JF: I’m sure it’s a type of question you’re asked all the time early in the season, 5-1 start so far, so it’s a great start. I guess the simple way of asking is, do you think the Monarchs can contend for a Calder Cup Championship?
RH: I think it’s a little early to say whether they can contend or not. We’ve seen a lot of real good things thus far, we’ve got a lot of young kids, first year kids and second year kids that are moving up to a higher line and can they handle the load as the season wears on—as you get more into the season, as you know the start of a season is almost like the honeymoon and once you get into the grind—the 20-game mark, the 30-game mark—all of a sudden it’s not quite fresh anymore and it gets harder. So how much guys can handle and can they elevate their play as the year goes on—when you look at the age of our team, guys should get better, the depth of our team is really, really good. I feel real good about the depth so I think I would say at this point right now we got one of the better young teams in the league for sure.
JF: With everyone healthy, you would have four players who were with the Kings in the Stanley Cup run, who are now starting the season in Manchester. Because of their Cup experience, do you expect anything different from them as they start the AHL season this year?
RH: Well, yeah absolutely I think there’s two sides to it—in the leadership department—absolutely, you know Kinger and Nollie and Slava even to some degree, even though he’s Russian, but his language is now good enough where he can help lead and lead us as a guy whose won the Cup and really played a pretty big role for us. Lok—he was there through the whole Cup run and the leadership part absolutely. I think the part you got to be really careful of is, we don’t want Jordan Nolan to start thinking that he’s a superstar and he’s going to score a hundred points and start playing a different game. His game should be the same, obviously he’s improved as a player but we want him to play within the structure of the game and be a big power forward and get in on the forecheck and you know, yes make some plays and yes score some goals absolutely, because the level of play is obviously not quite the NHL so his game is going to elevate in that fact alone, but again we don’t want them to change. We don’t want Kinger to start thinking he’s a skilled guy whose just going to stand in front of the net and score goals. They got to continue their game and really grow their game, it’s a really nice opportunity for them to take a step back in a pretty darn good league right now, but they’re going to play bigger roles then they played here so there is that part where they can improve their game, add the leadership, but again they can’t change the type of player they are.
JF: Leaving out the guys who have more than a cup of coffee in the NHL, probably the four guys we just talked about. Who do you see as being the veteran group down in Manchester this year, the guys which you look to, you know these are our leadership, this is our leadership group and we need to count on you and again, not talking into consideration the four guys we just talked about.
RH: Well, Marc-Andre Cliche is our captain, so he’s clearly the leader there, but I think you got a lot of other guys, guys that are in their second or third year. You know, Linden Vey’s in his second year, we expect more from him, production-wise as well as being more consistent throughout the year and adding to our leadership group. Andy Andreoff was there at the end of the year he’s a leader, Robbie Czarnik has been there a year, Richard Clune’s been there a few years, but I think you look at our defense that’s probably the spot where our change of leadership will be, the Andrew Campbell’s and the Thomas Hickey’s, Nick Deslauriers’ and Jake Muzzin’s—those guys are all of that age where they’ve got to grab the ball in terms of leadership and take it to another level.
Scouting Report: Linden Vey.
Hextall: Linden Vey. Linden is an extremely skilled player, he’s got a lot of gifts, his hands and his vision and he’s got the “turn up play” to the late guy. He really understands how to play the game. I think what we’ve talked to Linden about in the last year and the bit we’ve had him in the pros, is developing his full-sheet game, you know, the checking part of the game, the support part of the game, the going to the net part of the game and some of the things—he’s such a gifted player that he’s been able to play however he’s wanted to, to this point. Now he’s got to make a bit of an adjustment because now you’re playing against good players every night and so he’s just got to round his game a little bit and again go to the net and getting to the forecheck, the little things like that, but in terms of the physical gifts, he’s probably as talented a prospect as we have.
Scouting Report: Jordan Weal.
