Kopitar, Kings teammates take responsibility for Stevens firing

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Anze Kopitar and his teammates took responsibility for the Los Angeles Kings firing coach John Stevens and pledged to play better for new coach Willie Desjardins.

"We didn't play up to our potential and we know it, and [Stevens] lost the job because of it," Kopitar said after practice Monday. "Talking about the reset button, that's the last resort, the last chance for us really to get it going and really not fall behind too deep."
Stevens and assistant coach Don Nachbaur were fired Sunday after Los Angeles began the season 4-8-1, including losing seven of its past nine games (2-7-0). The Kings are last in the Western Conference, eight points behind the San Jose Sharks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and have the worst goal differential in the NHL at minus-17.
General manager Rob Blake attributed the Kings' struggles to a lack of "compete and passion" from players.
"Well, you don't get to the bottom of the standings playing with passion," forward Kyle Clifford said. "It's something that has got to be in your game. We've built that type of culture where we had the mindset that we're going win every night before and it's something we have to get back to."
Though Kopitar disagreed with aspects of Blake's criticism, he understood something had to change.
"We didn't perform, bottom line," he said. "We just have to play better. Whether that is bringing more passion, more work, harder work, smarter work, whatever you want to call it, we just got to play better and win games."
Desjardins, who most recently won a bronze medal as coach of Canada at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, coached the Vancouver Canucks from 2014-17, going 109-110-27 with one playoff appearance. He will make his debut Tuesday when the Kings host the Anaheim Ducks (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, PRIME, NHL.TV).

Former NHL forward Marco Sturm, who won a silver medal as coach of Germany in the 2018 Olympics, was added as an assistant. He will join the Kings next week after the Deutschland Cup concludes to fulfill his obligations as Germany coach.
Defenseman Dion Phaneuf expects Desjardins' approach will lead to the more emotion from the players.
"I know he's passionate," Phaneuf said. "Played against his teams a lot and they are always hard-working. Their compete level is high, and he's organized."
If the Kings had been lacking any desire under Stevens, there were no such issues in their first practice under Desjardins.
The hour-long session stressed competition and intensity. In some drills, the team was split and the losing squad had to do push-ups on the ice.
"A new coach comes in and he wants to start off with a bang, really," Kopitar said. "I thought we had a good practice. The energy was good. There [were] a few drills that we haven't done in the past. And I think guys certainly understand the position we are in, and we came to work and had some fun in the process, so it was good."
During practice, Desjardins relied heavily on assistant coach Dave Lowry and goaltending coach Bill Ranford, saying it was not the time to make wholesale changes to the system after 13 games.
Instead, the work ethic and details are the primary focus for Desjardins.
"I think John [Stevens] has done a really good job laying down the systems that will work, and we just got to find a way to build on that right now," he said.