As noted in an earlier post, Darryl Sutter spent about 15-20 minutes, toward the end of practice today, by himself with the first power-play unit at one end of the ice. There seemed to be more talking than actual drills going on, and afterward, a couple players indicated that it was more about reinforcement than about reinventing the wheel, so to speak. Sutter has been more hands-on with all of the special-teams work, and it’s not surprising that he would dip his toe into the power play, given that it has scored only two goals in its last 42 opportunities. Still, Sutter basically shrugged and deflected, after practice, when asked about his direct work with the power-play unit.
SUTTER: “With the young guys, they’ve got some different skill sets and different ideas, so we’ll just kind of give them a little more freedom but, at the same time, make sure we understand the importance of us. It was weird. Yesterday we talked about how we hadn’t had a 5-on-3 since I’ve been here, and how we were going to get one. I knew it was going to be that type of game. Then we didn’t score. Then we did an awesome job against, when they had the 5-on-3 too.”
Sutter also indicated that he desires more of a collaborative effort with assistant coaches John Stevens and Jamie Kompon — and goalie coach Bill Ranford, who is in Los Angeles part-time — and Sutter chuckled when asked if he would got the rest of the season with the coaching staff intact.
SUTTER: “Yeah. Absolutely. I put a lot of stock into that. That’s the most important part about closing the gap, is familiarity with the players. I don’t believe it’s coach and assistant coaches. I believe it’s all of us working together. We can all handle different parts. When we talked about the power play, it’s not like it’s me on the power play. A big part of it is the players. I’ve got no issues with staff.”
Sutter’s a coy dude. You can tell he’s holding his cards close to his vest.
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Luke M. Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
@40YearKingsFan, I remember when Darryl Sutter said he wasn’t trading Phaneuf, and then Phaneuf got traded days later.
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He seems to be dealing with the team’s weaknesses head on…
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sloppy joe Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
@Steve S,, Thank God
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FKA PakiFro Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
@Steve S,,
what weakness??
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I tend to think the PP is more of a team issue than a Kompon issue. If we were scoring 5 on 5 I might think it would be time to change but since no one can score team why would they score on PP.
What damn Ducks fan put a curse on our team? At least it went back towards Anaheim ten-fold!
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Note to self. Don’t play cards against Sutter.
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
@KC23,
Exactly!
I got the feeling reading that that Rich was about one PP question away from the “This ain’t baseball” answer.
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RLane420 Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
@40YearKingsFan, The way the Kings are on th PP it sure looks like baseball. 5 guys standing around playing catch.
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If they don’t get a new PP coach, then maybe bring in a consultant.
Haha…that’s what companies do…just someone with different ideas to shake up the power play. Honestly, they just stand around and no movement.
But let’s see how they do tomorrow…can’t wait!
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:17 pm
@@spencerlakings,
You know what consultants say,,,,
If you’re not a part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
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Puckstopper27 Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
@@spencerlakings, It shouldn’t be that hard. The problem is that the Kings very rarely have someone either in front of the net or to the side of it. While Chicago didn’t score I did notice that they almost always had one man screening Quick and another off to the side of the net looking for a deflection or rebound. I think the Kings players are just soft and aren’t willing to take the physical abuse that comes with playing in front of the net.
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that or he’s just telling the truth people…
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Can this WJC tournament get any worse? USA is pretty much out of the medal around and not only that our propsects Forbort and Gravel are injured!
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BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
@Marbles,
…& Forbort looks like a boarding concussion.
Only thing left is to beat those arrogant Canadians on New Year’s Eve.
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petemagoop Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:49 pm
@BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy, hey, enough outta you
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Forbot has been absolutely brutal.
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This is how they roll at the HP Pavillion
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/30/canucks_hockey_fan_claims_attack_at_sharks_game/
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KingsGuy Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
@408kingsfan, Ha ha ha. Good ol’ donkey punch.
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lvkingaholic Reply:
December 31st, 2011 at 8:53 am
@KingsGuy, damn, another upper body injury………..
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Canada vs USA tomorrow! Happy New Years everyone!
Good luck boys, you’re gonna need it!
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go kings go
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Kompon needs to go. If Murray got the boot for his results, Kompon should have been gone too. Our PP is painful to watch. Last night we were back to 5 orange cones out there. No movement, no goals and a 0-0 OT loss. 2 goals over the last 42? Whether all the blame falls on Kompon or not, it’s his responsiblility and the results paint just as bad a picture as Murray’s. So if Murray needed to go, it makes no sense to me that Kompon is still employed.
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Kings x Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
@Joe_C, Kompon is going to be in the press box with martinez and westy and dd2
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Gmo Reply:
December 31st, 2011 at 2:21 am
@Kings x,
In the press box serving drinks perhaps
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Scootty Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
@Joe_C, I really like how he worked alone with the 1st p.p. unit. This team has looked 100% better in the Sutter system and that’s only been after ONE practice. Now, with this homestand and no holidays in the way, Darryl can really start to coach these guys. I said it before and I’ll say it again. Sutter WILL have this team leading the Pacific by the end of January. Bank on it.
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Have Sutter and Kompon watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9CBC1un4v8&feature=related
Listen as he talks about movement. This is something I have not seen from the Kings this year. They tend to stand stationary and try to just move the puck around.
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Actually most of what Smith addresses on the video is part of what the Kings do on the PP.
Where they go wrong is that you hardly have anyone taking 1-time shots at the very moment when there’s an opening or a seam to shoot into, hopefully with someone screening the goalie.
GkG!
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FdoFmFull Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
@FdoFmFull, One bright spot is the way that Voynov shoots. Too bad he’s not on the PP often!
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Those of you who are reading the question as asking Sutter whether the assistant coaches (and really Kompon)are staying or going are doing so because of the poorly worded question. I don’t think that is what Sutter answered even if Rich (or whomever asked it) intended to ask the question. I explained that here.
http://wp.me/EXFL
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Bobby Scribe Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
@Bobby Scribe, And the Mayor clarified it today. I updated the above post.
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rick Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
@Bobby Scribe, So you come onto this blog and criticize Rich’s question, and then suggest bloggers turn to your own site for the “real” story? Really?
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39scars Reply:
December 31st, 2011 at 9:58 am
@rick, At least it’s not another TM sucks post
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Im waiting for the video where DS comes over while JK is going over the PP, takes his clipboard away from him and just wacks him over the head and says “GET OUT OF HERE YOU IMBICILE”. All this to the delight of the players
GKG
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