HOA Homefront: Solar for our whole HOA? Can mine be on common area roof?
- April 14, 2023
Q: We are a small HOA. We are debating going with a community solar contract vs. individual solar installation contracts and looking for information to help us with the pros and cons of each. Do you have any information or knowledge of an HOA that approved community-wide solar installation? Can you give us some insight as to the pros and cons of such an installation? — D.A., Poway
Q: I live in a recently constructed (small) condominium building, one of (several) in our complex. While I have individual rights to solar, it seems to make more sense to address the buildings’ shared energy costs, rather than my individual bill. There seems to be nothing in our bylaws to address this situation. What is required to proceed? I assume we need individuals to sign off on their rights and accept an overall assessment. My thought is to do one building first and share the savings with the overall HOA evenly. Other buildings would be added on a one-by-one basis to spread out the costs. — R.E., San Diego
A: Your HOAs may need to check with legal counsel because some CC&Rs limit capital expenditures without a membership vote and the cost may require membership approval as a special assessment.
It is also possible that a CC&R amendment could be necessary. Sharing of utilities sometimes reduces the economic incentive of conservation, since residents do not directly pay more if they use too much electricity.
I have seen this occur many times in associations that do not have individual water meters. You might investigate whether submetering would be possible to measure individual unit usage. I applaud your HOAs for considering such an upgrade to your complex but take care to consider and resolve any legal impediments from the CC&Rs before you proceed.
Q: If the HOA owns the roof, do I still have a right to build solar on it? The HOA manager said that solar panels are not allowed on association roofs and our CC&Rs say that the roofs among other things belong to the association. Civil Codes 714 and 4746 seem to imply, regardless of ownership, that a resident has the right to build solar on the roof over their head. I would like to verify this is true before notifying my HOA of this in case I am reading it wrong. I would be interested in pursuing legal action in order to build solar if they continue to be obstinate after notification. — K.C., Lake Forest.
A: Your manager is wrong. You do have the right under Civil Code Section 714(b)(1) to install a solar energy system on a common area roof over your personal residence, garage or carport. If for some reason your roof is shared (such as in a multi-story building) Civil Code Section 4746(b)b)(1) allows you to pay for and submit a “solar site survey” showing a proposed fair allocation of the usable portion of the shared roof. Although I have not yet seen shared roofs with enough space to make individual solar installations feasible, it is possible and the statute provides for it.
I hope you don’t need legal action.
Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and Partner of Richardson Ober LLP, a California law firm known for community association expertise. Submit column questions to [email protected]. Past columns at www.HOAHomefront.com. All rights reserved®.
Orange County Register
Read MoreOrange County Power Authority rates ‘competitive,’ Irvine report says
- April 14, 2023
After four scathing audits lambasted the Orange County Power Authority’s management, pricing strategies and transparency, Irvine’s own review of the green power agency praised its rates as “competitive” and net income as “positive.”
The firm hired by Irvine to conduct the operational review of OCPA said it focused on “how the actual CCA (community choice aggregation) operates” versus “process and admin” like the other audits. And it found OCPA’s power purchasing practices are consistent with industry best practices.
OCPA has a higher opt-out rate (23%) compared to other green power agencies which typically have a rate between 5-10%, representatives from EES Consulting, the firm hired to do the audit, said.
The firm, which was contracted to do work for OCPA in 2020, blamed the discrepancy on the negative press attention the power agency has received.
But “opt-outs have settled down now,” said Councilmember Kathleen Treseder, a member of the OCPA board. She said the green power agency is “on a course of reform.”
In March, OCPA began an improvement plan which includes mandating a member of the Community Advisory Committee, made up of residents from the member cities appointed by board members, be present at oversight and board meetings as well as the hiring of a new position meant to ensure greater transparency.
The goal, Treseder said, is to complete the 24 steps outlined in the plan by June, including drafting bylaws, “something that was really highlighted as being urgent by different auditors,” she said.
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OCPA is hiring. The company is already bringing on a “power resources director with more than 22 years of experience” in the industry who will start this month and plans to announce additional new hires “in the near future,” OCPA said following the audit.
As for the audit, OCPA is “pleased that the consultant found no operational issues,” a spokesperson said.
When EES Consulting presented its report to the City Council on Tuesday, April 11, a resident noted the firm previously did work for OCPA with a $150,000 contract. EES Consulting representatives acknowledged the firm had done work with OCPA but said it had not been contracted with the agency in over a year.
