Andrew Knoll
@AndrewKnollNHL
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Hockey reporter for the L.A. Daily News. Formerly of The New York Times, ESPN, etc. Taught at Temple. Gaucho. Owl. The Imelda Marcos of sneakers.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined October 2009
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Why post 140 characters when you can offer 1000 words?
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#LAKings
Danault and Byfield had a long conversation during practice, Phil working on some shooting techniques with him as well. Danault has become an extension of the staff in many ways
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Geez, if only
#GoKingsGo
had a prospect who came up and immediately scored three goals despite very limited minutes.
Or a guy on the roster who could snipe.
Or a lottery pick defenseman made for big moments (hello, Boston).
Or the AHL's most prolific goal-scorer.
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#LAKings
Adrian Kempe is exactly the type of player the league should be marketing prominently. He plays a very well-rounded yet highly dynamic game. He's stylish and handsome. He has a real personality. This is an enormous market, regardless of the temperature. No-brainer.
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I proudly voted for him, with the utmost respect for Erik Karlsson's campaign, career and character, of course. Miro is complete and clutch, amazing season that went too widely unnoticed. Also thanks to Mr. Yousuf, I can use all the hype behind me I can get ;)
.
@StapeAthletic
was the one first place vote for Wyatt Johnston for Calder.
@AndrewKnollNHL
was the one first place vote for Miro Heiskanen for Norris.
Just in case Stars fans want to start petitioning for a new beat writer :)
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The wild thing to me is that
#GoKingsGo
let Arvidsson walk, likely because of injury concerns, and then invested twice as many years at basically the same money in a guy who's the same age, who's pretty much never healthy and who plays a much more limited role.
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#LAKings
Englund hasn't recorded a point since Nov. 29. No fights since Jan. 2. Hasn't been a plus player since Jan. 9. He doesn't play the PK or the PP. Really love his vibe but what exactly is his hockey-related contribution at this point?
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Probably the worst call in the history of Western Civilization if not the universe
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Last night, a colleague requested
#GoKingsGo
Rittich postgame. The request was denied, with the stated rationale that Rittich was "not a factor" in the match.
HE WAS THE THIRD STAR OF THE GAME.
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Surprised they let him participate, might be a $685 bonus for him going 4for4 that would flood their topped-off gas tank of a cap situation next year.
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#GoKingsGo
targeted Edmundson and got him. $3.8M a year per multiple reports. Four-year term. Between that and Jeannot, I'm not sure we're seeing the open style that Juice and Kev crave.
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I see grumbling about the Fiala deal now that Faber is looking nice. Come on. That was a great hockey trade that
#LAKings
won. Shrewd move. I get negativity but that isn't the right place, for numerous reasons
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First star: Turcotte, scored a goal on his only shot, had an assist, created opportunity on another goal
Second star: Rittich, held them in a game where they were out-shot significantly and that didn't tell the whole story
Third star: the post
They'll take em any way they can
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There's a real dualism to
#GoKingsGo
Dubois move. They said it was "on them" (deployment, roles, etc) but they're also cutting ties with him at the first genuine opportunity. That's sort of a halfhearted, context-free admission, in my view, for this huge of a reversal.
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I heard someone trot out the old "there's only one Cup champion!" argument for
#GoKingsGo
. Wow. The
#Kraken
have more playoff victories (series and games alike) than the Kings during Rob Blake's tenure as GM. They've been in the league for three seasons and qualified for PO once.
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Prediction for Fiala postgame:
"When the fans are screaming, 'We want ice cream,' do you guys hear that on the ice?"
"Absolutely, and it makes us feel like our fathers raising us up toward the sunlight as young children."
McFlurry-minute goal for Kev. It's 5-0 vs
#Blues
.
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I cannot wait to see what Brandt Clarke does in a full season. Such an imaginative player
#GoKingsGo
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#GoKingsGo
Timeline of PLD:
"He's going to come in and dominate." LR
"We've gone through this long enough, it's time." TM
"We brought him in to be a game-breaker, and he knows that." AK
"We’re expecting big things. We’re expecting him to be great (in the playoffs)." JH
Fin?
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#GoKingsGo
are talking about "tweaks" as if they are close. They have a .273 win percentage in the playoffs with this regime. Making the playoffs three years in a row is *not* special. Pick a team in the playoffs, almost all of them have been there the past couple seasons, too.
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I'll be working Blake's conference remotely, but it's not for any unfortunate reason. My wife and I welcomed our first child very recently so while I'll still be on top of everything with both beats, I won't be around the rink much for a bit here. Our son is 2042 draft eligible!
