"Our guys are solid stickhandlers and I planned to use O'Sullivan and Cammalleri as the second and third shooters," Crawford said. "Instead, I held O'Sullivan back, and that worked."

no, actually, you got lucky that the shootout lasted four rounds. i like our first three shooters, but when a guy is 3 for 3 (make that 4 for 4), you use him. it's that simple.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't osullivan been the 4th shooter on 3 different occasions this season, and this is at least the 2nd time crawford has said he planned to use him in one of the first 3 rounds. A planned strategy!? oO

Anybody out there tired of seeing Cammalleri do nothing on the power play.
I also get the feeling that Crawford plays a little bit of favortism.

I've noticed that Lord Cammi hasn't done too much on the point during a power play. Whether its 5 on 3 or 5 on 4.
I was also disapointed in Crawford when he chose his highness to take the shoot out attempt instead his best shoot out player Sully.
Sully has been unstoppable on the shoot out this season. His highness has been terrible.
Placing Sully as clean-up is a stupid strategy.
What if Radim Vrbata scored on his attempt after Lord Cammi missed. Then your best shoot out player would not have been given his chance.

I can't help but think that our coach plays favortism. Either that or his highness has our coach wrapped around his finger.

Im tired of watching Cammi's play of late. Especially on the PP.
I can only hope he scores a few more goals this season,so his value goes up again. At least we'll get more in return when he's traded.

It sure seems like we often take a penalty in the last few minutes when we have the lead that ends up us giving up a goal.

patrick's the clean-up hitter it seems maybe move him up to 3?

I guess Sully isn't playing for Stamkos. Ersberg didn't get the memo either. hah.

I love seeing Sully have success but with this few games left I'm still hoping for the number one. I have a hard time cheering against my team but damn it would be nice to have another impact player (in theory, he's not a sure thing obviously) on the team.

What's Crawford thinking on that? With Cammy gripping the stick and not doing anything offensively why put him up there when you have Sully or Fro in the on deck circle?

One of the other posters was right. Crawford was just lucky it went 4 rounds.

I don't know for sure but I get the feeling he has something against O'Sullivan. He takes him off the top line when the line is on fire to replace him with Cammy or any other number of people and puts him down on the second line, and it always seems he holds him for #4 even though he's great on the shootout.

Maybe I'm off but it just seems that way.

Guiliano is horrible... I knew that guy couldn't hit a barn door from 50 feet but geez. just hold on to the puck. can't wait for this year to be over so we don't have to watch any more of these kind of shenanigans.

LOL @ Craw taking credit for the shootout. dude if Sully is 4-for-4 why isn't he shooting every time?? our best shooters are basically Brown and O'Sullivan, Kopi, and Frolov or Cammy in that order. ridiculous

If Giuliano or Handzus hit the frigging open net, then there is no overtime, period, amen. Also, if Cammy and Lubo can't do anything on the PP other than play catch, get them off. The purpose of Brown standing in front, is to screen the goalie. Shoot the GD puck! The closest Cammy got to doing anything important was the one rush at he end when he got taken down although he probably would have missed the net anyway just as he's done since he's been back. Don't you just love it when he hops or drops to one knee when he shoots? God he's awesome, at least that's what he thinks.

I was laughing because Guiliano came closer when shooting from center ice than he did from the slot when he missed by a good 10 feet last week twice from the same spot on one shift.

I love his effort but has no hands at all.

Lubo was playing well last night. He had some wicked shots from the point; his biggest problem was nobody fed him the puck at the right time.

And Cammalleri is tiring me too. I see him trying to make plays, or something, but he's not getting anything worthwhile done. In the overtime pp, there was no Frolov or O'Sullivan, the two best players on the team last night. Instead we watched the team fumble around on the power play and screw it up.

You might as well add the fact that he has trouble hitting the broadside of the barn at 3 feet...

The "miss" of the open net by 'Zus was easy to explain-his shot was tipped right after he let it go. Guiliano's was a flat out miss, and we wouldn't have needed Ersberg to be a wall or Sully to bat cleanup to pick up a W if Jeff made the shot.
As for Sully in the 4 slot on SO, I'm not sure what Crow's thinking. I tend to agree with Eric K, but maybe Crow's anticipating (gambling?) the SO will be tied after 3 rounds so he's using Sully as a "lock" on round 4? Best spin I can come up with.
I still expect to see 'Zus back, b/c it takes a year of play to get completely back from an ACL, and like his stats or not, he is a smart player on the ice, and the team needs that.
Phx got 4 on PP last night. For those of you who think JJ isn't important, think about how our PK operated without him and without Calder after the first period.

If you have watched Crawfish coach over the last decade he definitely
plays favorites. Why do you
think Clutes was in goal
game after game last year
until he finally got shelved? I have said for months (actually a year)
that he is the wrong coach for this team and needs to
go and that is still my
opinion. If he wants to take credit for winning a really meaningless game in
March let him. This game
was so unimportant that
Coyotes did not pull Telli
after giving up a couple of
really weak goals. Yotes are done as are Kings and
Gretzky knows it or Janet
had big bet on Kings last
night. Maybe a parlay to
the over. Anthony you are
absolutely wrong most of the time but your points
about Cammy are right on.