Hextall: Jordan started—he played the preseason games in Manchester, he played extremely well, scored as nice a goal as you’re going to see a player score, he scored on a rush, he pulled it back and absolutely roofed it. Extremely gifted, he’s like Linden Vey a little bit, he’s got real good vision, he can score—his hockey sense is elite—again, played real well in preseason, the regular season started, he played opening night and didn’t play a lot maybe 10 or 12 minutes and the level of play lifted up a little bit and here’s a 20-year-old coming out of juniors, he’s been a top player his whole life and the game caught up to him a little bit, but again, kind of like Linden, a little bit more of a full-sheet game, he needs to develop, but in terms of the skill level and the hockey sense, he’s a very good prospect for us.
why cant the two sides agree on a salary cap for the next 6 year…(60 Million??) then if their is added money with revenue then give the players a bonus.Run it like a buisness. Forget 50 50. Salary certainty and a bonus when the revenue is extra…. Anyone explain why this wouldnt work??? Both sides are just guessing on the growth. So instead go with a number then a bonus plan..It works for many buisnesses…
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luc20rules Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 7:15 pm
@Neil, Both the NHLPA and the NHL for some strange reason see a problem with this. The NHL as a whole made 100 mil in profit last year, and 120 mil the year before. The supposed problem is that about half the teams lost money in both seasons, and quite frankly the wealth teams don’t want to help out the poor teams(even if they are run by the NHL right, PHX?). As far as the NHLPA goes they want the contracts that have been signed to remain intact(no Rollbacks & No additional Escrow). Then there is now the lost games issue where HRR is probably 15% smaller than what a full season would have brought in. Let us also not forget the level of pettiness & EGO that have dominated over whats right for the game in these negotiations. If the NHL & NHLPA thought they disliked & distrusted each other before this boy this is now at a point where they don’t even want to talk to each other. Then there is this petty PR war where neither side wants a CBA unless they are viewed the winner and the hero to the Hockey World(As fastly srinking that world maybe.)
The only thing that will end this game of EGO is an arbitrator that will have the power to draft a CBA that will be voted on by the players and the owners. This would bypass the EGO MANIACS leading these non-negotiations that believe they are bigger and more important than the game itself.
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just got back from class and saw the NHL cancelled the winter classic? So the season is done basically. Wow@
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lets do it again Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 8:16 pm
@Lake Forest, right the season is over , no nhl hockey for us .shows you how much they care about the fans.
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Who cares????
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Call me a sadist, but the cancellation of the Winter Classic is actually helpful for the negotiation process (if you’re a person like me who just wants a deal to get done regardless of who the winners and losers are).
This shows the players that the owners are willing to play hardball by losing their cashcow. I thought for a long time that the owners would be bluffing by threatening to lose the Classic, and therefore the players thought the owners would bend. This shows they’re not.
Therefore from the players perspective they have to think that the owners are crazy enough to lose a whole season, and therefore the players would be left infinitely worse off. Therefore come to an agreement now or they’ll all be playing in Switzerland making less than what they would’ve made in the NHL even after any concessions. It seems like the owners being open to the “make-whole” provision is also helpful.
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luc20rules Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 7:29 pm
@Shakes, Glad to see you survived Sandy. Did @NY Kings Fan & @Poorman live through it as well?
I think the Non-Negotiators leading both the NHL & NHLPA need to be bypassed in order to have an NHL season. The only way this happens is if a abitrator is brought in and is given the power to write a new CBA that will go to a direct vote on both sides. The EGO MANIACS leading both sides think they need to get there way and have this delusional dream that if their proposal leads to he resolution. No all 3 of your proposals are absolutely no good in 10 mins. No meeting until you comeback excepting our proposal or work off it. Oh wait we are now pulling that proposal off the table.
There is a slight chance that a rebelious group that actually loves hockey or money will form and gain strenth on one side or the other and force the leadership to swallow there pride and actually negotiate, but at this point it would almost have to be complete surrender from one side.
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Munchrat Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
@luc20rules, I survived Sandy too!
Only lost power for a brief second, causing my DirecTV box to have to reboot during the 4th quarter of the MNF game. I missed 2 plays.
The golf course where I work was closed for several days, but now I am back to work.
My fiancee is a nurse. She visits homebound patients throughout Westchester County, The gas crunch has been the toughest thing to deal with here,
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luc20rules Reply:
November 5th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
@Munchrat, I’m sure all of us hear are happy to hear from you, and the others in the Northeast. I hope that area can rebound quickly, and all those without utilities can survive before the area gets too cold.
