He's got to be putting this mildly. I can't believe any of this team is happy with the constant line changes. I don't care if other teams do it; it's not working for this team. They'll never develop any chemistry with Crawfords way of playing merry-go-round.

Maybe if crawford rewarded players (Osullivan) instead of just handing them spots (nagy, CLOUTIER) this team would be doing alot better.
Im sorry but how hard is it to see nagy does NOT skate unless the puck could potentially be passed to him or he could beat a defenseman to the puck. I only get to see the games, but its blatantly obvious by now. maybe Im being a little too harsh but he does not hustle like Osullivan and does not deserve that spot next to Kopitar half as much as Osullivan does.
when hes not scoring what else does nagy contribute to the team ? heart/passion/physicality/defense? nope none of the above, absolutely nothing. I'd rather see John Zeiler on the first line than Nagy, at least he hustles and plays with passion (Yes Im kidding, to a certain extent)
so wtf, does crawford have a set of lines that are good and do work, and he just does everything he possibly can to play every other line besides those ? Ive really been wanting to see Osullivan-Kopitar-Brown, which IMO would become a better line than the one with Cammy, because Osullivan has size, more speed, and an almost equal shot. Which also leaves Cammy and Frolov for the second line (first?) and than Crawford can keep playing Armstrong on the second line because that line actually has some chemistry, though once handzus gets to 100% he can take over. Or hell throw nagy on that line and have Cammy center so we can put out the least physical scoring line in the nhl. Either way, Im sure ill see Thornton on the first line and Osullivan sitting a healthy scratch before Crawford puts Osullivan in the situations he was brought here to succeed in, so yay we traded Pavol Demitra for a third line role player (and Trevor Lewis), boom-shakalaka.

Joe,
I don't think O'Sullivan is gonna be with Kings much longer.
He may get traded for a goaltender at the dead-line.
If not, as a restricted free-agent, he'll want to get out of Crawford line juggling circus and sign up with another team who would better use his great talent.
Chances are Lombardi won't match the other teams contract, because it's an ego thing with him. He'll gladly take a draft pick for compensation instead (he has a thing for draft picks and ex-shark & ex-flyer players).
If he does land with another team, I gaurante you, he'll play on the top line and on the power play.
And probably be a 30 or more goal scorer.
I hope that doesn't happen because I'd rather see him produce with the Kings. But playing for this loser of a coach, may hinder one's career.

I sort of agree there.
Crawford does play the favortism game.
If your name is Blake, Armstrong, or Brown - you get the cream.
If it's not, you get the crap.

Going back to what I said in an earlier entry, Sully is taking the brunt of the shuffling. He's trying to be a team player, putting his best face on the situation but the fact is, people like consistancy in any job, work or game. You develop a repoire with certain individuals or players and you get it snatched just as soon as you start feeling comfortable. Andy Murray must be drooling at what he could do with the talent the Kings have, alas that's not going to happen either. I wonder what Bob Hartley is doing these days, only thing is I don't think I could stomach another Avs retread....

I'm sure Andy Murray is happy to develop the talent he has in St. Louis. There's a wealth of it there too. He has the better defenseman named Johnson, and he has kids like Boyes, Backes, and Perron who are in varying stages of development. Steve Wagner is a rookie defenseman playing almost 20 minutes a game, and Lee Stempniak would be a welcome addition to any team's lineup.

Wait a minute....just a couple of years ago, weren't we bashing Andy Murray for not doing a good job at developing our young players? When AM put Dustin Brown on the fourth line everybody was up in arms, and now look at how Brown has developed. How quickly we forget. Now I agree that O'Sullivan should not be put on the 4th line, but at the same time I would question the suggestion that AM would do a better job than Crawford (I'm also not saying that I think Crawford is doing a great job either). But at least Crawford doesn't run his own team into the ground like AM did. Second point - from what I can tell, Crawford has for the most part kept the line of Brown-Kopitar-Cammy together, yet that line has not exactly been setting the league on fire. So I would disagree with the statement that keeping lines together would automatically translate into more scoring. I think there is some truth to the fact that coaches need to juggle lines because if they don't it is too easy for the opponent to match their lines against ours.

Osullivan get traded for a goalie ? yeah right Johnathan Bernier will be the kings goalie, if not next year than in 2 years. Trading Osullivan, who has the potential to be better than Cammy, for at the longest a 2 yr stop gap in goal is ridiculous.
If Osullivan goes anywhere its only if a deal comes along that you make any day, like the one that got us JMFJ even though it cost us Gleason.
I dont think DL is likely to let Osullivan get away, the kid was brought here to provide offense and hes become a pk specialist and imo one of the kings best pking forwards in only two seasons in the nhl. But if some team throws an EDM style offer sheet at him and we get 4 1st rounders as a result, hes gone.

Ugh...all of this line-juggling reminds me of Andy Murray.

Marc,

The Kings happen to have a rookie defenseman who is averaging almost 22 minutes per game and he isn't 23 years old like Steve Wagner.

Jack Johnson may be the lesser Johnson in your eyes but Jack has yet to anger his coach/management with his big mouth and he hasn't been held out of the line up in favor of career 6th/7th d-men like Salvador and Walker the way Erik has.

Maybe we can re-examine the Johnson vs. Johnson debate when Erik has his first NHL game where he spends more than 20 minutes of the game on the ice.

How many times have I mentioned that this line juggling has to stop???

Why mention it again? Just FIRE THIS GUY! We did well when he left the lines alone. Once we start to go a bit stale, he panics and tries to quick fix things. DAMN I'm sick of it.

