Russell’s Roundup: In Defense of Jim Hiller; Isles Search Continues

Last night brought a bounty of playoff hockey—four Game 6s! The Toronto Maple Leafs won a series, while the Vegas Golden Knights held off the Minnesota Wild. In the night’s final game, the Edmonton Oilers eliminated the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the fourth straight season. Ouch.

Entering this season, the entire hockey world knew Rob Blake’s job as Kings GM depended upon this season’s results. With another early exit, it’s expected he will depart Los Angeles. In Game 3, the Kings led late into the third and seemed poised to take a 3-0 series lead, but Edmonton equalized. Then, Kings’ Head Coach Jim Hiller erroneously challenged in a clear mistake, resulting in Edmonton taking the lead and changing the entire series.

Hiller took over midway through last season. Before that, he served as an assistant coach with the Islanders. He ran the power play, and over his three-year stint, the Islanders had the 19th-ranked PP from 2019-20 through the 2021-22 seasons. That power play is a major reason the Islanders eliminated the Bruins in 2021, just look back at Game 5 in Boston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFGvzburhF0

Since his departure, the Islanders have the 30th-ranked power play, only ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers. Hiller’s a good coach.

Hiller’s Fault? Or Should the Blame Lie Elsewhere?

All over social media, everyone’s blaming Hiller. They have a fair point, his challenge changed the series. However, he alone isn’t challenging that. In almost every instance, the team’s video coach makes that decision. The bigger issue is Hiller’s inability to adjust late from game 4 through the rest of the series. The Kings entered the third period of game 4 with a 3-1 lead.

Edmonton then outshot LA 33-13 in regulation and overtime to tie and win the game. In game 5, Edmonton ran over the Kings in their building, and outshot them 46-22. For a span of nearly five full periods, the Oilers outshot the Kings 79-35. Good grief.

That’s not great. If you watched, it looked like Los Angeles completely ran out of gas. Hiller’s been the coach for less than 18 months, yet has posted a strong record of 69-37-10 over his 116 games in charge. He dragged LA back into the playoff mix last season and posted 48 wins this year.

Meanwhile, the man upstairs, Rob Blake, has been in charge since 2017. That first season, 2017-18, the Anaheim Ducks won their most recent playoff series. The Kings have not won a round with Blake in charge. Yes, there are things Hiller could’ve done better. However, I’d be extremely hard-pressed to blame the rookie head coach, who has posted a very strong record through one and a half seasons.

I’ll also say the quiet part out loud: The Oilers, on paper, are just much better than the Kings. That happens when Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are on the other side. Hiller and the Kings cannot and will not use it as an excuse, especially when they had their foot on the throat along with home-ice advantage. Still, the Oilers have been a wire-to-wire favorite for the Stanley Cup, and the Kings have been outside the top 10 virtually all year.

In the end, none of it may matter for Hiller. If Blake is out, he will be too. Too often, coaches are cast aside when a GM is tossed aside. I happen to think Hiller’s a strong coach, and did quite well with this Kings team. With the average lifespan of an NHL coach down to 2.3 years, it’s a job you’re hired to be fired from. We’ll see where it goes.

New York Islanders:

Now that I’ve climbed down from my soapbox, we can get to recapping the happenings around the Islanders.

First, Team Canada made it official. Bo Horvat and Noah Dobson will be representing their country in the 2025 World Championship. The tournament gets underway one week from today, and they’ll likely see Simon Holmstrom there as he is expected to represent co-hosts Sweden.

Next, the search for a new executive rolls on. A new candidate will hit the board any day now, as barring a shock, the above Blake will not be back with the Kings. With his experience, he’s someone the Islanders will at least talk to, despite zero playoff series wins during his eight-year tenure. As for other candidates, yesterday we highlighted four more, including Mathieu Darche and… Peter Chiarelli?? I can explain.

Earlier this week, I had the chance to have a great chat with one of Bridgeport’s freshest signings, Ross Mitton. Mitton’s a Long Island native, and has one of the best journeys to the pros you’ll ever read about.

Finally, kicking off this week, I had to smack down a classic Twitter/X rumor. Someone put out that Mathew Barzal wants out. I dismissed that notion here.

NHL Playoffs & National Hockey Now:

Forever Blueshirts: Gulp. That could be the reaction of many Islanders fans looking at Manhattan. News broke yesterday that the Rangers are close to hiring Mike Sullivan, along with adding John Tortorella as his associate. That’d be one heck of a coaching staff.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Penguins, fresh off dismissing Sullivan, have a search to conduct. The golden rule when it comes to Kyle Dubas is that he loves his guys. No wonder D.J. Smith, a former colleague in Toronto, is at the top of the list. Here’s Dan Kingerski’s full list.

Ottawa Hockey Now: Pain, agony, sadness. All the brutally downtrodden emotions befall Canada’s capital last night. The Maple Leafs broke the Ottawa Senators’ hearts in the Battle of Ontario. Again.

Vegas Hockey Now: If those emotions weren’t enough, don’t put the tissues away. Despite a joy-inducing series win over the Minnesota Wild, the Knights, Wild, and the NHL bid farewell to Marc-Andre Fleury following Minnesota’s elimination last night. Here’s the full send-off.

NHL.com: In Alberta, they’re once again blasting “La Bamba” as the Kings glumly exit the scene. Four straight years of this. The Kings have lost in 7, then 6, then 5, and now 6 games again. Here’s how it went down last night.

NHL.com: Finally, we got at least one Game 7. Despite four chances at it last night, only one team was able to do so. Brock Nelson and the Colorado Avalanche. Nelson notched a pair of apples as the Avalanche won on one of the flukiest bounces you’ll ever see.