Puck Daddy's Summer of Disappointment Series

[PuckinUgly57]

And the Blues are up today.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...summer-series--st--louis-blues-010838815.html

From their free spending days when Daddy Walmart opened up the checkbook trying to buy Cups, to the RFA gaffes with Stevens and Shanahan, to their current self belief that they are legitimate contenders even though they are a poor man's LA Kings, almost nothing makes me happier than seeing this franchise fall flat on their face when the chips are on the table.

Mainly because of their myopic fans.

 

[oxnardkingsfan]

That hideous third jersey even outdoes the "Wild Wing" jersey the Ducks had for ugliness. And we all thought the "Burger King" jersey of the Kings was bad.

Ox

 

[PuckinUgly57]

There are some great gems in there, especially from Pronger. Interesting to hear that when Keenan came into the dressing room and tore Gretzky a new one he essentially said I'm not signing here and went to NY.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Islanders up today, archives have the Rangers and Flames:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...mer-series--new-york-islanders-032506145.html

The Yashin and DiPietro contracts...just wow is all I have to say.

 

[histkng23]

Islanders up today, archives have the Rangers and Flames:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...mer-series--new-york-islanders-032506145.html

The Yashin and DiPietro contracts...just wow is all I have to say.

It'll be interesting what their selections will be for the Kings.

Worst GM/Executive could be McNall just for putting the team in financial ruin, but I could see them chosing McMaster The Disaster, whom in retrospect I feel was doing the best he could given the circumstances, by actually trying to build the team from within & through the draft.

Worst FA signing would have to be Steve Duchene in '98. Everyone thought after the playoff showing the previous season that he would be the key on the PP to get the Kings to legit status. Well he flamed out & was traded during the first season of his contract.

Most disappointing team is a tough one because there were so many to choose from, but I'd have to go with the 02-03 team when the team looked to be built for a long run in the playoffs with the LAPD line in place, only to lose everyone to injuries that season (losing over 500+ man games) and not making the playoffs altogether.

Worst trade, with so many to chose from (McSorely from Pittsburgh, Robitaille for Tocchet) I'd have to go with Zhitnik for Grant Fuhr. Giving up a young all-star dman for a beyond, overaged goalie was insane!

Worst jersey is without question the infamous "Burger King" jersey.

But this Puck Daddy "countdown" has been a very entertaining read, good find Puck!

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Dallas Stars up today.

Yahoo! Sports

Not nearly as entertaining.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

It'll be interesting what their selections will be for the Kings.

Worst GM/Executive could be McNall just for putting the team in financial ruin, but I could see them chosing McMaster The Disaster, whom in retrospect I feel was doing the best he could given the circumstances, by actually trying to build the team from within & through the draft.

He had the right idea, but there were two problems: Gretzky was still on the team and he basically called the shots and the Kings didn't have a true developmental system for those draft picks. The IHL was the Kings' minor league affiliate through most of those "dark years", and that was more a place for washed up NHL talent or Euros trying to crack the NHL. Not the most conducive place for a draft pick to develop.

Not that it matters, the Al Murray Specials littered the system anyway.

Worst FA signing would have to be Steve Duchene in '98. Everyone thought after the playoff showing the previous season that he would be the key on the PP to get the Kings to legit status. Well he flamed out & was traded during the first season of his contract.

Oh lord, I forgot about that one - 4 years/$15 million. He killed the Kings on the PP the season before with St. Louis, including the 4-0 sweep debacle in the POs where the infamous Courtnall/Storr/O'Donnell incident occurred but he was nothing short of terrible in his second stint with LA. I remember DBUsh saying he watched him trip over himself at the blue line in one of his first games back and knew it was going to be trouble. And he was right.

Dude was flipped for Dave Babych if I remember, who retired after his only partial season here. Pretty sure he sued the Flyers in 2002 for a 1998 injury that he claimed shortened his career but doctors misdiagnosed him and gave him painkillers and permanently damaged his foot. Not sure if he won that one or not.

Duchesne was bought out by the Flyers that summer, signed a cheap deal with the Wings for 3 years and promptly pput up 41 points (10/31) his first year there. Shocker.