Everyone has an opinion on what is wrong with the Kings and everyone has certain players, general managers or coaches who they like blame for the outcome of the games. With that said, here is mine. If players are not performing up to standards or expectations game after game it is the fault of the coach! After all it is the coach who is continuously putting them in the game instead of putting them on the bench. It is the coach who decides who wears a uniform and who wears a suit and tie. It is the coach who awards players power play time, positions on lines (forwards or defense), penalty killing and time on the ice. A player will give you what they choose to give you each game. A coach should do his job and try to motivate the players but if that is not possible he needs to take other actions even if it is benching the most senior and/or top paid players. A coach needs to recognize that just because a player was great at one time does not make him great today or provide immunity to consequence. If players are telling you directly or indirectly that part of what makes them successful is chemistry with other players, then a coach needs to find that chemistry and let it develop. A good player can be made to be a great player because of their line mates. If we are building for the future then let the chemistry build as well. If switching up lines didn’t work in the not so distance past, then why would you think it would work now? Part of the job of a coach is to find the players on your team that can and will provide leadership on and off the ice. These players should be awarded with an “A” or “C”. If these players only provide leadership off the ice or in the dressing room, then what good are they really doing? The leadership needs to be evident on the ice more than anywhere else. What good does it do to only keep it in the locker room? Although it is the GM who provides the product, it is the coach who puts it on the ice. As far as our GM goes, it is difficult to say if all his blunders outweigh his positive accomplishments. We can spend our time evaluating the talent on this team and in minors and such but you would be hard pressed to say anything other than we have some very talented players he brought in and some very inept players that he has done the same. But what you can say is that the GM is responsible for the coaching staff. So with all said, I think the responsibility rolls up hill on this and the ultimate blame is on the GM. We are doing our part in being fans and buying tickets or watching the games on TV. We deserve more than silly predictable and too often heard excuses for not getting it done. We don’t want to hear that you need top play better; we want to see you playing better. We know that you will not win every game but we don’t want to see that it is because you didn’t bring you very best game every shift night after night, home or away, back to back or with a week off. There seems to always be an excuse every few games. When will we as fans stop hearing the same old and tired excuses and start seeing something being done? Step up and do something other than mixing up the lines. Step up and do something other than benching a third line player who is was new to the team. It obviously is not sending a message to the rest of the team like you think it is. I used to enjoy going to the games even if we didn’t win because there was energy and excitement. With the exceptions of very few games, this is no longer true. We might be in a better position to something in the future on paper but if nothing gets done when things are going like this, we will end up being one of those teams with all this talent and nothing to show for it. Work ethic, consequence and reward come from the leadership of the team. We need to stop blaming the players and hold accountable the people who are accountable.

This isn't the circus, Marc! Stop juggling so damn much! I understand if a guy (like Armstrong) is struggling and you want to find the catalyst to light a fire under him in the form of a new linemate, but chemistry IS key for your top two units.

Wow! I think I just had deja vu saying that.

There seemed to be another coach I remember doing this.......

Everyone has an opinion on what is wrong with the Kings and everyone has certain players, general managers or coaches who they like blame for the outcome of the games. With that said, here is mine. If players are not performing up to standards or expectations game after game it is the fault of the coach! After all it is the coach who is continuously putting them in the game instead of putting them on the bench. It is the coach who decides who wears a uniform and who wears a suit and tie. It is the coach who awards players power play time, positions on lines (forwards or defense), penalty killing and time on the ice. A player will give you what they choose to give you each game. A coach should do his job and try to motivate the players but if that is not possible he needs to take other actions even if it is benching the most senior and/or top paid players. A coach needs to recognize that just because a player was great at one time does not make him great today or provide immunity to consequence. If players are telling you directly or indirectly that part of what makes them successful is chemistry with other players, then a coach needs to find that chemistry and let it develop. A good player can be made to be a great player because of their line mates. If we are building for the future then let the chemistry build as well. If switching up lines didn’t work in the not so distance past, then why would you think it would work now? Part of the job of a coach is to find the players on your team that can and will provide leadership on and off the ice. These players should be awarded with an “A” or “C”. If these players only provide leadership off the ice or in the dressing room, then what good are they really doing? The leadership needs to be evident on the ice more than anywhere else. What good does it do to only keep it in the locker room? Although it is the GM who provides the product, it is the coach who puts it on the ice. As far as our GM goes, it is difficult to say if all his blunders outweigh his positive accomplishments. We can spend our time evaluating the talent on this team and in minors and such but you would be hard pressed to say anything other than we have some very talented players he brought in and some very inept players that he has done the same. But what you can say is that the GM is responsible for the coaching staff. So with all said, I think the responsibility rolls up hill on this and the ultimate blame is on the GM. We are doing our part in being fans and buying tickets or watching the games on TV. We deserve more than silly predictable and too often heard excuses for not getting it done. We don’t want to hear that you need top play better; we want to see you playing better. We know that you will not win every game but we don’t want to see that it is because you didn’t bring you very best game every shift night after night, home or away, back to back or with a week off. There seems to always be an excuse every few games. When will we as fans stop hearing the same old and tired excuses and start seeing something being done? Step up and do something other than mixing up the lines. Step up and do something other than benching a third line player who is was new to the team. It obviously is not sending a message to the rest of the team like you think it is. I used to enjoy going to the games even if we didn’t win because there was energy and excitement. With the exceptions of very few games, this is no longer true. We might be in a better position to something in the future on paper but if nothing gets done when things are going like this, we will end up being one of those teams with all this talent and nothing to show for it. Work ethic, consequence and reward come from the leadership of the team. We need to stop blaming the players and hold accountable the people who are accountable.