OT: Doughty Trade Rumor

I see what you're saying but I'm benching Reider every night of the week in place of Amadio. The speed is great - don't get me wrong - but while Reider has the jets Amadio has the overall game. The Caps are one of the fastest NHL teams and the Kings had no problem dealing with it last night with Reider out of the line up.

I think keeping Amadio in also balances players to their natural positions instead of having to play elsewhere to fill a hole. Mitchell can play all 3 forward positions and was holding down the 4C slot before Thompson arrived but that's because they had no options. I'm sorry but seeing Nick Shore and Torrey Mitchell as the B6 centerman didn't scare anyone.

With Carter out Kempe was forced to play 2C although he is a natural LW and then this trickles down the lineup. Thompson is a only a C and fits that 4C slot better than Mitchell. Kempe sucks as a C and Mitchell is too small to be effective as a 4C.

Amadio in at 3C allows Kempe to move back to LW where he can use his speed better and opens up the 4C slot for Thompson and puts Lewis as a very capable RW on that third line. That is a lot of speed as a forward unit right there even without Reider.

I think the Kings acquired Reider to see if he fits into the lineup somewhere, he is an interesting player in regards to what kind of upside he may have. I like his speed and his hustle for certain but on a deeper team like LA vs AZ he wasn't going to get more ice time unless he was more of a proven nightly player.

And I think Toffoli more than Pearson needs to be benched but honestly I'm not sure if I would bench either of them in place of Reider unless there is an injury.

Might have witnessed the end of an era today. The Kings mojo is nearly all but gone.

lasportzphan said:

Might have witnessed the end of an era today. The Kings mojo is nearly all but gone.

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I missed the game, we took the 4 and the oldest's friend out all day but was checking the score on my phone. It was pretty shocking to see them racking up goals all over the place, especially for a team that has scored a grand total of 9 goals in the previous 7 games. This was a devastating loss in regards to the opponent who is struggling, fighting for a PO spot like the Kings and the Kings on a roll prior to this and just getting up to speed for the stretch run.

Sounds like everything went wrong all around all afternoon, the good news is they have 3 opponents coming in the next 4 days to get some easy points. I just hope they don't play down to their level and shoot themselves in the foot.

Looks like Stevens went pretty drastic with the line combinations today in practice:

Pearson-Kopitar-Brown
Rieder-Carter-Lewis
Kempe-Clifford-Mitchell-Amadio
Iafallo-Andreoff-Thompson-Toffoli

About damn time Toffoli was demoted, he has brought almost zero heart and competitiveness this season. No idea why it took 85% of the season to be gone to make a change.

Pearson isn't scoring but on almost every goal the Kings have recently (and consistently throughout the season) he is going to the net either to try and score or set a screen. Toffoli is trying to dance through defenders nightly and not willing to go to the tough areas thinking his shot will go in from 20 feet out - not going to happen 90% of the time. These lines may not be what we see tomorrow night but I hope we do.

Just watched the highlights on NHL.com, holy hell what a cluster - defensive breakdowns everywhere, Quick playing like he's back in 2007 as a call up.