Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored his first NHL goal but the LA Kings extended their losing streak to four games after being swept by the Golden Knights in Las Vegas. Jack Jablonski joined host Jesse Cohen following the two game series to reflect on the impact injuries and Covid-19 have had on the Kings early in the 2021 season. The Kings will return to STAPLES Center Tuesday night with a 3-6-2 record. Never miss an episode by subscribing today at LAKings.com/podcast.
You're listening to an la kings podcast for more episodes of this and every other kings program visit l. a. kings dot com slash. Podcast
There's no way to talk about back to back. Losses the vegas golden knights especially when they come on the heels of an embarrassing loss to the anaheim ducks but to help. Try and do it anyway. Jackson blonde gary. Tonight i jack all right have be happy sunday. Happy post super bowl. That's right happy super bowl sunday. We are recording this immediately. Following the super bowl the highlight of the day for me really was my cranberry sauce pizza. I must ask. You texted me a picture and it was in preparation of the super bowl. It was a pizza with Not marinara sauce nine garlic or whatever heck it was cranberry and then topped with cheese and pepperoni. Yeah so i mean listen. I'm not gonna lie. I got the idea during the anaheim game because one of the things i like to do is his win. The kings when the kings don't do well early in a game. I tend to check out emotionally. And one of my go-to tricks to keep myself entertained as to bring up some stupid fight on twitter about food. And when i was in fourth grade my dad staying in my dad's for the weekend or for week whatever and he hadn't gone shopping in a while and we had to make dinner and he wanted to take me to mcdonald's again so looked in the cupboard and what he did he have while he had some bubbly crusts Some cranberry sauce cheese pepperoni. So that's that's where it started. And i've just sort of had it in my back pocket all these years waiting to reveal to kings and after they lost anaheim and then they lost again. The first game to vegas in you know pretty convincing fashion. I just thought well. I'll start this game out with a controversial food. Take controversial food take is making a pizza with cranberry sauce instead of tomato sauce is delicious and i hope. I hope that it would coincide with the kings win. It didn't But i think all in all this is much well. I'm a little dishes north. Jose hope more than anything. But i mean look jim. Finding jim fox said it after the game i know. He is loath to claim moral victories but he conceded that this second game against the vegas golden knights in his eyes was a moral victory and i have to side with them. I mean obviously i'm biased. But i really did feel a lot better about the second game against vegas than i did about the first game or about the game against anna. I mean i would agree with that statement and there. There was a lot to take from this. I think it was a back and forth bout which you know we hit the him i. They hit us back. We responded which is something that we haven't always done in the past This year maybe even especially the few previous years not saying that the effort thing i think that's more just the talent that we had on the roster wasn't able to compete with a lot of teams. I think right now you you take into consideration. There's four starters essentially or four main guys everyday players on the roster that aren't in the lineup and for the kings to have a chance to get points in today's game to have the lead times and and not let things get away when they fell behind is definitely something that mclellan should be able to take within the locker room. A moving forward. Yeah you know. It's and it's tough. And i get it right and i i see people on social media and on twitter on read it and message boards and there is a portion of the fan base that that is is upset and i don't i understand it. You know. people spend time and money to follow a team and even even if you rationally understand. The team has to go through growing pains and has to take its lumps when they're rebuilding it. Can you know the team go. Team takes a four day break in the schedule after not playing for ten months and then they come back and lose three in a row and it's rough. You know what. I mean like you watch sports to have fun and you're not having any fun when the team loses foreign row especially with a long break in between and it's hard so i understand that when fans Talk about it. But i think there are a number of ways to sort of approach these games against vegas and one of the things that i mentioned on twitter and i think i believe it anyway. for today is one of the things that i do enjoy about this particular. Iteration of the kings franchises. They correct their mistakes. Maybe not right away but like you can see in vegas in the first game. They
