Kings hiring former Senators coach D.J. Smith as assistant

[tigermask48]

Hooray, another player Blake played with. So sick of him getting his buddies jobs.

 

[chris kontos]

The guy sounds more youth oriented which is good.
Yep. Thats all i got.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

For those assuming that Smith was hired due to any connection with Blake, all the info out there points to the connection actually being with Hiller. They were asst. coaches in TOR together.

Let's do our homework before we insinuate nasty accusations.

 

[Statto]

Hooray, another player Blake played with. So sick of him getting his buddies jobs.

He’s probably played with half the guys in NHL back room jobs. Think of all the ex-team mates he hasn’t yet hired.. I think there’s more of them, but perhaps I’m wrong. The connection with Hiller is the significant one.

 

[mysterman2]

is what it is...will say up until this season he was getting more and more points. Once again the case of his firing was the same case that TMAC should have been fired last year. Good people whose term had simply run its course.

 

[Statto]

Now confirmed on TSN… don’t think I saw anyone post it.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Any update or feedback on how DJ is impacting the team lately?

 

[FSL KINGS]

Any update or feedback on how DJ is impacting the team lately?

Plays JAD. This is a fireable offense.

 

[tny760]

Any update or feedback on how DJ is impacting the team lately?

probably a better question for one of the guys here with the advanced stats site subscriptions, but without anything to really back it up, i'd say neutral-to net positive

i feel like i'm seeing less of the blatant "sitting back in the 1-3-1" passivity even though it's still there, guys seem to have a bit more allowance to forecheck. probably not something you change overnight, but as i recall DJ was given the reigns 5v5 so that's probably something you can attribute to him

i strongly disagree with this propensity for 11/7 with JAD playing up in the lineup but i'm guessing that's hiller, not DJ

 

[The Butcher]

Any update or feedback on how DJ is impacting the team lately?

DJ Smith is in the muthfukkin hoooouse.

He remixed this team back to a number 1 hit!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

probably a better question for one of the guys here with the advanced stats site subscriptions, but without anything to really back it up, i'd say neutral-to net positive

i feel like i'm seeing less of the blatant "sitting back in the 1-3-1" passivity even though it's still there, guys seem to have a bit more allowance to forecheck. probably not something you change overnight, but as i recall DJ was given the reigns 5v5 so that's probably something you can attribute to him

i strongly disagree with this propensity for 11/7 with JAD playing up in the lineup but i'm guessing that's hiller, not DJ

They've been top 10 in most categories 5v5 since his hire

not the early season dominance, but far from the last-place level shenanigans that were happening in the final weeks of TM's reign of prevent-hockey terror

They've certainly been FAR more aggressive, which is what you would imagine from a roster full of waterbug forecheckers, and there's a LOT of chatting and nodding on the bench, which is far more engagement than the thousand-yard-stares that permeated every loss prior.

 

[FSL KINGS]

DJ does put out interesting line combos that sometimes work. Crazy stuff like Fiala with someone other than the best defensive forward. It's nice to have a coach that tries new combos.

Byfield, Kopi, Turcotte seems to work.

Then he just has to play JAD above the 4th line. Why?