A season that began with great expectations dissolved into a struggle to stay afloat as the Kings hit the halfway mark. They had more reason to look nervously in the rear-view mirror at the teams gaining on them than to look optimistically ahead toward the top of the Pacific Division, which is where they thought they’d be after they acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois and his eight-year, $68 million contract in an effort to counter their rivals’ superior depth and size.
General manager Rob Blake’s answer to the 1-5-4 slump that left the Kings with a record of 21-12-8 and 50 points after their first 41 games was to say the team must go back to its defensive foundation, even though defense is a pronounced weakness for creative but careless winger Kevin Fiala and for Dubois, who had scored a paltry nine goals and 19 points at the halfway point and is often clueless when he doesn’t have the puck.
Read more: Elliott: Todd McLellan’s job might not be in peril, but Kings must strive for wins, not perfection
Speaking to the media Thursday morning, before the Kings launched the second half of their season by playing host to Nashville, Blake also said the team must execute more precisely on offense while adhering more closely to its defense-first system. It didn’t seem to matter to Blake that opponents have dissected and shredded that system on a disturbingly regular basis, or that coach Todd McLellan hasn’t made effective counter-adjustments.
No, McLellan got a vote of confidence from Blake, who gave the coach a contract extension last summer that put both on the payroll through 2024-25. Blake said Thursday he hadn’t been considering a coaching change. If that’s true — and Blake is known for fierce loyalty to his friends — then he hasn’t explored every option to turn the team around.
“No, not at all,” Blake said. “Our philosophy here in the past three, four years is on the structure and the system and the design, in the buy-in of players, and he’s gotten that from the players. I’m going to rely on the players and the leadership to get us out of that.”
McLellan might have taken the Kings as far as he can, which isn’t the same as taking them as far as they’re capable of going. His tenure brings to mind Terry Murray’s success in giving the Kings a solid…