They even though they sort of improved you know as the first period were on and maybe they played a little bit stronger in the second period. You know they got. It was five to nothing before you really knew what was happening And mcclellan made comments about you know. They learned the speed of the game and they the first time they'd played them. And it's still a young team with a lot of rookies and a lotta guys that haven't played together. You know we've said these beats over and over and over again but the point is they did adapt in the third period. They did make comeback. And then today's game for my money anyway. Today's game was you know. Relatively evenly matched They just got beat by team. That was better. And i don't think you know there's an old simpson's sorry. Let me finish this one thought. Sorry i know i'm rambling. There's a simpsons episode. Where simpson's over homer and bart go up against two and at the end of the episode the homer and bart beat the grafters in as they're driving away. The kid turns to the dad and is complaining or something. The dads something like. There's no shame in beating being beaten by the best and is the kid is objecting. The dad growl at him. They they you know. It's obviously they're not but vegas is maybe the best team in the league and there really isn't any shame and losing to them. Yeah and you know. The the king's fund themselves tough position. Because you're looking at you know sixteen games this season out of fifty six that are going to be against colorado in vegas and those are i believe the two top betting teams when it comes to vegas for for stanley cup a winner. So it's tough go and you can't hard bonded enough to the end you know know you hate to keep harping on it. But when you've got a team that is thirtieth twenty seven to need the nhl and you've got four guys out and yes there's been quite a bit of turnover from last year but there's a lot of familiar faces just in different positions and you like we were talking before we started recording. His mcdermott klag. Our second defensive right now. And i don't think anyone expected them to be everyday players kings this season If we had our way based on the depth that we had it in. This isn't a team by any means. you forwards or defense and for a team that has to go up against the vegas golden knights. Who are you know. they're back. They're healthy you know they're missing chance low but everyone there and they are in full swing with with two top goaltenders Debatably top tandem so for the kings that have to go against that on the road. You know it's tough. It's a tough ask. And i think they did adjust well from their mistakes in game one but you know like you said they did unfortunately get get beat by a better team. Yeah and you mentioned clegg mcdermott. And i do want to address this. Obviously we say time and time again. Happiness as measured by expectation. So i think it's important to remember you know as as upsetting is the losses are. I think it's important to remember where this team was at the beginning of the season. And you put it perfectly. When this season started we thought the top pair was going to be modern dowdy. The second pair was going to be anderson roy. The third pair was going to be walker and sort of a hating parade of. Maybe it would be curtis mc dermott on the nights when there was a tough team. Maybe it'd be kale clegg on nights when it was a fast team. Maybe tobias bjorn foot would slot in you know maybe if cova dobbin you might you know. See mark or austin strand wasn't even a consideration until walker and roy went down And so you know. Then you lose walker and roy in the same game and again i realized i sound bias and i i am biased but up up until that game against minnesota i think most people were fairly positive about the season right to that point. You could look at the first minnesota games While they lost our time. That's no fun and it's blah blah blah. But they held their own against saint. Louis gotta split. They held their own against colorado and got a split and then they held their own against minnesota again and a split but they lost a third of their defense. Which then as as i said to you before we started recording they were already shallow on depth and to lose clutter walker roy athen issue amazon and to not i mean. You're looking at two second-liners two guys that average around twenty minutes to get pensively you know. This is a team that is built around having the consistency of of the defense that we've slowly builds up at infound our likeness last year with roy walker being legitimate. Nhl defensemen and then you're asking a whole lot from a guy who's played four games prior to the season to start playing twenty something minutes a game and doing it so against the vegas golden knights team. That's you know right in their groove. Even though they had taken a little bit of time off due to covid. So it's it's a tough ask jesse and you're looking at a team that's young and you know frankly. They're a little short handed. Talent wise right now do the injuries and you're asking your age l. Session a defenseman or third liners to play second-liners a third-line centers fourth line centers to play second line minutes and a sixty minutes duration. It's gonna catch up to you against you. Know better teams especially when you're not the one controlling the play. I think one of the harder things for some fans to understand as well and frankly you know. I find myself in this boat
times to. It's one thing if you look at the players. That have left the organization like tyler toffoli alec martinez even derek forward kyle clifford who were traded. And you go okay. Well you know tyler voice tearing it up good for him. He's not doing for vancouver. So that's a little bit easier to take but you look at tyler madden and you go okay. Well i'm excited about that. You know or or kyle clifford yesterday. Did you draft picks. Back i Trevor moore and you're like okay. I can see the contribution. I think it's a little harder without taking time to think about how things unfolded to go. Well they coulda had been houghton. They have had. Trevor lewis. Not the ben hunter. Trevor lewis are going to transform this team into a cup contender. But when you're calling on and this is not to disparage these players. But when you're calling on austin strand or curtis mc dermott or leeann. Anderson is in and out of the