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@Super70sSports
I sometimes see the Juice on "overrated" lists and that's just baffling. He and Eric Dickerson too seldom get their due
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#GoKingsGo
have had a pretty strong start to the offseason. Yes, some of it was undoing or readjusting regrettable decisions, but you can only move forward from the present. Rittich and Turcotte = great value. Dumping the PL risk was essential and pretty tricky to execute.
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You can tell
#gokingsgo
Doughty is jacked for the playoffs. Anticipating a huge series from him.
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Roy, 6 years 34.5m
Durzi, 6 years 36m
Walker, 5 years 18m
Faber, 8 years 68m
#GoKingsGo
have negative value to show for three of these four players and to get Fiala they gave up the most valuable D in the group plus a top 20 pick.
RHD in the Kings system at the start of the 2021-22 season:
Drew Doughty
Matt Roy
Sean Durzi
Sean Walker
Brock Faber
Brandt Clarke
Jordan Spence
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The thing that impressed me from Dubois tonight –– and Hiller expressed this sentiment too –– was the bounce-back. He got beat for a goal in confrontational and slightly embarrassing fashion, but he came back with a goal and a whale of a shift in OT, one of his best shifts yet.
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Tense PK and then Clarke exits the box and scores his career goal on a breakaway! His penalty probably saved a goal and then he won the game when it was over. Huge win. We've seen wins in Boston give the Kings momentum before 🤔
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#GoKingsGo
have been ABJECTLY MISERABLE during the postseason. In the seven seasons RB/LR have been in charge, they have fourth fewest goals per game and, astonishingly, the second highest goals-against average. This for a team that tries to win zero to negative one.
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Laferriere was a nice story for
#LAKings
early on but he's starting to look a little less ready for primetime. He still has good instincts and he's not hurting the team by any stretch but he's definitely blended into the background more. Line is looking less visible, too.
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@mikefinger
These people don't want data, they want anecdotes to fuel their fury. They'll send you piles but when you ask for pre/post pandemic comparisons they start mumbling like Chief Wiggum, like they accuse "big pharma" of doing every 15 milliseconds.
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No one wants to hear this but the work
#LAKings
McLellan and his staff put in over the summer deserves a ton of credit. The PK? Worlds better. Overall system/structure? Won games by itself and differed from other top teams (VGK, BOS, etc). To say this is all coaching is absurd.
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Moving along to positive vibes, I really want to thank all the players and coaches from
#gokingsgo
and
#flytogether
. In particular Todd McLellan, Greg Cronin, P.L. Dubois, Phil Danault, Trevor Moore, Troy Terry, Cam Fowler, Radko Gudas and Leo Carlsson. What a season.
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As expected,
#GoKingsGo
do not qualify Lizotte. They do qualify Kaliyev. This thread will discuss the moves in a bit more detail ...
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The doomsday scenario for
#LAKings
there would be an early playoff exit, losing Roy, losing Toffoli and not having a first in the first round of the draft.
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#GoKingsGo
Byfield looks like he had a good summer in the gym. Lower body looks thicker, he's carrying his shoulders high.
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The biggest mistake they can make, and they may very well make it, would be taking a half-measure. They already tried to softly scapegoat Todd. NOPE. Now it'll be Rob? He and Luc came as a pair for all intents and purposes.
The culling should begin in LA. The Kings should have an almost entirely new front office soon, and a largely new coaching staff. Regressing for the 3rd straight season is simply unacceptable when you've traded a 1st in back-to-back drafts and are now in cap hell.
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Incredibly sad news, in LA the major local news institutions that seemingly everyone in their respective lanes loved were Jim Hill for sports and Sam Rubin for entertainment, which was obviously intensely competitive here. Such warmth. He will be missed.
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This team could use Mike Richards. Heck, this team could use one tenth of Mike Richards
#Warrior
On May 3, 2012, Mike Richards recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick, Drew Doughty had three points, and Dwight King scored his first career playoff goal in a 4-2 win over St.Louis. The Game 3 win gave the
@LAKings
a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals.
#LAKings
#GoKingsGo
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I went to bed fearing the worst and woke up every hour hoping for the best. Devastating. Johnny has two kids under 2 years old and a palpable passion for life. I never had the pleasure of meeting Matthew but have little doubt he shared that quality. So senseless.
The definitive Johnny Gaudreau forever young hockey moment. 12 years ago. He's 18 years old. Ices the 2012 NCAA Championship game. Comically quick feet, hands, and brain. His comp for me was always Allen Iverson--I covered both in college. Impossibly small and skinny (JG MIGHT be
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Taking the two games in sum I'd say
#GoKingsGo
best two players in this series have been Kempe and Spence. Top pairing bounced back after a tough game. Second pairing still searching. Spence has been rock solid. Kempe keeps sticking it to Edmonton, three years straight.
