EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Jim Hiller has coached the Los Angeles Kings for just 16 months — if you count his time on interim status — but he has been in the business long enough to know how things can work when a team’s management structure changes.
On Monday, the Kings and general manager Rob Blake separated after eight seasons. This was no blindside move. Blake didn’t have a contract for next season and there weren’t any talks toward renewal. Hiller didn’t know about Blake’s future and, in a March interview with The Athletic, said he hadn’t asked.
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That day, Hiller also offered a defense of his boss and the work he had done – even knowing that uncertainty about Blake’s future could one day cloud his own.
“I would say if you look back from seven years ago to today, I would think Blakey’s done an excellent job,” Hiller told The Athletic. “… How I’m judged, how Blakey (is judged), it’s out of my control. I can only worry about myself. I’m not going to be the one to evaluate Blakey, that’s for sure. If I was, as I (say now), I think he’s done a terrific job.”
Now that Blake is out of a job — whether by his own choice or mutual agreement, as a team-released statement indicated — Hiller knows that his status as head coach isn’t settled, even though he just completed the first year of a three-year contract. His in-game decisions in the first round against Edmonton, some of which proved disastrous, didn’t put him in the best light, even after one of the best regular seasons in Kings history.
Team president Luc Robitaille is scheduled to address reporters on Tuesday about Blake’s departure and the Kings’ path toward hiring a new GM. But Hiller and Robitaille will talk about where Hiller fits into the new equation.
“I haven’t had of those conversations yet,” Hiller said. “I’ll be talking to Luc at some point for sure. But I do understand whenever there’s change like that, significant change, there’s usually more.”
There is no known timeline for the Kings to hire a new GM, but it might be decisive for Hiller to connect with his new boss. Even though he performed well enough to have his interim tag removed last May — three months after taking over for Todd McLellan — Hiller might have to win over another boss in order to remain in charge of the Kings’ bench.
“I’m proceeding for sure like I’m the head coach,” Hiller said. “At some point, I will talk to Luc and then at some point Luc – I would assume it’s Luc – is going to do a search for the GM and hire a GM. And then at some point, I will assume I’ll be speaking with him.
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“Status quo for me. There’s players here that have to be talked to and given a plan and all those types of things.”
Status quo hasn’t worked when it comes to the Kings and the postseason. They have been eliminated by the Oilers in the first round for four consecutive years, and they failed to win a playoff series in any of Blake’s eight seasons in charge. Now, change is coming to the front office — and possibly more, if it filters downward.
Before he got into his future on Monday, Hiller offered a reminder that the Kings had enjoyed a season with many accomplishments, “one which I think had plenty of highs for us during the course of seven months.”
“Then this last week, the lowest of lows, as you can all imagine,” he continued. “And I think today is another one of those, I would hope, for all of us.”
Some Kings fans might feel different about Blake’s departure, but that was not the messaging coming out of the Kings’ offices on an appropriately cloudy Monday near the Pacific Ocean. Blake is held in high esteem by the franchise, even if his track record as GM was mixed and never included playoff success.
“It’s a hard day,” Kings captain Anže Kopitar said. “I’ve known Blakey for 20 years now. He was my teammate before. He was our GM. More importantly, I think he’s my friend, or our friend (motioning toward Drew Doughty). I think he did a good job building this team. I think we showed it this year. We didn’t deliver. Obviously didn’t move on. He paid the price for it, really.
“He’s a very, very exceptional human. Looking back now, he’s done a lot for me as a player, as a GM, as a mentor. It sucks to see him leave, for sure. At least for a little bit next year, it’s going to be weird not having him around.”
Now we will see if Hiller is around when the Kings gather again for training camp. This was his second playoff series. Last spring’s five-game loss could be seen as somewhat educational as a first-time NHL head coach whose mission was merely to get the Kings in the playoffs and salvage what was dissolving into a lost season.
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This year’s disappointment felt different, given that many considered the Kings to be a better team and the Oilers to be more vulnerable than in the three previous playoff meetings. The Kings took a 2-0 series lead, but everything changed when they got to Edmonton for the first of four consecutive losses.
“Listen, it was a hard series,” Hiller said. “You can always look back and say, maybe we could have done this or could have done that. I think every time you lose, no matter who you’re playing or if you don’t win and achieve your goal, you can always think, maybe we should have did this better or different. But in the end, you make decisions in the moment with the information you have. It didn’t turn out for us.”
One of those fateful decisions came in Game 3, when Hiller’s challenged — for goalie interference — Evander Kane’s game-tying goal with 6:42 left in the third period. The lost challenge gave the Oilers a power play, and Evan Bouchard scored the winning goal 10 seconds later.
On Monday, Hiller acknowledged that was a turning point.
“Yeah, that would have been one of them,” he said. “Well, in hindsight, that’s a pretty easy evaluation. In hindsight, it’s really easy. Obviously, in the moment, it was more difficult and we were disappointed with the way it went. We would have liked to come out and killed the penalty thereafter. I think that compounds with the call. Yeah, that’s a big moment. There’s no question.”
Things then spiraled for the Kings. Two excellent periods in Game 4 were wasted when they squandered a 3-1 lead and Edmonton tied the game on Bouchard’s goal with 28.4 seconds left. They lost that game in overtime and then were beaten soundly in Game 5 as the Oilers grabbed control of the series for good.
“Going back to the challenge, it’s not why we lost the series,” Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “But I think games 3 and 4, those were emotional losses for our group. When you lose games like that, it’s tough to fall asleep that night. A couple of hours of sleep and you know you’re playing the next day, it wears you down. I think those games 3 and 4 definitely, they hit us hard. We had a chance to bounce back at home and Game 5 was probably our worst game.”
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As his job-evaluation process continues, Hiller can fall back on his lauded communication skills and the fact that the Kings tied franchise records this season with 48 wins and 105 points. Edmundson, who signed with Los Angeles last season and had one of the best seasons of his career, said Hiller talked to him right away and established that he’d play a big role while also guiding young defender Brandt Clarke as his partner.
“The coaches trust me,” Edmundson said, “and I think my team did also.”
Another free-agent signing from last summer, Warren Foegele, echoed similar thoughts when it came to Hiller and his demanding yet personable style.
“Jimmy called me in the summer and said that he envisioned me with a bigger role,” said Foegele, who had career-highs of 24 goals and 46 points. “Kind of challenged me to push myself, to be more consistent and take on more minutes. I thought he was awesome for that. He gave me a lot of confidence.”
(Photo of Jim Hiller: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