Only right about my Cammi comments.
C'mon metalmaster, you know that my threads on DL are right on as well.
I believe that he's the wrong GM for this team, as much as you believe that MC is the wrong coach for this team. And I respect your opinion, even though you trash mine almost any chance you get.

Let's compromise, fire them both and trade Lord Cammi for something more than used AHL pucks.

So what up with Fro on the 4th line? You know Ivanans has got love those set ups. He's not going to get them from Guilano. That's for sure. I guess it was a send a message to him kind of statement. It worked for 2 assists.

I don't know if anyone remembers back when the Avalance where still in Quebec, they remind me a lot of how the Kings have played the last two seasons under Craword. Before the Nordiques moved they had a young team with some really young talented guys i.e. Sakic, Forsberg, Deadmarsh, Foote, Ricci, etc. They main issue was thier goaltending. They had Stephane Fiset and Jocelyn Tibault in net. Not that these guys were terrible goalies but,they weren't going to put this team over the top. Fast forward a year and they get Patrick Roy. Same style of play that Crawford likes but, now you have a goalie who can put you over the top. Point I am trying to make is without solid goaltending this team is going no where fast. We could trade Cammy, Lubo, Mayor McCheese and the whole rest of the useless parts on this team but it won't make a difference. I hope that Ersberg pans out and the team gives him a chance to earn a spot. Both Ersberg and Bernier have shown they got the tools but, can they put this team over the top. Last night was a good example of a goalie winning it for his team. Yes he let in 5 on 40 shots. But he kept them in it. That's my two cents.

jkwondachef
You make some good points and I will give you that.
Avs also had some great
role players on that squad like Ricci and Claude Lemieux as well. My point
is that Craw's style worked in 1997 and it does not work in 07-08. This
team has to pick up 5 points just to improve on
last year's total and that
does not matter. Exactly
what has Crawford done since 1997? Avs fired him
and won another Cup and
Canucks are better off without him.This will be
his 3rd straight year out
of the playoffs. Carolina
won Cup in 2006 with Cam Ward who is not a top ten goalie right now. Ottawa
got there last year with Ray Emery who is now benched. A great goalie makes it easier but is not absolutely necessary. Has Crawford been able to get
out of 2nd round in the last 10 years? Kings have
improved goaltending over last season and have actually dropped to last in the conference. I think
somebody has to take the responsibility for that.I
have seen enough of his
ridiculous line swapping
this season to last a lifetime. Anthony I think
you need to give DL another
year before you put him on
the hot seat. If Hickey and
Bernier turn out to be good
then you have a very good nucleus to build on. He may
also draft a few good ones
this year. I agree with you
that the FA sinings have
been horrible but what can you expect if big names don't want to come here.
That is probably why he had to overpay for the scraps that he did sign. He is trying to build this team into a place where FAs
will want to come.Burke had
an easy job when he took over the Ducks. He can get
stars to come and play. He
is actually very overrated
as a GM but went to Anaheim
at a perfect time as the
foundation had been laid.
DL took over a mess. If Kings are in this same spot next year then he has a lot to answer for.

Agreed Metalmaster.
Especially on your comment about Brian Burke. The prior G.M. gave him a gold mine to work with.

Let's give DL one more chance.
Hopefully he'll not sign anymore has beens to K's with No Trade Clauses.

Metalmaster I wasn't trying to defend Crawford. I was just trying to point out similarites between the teams and how goaltending is important. I don't like Crawford anymore than you do. Obviously his style isn't working and his love of former players who really aren't helping this team is something to really question. The line swapping is among the worst I have ever seen at any level. As for DL I think the true test will come after next season going into year 4 of his tenure to asses his term a GM. This draft is really important because we have a lot of picks and we could significantly improve this team via trades to improve certain areas. We'll see what happens in the off season. The comments about Burke are right on. He walked into a situation that was peaking he really hasn't done much and is a cocky bastard. He couldn't do shit in Vancouver but, all of a sudden he is a genius GM? The Hockey world gives him too much credit for not a lot of work.

jwondachef
We agree on alot. Do you blame DL or MC for all the
former MC players? Burke will eventually f-up the
Ducks if he drafts as poorly as he has in the past. Drafting is the key
for the Kings as drsfting
well will give them many
options. It is too soon to
assess DL draft picks. We
all agree that next year is a key year.

Metalmaster. I believe it's a 50/50 decision. Obviously the GM has to find the players to "fit" into the system he has with the current coach. Also the coach more than likely has his say in the type of player he wants on that team. Many times coaches and GM's go with players they have been associated with before. In this case the players were over the hill or severely overrated to play with this team. DL was given a green light to remake the team to his liking as well. I believe blame goes both ways yet I can't remember a time when the Kings had so much potential in the current core of young players both at the NHL level and AHL level. It's a little like playing devil's advocate what do you do when you have good young players and only slim pickings when it comes to the "bridge" players that DL always refers too? That's why I mentioned before this coming Draft and season will be important and at year 4 we'll see what happens. I just don't want us to become a team that is rebuilding every 7 years. As to the Ducks, Burke couldn't find his way out of paper bag. The Kings are going to be built to be good for years and you will see the decline of the Ducks of the next couple of seasons. Poor drafting does that to your team.

JK
I am pretty much agree with all your points.Time
will tell if you are right.