Treseder said she appreciated the comparisons EES Consulting made in its report between OCPA and other community choice energy programs but was “concerned” that she did not previously know the firm had worked with OCPA.
“I just want to make sure that people are able to consider that as they’re assessing the report,” she said.
For Councilmember Larry Agran, already a staunch critic of OCPA who first called for the Irvine-led audit, it was a “troubling revelation.” He said the audit “fell short” of addressing Irvine’s concerns with the green power agency, namely mismanagement and transparency.
“OCPA is continuing to fail to deliver on what was promised initially (cheaper, greener energy) and, of course, has been lacking in transparency,” Agran said. “I’m determined to see Irvine extricate itself from this failed enterprise.”
The audit relied on interviews of consultancy firms that oversee OCPA’s power purchase agreements since documents provided by OCPA were heavily redacted for confidentiality purposes.
OCPA launched as a green alternative to Southern California Edison nearly one year ago, with Irvine spearheading its creation. Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Buena Park also were early joiners of the county’s first community choice energy program.
However, since its inception, the ratepayer-funded OCPA has been riddled with allegations of mismanagement.
And it has led to independent audits by the Orange County Grand Jury, a contractor hired by the county, an internal review by the county and, most recently, a state audit. The state audit found the CEO and staff did not follow their own procedures when executing power purchase agreements and improperly issued $1.8 million in marketing and financial services contracts.
Irvine has debated whether to stick with the Power Authority in the past, ultimately deciding against withdrawing. The council planned to revisit pulling Irvine out of OCPA in June but City Manager Oliver Chi said it is unlikely the city would leave before mid-2024.
“There’s certainly a desire from everyone on the council to continue being part of the organization if things are able to be advanced in a way that comports with their expectations at the agency,” Chi said.
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Orange County Register
Read MoreDecarceration movement hits a speed bump in Los Angeles County
- April 14, 2023
A new word entered the California political lexicon the other day, when two of the five elected supervisors running America’s largest county decided they could greatly reduce crime by depopulating Los Angeles County’s many jails and other penal facilities.
The new word: decarceration. This is the process of supposedly fighting crime by letting people out of jails and prisons, a favorite of the far left, the same folks that for several years have advocated defunding police everywhere.
That has not happened in California. Apparently decarceration and depopulation of Los Angeles County jails won’t, either.
For most police, prosecutors and politicians of all stripes don’t think it’s possible to reduce crime by letting convicted or suspected criminals go free.
The public clearly doesn’t, either. That’s why in 2020, voters by a 56-44 percent margin rejected a no-cash-bail law passed earlier by the state Legislature, dominated by ultra-liberal Democrats who believe it’s unfair to force suspects to await trial in custody if they lack the funds to make bail.
Polls showed most voters – and non-voting Californians, too – feared allowing most of the arrested to roam at large without bail would spur new crimes from the same old suspects.
So it took law enforcement and others by surprise when Los Angeles County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Lindsay Horvath sought to declare a “humanitarian crisis” in jails and order several county offices to create or expand programs keeping people out of jail, some even after they’ve been convicted. This plan would have left out major felons, most of whom are locked up by the state, not counties.
Their plan blindsided police, prosecutors and many local officials, whose cities would have received the released prisoners had decarceration taken place.
They quickly protested, and the Solis-Horvath proposal evaporated from the agenda for the county board’s next meeting. Two other supervisors, including board chair Janice Hahn, immediately announced they would not vote for their colleagues’ plan, so it was essentially tabled, possibly to arise again after it undergoes major alteration.
The opposition was led by the county’s 45-member police chiefs association and a group of “contract cities” which lack their own police forces and buy law enforcement services from the county sheriff. Also in opposition was the local Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which has been embroiled in several disputes with ultra-liberal District Attorney George Gascon, accused by many of his deputies of favoring criminals over their victims.
Decarceration is a proposal so far unique to Los Angeles County, where courts and law enforcement long have been credibly accused of overt racism, with proven offenses including cases of planted evidence and stopping motorists without obvious cause except their race. The idea is also fueled by faith that programs can be designed to prevent almost all recidivism by the released.
The dead-for-now motion for decarceration proposed by rookie Supervisor Horvath and veteran officeholder Solis – a former congresswoman and the Secretary of Labor under ex-President Barack Obama – was first reported by the Southern California News Group. Solis and Horvath declared a commitment “to redress historical wrongs deeply rooted in systemic racism and prejudice and (to) reverse status quo responses to poverty, mental health and medical needs and substance use dependencies.”