Hope everything gets back to normal out there.
Interesting that Jordan Weal is a bit ahead on the charts than Linden Vey from Hexy’s words. Hoping Manchester makes the most of this opportunity to shine.
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LB Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 1:05 pm
@luc20rules, Actually it’s the other way around. Also Weal has been a healthy scratch for half their games and Vey has played every game.
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NHL willing to fund part of Make Whole provision to honor existing contracts.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8584820/nhl-willing-fund-part-make-whole-provision-honor-existing-contracts
Bill Daly and Steve Fehr will meet tomorrow at undisclosed location to resume bargaining.
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lets do it again Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 8:18 pm
@goldielocks, doesent matter they will come up with more bulls@it to clog up the system.
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CB14 Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 9:16 pm
@goldielocks, Assuming that report is true, and I believe it is, F the owners for taking this long to finally come to their senses and honor the contracts that they signed. What a novel idea? Mabye next time the players make a proposal you’ll take more than 10 minutes to you know, actually read it, instead of rejecting it flat out.
The thing that really pisses me off the most is that when the negotiations started, everyone but the owners knew that the deal would eventually end up being 50-50 with the first couple of years being a little higher on the players side to honor the existing contracts. Had the owners not tried to ream the players in their backside in their first offer, this deal would’ve been done 2 months ago. And we would’ve still had Rich and Kings Hockey. Instead we’ve had neither.
I still believe there will be a Winter Classic. It’s worth too much money to the NHL to not have it.
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goldielocks Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 9:43 pm
@CB14,
Yup. Everybody knew the deal has to come to this point nevertheless they took long time to finally realize it. NHL officially cancel the WC. Shame …but no time for the preparation though. I don’t know if they have some kind of backup plan to salvage the damage by canceling the WC because NBC must be pissed off.
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luc20rules Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 11:00 pm
@CB14, Absolutely, but I still think that if a EGO gets even a pin prick in the next talks the season is lost. I would feel alot better if they just said we are going to bring in an arbitrator.
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It is really sad in that my son goes away to college next winter so this was going to be our last season going to Kings games together, and we were really looking forward to enjoying our Stanley Cup year. Thanks Evil Load for f’ing something important in my life.
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Lake Forest Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 8:53 pm
@DesertKing, you could take me……………
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DesertKing Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 9:44 pm
@Lake Forest,
May have to
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I saw a dude with a tattoo on both calfs of the Stanley Cup with the dates of when the KINGS won it, and the other of when the DUCKS won it.
I almost said something to the guy, but decided against heckeling a guy twice my age.
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luc20rules Reply:
November 2nd, 2012 at 11:03 pm
@Lake Forest, I can’t remember which SAW movie it was a trailer for. Haven’t been forced to see any of them, but lets just say the shackle should go on the Duck Leg.
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DesertKing Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 11:30 am
@luc20rules,
That Duck leg has got to be Coyote ugly.
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Subby Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 12:18 pm
@Lake Forest, that is just sick and not the good kind. I would’ve told him what’s up
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Lake Forest Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 9:29 am
@Subby, Usually I would, but the guy was in his 60′s.
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Frankly, I’m quite upset at DB’s decision to go play overseas. To me, it really shows a lack of faith in the league, both players and owners. With some of the comments I’ve heard from players like Ovechkin, as far as I’m concerned, they can stay over there and never show their face in the NHL again, they won’t be missed. Plenty of talent to take their place.
Very very disheartening for me to see DB go there. Not impressed.
I just want a deal done. I don’t care how, I don’t care when. I just want to see the NHL back.
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luc20rules Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 12:06 am
@Newf, If a deal gets done DB will be back in 48 hrs at most. The guy just wants to get real games under his belt to get himself to a competitive level. IMHO players leaving and playing in particular overseas sends a message to owners that they don’t believe it will be resolved soon, and verifing that the NHLPA is unified and prepared for a long lockout. The owners are in the wrong from failing to create a workable CBA last time despite, and 100 mil in profit last year demanding a 28% rollback in player salaries initially, then continually negotiating in bad faith. Keep in mind many of these contracts were for 10+ years and were just signed months ago. Then just being jerks thru the negotiation process rejecting 3 NHLPA offers before even throughly reading them. IMHO the owners need to start negotiating or the season will be lost and it wouldn’t suprise me if a rival hockey league gains some traction before negotiations start next year. I am not going to say that I think the NHL players are not possibly overpaid, but nobody made any owner sign any contract. That said I wish the NHLPA bargained in a more practical manner as well. They know Bettman is an ego maniac they could have worked off his CBA offer and simply said these are the things we need to have changed.