lineup and jared anderson dole and his finally getting a first game. It's i think it's really easy to look at the line of and go. Well come on like these players. Were just not signed. They weren't traded away. You could have brought them back And i think it's you know. I don't know what i don't know. The thought process that ultimately led to those decisions. But i do find myself reminding myself that like a week ago. I was really positive about this team a week ago. I didn't care. The ben wasn't on the roster nor should you right now. Nothing against ben hutton. But i don't think he fit into what the king saw their organization moving towards. And i really liked that you bring up the seven days ago. I think a lot of fans and a lot of analysts and people that follow the game where you know impressed with what the kings were able to. Do you know up until they were swamped by vegas. They were able to take points split in. They're able to take points at the very least split almost all but one series that they had played in you know about through the season so you know a five hundred record or know so to speak up in. That area is something that kings fans should have been happy with. I think there was a lot to take from infrared team. That's now shorthanded. That scott guys out because of the covid protocols. You don't know what the situation is in terms of when roy walker will be back for goes down with an injury again you know. There's a lot of things that haven't gone the kingsway in the last four game losing streak with that said you know. I think you have to really focus on where the kings were prior to. You know this this losing streak because there were a lot of positives and the kings fans should be optimistic when it comes to the future and when we can have a unquote healthy in full roster. We've talked a lot about the guys that aren't on the lineup. Let's talk about some of them. That are I have a cure. I've have something. I've observed that. I'm curious to know what you think about my thoughts about it. I'm seeing a lot of pox going in the net off of defenders off of kings defenders. And the only thing that reminds me of is. It happened a lot to voinov early in his nhl career. And i feel like it happened a lot to muslim. But i might be. That might not be true. But i feel voinov. It was like every other week. Or every other game there'd be like a puck bouncing off of his foot and and it never made any sense to me. But but now that i'm seeing it happened clegg a little bit and and a little bit too anderson as well and i'm wondering if there isn't some sort of learning curve when it comes to defensemen and positioning next to the net next to the goal like maybe they're maybe they're so eager to do the right thing that they get too close and then those bounces. You know it's a. It's a shorter trip from their need to the back of the net. You know there's fewer paths for the puck to take because they're too close. I don't know this is something i've been toying with. I'm curious if you have any thoughts about that will the first. Yeah the first thing that comes to my mind is you know. I think it's happened a lot more in the recent nhl solely because of the way that we teach defenders. Now it's you know get in front of every shot. Make sure you know. Try to block everything. Make sure you try to get yourself in a position where he could take away.
Part of the net opposed to essentially what you do in basketball of boxing. Someone out and make sure that the goal has lane. I think that's the first thing that comes to my mind when you talk about. All of a sudden puck seem to be bouncing off defenders. A little bit more in in it most importantly comes with positioning. And if you get beat positionally in terms of you know fifty fifty battles in front of the net burst forwards. A lot of what i have in my head right now. Is the tough game. That mikey anderson had in the first game against vegas. You know he. He wasn't winning those battles in front of the net of that. He found himself in areas that put himself in. And you know. Quick or peterson invulnerable positions to be scored on or to be right in front of the net. When someone does tap that in. it's i dunno i. It's it's it's hard because it's obviously not the guy's fault and he's it feels to me anyway like the you know the guys there. He's he's quote unquote defending right. He's not getting beaten On the outside on odd man rush. She's not missing. His coverage is bouncing off his leg. Office back or stick or whatever and so it. Sort of heartbreaking. In that regard the other thing i wanted to talk about and this one fascinates me is on and co petar are obviously getting older brown. A few years older than kobe. Tar three three years four years or something like that. We all just see you know. It happens to the best list. We all get day every day. We all get older. But but i but one of the vacillated in youngest well it just it strikes me how good they obviously are. How good their hockey brain is right. Because dustin brown doesn't brown is not moving at top speed or top effort ninety percent of the time and he still scoring goals. And he's still making plays any still stick handling around guys can't remember which goal it was. I think it was maybe the velocity. One of the velocity goals were brown. It was like almost. He was almost walking like almost skating at a normal walking pace but he managed to keep the puck away and that goal that he scored on the power. Play against vegas than the first game. If i'm not mistaken. He carried the puck in right time. Yeah but but even leading up to the to the zone possession. He was carried. It in and vegas was trying