Kings Lose in Columbus, What's Going On?
As a former athlete and life long hockey fan I take pride in understanding the sport and knowing where my team stands. I finally sat down and watched a whole game, in its entirety, with Kings radio on audio so that I could report back to you. We didn’t even mute the commercials because we always forget to unmute in time. We wanted every word and every play.
First, the Kings no longer have a radio broadcast. They bounced around the AM dial a few times the last few years only to land on iheartradio on the internet. It was simple enough to use, Nick Nixon is still doing great work after all these decades. I don't remember any fan phone calls after the game which is a shame. Kings fans used to call the radio show with some very good commentary. One of these days I want to call in and request the old synthesizer bumper music they played when I was a kid, it was mesmerizing.
Nick Nixon always had a lot of great stats. We are missing like 8 players to injury, some very important ones: Alec Martinez; Ilya Kovalchuk; Kyle Clifford; Dion Phaneuf; Carl Hagelin; Jake Campbell etc.
Last time we played the Blue Jackets we beat them 4-1. This time they beat us 4-1. Usually Jeff Carter plays great against them, they traded him to us and they used to boo him when he got the puck. But Carter was silent, just like he has been since our last payoffs. He's on course for a pitiful 15 goal season. Carter started his career with Mike Richards in Philadelphia, they had good times together until Richards for whatever reason was demoted for poor performance, it might have been drugs. We hope Carter is ok and not on any similar wrong path in life. He has 2 goals in his last 19 games.
Tyler Toffoli has even fewer goals and assists than Carter. If you compare this season to his pre NHL accomplishments you will see how disappointing this is.
Derek Forbort.
Number 24 on the Kings stuck out like a sore thumb. I went through my communications from exactly one year ago and found my message to some one saying 71 and 24 are totally lost. 71, Torrey Mitchell is enjoying obscurity in Switzerland but for some strange reason Forbort is still here. He does not belong in the NHL. He should not be playing for this team. I saw it a year ago, I saw it last night. If he is buddy buddy with some influential players it is the job of management to put their foot down. It reminds me of the Nick Shore situation, I never understood the infatuation with him and am glad he's gone.
Consistency is a problem. I thought the season was going to get better when Kopitar and Brown showed up in some wins. Then they disappeared again. We got our revenge against Las Vegas but some names I never heard before were responsible for that win. Sometimes we wonder if Quick will ever regain the excellence he had during that first Stanley Cup Playoff run.
Will we make the playoffs? If everyone gets healthy and we have a full time coach who knows how to handle these players, and we ditch Forbort, we may have a chance if they step up their performance. There are a lot of "ifs" there you'll notice.
Interesting fact.
Drew Doughty holds the record for most consecutive games played for the Kings with 360. Keep it up Drew, and help management make the tough choices.
Sorry, Derek, you gots to go.