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And he's still just scratching the surface of what he can be. He will fill out to around 240 and be one of the most powerful guys out there. Speed is insane, period, not just for a player his size. He's just barely learning how to use it and becoming assertive.
Quinton Byfield last night:
17:47 TOI
— 1 goal
— 1 assist
— 2 points
— 3 shots
— 4 FO won (0 lost)
— 69.8% Corsi
— 71.0% Fenwick
— 67.5% xGoals
It doesn’t matter if QB plays center or wing anymore. He dominates everywhere he goes.
#GoKingsGo
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Here's an overarching theme with
#GoKingsGo
: not admitting any sort of fault or shortcoming that isn't broad, vague and "fixable." It's never a lack of talent or a systemic flaw, it's always "connectedness," or "cleaning up _____" or "desire." Never concrete, always nebulous.
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Obviously biggest priority now for
#LAKings
is getting Byfield signed and it seems like his emergence has or at least should take a bridge deal off the table.
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I don't expect this but if I were making the call, I'd start Rittich tomorrow. As
@MarcelAndRogie
pointed out Rittich has 1.34 GAA and .948 sv% at home. We've also seen that using Talbot over and over diminishes the quality of his play. It's unconventional, sure, but I'd do it.
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#LAKings
Arvidsson really isn't appreciated by people who follow the team casually or from out of market or whatever. PK, PP, 5v5, plays all, and effectively. Has a real confrontational nature to his offense, both skating and shooting, that the Kings mostly lack otherwise.
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Whatever line Byfield goes to cooks. His goal tonight was McDavid-esque. His ceiling keeps rising.
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First McDavid and now this. In their two wins since the all-star break,
#LAKings
have turned in stellar MMR/60 performances (mad-making rate per 60 minutes).
Bro threw his broken stick on the ice during play and didn’t get a penalty
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@rwesthead
It's rich that
@nytimes
is printing this while gutting their own very lucrative operation, union busting nakedly and angling toward a newsroom of literally robots. They are an industry leader in creating these issues.
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He was only worth a second-round pick though 🤔🤨
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Question for
#GoKingsGo
Twitter: how do you know or where have you seen that Gabriel Vilardi wasn't going to sign or did not want to sign with the Kings? I am trying to ascertain where this widely-held notion originated. Thank you.
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So can we take receipts on the biggest Byfield doubters and make them all change their handles to reflect their shame appropriately?
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I was told Western Canada wouldn't stand for this 🤔
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A lot of people are overlooking what Gavrikov brings to
#LAKings
. While I will say Ekholm may have been the better chip, he also cost more and was older. Gavrikov has runway in what's already a very solid, steady game with a big of mobility and punch, too. Big add for 82 games.
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This narrative of Viktor Arvidsson as the savior of the power play, PL, the Kings' identity or whatever else just seems illogical and unfair. He hasn't played an NHL game since May. His return should be about making it comfortable for him, not putting additional weight on him.
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A couple notes to temper Edmunsongate for
#GoKingsGo
. 1) There was competition that drove up the price, that's obvious, with a couple top teams in on him. 2) The MNTC is a 10-team no-trade list, pretty light protection. It's a reach, but not an atrocity.
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Sean Walker to the
#Canes
, five years, $18M.
Comeback story of the decade to date, great for him.
He was tossed out like a skidded-up Pamper and all he's done is thrive. Colorado wanted him, now Carolina, two elite organizations of this era.
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People are really ripping
#LAKings
Anderson-Dolan, geez, he is like the least offensive person that ever lived. I get that he isn't lighting it up out there, but there's no reason to dump on him, especially after two games (a month apart) where he had a very limited role.
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Whoosh, what a relief that they made it to the arena what with it vomiting snow and spray farting hail or whatever.
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Several people have asked what the potential departures of Lewis and/or Lizotte do to the Kings' penalty kill personnel. Jeannot has PK experience. Thomas can kill penalties. They'll have options.
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I knew
#GoKingsGo
were locked in on Hiller before the Rob/Luc presser. They started dripping little stuff like "he's a brilliant hockey mind" and "they'd be crazy not to hire him" in the ways that are transparent to those that recognize them. The presser told me ... (1/2)
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Saw Berkshire's farce about Hyman. Not even thinly veiled. He is the guy said once his Jewish friends were done seeing red mist, they'd grasp that Israel was the aggressor, in October. Guy has consistently shown to be an antisemite and it caused me to cut off all contact with him
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#LAKings
Quinton Byfield scoring breakdown:
28 of his points came against non-playoff teams in 34 games, +14 rating.
