"Intangibles" is a cliché you'll hear a lot in the hockey world. You can't quantify it, but you know it when you see it and every team needs them.
When the Los Angeles Kings lost Jonathan Quick, Alex Iafallo, Sean Durzi, and Sean Walker, they lost actual “unmeasurables” that the team failed to replenish after their departure. All those players were imperfect, of course, but they brought with them an element of grit, character, culture, and whatever else your favorite hockey cliché is. Those words have the sex appeal of a calculator to most of the NHL audience, but behind the closed doors of league offices, they still matter. Just ask Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Those platitudes certainly mattered for the Florida Panthers, who admittedly have elements of tantalizing skill to go along with their moxie. But it was those clichés that Florida had to lean on to stave off the electrifying Edmonton Oilers en route to their first Stanley Cup.
Perhaps that’s what General Manager Rob Blake’s summer plans ultimately were: to bring the Los Angeles Kings back to being the type of team that will embrace the clichés again, truly “play the right way,” and “be tough to play against.” Last season was littered with evidence that the Kings had lost some of that attitude they were once defined by. Blake acknowledged this in his end-of-year availability, when he openly questioned his team's desire to win:
-“We’ll talk systems, we’ll talk details, style of play and different things, but what we’ve come to realize and Jim and I are on the same page here, is there’s a certain desire to win that needs to be raised within our team here. What that is getting a little uncomfortable. We talk about getting on top of the goalie, one big thing to try to create more offense, get on top of the goalie. You can get to the hash marks, that’s five feet from the net, you can probably get there pretty safe, not get cross checked, not get slashed. You want to go two, three more feet, there’s a desire to get there. That’s going to hurt, you’re going to get hit, you’re going to get cross-checked and that’s how you get that job done.”
Drew Doughty certainly seemed to sense something was off earlier in the season, evidenced by his scathing comments from January 24th, 2024, following a crushing loss at home to the lowly Buffalo Sabres:
-"We've got guys in this room that are too worried about themselves, worried about their points. We had a 3-1 lead tonight, and guys started thinking it was a cookie night. We stopped playing the way we know how to play, had an awful second period and aren't much better in the third."
Many have tried to decipher Doughty’s now-infamous rant. Was it directed at Dubois? Perhaps Kevin Fiala? Was it a general outburst of frustration? While unclear, it underscored a clear lack of unity or perhaps a team too comfortable with losing games at a near-historic rate, as they did from December 28th, 2023 to January 28th, 2024.
In Tanner Jeannot, Warren Foegele and Joel Edmundson, Blake has added three skaters that are certainly not worried about their points. They are all team-first, win-at-all-costs types that would run through steel doors for the mark on the front of their uniforms. It’s simply how they’re wired.
These types of players can have a cascading effect on a team's performance in a league and season where it's easy to take nights off. It’s why Jeannot has been traded for seven draft picks in the last 18 months. It’s also why Edmundson, despite having some of the worst defensive metrics across the league, has had contending teams vying for his services every single trade deadline and off-season.
However, it would be a fool's errand to crown the Kings in any fashion based on these additions and theoretical character upgrades. Quality hockey players still win games in this league, and LA’s newest names have to earn fan optimism with their play on the ice, first and foremost. Jeannot’s offensive impact has dropped considerably since he got Calder Trophy votes in ‘21-’22. Foegele’s 20-goal season is currently being attributed to the team and players of his previous employer more than his improvement as a scorer. Edmundson and his new contract are being ridiculed mercilessly across the continent. Let’s not forget about Darcy Kuemper, who was lifting the Stanley Cup two years ago, but is now considered a reclamation project.
It’s a steep hill to climb. LA’s newest Kings will all have something substantial to prove when the puck drops in the fall. Yet, despite anything they’re able to achieve on the ice, their most significant contribution could be their role in healing a likely fractured locker room and restoring a compromised team culture. They just might be the right people for the job.