to get it off his stick and he was not did not appear to be trying that hard to keep the puck. He's a little weave in. And out and i was stunned because it's like i said he is not moving at an unbelievable clip but his his whatever it is whatever those synapses that connect his brain to his hands are still very clearly active. And i'm just stunned carpenters. Another one right. He's not he's not blowing. People away with huge. Hits huge passes huge. You know. Skating dipsy doodles. Elouise had a couple of nights place but yet he still has. What eleven assists twelve assists. Something like that and a really nice goal today It's interesting that you bring that up now because duplicate just happened and for us. It's tonight and tom brady you know he's not any faster and he's getting older day by day. He's forty three or something you're correct. They just yeah they. They understand the game so much better. It's you know for brady. It's the defensive coverages and you know seeking out what's your what who's blitzing. What but for for both coats are brown. It's it's impressive. Because i think you look at brown specifically is obviously not. The most talented guy is not going to blow you away with you. Know his his hands in his. You know his shot etc etc. But he understands the right places to be an you. Look at your where. He's positioned on the power play in a thing all of his goals. Far come from the power play. It's just understanding in aware. Pucks are gonna be at what time it in for brown. Obviously being in front of the net seventy percent or something of the goals come with thin. Five feet of the crease. Making that stat up. But i know it's not close to being right based on what i've done it by research in the past but for brownie understands where to be and you look at the prospects in how we talk about. Every time someone moves up a level of play in in hockey. It's second faster and all the sudden. You look at guys like kobe. Tom brown and they've been in the same league and while it's obviously gotten faster in the game has changed a little bit. Since they were rookies. They know what works. And what doesn't in the nhl obviously become comfortable with the speed that it's played at so for them a lot of times. You know it's a little bit like slow motion because they know how the game is played in what the tendencies are a lot of players. So we've looked at who's out who's in you know i'm all of this is a choice right. I'm choosing not to be upset at four losses in a row. The minnesota game was obviously rough. The anaheim game was embarrassing. In vegas vegas but the question i have now is when roy matt roy was just added to irr today.
So i don't anticipate walker or roy being back anytime soon but athen issue in lozad ordinarily what you'd like to have as a scenario where the team is playing well and everybody's playing so well that you don't know who to take out say like well who you know who. Who do you take the minutes to sit right or in the opposite position right now. Yeah i mean it's not that anybody's playing particularly badly is just. I'm looking at wagner. Amalio carter cambay velocity anderson moore anderson dolan grunts trim. And you know love and i have been sort of in and out with injuries but i just sort of look at it and i go well. You know you could pick any two names out of those eleven that i just read off and suggest that they should come out for at least one game for athens. E or lozad when they're when they're available and i wouldn't put up much of a fighter i mean he's had some high. Some some bright spots velocities had some bright spots carter's had some bright spots grunts. Drums got a couple goals. Anderson dolinger scored his first. But you know you've lost four in a row and things are going great. So i don't know who would you take out if the those players were available for a san jose on tuesday. You know what's what would your lineup blow-black and will be. Obviously he had to say we don't know right now and you know it's a tough question because when things aren't going well it's easy to just be like. Let's just you know throw spaghetti Stick type thing. It's it's a situation where you look at you know. Essentially the ability to reunite lozad carter and in anthony you just because of the that they had even though they started to struggle a little bit analytically In the last few games before Both of those guys were taken out of the lineup. Due to protocol But dance your question. I think you've got a you've got to keep an eye on in the motto situation. He hasn't done a whole lot. I know that he's a rule player. But in of impact on the ice. I think that's something that should be monitored at least going forward I know he centered the second line today and and frankly played power. Playtime as well which nothing against michael audio. But he's not the offense of the threat that one would like to see on the power play at least right now And then on top of that. You know anderson dole and i thought had a really good game i thought he was. You know this is the best game of his career be it. I think it was eleven games at all but for him to get his first goal in. Today's game is hopefully some that he can build. Confidence said in in you know. Find himself being little bit more of an impact. Frankly other than you know someone that you wanna take the lineup. You can't go wrong unfortunately instead of saying the opposite term of long you wanna put in. It's just a matter of. I don't know how much of an impact you know. The bottom six or nine guys are having right now. Granted that they're on this four-game skid one of the things that fascinates me about charity. Anderson