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The problem is that these problems have all long resisted easy or facile solutions, and a sudden move to free many convicts and suspects might expose thousands of unsuspecting citizens to unprecedented levels of crime.
The police chiefs group noted that “We do not stand against reform and we have been active…in these efforts. However, we are concerned with the rushed motion…”
They and the line prosecutors complained the proposal was being hustled through with little analysis and no input from law enforcement or crime victims.
It also ran counter to the spirit of the 2020 vote to cancel the law calling for no cash bail.
But while Californians can reverse state laws they believe are unwise, as they did in 2020, there is no recourse locally other than voting entrenched supervisors out, with changes then wrought by their successors.
All of which means decarceration may not quite be dead, and could in fact arise in other counties with liberal board majorities.
Email Thomas Elias at [email protected].
Orange County Register
Read More‘We are here:’ Holocaust museum ceremony honors victims, survivors – and stands up to antisemitism
- April 14, 2023
“You have tried to wipe us out, but we are here.”
This is the message of the Partisans’ Song — “Zog Nit Keynmol (Never Say)” in Yiddish — often recited at events commemorating Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the spring.
The Jewish community in Los Angeles solemnly remembers the Holocaust, when millions of Jews were killed during World War II, including those who survived and fought against the Nazi regime. Decades later, amid rising antisemitism locally and internationally, the resilient faith community continues to stand up against hate.
For the first time since 2019, the Holocaust Museum LA is bringing back its Yom Hashoa commemoration to Pan Pacific Park on Sunday, April 16 at 2 p.m. The outdoor ceremony will bring together Holocaust survivors, elected officials and Jewish community leaders for speeches, traditional prayers and music.
Yom Hashoa is traditionally marked on the 27th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, a week after the seventh day of Passover. This year’s commemoration also falls on the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising that began April 19, 1943 — the eve of Passover — when leaders in the largest Jewish ghetto in Poland fought against Germans rounding up Jews to deport them to death camps. That year, similar uprisings also took place at the Sobibor and Treblinka concentration camps.
The Jewish community remembers the Warsaw Ghetto, Sobibor and Treblinka uprisings as “timeless symbols of resistance, perseverance and defiance” in the face of hatred.
Organizers say this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day encompasses a theme of standing together against past and present antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League reported that such incidents — including criminal and non-criminal cases of harassment, vandalism and assault of Jews — have hit a record-high nationwide. In 2022, 3,697 incidents were reported; a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents in 2021, and the highest number on record since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979.
Los Angeles officials and faith leaders have discussed ways to combat ongoing attacks against Jews — starting with education. They hope to provide more classroom and law enforcement trainings recognizing antisemitism, and show solidarity at these community events. Antisemitism didn’t end after the war, city officials said at a meeting in March.
Sunday’s Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration is hosted in partnership with the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. LA Mayor Karen Bass, Israel Consul General Hillel Newman, and ADL Los Angeles director Jeffrey Abrams will speak.
Holocaust survivors and their families are also involved in the museum’s solemn event. Included is 81-year-old Harry Davids, whose parents were killed in Sobibor, a featured speaker. Musicians from the Colburn School will perform a composition by survivor Herbert Zipper. Participants will recite the Mourner’s Kaddish and the “El Malei Rachamim,” a prayer for departed souls.
Survivors Henry Slucki and David Lenga will sing the Partisans’ Song, the traditional Yiddish anthem for Holocaust survivors inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
“We mark (Yom Hashoa) to remember that Jews did not go as lambs to the slaughter, as depicted in some accounts. The Jews resisted… and though they did not overthrow this huge Nazi army, they made their mark — and now Jews all over the world remember, as a symbol of resisting tyranny,” Slucki said before the event.
Slucki fled the Nazi regime as a child in 1942, crossing the Pyrenees mountains on foot with his family and surviving the war. Now, at 88, Slucki gives presentations and speaks regularly at the Holocaust Museum LA, and has sung the Partisans’ Song at past Holocaust Museum LA remembrance events.
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Yom Hashoa is a poignant reminder that people can recognize each other’s differences, and perhaps learn from one another, Slucki said. Art has always been an expression of “heroic resistance” — just like what happened in the Jewish uprisings.