Most disappointing team is a tough one because there were so many to choose from, but I'd have to go with the 02-03 team when the team looked to be built for a long run in the playoffs with the LAPD line in place, only to lose everyone to injuries that season (losing over 500+ man games) and not making the playoffs altogether.

My choice would be the 2001-02 team. The Kings had just beat favored Detroit 4-2, and pushed Colorado to 7. The Kings needed maybe 1-2 more pieces to legitimately make a run for the Cup, but good old Uncle Phil and his self-mandated $45 million salary cap restricted that.

Instead of keeping both Miller and Schneider, Miller wanted a similar deal to Norstrom's 4 year/$14.5 million deal so the Kings gave him 4 years/$14 million but traded Schneider to the Red Wings, who still had one year left on his 3 year/$10.5 million deal to make room for Miller. The defense took a step back filling the back end with guys like a McAlpine, Kuznetsov and Holland in penny pinching moves.

I think had the Kings kept the defense intact from the 2001 playoffs and added some guys available that summer - and there were plenty of big names that summer (Blake, Sakic, Roy, Roenick, Hull, etc.) not to mention solid second tier players - they would have been a true threat. Instead, they traded for Allison and Eloranta, but lost Robitaille in the process and signed Steve Heinz (a second tier guy who was asked to be a T3 foward) and guys like Erik Rasmussen (or Crapmuffin as Wup used to call him).

I think the Cup could have come to LA almost 10 years earlier if the Kings had opened up the wallet. All they did was shuffle personnel and dollars, they didn't really improve and in fact regressed.

Worst trade, with so many to chose from (McSorely from Pittsburgh, Robitaille for Tocchet) I'd have to go with Zhitnik for Grant Fuhr. Giving up a young all-star dman for a beyond, overaged goalie was insane!

I'm not even going to touch this one, we could be here for days.

Worst jersey is without question the infamous "Burger King" jersey.

Winner winner.

I happen to love the old Kings third, the one with the gray neckline and laces. I wear that one quite a bit. I have a picture on my FB of me holding my two middle kids from the Cup showing in Neckerside in 2012 in that jersey and Big Serg commented that it looks like the world's biggest condom pointed at my belly button. That was a good one, I was laughing a bit at that.

But this Puck Daddy "countdown" has been a very entertaining read, good find Puck!

Any time my man, always trying to help the board not commit suicide during the summer months. The good news in being a fan of arguably the most successful team in the NHL the last 3-4 years, the summers are much shorter than before.

=)~~

 

[PuckinUgly57]

My FB feed showed the Bruins were up, I went to drop the kids off and came back home and now it is nowhere to be found on Puck Daddy?

 

[histkng23]

The Boston one is up now. Just got done reading the Rangers one. I always get a little kick out of any mention of the 2003 draft. The Rangers truly screwed themselves that year with the #12 pick by taking Hugh Jessiman, who was going to Dartmouth. Dude gets injured, and as a result only plays a whopping total of 2 NHL games! What was truly scary was that had the Rangers not selected him, Al Murray was garuanteed to have Taylor select him!

 

[PuckinUgly57]

The Boston one is up now. Just got done reading the Rangers one. I always get a little kick out of any mention of the 2003 draft. The Rangers truly screwed themselves that year with the #12 pick by taking Hugh Jessiman, who was going to Dartmouth. Dude gets injured, and as a result only plays a whopping total of 2 NHL games! What was truly scary was that had the Rangers not selected him, Al Murray was garuanteed to have Taylor select him!

Pretty sure he just failed to make the club, I don't recall any major injuries with him. Up until 2010 - 7 years after he was drafted - he was the only player left from the 1st round in 2003 to not play an NHL game. The Rangers traded him in 2008 to Nashville but he couldn't make their team either. You know things are looking real south for your career when you can't crack a lineup that is starving for offense but Trotz was behind the bench then and he doesn't tolerate slackers so who knows.

I'm not overly thrilled with the Brown selection at 13, there were better players still on the board (Getzlaf for example) but Brown has been a part of 2 Cup teams so in the end it justifies the pick. What gets me is the Kings could have set the franchise up for some time had they used the 26th and 27th picks (Colorado - Blake trade 2001 and Detroit - Schneider trade 2003) better. They picked two major duds in Boyle and Tambellini.

