The Manchester Monarchs suffered a difficult loss Sunday afternoon by allowing two goals in the final three minutes and dropping a 3-2 road decision to the Connecticut Whale. Manchester is just 1-7-0-1 in its last 9 games.
In defeat, Kings forward prospect Tyler Toffoli scored his 24th goal of the season and added an assist on Linden Vey’s first period marker. Toffoli’s 24 goals are tied for second in the AHL amongst active players.
And then there are the Kings, who after a two-goal performance on Sunday rank 27th in the league with an average of 2.23 goals per game.
In Darryl Sutter’s postgame press conference, Helene Elliott of the L.A. Times raised the question on Toffoli’s availability after Sunday’s loss.
Sutter, on the possibility of Toffoli, or other players from Manchester joining the team:
“We’re at our roster [limit]. You only have a 23-man roster. That’s what we have right here, is 23. So you just can’t put players in.”
Sutter, on whether a player could go down to bring Toffoli up:
“You’d need a paper trail for that, but I don’t think that’s our situation. We have some young players on defense that didn’t play very well tonight, and we have some forwards up front that aren’t ready for the heavy lifting, so I don’t think going to Manchester’s going to help that.”
Is this the right time for Toffoli? Or should the Kings wait to call Toffoli up to coincide with a theoretical trade of a forward, which could potentially fill a defensive hole while opening a spot for the promising 20-year-old?
No. Absolutely not. Our lack of offense is because our blue line is deficient. We have enough goal scorers on this team who are not scoring goals. I think it is too early to bring the kid up and too much pressure. If we have decided to throw in the towel and we are not going to make the playoffs then bring up some of the kids.
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Token Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 7:09 am
@Bonvivant, Yeah, too soon for the kid. Let him play top line minutes in Manchester and get a whole summer to prepare and run through camp.
Besides, Kings have done this the past three years. Play .400 hockey early then play .700 hockey the rest of the way. It works out OK.
Don’t Panic!
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Telos Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 8:05 am
@Bonvivant, Yes and no. While you are right about putting too much pressure on the kid, hitting the panic button was essentially what we did last season with Nolan and King, combined with the Carter deal, and the motivational trade rumor of trading Brown, eventually led us to the Stanley Cup.
In this day and age, younger players are playing more prominent roles on teams, and Toffoli has a NHL shot and a Carter-like knack of getting pucks into the net. He is also a winger, which means that his mistakes are less prominent and it is easier to get him in the lineup over say a defenseman, goaltender, or even a center.
You don’t want to pressure the kid, as if our season relies on him, but there are many reasons on the other side of the scale to suggest how the experiment might have positive effects as well.
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Shuchuk Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
@Telos, I’m ok with Taffoli being brought up for a few games if there is an injury (NHL game experience is crucial for the development of young players), but short of that keep him in the AHL.
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In place of Gagne hopefully. I watch Gagne retrieve a puck in the corner yesterday…he was so soft (like he was scared of getting a concussion). Of course there was a turnover and a resulting scoring chance. Get Gagne off the ice please.
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gralx Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 7:20 am
@Cry Baby, I agree. Watching yesterday, I was saying and thinking the same exact thing.
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crashin'da net Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 11:27 am
@Cry Baby, Agreed. We need to shake things up like last year. With our current offensive time with the puck due to poor defense, it is imperative we score 5-on-5. Gagne scared of contact (rightly or wrongly) and he lost his sniper touch. Without that, he’s got what? Forechecking? Not enouigh. We need goals.
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kings714 Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
@Cry Baby, gagne is the most offensively skilled player on our team. He repeatedly puts magisterial passes into places where there should be players, there’s just no one there to finish. He is a no contact player which is why he needs to be on the top line. I think toffolli can help too
Gagne-kopitar-brown
Clifford-richards-carter
Toffoli-stoll-williams
King/richardson/penner-lewis-nolan
If you’re looking for someone completely useless, look no farther than penner. Gives away possession nearly everytime, skates slow and lacadaisically, and won’t use his big body to hit. Complete waste of whatever we pay him
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Shuchuk Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
@kings714, Carter and Kopitar are much better than Gagne. This is 2013 Gagne, not 2005-7 we’re talking about.
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The first poster is probably right, but I wouldn’t mind dumping some of our non-performing “scorers” for some picks or prospects. Bad times if Manchester is not performing at the same time that Los Angeles is not. Why keep these guys if they had an “off” year last year, and they are still not performing.
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Hopefully to replace King or Nolan. I understand having guys on the ice to hit and be tough, but I don’t understand having those guys when they are a liability in the DZone. Also can we send Ellerby to Manchester. Watching him fumble around the DZone made me miss Mitchell and Greene too much.