Thus concludes the Friday nite rant.
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Kings Fan In Temecula Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 8:17 am
@luc20rules, I LOVE it, good post, couldnt of said it better myself
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KC23 Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 9:07 am
@luc20rules, I think it could be argued that they are playing over there to stay in game shape should the season start soon. I don’t think money plays much into it for most players.
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Newf Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 9:56 am
@luc20rules, I’m sure wanting to stay shape has some part in it. But why go overseas? Money. That’s my opinion anyway.
If players were more concerned about playing, and not the money, why not try to play here? There’s lots of minor leagues that could really benefit from having an NHL caliber in the dressing room.
When other types of workers go on strike or get locked out from their jobs, do they go work elsewhere and risk their well-being? No. One of my concerns is that DB goes there to play, throws a big check, and gets hurt.
I love DB, and I always will. I’m sure he has his reasons, I’m only concerned for the team as a whole.
But my opinion on players like Ovie saying that they’ll stay there if they have to take a paycut, tells me how they really feel about the NHL. I used to like him, now I could care less if he sets foot in the NHL again.
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Timere969 Reply:
November 5th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
@Newf, They can’t play for the AHL teams because they are affiliated with NHL teams and provisions about waivers and current contracts come into play.
Shakes Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 8:43 am
@luc20rules, +1
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Dang, I come back to check on ya’all, and RH is gone!!! Feels like the Hurricane took him…Here right across Manhattan, I didn’t lose power, but haven’t worked in a week, so I am bored.
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Kings Fan In Temecula Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 8:16 am
@whitese, blame buttman, power outages, RH’s departure, he is the man to blame
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DesertKing Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 8:30 am
@whitese,
Ypu could go to a Ranger game…… er, uh, yea, right, ih, nevermind…….
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whitese Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 8:39 pm
@DesertKing, lol…Dev’s are closer! kinda…
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Shakes Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 8:45 am
@whitese, where in the area are you – I’m in Jersey City (Newport)
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There will be ill feelings each and every time the owners ask for public funds to build new arenas if the NHL loses a second season in less than 10 years. Local councils, politicians and business leaders will look at funding other pro sports arenas before giving NHL owners any money.
“We want a reliable source of tax revenue run by professional and ethical management, Mr. NHL owner. Not some bushwhack beer league who thinks more like feudal lords than civilized 21st century sports owners. Tell you what, you escrow $500 million as a guarantee that your NHL will not vote for a lockout within the next 20 years, and we’ll see what we can do about getting the public money you seek”
As for the NHLPA, players have my support for wanting their contracts honored in full. But I also hope Fehr gets off his high horse about presuming to tell the owners how to distribute their own money.
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Vey looks to be approaching NHL level play. Hope he has a good season.
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I truly miss Rich Hammond. His insight into the game was invaluable to the entire Kings hockey community. I hope that whoever replaces him, will have the same professional approach and integrity that he displayed the entire time he was running this blog.
As for the talent that has been amassed in Manchester by DL. It is truly impressive. These players are not the flashy 50 goal scorers, but they are solid two way players that can come up and play a solid game and help the team win for a long time to come.
The labor dispute that has been going on for the past two months, is tragic and could not of come at the worst possible time for us King fans. Specially right after wining the Stanley cup. I hope that both sides somehow can swallow their pride and come to some kind of agreement that can benefit both sides and us fans to.
In closing I would like to thank Jim Fox for doing a great job with providing us some news from our farm club in Manchester.
