31 Takes: Firing John Stevens won't solve anything in LA

Just two weeks ago in this very space I said the Kings were in trouble.

Since that take was published, they’re 2-3, having been outscored 13-18, but actually played pretty well, outshooting their opponents overall. The problem, though, is that the Kings haven’t really been playing the kind of hockey that is required to succeed in the NHL today.

The pace was fairly slow, which is understandable given the personnel. If the Kings reminded one of the Darryl Sutter days, where they had a lot of shot volume to try to make up for the lack of quality, well, yeah. And you just can’t play that way.

It seems the decision was made to actually can Stevens was made on Thursday, before the Kings clubbed Columbus on Saturday night, but that one impressive-ish 4-1 win wasn’t enough to help him keep his job. Which, hey, fair enough.

The problem for the Kings, though, is that firing the coach, even one who didn’t have much of a great resume before he took this job and didn’t exactly blow the doors off the division last year either, isn’t gonna fix anything. It’s funny that Willie Desjardins (a guy who couldn’t have seemed less competent in Vancouver) is taking over as interim head coach, because this team has many of the same problems as those Canucks clubs did, plus a pair of elite players.

From what I can gather, Desjardins will almost certainly stay on for the whole rest of the season, at which point his job title would have “interim” erased, but people are already starting to say the name “Marco Sturm” a lot and Sturm is already an assistant. Point is, this is a club with options and Desjardins isn’t likely to do anything more than keep them performing at a fairly low level, which makes sense because, again, this was never a good team.

What seemed to be smart for the Kings here was that they were the first team to make the move, among several teams whose coaches are now sitting on some rather hot seats. Mike Yeo seems to be circling the drain in St. Louis, one could easily see where Randy Carlyle gets the axe in Anaheim (he’s signed through the end of this season, with an option for next year, and that’s it), maybe Jeff Blashill is headed for the ditch in Detroit, maybe Guy Boucher faces the same fate in Ottawa.

Again, they might just like Sturm for the job here, but Sturm would be a first-time NHL head coach — he’s coached German teams internationally, often with better-than-you’d-expect results — and this is just Desjardins showing him the ropes for the next five months or so. If you’re going with a first-time coach, though, the expectation can’t be that he’s going to turn things around with this roster, because one imagines that an in-his-prime Scotty Bowman couldn’t do that.

This is a team in desperate need of a blowing-up. It’s old, slow, expensive, and not particularly skilled even where it isn’t any of those things. The problem, as I said a couple weeks ago, is that almost everyone who’s worth keeping is over 30 and signed for at least three more years. The renovation of this roster should have started two summers ago. Even this past offseason offered an opportunity to fix things (trade Drew Doughty for a haul, not-sign Ilya Kovalchuk, etc.) but instead they doubled down on everything because, I don’t know, they made the playoffs last year?

The Stevens firing feels like a GM trying to save his own job, more than anything else. Because if you’re looking at this roster and saying, “Ah, Willie Desjardins might turn it around though,” you’re out of your mind. Even if you think Desjardins is a good coach (yikes), this team would need to play at a 102-point pace the rest of the way to even be in the playoff conversation. Seems… unlikely. Especially with Jonathan Quick out another month.

Might as well start fresh — as much as you possibly can with the current roster commitments — next year, because this one looks like a wash.

31 Takes

Anaheim Ducks: “A new coach,” for sure.

Arizona Coyotes: These guys keep winning. Raanta being .930 since he came to Arizona seems to help.

Boston Bruins: No one on this team is carrying the weight offensively, at least beyond the top line, so when the Bruins play elite teams like Nashville, sometimes they’re just not gonna score at all.

Buffalo Sabres: Must be nice to get to play the Senators so often.

Calgary Flames: The Flames lead the Pacific right now, thanks to their fifth third-period comeback. Hey, does that sound familiar at all?

Carolina Hurricanes: Yeah Andrei Svechnikov is not living up to expectations early here.

Chicago: Might be toast here. Five straight losses? No answers? Sounds about right.

Colorado Avalanche: Yeah it is insanely weird that Gabe Landeskog is tied for the NHL lead in goals right now. It’s probably weirder that Timo Meier is also tied for it.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Imagine losing to this year’s Kings? Brutal!

Dallas Stars: The Stars are 3-3 on the road this season, but since that’s after an 0-3 start I think they’ll probably take the record.

Detroit Red Wings: Not really surprising that these guys couldn’t hang with Connor McDavid to be honest.

Edmonton Oilers: Speaking of, Saturday night was McDavid’s 69th multi-point game since the start of 2016-17. The next-closest guy (Nikita Kucherov) only has 58.

Florida Panthers: You wonder if, after a split like this, anyone involved feels like the Finland trip was Worth It.

Los Angeles Kings: The Kings are now 2-1 since getting Dustin Brown back. They’re going on a run folks!!!!

Minnesota Wild: Eric Staal has 400 career goals now. That really snuck up on us, I feel like.

Montreal Canadiens: Hmm you mean to tell me a team with this little skill up front and on the back end can’t score on the power play? Pretty interesting.

Nashville Predators: Realllllllllllllllllly don’t understand the desire to give a guy who’s gonna be your backup a two-year deal with a $5-million AAV at age 36.

New Jersey Devils: Just don’t see it with these guys.

New York Islanders: You’ll never guess this team’s PDO after a five-game win streak. That’s right, it’s the highest in the league at 105.3. You’ll also never guess its xGF%. That’s right, it’s third-lowest in the league at 44.1. Which will last longer? Hmm. Hmmmmmm.

New York Rangers: Have you guys heard of Elias Pettersson at all, or…?

Ottawa Senators: Winless in five straight on the road sounds about right.

Philadelphia Flyers: Yeah what are ya gonna do sometimes, y’know?

Pittsburgh Penguins: I don’t think the Pens were aware they had a game on Saturday. They looked that bad.

San Jose Sharks: Ah, phrasing.

St. Louis Blues: The only reason I didn’t write a big “they gotta fire Mike Yeo” take for the top of this thing is that I was pretty sure they were gonna do it before this published. But man, they gotta fire Mike Yeo.

Tampa Bay Lightning: If Steven Stamkos really gets going offensively it’s over folks.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Knowing the PHWA, Morgan Rielly’s gonna have the Norris sewn up by Christmas.

Vancouver Canucks: Pettersson just does this, like, so effortlessly. Knowing the PHWA, he won’t have the Calder sewn up until March 15.

Vegas Golden Knights: Great news for Deryk Engelland. Swish.

Washington Capitals: The Caps only have five wins in 12 games and bottom-10 underlying numbers. When do we start acknowledging that last year was a fluke? Just wondering.

Winnipeg Jets: Don’t think the Jets have been particularly good this year, but they’re still third in their division, so…

Gold Star Award

Elias Pettersson. I always knew he was a special child.

Minus of the Weekend

Still trying to figure out Matt Murray. One gets the feeling this is also true of Matt Murray himself.

Play of the Weekend

Matt Tkachuk a beautiful boy.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “BannedFromCDC” cooked up a good one.

Signoff

Y al final una catastrofia con pelota grande de beisbol.

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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