Also, it’s funny how yesterday I posted, “Richards is not going to get going playing with Nolan and King” only to hear “He’s slumping and wouldn’t even crack the top 2 lines in NYI.” Those 2 points with LA’s top offensive guys looks like it could be the spark he needs to get going. You can’t “punish him” by demoting a 30+ goal guy to play with 2 grinders who add nothing to Richards’ game. I thought D.S. learned that last season.
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The only thing I’m waiting for here is for Dewey to start looking like the D-man we saw last year during the playoffs and for Willie Mitchell to come back as soon as possible. Scuderi needs to start leading the D corps back there…he’s been in the NHL long enough he should step up into that role to lead Voynov and Muzzin back there. I like that Muzzie is back there but he needs some leadership and an example is Scuderi.
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Seeing so many wide open net but nobody to put the puck in, we could use him instead of nowhere to be found guys. Who is the RW hasn’t scored any goals yet? This kid knows where he should be to score the goal.
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Both toffoli and vey are in the ahl top 20 scorers with toffoli leading all rookies in goals and 3rd overall in goals 2 behind the leader. http://theahl.com/mobile/statdisplay.php?type=top_scorers&season_id=&bblh=mSafari
Also that Colton yellow horn is one heck of a player. With him the monarches got a legit 2nd line and he is on a point a game pace.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0026722013.html
He was leading the Ontario reign
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0050532013.html
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The thing is, these guys aren’t hungery, they have herd the stories of some ficticious “Cup Hangover” and believe they can just defere to that while they do a victory lap around the league and party, or whatever, they probably feel that catching fire late last year was something that just Happens, and not something that came at a lot of pain and serious hunger and desire. I say light a fire under their arses and send some dead weight packing while bringing in some people who might actually be hungry and know that catching fire comes through work and not magic
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No offense to Trevor but I think he needs to go. Former 1st rounder, just has not played up to his potential.
I’d say yes to Toffoli. Maybe not this soon though. If we still struggle to score then in March for sure.
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I say give him a chance, even vey. I mean they can’t do any worst than Lewis, Penner, Gagne, Richardson, King.
go kings go
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I blame this lack of scoring on the Kings’ coaching staff. They need to put Gagne in the lineup…here’s a creative scorer, a guy who can ‘create his own openings’ and get shots….sure he can’t forecheck or hit or play D, but we need this proven SCORER in the LINEUP!!! GOALS is what we need…if they put him on the ice, surely he’d score goals and then….wait a second….What????….oh, never mind….my bad….
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I think it is time.our defense of course is doing us no favors, but our forwards often look too lethargic. Teams figured us out. We aren’t hitting and hitting is how we had our.playofff run. I think some of it has to do with the lockout, as players like brown and williams have finally started to pick up their play, but our roster isn’t overloaded with true high ceiling goal scorers so adding one in toffolli can’t hurt
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HockeyNerd Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
@kings714, You said it right there. If our problem is that we aren’t playing physical enough than how would Toffoli help? We already KNOW he would need to be on a line with Brown, Clifford, or someone who can hit and get him the puck. If the Browns, Richards and Penners aren’t being physical enough we had better fix that problem first!!!!!!
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kings714 Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 2:59 pm
@HockeyNerd, this is true, but what I’m thinking is that if these guys aren’t gonna hit or score, then let’s at least get someone in there who can score. I believe Richards and brown will come around and bring back that grittiness we had, but penner just contributes nothing in my book, in all his time with us he has only contributed in small patches. He’s oafing around not using size and not scoring (or completing a pass), toffoli could hopefully bring a scoring.touch, definitely bring a youthful hunger amd enthusiasm, and maybe light a spark.
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I am very ambivalent about this. OK, what you definitely DON’T want to do and I think we all agree on is bring up Toffoli, put him on the first line with Kopitar and Brown and tell everyone how he will singlehandely solve our problems.
On the one hand we have the same forwards who won the cup and they WILL come around. Experience counts for a lot and these guys aren’t going to slump forever. And even when they aren’t scoring goals the backchecking, attitude, experience, penalty killing and little things mean a lot. Panicking and getting rid of a Williams, Brown, Stoll or Lewis would be a big mistake.
On the other hand we would only need to release ONE forward to make room. Maybe I’m not thinking it through enough but would anything really be so horrible in say, releasing Fraser, calling the Kid up, let him practice with the team a few weeks and then giving him some limited minutes on a 4th line and power play and seeing how he does?
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kings714 Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
@HockeyNerd, it is the same forwards that won the cup, but last year our offense was pretty mediocre as well. Considering lewis and nolan can center, dropping fraser or trying to send him down wouldn’t be a huge deal to me
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It’s all about who outscores who…last time I checked. Cracks me up when a player is interviewed…through all the “obviously” comments and stuff, when ya lose you have gotten outscored…duh! Time to hedge your bets with players who know how to do just that…score…and take your chances from there. It’s not rocket science or brain surgery here, people.
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Yes
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