Roger
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they’ve got 42 days left to work it out…it would be very hard for me to see a season starting in january…
this has been such a frustrating lockout because the owners’ can end this at ant times IF they were to offer a reasonable deal, instead of making the players pay for all their mistakes from the past, now…and (presumably) in the future…
for the life of me, i don’t understand why anyone would back the owners’…bettman and his top 8 large market GM’s control the league’s destiny…
maybe the smaller markets will come to their senses and realize that they will have to take a lil’ less in any deal that’s struck…but it doesn’t look like it as of today…
what sux, too, is that we only get our hockey info and updates through the print media…i think espn has spend a total of 25 minutes cumulatively covering the lockout…however, the were “nice” enough to throw us a couple of KHL games…canadians must feel like half-empty souls, milling around their respective province…i imagine other U.S. cities with franchises are paralyzed with grief about what’s transpired…
how should the kings and we feel…?
lucky that the CBA didn’t expire before the 2011-12 season…
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Here are some positive rumors for CBA talk …
I’m certain of this, based on number of texts received from players. They want a deal and want their leadership to focus on getting it done. Not to say the players are caving…they’re not, but they want focus to remain on negotiations and away from petty memos to media.
- Darren Dreger -
Several players on NHLPA conf. call encoraging PA to not push NHL away and to engage the league.
- Source unknown -
Been told there’s substantial movement in CBA talks.. Who knows tho
- Source unknown -
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HockeyNerd Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 4:10 pm
@goldielocks, I wish I was optimistic, but I am not.
Why? Because if the NHL owners and Buttman, I mean Bettman actually CARED about having a season and a winter classic they could have done a lot of things before now. They could have played the season while negotiating. They could have worked on a structure whereby the Rich teams help the ones struggling to make ends meet. They could have asked for the services of a mediator and / or abitror. They could have ACTUALLY READ the players proposals and responded with one of their own that at least moved the line in the sand a little. And most if all they could have ACTUALLY BEEN COMMITTED TO NEGOTIATING 24 7 instead of releasing empty press statements with empty claims.
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goldielocks Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 5:43 pm
@goldielocks,
Steve Fehe and Bill Daly are still meeting. It’s been more than 10 hours if I’m not mistaken.
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DesertKing Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 6:01 pm
@goldielocks,
Evil Load must be passed out at the bar.
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goldielocks Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 7:11 pm
@DesertKing,
And it’s still going. I think that’s a good sign.
BTW is there any corporation out there you think would hire me to run it (at 8 million a year!) if all I had to do when a problem occurred was ignore it until it went away????????
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Thanks Jim, Hexy’s scouting reports are really interesting, please keep them coming.
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This site is absolute TRASH
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HockeyNerd Reply:
November 3rd, 2012 at 6:20 pm
@Purple Reign, Do you have a suggestion how to improve it (especially given that NHL hockey is not being played right now)?
Or did you just want to get that off your chest?
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Shakes Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 8:49 am
@Purple Reign,
1) i think that’s unfair
2) most NHL sites on the web are basically starved for hockey news since there’s nothing happening
3) I think even if Rich were here we’d be having these interviews with Foxy & Hexy, so in some ways the content in a hockey-games-less environment would be similar
4) will the articles dance around the CBA issues and not talk about it directly, it sure will – but there are other sites (TSN, etc) to go to for that… once the new CBA is signed (hopefully in our lifetimes) I’m sure there will be plenty of interviews with players and maangement about how they felt/thought/acted
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Love these monarchs updates! Keep them coming! Like hearing about our prospects.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning………..
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Shakes Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 8:50 am
@DesertKing, i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue
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So I “found” a copy of the Kings Stanley Cup champions DVD. I will be replaying the sh*t out of that DVD…..
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Talks lasted until 1am last night. They’re meeting again early this week. That day better start with an M and rhyme with oneday.
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Neil Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 11:07 am
@Subby, I really think this is the start of the end!!!!!
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Subby Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
@Neil, of the season or lockout? Lol
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So it looks like the owners changed the Make Whole provision so it comes out of their slice of pie instead of the players. Good move as it’s one of the things the players asked for.
Interesting that it is only for Year 1 of the new CBA. Doesn’t that give the players more incentive to end this quickly? The longer they hold out, the shorter Year 1 will be correct? So in essence, this move by the owners has put another time crunch on the players to sign quickly as it benefits them monetarily to do so. If we wait until January, Year 1 would only be for 4 months right?
Am I correct or would Year 1 start from the time it’s signed? We can’t have a CBA expire in the middle of a season can we?
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