At least Boyle has established himself as a 4th liner in the NHL, which still to me is a disappointment for where he was picked and how much talent he had but Tambellini was just a bust of a pick all over. I think he is in Europe now.

Losing Al Murray was one of the best organizational moves the Kings have ever made.

 

[Deader2818]

Just think, we could have had 2 of Corey Perry, Patrice Bergeron , Shea Weber, David Backes, Loui Eriksson on this team lol.

Hell we passed over Weber and Bergeron with 3 picks after the Brown pick, lol

 

[Otis B. Driftwood]

Dallas Stars up today.

Yahoo! Sports

Not nearly as entertaining.

Nothing screams "non-entertaining" quite like the combo platter of Tom Hicks, Sean Avery and the Mooterus.

 

[histkng23]

Back to the 2003 Draft & the Rangers taking Jessiman (or "Huge Speciman" as the pundits were calling him), I just remember after the Rangers pick the tv crew (can't quite remember but I'm sure it involved McGuire & McKenzie) made a point to claim that Dave Taylor & the Kings were upset that they had to settle on Brown because the Rangers had selected Jessiman whom they had been coveting allegedly. To think if they would have gotten Jessiman, Boyle, Tambelini & finally Puskarov in the 2nd round, that could have been one of the alltime worst drafts ever!! At least Deano was able to correct this partly by trading for Carter & Richards whom also were part of the 2003 class, which is widely considered one of the best classes ever. But still, it speaks VOLUMES to the absolutely horrible job Al Murray was doing! Every King fan should cringe whenever his name is mentioned (more so than Sam McMaster!).

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Just think, we could have had 2 of Corey Perry, Patrice Bergeron , Shea Weber, David Backes, Loui Eriksson on this team lol.

Hell we passed over Weber and Bergeron with 3 picks after the Brown pick, lol

Al Murray for you, dude. He was with the Kings way too long.

He couldn't draft a fart let alone a solid NHLer the last 5-6 years he was here.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Back to the 2003 Draft & the Rangers taking Jessiman (or "Huge Speciman" as the pundits were calling him), I just remember after the Rangers pick the tv crew (can't quite remember but I'm sure it involved McGuire & McKenzie) made a point to claim that Dave Taylor & the Kings were upset that they had to settle on Brown because the Rangers had selected Jessiman whom they had been coveting allegedly. To think if they would have gotten Jessiman, Boyle, Tambelini & finally Puskarov in the 2nd round, that could have been one of the alltime worst drafts ever!! At least Deano was able to correct this partly by trading for Carter & Richards whom also were part of the 2003 class, which is widely considered one of the best classes ever. But still, it speaks VOLUMES to the absolutely horrible job Al Murray was doing! Every King fan should cringe whenever his name is mentioned (more so than Sam McMaster!).

I was at the Draft Party with Ox and Rickette. Took everything I had not to get up and cripple Modry in person and save Kings fans a ton of anxiety for the 2003-04 season.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Nothing screams "non-entertaining" quite like the combo platter of Tom Hicks, Sean Avery and the Mooterus.

Sean Avery was nothing BUT entertainment. I still rock that #19 with pride.

 

[Deader2818]

Im confused how you hate guys like Ovcheckin and Subban for "show boating" yet are a Sean Avery fan lol

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Im confused how you hate guys like Ovcheckin and Subban for "show boating" yet are a Sean Avery fan lol

Avery is an idiot, but he played for his team. It's obvious the guy would go to bat for you no matter what.

These guys are all about themselves. Big difference.

 

[Psych3man]

I am very late to this party but this line from the Islanders link absolutely killed me as I was reading over lunch today:

Talking abouth that idiot Milbury as GM:
"Imagine yourself as a child. Imagine a neighborhood bully coming to your house every few days for 10 years to break all your toys and give you wedgies and Indian burns just for fun."

 

[Deader2818]

Avery is an idiot, but he played for his team. It's obvious the guy would go to bat for you no matter what.

These guys are all about themselves. Big difference.

Picking on rookies sure is playing for your team.

Avery was about him self, and about the same or worse than the guys you don't seem to like.