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LOS ANGELES – John Stevens was sacked as the Los Angeles Kings coach on Sunday.
Willie Desjardins has been named his replacement for the rest of the season. Assistant Don Nachbaur was also sacked and replaced by Marco Sturm, although he did not join the Kings until the close of the German Cup next week to fulfill his coaching duties. Germany.
The Kings are 4-8-1 this season, last in the Pacific Division and have lost seven of their last nine games (2-7-0). They defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 at Staples Center on Saturday.
Desjardins will debut on Tuesday when the Kings host the Anaheim Ducks (10:30 pm EST, FS-W, PRIME, NHL.TV).
The general manager, Rob Blake, watched the Kings from training camp and did not see enough emotion and commitment from the players. He thinks Desjardins can help solve this problem.
"It did not work out as planned and we did not play as we thought, so we have progressed so fast today," Blake said. "What Willie will bring, what we want to report is that we have to improve the level of competition of our players, we had to find the passion in the game, and we really expected him to fix that and bring us back into the game. " the right way. "
Desjardins, 61, coached the Vancouver Canucks for three seasons (2014-17), 109-110-27.
Blake did not rule out player staff changes, added: "We will create the desire for these players to play well here."
Stevens, 52, has been in the Kings since the 2010-11 season and was hired to replace Darryl Sutter on April 23, 2017. An influential figure in the construction of the Kings' identity and defensive structure. helped to win the Stanley Cup in 2012. and in 2014, Stevens played 45-29-8 in his first season as a coach before Los Angeles was swept away by the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round of the Western Conference.
Stevens also coached the Philadelphia Flyers from 2006 to 2009 and has 171-148-43 years of coaching in the NHL.
Blake, in his second season as general manager, said it was "terrible" and "terrible" to tell Stevens that he had been fired around 10 am Sunday. However, Blake believes it was one of the few options available to turn a team that, according to President Luc Robitaille, had three weeks to wait for four years to play the Stanley Cup.
Kings signed on Ilya Kovalchuk a three-year contract worth $ 18.75 million ($ 6.25 million average annual value) on July 1 to strengthen the 16th NHL attack last season with 2.89 goals per game. But Los Angeles is the last goalscorer (28) and goal per game (2.15) and lost six straight in a row from October 13th to 25th. Goalkeeper Jonathan Quick is also absent 3-6 weeks after knee surgery.
"You're watching the training camp, you're watching the regular season we're at right now, those expectations have not been met," Blake said. "We have some very good players, we have players who can play games, we expect them to play and we expect them to play with this level of competition, and that is not the case." It has not been (there). There is a build-up of many throughout the season, but we must right the situation immediately. "
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