dolan is that two different coaches have said very similar. Things about was when he was with the rain last year and one was mcclellan. I don't knows two or three days ago. Maybe and others said The last time we spoke to him about anderson dolan. I don't remember exactly when it was but it must have been like. I don't know january or december of two thousand nineteen january two those twenty. But but what's other said. If i remember correctly was basically the anderson dolan placed too much defense. That he's obviously right like that. He's sort of picked his own role in his own head and he's just super responsible and that's all it's almost all he ever thinks about is trying to get the puck back when when they lose it and and others saying you know it's you wanna do that and it's good in your encouraging them to do it but you want to see him search around other half of his game and then mcclellan the word mcclellan used robotic And i don't want to put too much emphasis on that. Because we're getting these guys you know five minutes after practice or five minutes after a game and they're not you know they're not writing performance reviews for these guys. They're just answering questions in off the top of their head but but what he essentially said was that you know just sort of modified version of wet souther said which is at anderson. Dolan plays the system almost two perfectly and what mcclellan was. Saying was that they wanted him to take more risks to try more things. Because you can't score offense if you're just playing structured defense so it's nice to see him get a golden. Yeah i mean it's great to see him get a goal. I think you go ten eleven games. I mean frankly you go as someone who you know in juniors even a little bit ontario is used to putting up points and then you find himself getting to the nhl in that robotic type of Play that you you mentioned
only of the him getting in his head of picking the role but not being able to produce offensively at the nhl after five ten games Socially from a forest perspective can be really impactful in a negative way and for him to be able to get that goal. I think it'll be something to really pay attention to moving forward to see if all the sudden that loosen things up you know the monkey off the back type Type of cliche comes into to fruition with him. Because you're anderson. Dolan is a guy that we've heard about for the last three years and for him to hopefully i've been able to develop his game to the point where he can start. Impacting his linemates. In the team. Sensibly would be a vast improvement from what we've seen in his. You know previous fears when he did play for the gangs in those short spurts and one last thing sort of one random thought and and it's a shame because i thought he'd been playing really really well up to this point generally speaking i don't find it productive to to single out goalies for shaky performance because nine times out of ten. It's either not their fault. Or as a as i always say you know if if jeff carter beat a guy on a shot the way that Reilly smith and i forget who third goal. The goal was for vegas. But you know what i mean like if if the kings had scored two goals yeah thank you if carter had taken those shots. We wouldn't worry about what the goal was doing on the other team. We just go okay. Well that's an amazing shot by our guy. But i honestly i just thought peterson stopped at least one of those shots today. I mean i just thought he had a rough game. I'm not gonna say that's why they lost. I don't wanna blame it on my. I said ninety nine times out of one hundred. I don't find it productive to be. I think he had a rock. Yeah he had a rough start to the game and those point blank shots are are are are saves that any goalies He should make those the the ones that Frankly you pay them for it deflections and the back door passes those are some you know. That's the cherry on top. If you're going can make a few of those game but you know those those point blank. You know no screens. Even though they're a little bit in tight are saves you want your goal is to megan. It's a learning lesson. But i thought he did rebound well. You gotta yet quite a few big saves in the third period to keep them in the game and you know for for pearson giving up those early ones that maybe he would want back and frankly all of us would want back as fans thought that he kept them in the game when it mattered most in hopefully that something he can build off of. Frankly it wasn't a great performance for the goalies at By any chance for either with quick getting pulled game one so you know you'd like to see quick kind of move on. Forget about the past and you know bounce back in and for peterson to build off the third period that he had in the second game for vegas. Yeah and that's why a ashamed. Peterson comes in in relief of quick. The other night in my thought played great and he has played great up to this point. And you know. I understand that. It's not
