4 days before Christmas, the Kings hired themselves a Scrooge. Mike Chen served as the Ghost of Christmas Past, detailing the triumphs and tribulations of Darryl Sutter's reign as head coach of the San Jose Sharks. What can we expect from the Ghost of Christmas Present? A few things:
1) Good Lord is Sutter uncomfortable to watch. Imagine giving play-by-play to your mom on the night you lost your virginity. You'd be less awkward in that conversation than Darryl Sutter is every day of his life.
2) Nothing's changing. The Kings aren't going to start opening things up. Like Quisp said, the Kings aren't changing the system; they're changing the way it's taught. Hopefully Sutter encourages a more get up 'n go attitude to get more chances off the rush, but that's probably the only change we'll see.
3) Good players, good special teams? The biggest thing I remember from watching Darryl Sutter, and this may be me talking out of my ass, is that he puts a lot of responsibility on his best players to play special teams. Looking back at the 05-06 Flames, Jarome Iginla played 5 1/2 minutes a game on the power play and almost 3 minutes a game on the penalty kill. I think the Kings will look to get Anze Kopitar more and more time on special teams while rolling 3 lines to keep his even strength minutes down.
4) Quick is going to die. I don't think Darryl Sutter has a problem running his starting goaltender into the ground.
Sutter's press conferences was... I'm going to be honest, it was pretty horrible. He's weird and awkward and he makes me uncomfortable. But I care a lot less about that and a lot more about this:
Richardson-Kopitar-Brown
Gagne-Richards-Lewis
Penner-Stoll-Williams
Sutter? I'm still deciding. But this? I like this.
***
Wait, it's Ahn-zhay Ko-PEE-tar? Not KO-pi-tar? Huh. That sure is a language you got there, Anze!
I conducted a stringent scientific survey at my office and the girls decided that Davis Drewiske is the best looking King but Bernier is the hottest because he speaks French. They also thought that Jarret Stoll and Brad Richardson looked "too cocky." Women be objectifyin'.
There was also a rather loud "Awwww" when Andrei Loktionov came up on the screen but then they told me to stop.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go shovel snow and put antifreeze in my... oh wait, no I'm not, I live somewhere awesome. Happy holidays, everybody!
Prediction: Kings win, a billion to none. Goals by Kopitar (x billion).
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