill a team in the postseason.
Hopefully, he can work his mental errors out of his game.
Keep
It
Simple,
Stupid.
It’s a cliche. Not an attack.
This might iritate many Kings fans. But, Harrold is a better defenseman than Greene but he can’t bring the hurt. Greene has to bring that hurt without the mistakes. Then he’ll be untouchable.
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puck73 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
@Cristobal, I would be shocked if our assistant captain got dealt. The rumors were that the Capitals wanted Greene for Fleishman and Dl said ….Not a chance.
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KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
@Cristobal, Greene makes up a lot of the Kings personality, I doubt he’ll get delt. I also think Greene will get better as the season goes on. He is a smart guy, he knows what he has to work on and I’m betting he’ll get it done.
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Play Harry as the 1st-line LW
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@kinginsaltlake,
I agree Martinez has been very good and should be in the regular defensive rotation. He’s the best skating defenseman in the entire organization and that speed helps him beat people to pucks and gets him back into position if he sometimes gets caught in the wrong place.
JJ can be frustrating. He’ got the talent and the drive to win. The Kings obviously see him as a long term investment. I agree he has to be more consistent and it seems to be taking him a long time to mature as a player. He should only be moved if the Kings get a lot in return.
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puck73 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
@Crown Royal, Like @nykingfan, you are another voice of reason…solid post.
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KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
@Crown Royal, I wasn’t so sure until I started taking a close look at Harold playing with JJ. Suddenly JJ looks WAY better. Only one conclusion, Greene just isn’t good enough to play along side someone like JJ who is going to go deep now and then.
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hondo92 Reply:
December 11th, 2010 at 6:16 am
@KC23, if a defenseman joins the rush, it’s that sides winger that needs to hang back, cover his spot and take the point until the d returns….agreed that they are not the best pair…but that issue relates to the forwards if it is not being covered
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KC23 Reply:
December 12th, 2010 at 11:37 am
@hondo92, But it’s the defenseman’s read to decide if the forward is in position to do it before he takes the chance. JJ reads are so poor, that his paring has to compensate for JJ’s bad reads.
The sad thing is Greene is the least deserving of a spot right now.
Doughty-Scuderi
Martinez-Mitchell
JMFJ-Harrold
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puck73 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
@Jesse, Greeene isnt, but JJ is ? Good topic for debate though.
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Jesse Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
@puck73,
Well, I’m willing to look the other way on JJ’s gaffes a bit more due to the offensive upside. If Greene’s there to be a defensive defenseman, one would hope he’d get that much done.
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KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
@Jesse, I’m pretty hard on JJ, but he had a solid game against the Flames when pared with Harold. Big props to Harold too thogh. JJ reads are to marginal to be pared with a defenseman with average speed.
King o' Philly Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
@puck73,
why is everyone down on greene all of a sudden? i love his toughness, man. and we need that. mitchell can’t be the kings only hard-nosed blueliner.
sure he takes a penalty now and then, but in the glaring mistake column, jj and dd rank much higher, imho
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Jesse Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
@King o’ Philly,
It’s not the penalties that I’m worried about, it’s turnovers, failures to clear the zone, and getting beat on the boards. Greene has not played up to the expectations that he previously set. I’m hoping it’s due to his often being thrown into a larger role than used to with the injuries to DD and Mitchell. Hopefully he regains consistency playing 3rd pairing minutes.
Gary L Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
@King o’ Philly, Just to add my two cents worth. Greene has not been the same since returning from his injury. He has turned over the puck in the defensive zone more this year that I ever remember. During the losing streak he even admitted that his game sucked. If I remember correctly his turnover led to either a game tying or winning goal in one game on the last road trip. At the same time Martinez has come up and been very impressive. He has great wheels, handles the puck very well, and seems to read the play very well. He also has a great stick in front of the net. He has offensive potential and his only drawback seems to be size. I like Martinez very much, but come playoff time Matt Greene is the one I want in front of the net.
KC23 Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
@King o’ Philly, Because of what happened to JJ when he got with Greene. JJ went from a positive plus minus to -8 in a heart beat and suddenly the Kings lose 7 of 8 games. Not putting that all on Greene, but it certainly seem to be a major contributing factor.
Now that Harold is with JJ suddenly JJ’s play has improved markedly. Can’t make a definative correlation, but it interesting to consider.
I love Greene, but he needs to improve. He seems slow since coming back and also uncertain about assignments down low.
mcsorleyfan Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
@puck73, I’ll go back into Nostradamus Mode here… Greene won’t look like Greene is supposed to look for another 4-6 weeks. After that he’ll start being more and more consistant and, barring further injury, will start playing good hockey. By April he’ll be on top of his game again, and better than he was in the play-offs last year. I’m basing all of this on my own recovery from the same surgery, with better rehab factored in. It was nearly a year before the injury was rarely thought of. Until that point, and even after, there the occasional “reminders” known as adhesions to periodically remind you, and they hurt when they tear loose. I’m not worried about Greene; look at JJ’s play in the olympics last year, or go back to where JJ was just returning from a labral tear. It took him a while…
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i haven’t noticed those gaffes… i’ll keep a lookout now!
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harrold, martinez, drewiske, doughty, scuderi can stay.. johnson or greene can sit.. preferably johnson
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somehow I seem to be missing all the turnovers you all are referring to…..especially the last three games. D men will turn it over once in awhile….my god, how many times did the Red Wings and Calgary cough it up? It would be nice if you had actual data to back up your claims. Last few games the D has been terrific…..both Green and Scuderi are excellent passers. You got three solid stay at home and three offensive minded Dmen. One issue though is that your beloved offensive D men haven’t actually been very offensive…..unless not scoring goals is offensive to you??
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I think Greene’s main issue may be the amount of minutes he’s getting. When you pair him with JJ, his minutes will go up and I think the fatigue affects him. Not everyone can eat up the minutes guys like JJ and DD do. Harrold is more mobile and that seems to be what JJ needs. He feels less less obligated to have to cover for his partner in addition to playing his own position. As far as DD2, I would like to see him traded simply because he’s a solid player who deserves more minutes than his current team can provide. Hopefully, it’s a trade to an Eastern Conference team.
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One of the best things I like when the Kings are winning is that there seems to be a much higher percentage of knowledgable fans posting compared to when the sky is falling.
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mcsorleyfan Reply:
December 10th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
@KC23, there are those who only take the time to voice a complaint… we get a lot of whiners when things are slipping…lol If they’re not whiners they’re sufferign delusions of grandeur, thinking their “solution” in this blog is being actively sought after by TM and co.
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keep Martinez for sure! why would you not keep him?
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