Like the first ten minutes of the first period vegas search jumped all over them again was fortunate that kobe tar got that early goal. But you know the kings. They made it easy on vegas. In that first period you know it was a couple of turnovers a couple of just real bad reads and before you know it was three two two. So i'm i am more encouraged by this game and by the second half of the vegas the first game against vegas and i will recall. You know one of those ideas. The darryl sutter used to throw out there which is sometimes. You're winning games that you shouldn't and you know you're not playing well and then before you know it a losing streak comes along and then there's other stretches where you're playing games that maybe you should win but the ball bounces go the wrong way and all of a sudden you get a win streak going so looking at the schedule you know. The kings have san jose coming up for the next two games which i want to get ahead of myself but san jose is in a very similar position to the kings and the standing so an opportunity to play. Well get better. You know apply some of these lessons and hopefully collect some more wins and then two more games against the wild. So we'll see how it goes to abortion games against san jose. Because we're gonna you know as we talked about a few podcasts ago is once you've played every team in the division once or twice you kind of get a feel for where we think we belong and i think you know up until this. Four game losing streak. We thought we are going to be right in that race for four. Do i think we're still in it absolutely is they. Just you know. Losing streaks can't get big adding if you can get back to the splits and get back to you. Know two or three game win streak. It's important because a lot of these teams the good thing about this division and the bad thing is is you're playing feathers so teams can beat each other upper. You can start splits. The no one really moves a down the standings but For for la. They gotta take care of their business. And that's hopefully getting healthy in in both injury wise and covid Wise but you know san jose's a team that we should be able to beat if for playing the right type game in It'll be it'll be telling is an organization where we are within the division. Once you get past san jose. And i want to remind people in this is just me trying desperately to be positive between cove between covid protocol losses and injuries. The kings of really only had the lineup or close to the lineup. Today expected for five games. And i'm not even including the injuries to martinsburg matt. Lafon that i'm just talking about sean. Walker matt roy. Lozad and athens. Walker and mcdermott were not available. Neither was peterson for the first game. Against minnesota they were available in the second game both games against colorado both games against saint louis and one of the two games against minnesota in those games the kings were three to one.
you go. We'll take that. Yeah you know is if these guys can climb their way back to five hundred and get healthy. I think we've got a whole nother positive. Second half of the season to come. You know and the unfortunate thing is given the past and given the roster situation right now Unfortunately i hate to say things could you know kinda crumble out of control here in the next few weeks or next few games if they if they don't you know put some wins on the board because all the sudden it's the here we go again syndrome while they've got four games at home to against san jose to against minnesota like we said and ultimately i hate to be dramatic about it but i think this four-game home stand may be Maybe the playoffs stakes. Because if they can beat san jose once than what it really comes down to is. How do you stack up against minnesota on the season series right because presumably vegas colorado and saint. Louis are are gonna be the teams that make the playoffs. Colorado vegas look amazing and saint louis seven four and one as the time of this recording. I think that's pretty good. And then you've got minnesota anaheim ducks arizona and san jose all within a game of five hundred and the kings obviously with a four game losing streak struggling if they lose two more to minnesota puts a pretty big gap between minnesota and the kings. Yeah and that makes it real. See them megan the plows he i mean i know. I've used this cliche before in the podcast. But you can't make the playoffs in the first few weeks of the season but you can definitely take yourselves out of them and this is exactly what you mentioned in what i was talking about it in terms of. We'll know a little bit more about whether this team can hang with the big boys or on the playoff contenders Once we get through through every team once and and as you mentioned san jose will be telling just because we play them yet but that minnesota series be extremely important as you talked about given the fact that minnesota's in were i believe one one in two so they can even that up than i think. We've got life. If if not i think all the sudden you're going to see a little bit more of a rotating carousel players camp in the bottom six on the offensive side with all the prospects that the kings have in their system. Then defensively To be honest. I don't think any of us know what's going to happen. Defensely solely because of the injury that that hangs over our head with them jammed. And you know it's a bummer. Right and and i know people will say that but it is you liked what you saw up intel four games ago and all the sudden near geared to stabilize on the back end fall out of the lineup. Two guys in your second line. That was your best line to start season fall out and all the sudden you find yourselves outside of the playoff picture by a little bit of a wider margin than expected. And now i'm hearing there might not include and now i'm hearing there might not even be a draft this year. They might do to drafts next year so might not even get the benefit of traffic this year. So we'll see we'll see anyway. Sorry kings fans for slight. Bummer of an episode. But hopefully they get right against the sharks. On tuesday and thursday this week. Jack thanks for joining me as always had to be here and You know try some cranberry sauce on your pizza kings fans instead of tomato sauce. Jesse going. we'll talk you do it it's good.