New Kings coach Jim Hiller’s challenge: ‘We have to do better’

For Jim Hiller, being named head coach of the Kings completed an odyssey over ice, with the team that drafted him as a player also giving him his first shot as an NHL bench boss after stops in Berlin, Milan and about a dozen other cities between his stretches in Los Angeles.

“Just shy of 35 years ago, I was drafted by the L.A. Kings, so to be sitting here today is an honor,” Hiller said. “To have that long and winding path to end up here is something that I don’t take lightly.”

“The team that drafts you, you’re forever tied to them, that’s your team. To be sitting here today after all these years, it’s emotional, it’s exciting and it’s a proud moment,” he added.

Hiller, 55, had never been a head coach at the professional level until he was promoted to interim coach in February after Todd McLellan was fired during a season before which he’d received a contract extension. Yet Hiller’s dream of coaching was one that was formed concurrently rather than consecutively with his aspirations as a player, and he noted that he was a “Canadian kid who loved hockey” who was compelled by the work his coaches did.

“How do you get the best out of people? How do you get 20 to 25 people to maybe do some things that are uncomfortable? I just thought it was a real challenge,” Hiller said. “I loved the game and then the psychological, mental and emotional parts of it were a great challenge, and one that I really enjoyed.”

Less detailed from Hiller and the man who introduced him, General Manager Rob Blake, were potential strategic and systemic changes. Two- to three-word summaries – “we’ll see” and “we’ll look at it” – abounded. Not only was the oft-maligned 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap still on the table, but Hiller and Blake wouldn’t commit to so much as the size of their coaching staff, whether it would be three people or four. Blake also would not say if there were other candidates interviewed for the position, but said that firsthand familiarity with Hiller, who’d been an assistant under McLellan since 2022, was a driving factor in the decision to remove his interim tag.

Blake did specify, however, that assistant coach D.J. Smith would be back along with at least one new power play-focused assistant, but the genuine moment of clarity came when Blake discussed how he and Hiller assessed the Kings in terms of attitude and mentality.

“What we’ve come to realize is that there’s a certain desire to win that needs to be raised within our team here. And what that is is getting a little uncomfortable,” Blake said.

“You can get to the hash marks, that’s five feet from the net, you can probably get there pretty safely, not get cross-checked, not get slashed, right? If you want to go two or three more feet, there’s a desire to get there, that’s going to hurt,” Blake continued. “You’re going to get hit, you’re going to get cross-checked, but that’s how you get that job done.”

One player who lacked that sort of dedication and overall oomph to his game was Pierre-Luc Dubois, who will be the team’s highest-paid forward by salary cap hit this coming season and its most highly compensated player in terms of actual cash payout. His 40 points, eight power-play points and minus-nine rating were career worsts for a full season, but even those ignominious marks were overshadowed by his feeble puck protection, frequently lackadaisical effort and often blasé demeanor.

“We need that to be much better, for sure. And then when I talk about that desire and that will, the things we want to do to accomplish goals that we’ve set in here, we have to have that from him, for sure,” Blake said.

Thursday was Blake’s second public appearance this month after fielding questions alongside team president Luc Robitaille in early May. There, they suggested that a season that saw them lose five points of ground in the standings, sack one of the best-reputed coaches in the NHL and lose even more quickly to the same opponent for a third consecutive year somehow represented progress. It was simply, Blake and Robitaille posited, a matter of carrying over success from the regular season into the playoffs.

Yet Thursday, Blake said the players were “not comfortable” and that the ambiance in El Segundo was “way, way different from the past two years,” while Hiller cautioned against dichotomizing teams that were constructed to endure 82 games and squads that were built to win 16 postseasons contests.

“You can go too far in trying to figure out why [a team didn’t win],” Hiller said. “Sometimes it’s just a small detail, sometimes it’s as much as getting to the net harder with more determination, the detail in itself might be enough. I think you have to be careful delineating the playoffs and the regular season. We’re close, we’re really close, but there’s things that we have to do better.”

Yet the Kings have lost in seven games, then six, then five to the Oilers. In the past two seasons, only one of their three postseason victories has come in regulation time. Across the course of their three series defeats to the Oilers, who have earned 11 of 12 wins in regulation but still have their own playoff demons to exorcize, Edmonton has outscored the Kings 74-50. That included a 22-13 tally this season, fueled by utter dominance in both areas of special teams.

“That hurt, that took some time, I’ll be honest with you, because I thought we were right there with them,” Hiller somehow surmised.

Hiller said it was easier to have “tough conversations” with players when they knew a coach was “on their side,” while Blake said Hiller’s presence in front of the group and rapport with the players during a stressful stretch run had elevated his chances of attaining the head coach position full time.

While the future of the Kings might or might not include any seismic strategic shifts – again Thursday, every question about changes was tempered and balanced against an intense desire to remain stout defensively – Blake and Hiller agreed there would be some difficult talks ahead as a team that entered last season with Stanley Cup aspirations has had to again watch three quarters of the playoffs from their couches.

“The message – it will be systems, it will be different things that we talk about, Jim will put his stamp on the team furthermore than when he took over, we’ve got a clear slate going forward – but we’ve got to get uncomfortable with our group,” Blake said.