He's got four points (10 games) against wild-card teams, -1 rating.
Against the 11 firmly situated playoff teams he has 20 points in 25 games, +6 rating.
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The lines have changed from game-to-game and in-game more under Hiller in half a dozen games than they did for 25 games if not the entire season under McLellan. Looking for combinations and feels.
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First he wins a pillow fight, then he sweeps that burnt biscuit at the beekeeper with his broom.
#InsightfulCommentary
First round pick Liam Greentree in a puck protection drill shooting on Hampton Slukynsky.
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#GoKingsGo
had the top-ranked prospect pool in the
#NHL
per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic in 2020 and 2021. Let's look at that stable and what became of it ... (thread)
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Why so much negativity? They only gave up one touchdown!
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#GoKingsGo
captain Anze Kopitar confirms the Kings will not be playing the 1-3-1 this year. Fiala said it was still in in bag but that he was excited to be implementing a new system.
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Danault has been totally invisible on offense in this series and had at least one awful game on defense. Really a shame, he was one of their steadier players during the season and has been so tough in bouncing back from bumps and bruises.
#GoKingsGo
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He brought an air of class, stability and direction to an organization that was in some level of disarray. Unfortunately, it returned to that position thanks to what I'll politely term an unconventional offseason.
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@JasonGregor
Sir, what's embarrassing is that you're holding an insurance agent's feet to the fire over a small flub. He knows the words; he's sung the song hundreds of times. He made a mistake. He felt very bad. This isn't the Eras Tour, nor is it an affront to Canadian nationalism.
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#GoKingsGo
Turcotte, selected fifth overall in 2019, has played 32 NHL games. The other nine players selected in the 2019 top 10 have played 306, 300, 280, 246, 212, 211, 164, 137 and 81 games, respectively. That even includes guys like Dach and Zegras, who've had big injuries.
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With Rittich returning it really feels like
#GoKingsGo
will run it back between the pipes. He signed for $1M, marginally more than he made last year, and Talbot expressed desire to return during his breakup day interview. Money is also tight to get too spendy on tendies.
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#GoKingsGo
interim coach Jim Hiller talked about knowing Trevor Moore since he was 16 and Hiller was courting him for the WHL, then their paths crossed again in Toronto and now once more in LA.
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39
How did the team make progress?
-Very similar in the league standings.
Being similar isn't progress and they were actually five points worse.
Offense? From About Dec. 7 on, they were the seventh worst offense in the league.
Goalies? Smoke and mirrors, bunk when it counted.
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This guy might just stick
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For context, Carolina was swept in the conference finals in four, one-goal games. Two went to OT including a 4OT marathon. The Kings lost games 6-1, 7-4 in this series. Were shut out in another loss. Carolina has won eight playoff series since 2019.
Team’s goal going forward hasn’t changed. It’s to win the Stanley Cup. Explaining this, Robitaille related re-watching the Edmonton series to Carolina getting swept in the conference final last year despite believing they could’ve won each game. “Man, it was right there,” he said
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Full marks to
#GoKingsGo
captain Anze Kopitar. His comments yesterday didn't parrot the whole "clone Game 4, win Game 5" fantasy. He was frank and forthright in his remarks. I expect a big game from his line tonight. Kopi still has a lot of fire.
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Not one of the five players
#GoKingsGo
have added this offseason was a Pat Brisson or CAA client.
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@jeffpearlman
Inner beauty radiating outwardly.
Notice how all the true and truly fierce independent artists are women. Tracy. Aimee. Sinead.
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Layers to it. When you hear him one-on-one in his native tongue he is pretty comfortable, it's no more noticeable than someone who is maybe a little fatigued or nervous. But then add people, cameras, lights, another language. That's tough for him and we should all respect that.
For Leo Carlsson, his stuttering—which he has been very open about—seems to crop up more often when he’s in front of the camera.
He doesn’t know why, but he doesn’t care about it too much given how much media attention he has and will receive.
#FlyTogether
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#FlyTogether
Silfverberg:
“I’m for sure not retiring from hockey, I’m retiring from the NHL, but I’ll still play for another couple years.”
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One thing we've seen in the entire cap era, productive players on entry-level contracts or bridge deals are the LIFE BLOOD of competitive teams.
#LAKings
treated at least two such players as disposable.
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I want to be clear Blake has a lot of strengths as a GM. He restocked a bare cupboard quickly with feasible shortcuts. He stocked RD, a coveted position. The 22 and 23 offseasons were solid. But there are also enormous red flags along the way.
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In totally unsurprising news,
#GoKingsGo
will not retain the services of assistant coach Trent Yawney, who was Todd McLellan’s right-hand man
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