When the season started you could smell the hope in the air. But after 10 games the team is imploding. Its seems as if the team is fighting itself more that their opponents.New head coach Terry Murray is keeping up with ex head coach Marc Crawford's tradition of switching up lines every game. As you can imagine that is not sitting well with some of the players and its not working well in the wins department. Winger Patrick O'Sullivan is not happy about this situation and had this to say. "I'm pretty frustrated. I don't really know what's going on. It seems like our lines change every day. It's pretty frustrating. I don't know the reason. I've been through a lot in two years, trying to play at this level. I thought that last year I did a lot to establish myself as a player in this league and someone that's able to play at a high level in this league, but it seems that with the new coach I have, I guess I need to prove myself all over again. That's frustrating, but then again, I wasn't here for camp, so I don't know if that has anything to do with what's going on or not." When asked about the importance of consistent line mates he replied "Absolutely. It's easy to say as a player, I guess, because you want something that's going to be consistent and you want to be able to get used to guys, especially when there are a lot of new players. It's tough when it's changing all the time, but at the end of the day, those are decisions made by the coach. He's got the final say and we do what he says. I don't think anyone here doesn't believe in what we're trying to do, so as a player you just shut your mouth and you play, but it is frustrating."
Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown have been struggling mostly because there is a new winger playing with them every game. Moulson, Calder and O'Sullivan have all seen time on the 1st line.
Jarret Stoll has been moved around more than any player would like. 2nd line, 3rd line, 4th line, PP1, PP2, PK1 and PK2. All he needs is to suit up between pipes to complete his tour of duty.
Big props to Rich Hammond for the O'Sullivan quotes
4 comments:
How in the world does Terry Murray expect these guys to gel and start playing together when he is always changing lines up? And the one position he SHOULD be swithing up players (goalie) he's not! Im with O'Sully on this one, this is got to stop. Its not only frustrating for the players is frustrating for the fans as well.
O'Sully to Toronto !!
I have no idea what kind of expectations you had but "falling apart"?????? Oh yeah lets fire the coach, give me a break!!!! If you ever wonder why the Kings never ever come close to the cup, stop pointing fingers. Negativity, well, brings on more negativity. Hockey LA fans need to look at all the positive that is going on with our beloved franchise. We finally can see talent and character, from the top down. Let's talk about our coach maybe half way through the season but not now
How can the players adjust to a new system when they are always being switched around on the lines?
Terry Murray and DL should go out the door if things don't settle down for us.
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