O'Sullivan discusses changes
Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan said today about the Kings' changes. O'Sullivan moves up to the first line tonight, alongside Anze Kopitar and Teddy Purcell...
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Question: Looks like some fairly big changes for the lines today...
O'SULLIVAN: ``Obviously after you lose a game like we did, there are going to be some changes made. It has changed a lot. There really hasn't been too much consistent, other than Kopi and Brownie staying together up until this point. I think we're trying to find something that's going to produce some more offense for our team. It's not like it hasn't happened before here. He likes to change the lines up, and that's how it is. Some coaches are like that and some aren't. I'd say that quite a few are. And usually if something works, it's going to stay together for the next game.''
Question: When you come off a bad game, how do you know whether it was just one bad game or whether changes need to be made, so that it doesn't turn into three or four bad games?
O'SULLIVAN: ``Well first of all, we haven't had too many games like that this year. We're pretty good at coming back and responding with a good effort after a loss like that. I don't think anybody is worried about that happening three or four times in a row, but we have to be more prepared and come ready to play. At the same time, if you take a look at some of the goals (Colorado) got, there were some pretty good bounces that went their way. I'd imagine that we'll come out with a pretty good effort tonight. We have to respond to how we played the other night. We've been able to do that all year, so I don't see why it would change tonight.''
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
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Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
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Talk about panic time. I'm really sad to see Murray reacting this way. He loses 6-1 largely because he's got a gigantic doofus in net. So what happens? He changes all the lines, inserts a guy with less than a point a game in Manchester on the top line. Changes the d pairings and goes with the other goalie. I'm giving 50-1 he makes them change their underwear between periods tonight.
There is a lot more to building a "culture" and learning and winning games .. there's a lot more to "coaching" than just shuffling the line up. Any idiot can do that.
50-1? Wow.
The discussion part of this blog, which is a privilege, could do with much less histrionics and much more constructive, non-personal commentary. The grade-school comments and pedantic back and forth that some people engage in here makes me cringe.
Sully is a die-hard competitor. Maybe Kopi and Brownie have bought more into DL and TM's rebuilding strategy, but Sully wants to win now. TM wants to test out all of his players and see where they strive. He knows there is very little pressure to win this year. By playing guys in all different positions and situations he can teach and evaluate his talent. There is no need to get into a good grove and finish 9th or even 8th this year. There is much to be said for pushing a player into unfamiliar roles so they can grow and improve. This is what it means to be a young team that is TRULY bought into a new direction.
Just as we need to be patient with DL and not call for stupid FA signings, we must also be patient with TM and trust him to teach this team to grow. I would love to see the Kings win every night, but they just aren't that good. I would much rather see the players getting better than have the team win a couple more games.
Just my thoughts
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from an outside the Kings' fanbase perspective, the situation the Kings find themselves in seems to be light years better than their fellow Conference-bottom dwellers, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts decided to go crazy and go shopping around the NHL to try and build a Stanley Cup winning team right away. As a result of all these ridiculous signings, all eyes were on the Bolts and they really couldn't be doing much worse.
So it seems to me that Kings fans shouldn't be panicking about moving O'Sullivan up. As a Buffalo fan, I can say that splitting up one of our top offensive tandems has caused them both to start scoring more (Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy) so this could be great for the Kings to split up Kopi and Brown. Vanek was scoring but Roy wasn't, they were together for like 2 years and it worked but now that they've matured as players, they're able to make plays with just about anyone.
But this is all from a far distant Eastern Conference perspective, diehard Kings fans might see it differently.
Ziggy, you hit the nail right on the head, those are my feelings to a tee. The only REAL issue I have is Calder on the first line but hey I'm not a coach so I'm not gonna freak and start askin' for heads to roll, we'll leave that to the "win now and at all costs" fairweathers in here.
Funny stuff AH. I also concur with Ziggy. And thanks for the EC perspective anne...