“It’s not just standing up for your own people, but standing up for any issue you consider a moral obligation. The (Partisans’) song literally says ‘We are here.’ I am here. I have children and grandchildren, and they all know the story. They know you can’t keep silent or be an idle bystander… you have to roll up your sleeves and get active,” Slucki said. “This ceremony (is) a way of saying, not only we are here, we are thriving. Though the struggle continues, we are going to stand together.”
The Holocaust Museum LA is located at 100 The Grove Dr, at Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles. Sunday’s ceremony begins at 2 p.m.
Event details: https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/event-details/yom-hashoah-commemoration-1
Orange County Register
Read MoreCalifornia cracks down on press access, our right to know
- April 14, 2023
Most everyone seems to think that members of the press operate hand in glove with Big Government, serving as some kind of public-relations agency for the electeds and their minions, offering up without skepticism what tidbits the bureaucracies in our various capitols and executive offices disseminate as “news.”
Those everyones have never been reporters.
The reality is that oftentimes actual, timely facts from government sources can be rare as hens’ teeth, especially if the information sought by journalists is about anything at all deemed controversial by those who supposedly serve the public in government.
And the really bad news for the free flow of information to the public who pays for all that government — pays for its press offices, too — is that the situation has only gotten worse after COVID-19 restrictions made it much harder for reporters from newspapers, radio and television statements and online news organizations to penetrate the walls put up by city halls, county governments and most especially state capitols.
That has been particularly true in California, where pandemic shutdowns came earliest, lasted longest and often continue until this day. After generations of reporters being able to pick up information vital to a free press by just hanging around, talking to officials they bump into either on or off the record simply by being physically there, of a sudden government buildings were shut down and official meetings went online. There were no hallways in which to encounter sources and hear the latest informally. Everything had to be done by telephone. Which, way more than by a real question asked face to face, can go unanswered.
And what, in a slightly post-pandemic California, has been the response to a fresh new reopening of government offices and what should be increased communication between government officials, their lackeys and the press?
Why, some press offices for various agencies are, for instance, eliminating their telephones altogether, demanding that all inquiries be made by email.
Such is the real and enormously troubling news gathered by journalism organization CalMatters reporter Alexei Koseff in Sacramento in a major new project story published last week by CapRadio, headlined “A failure to communicate: California government cuts back press access.”
In massive detail, the story describes a Gov. Gavin Newsom administration that, very much contrary to public myths about journos and liberal politicians, has lowered the cone of silence: “Many of the standard features of government beat reporting — including in-person press conferences, with an opportunity for follow-up questions, and media phone lines where journalists could talk to a live staffer — disappeared three years ago with the shutdown orders and have been slow to return, if at all,” Koseff reports. “Changes that reporters and public information officers adopted to do their jobs virtually in a strange new stay-at-home world became ingrained, encouraging practices, such as written statements instead of interviews, that offer less clarity and greater distance between state government and the people it serves.”
David Loy, the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, correctly says that what is at risk right now in California is a decline of “open, honest and transparent communication” essential to the functioning of democracy.
Now, Sacramento government departments routinely ignore questions from reporters, block the release of information, refuse to give reporters telephone numbers to call when emails are not replied to and seemingly purposely slow-walk crucial material: “We know we missed your deadline, but hopefully this information is still useful and of value for you!” one agency wrote to a reporter when it was too late.
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It’s not as if there is a shortage of communications workers in Sacramento: 435 employees in the executive branch alone, with annual total salaries that cost taxpayers something north of $36 million. There are hundreds of other supposed press aides working in the Legislature and other state departments. Citizens and journalists alike need to demand that they start picking up the phone, and responding to the public’s right to know.
Orange County Register
Read MoreWhen a camper shell can knock off a truck’s weight fee
- April 14, 2023
Q. I read your answer to the question about truck registration fees with great interest. But it seems there needs to be some clarification. It concerns the difference between a “camper shell,” which to me is just that, and a “habitable camper.” I have a shell, it bolts onto the bed and protects items from rain, wind and theft. And I could sleep back there if I wanted to. But the Department of Motor Vehicles’ definition of a “camper” is much more if you want to avoid having your truck considered a commercial vehicle so you can knock off the weight fee. For the DMV, a qualifying camper is for “human habitation,” which is defined on form REG 256A as a “living space” that includes “closets, cabinets, kitchen units or fixtures, and bath or toilet rooms.” So you did get me excited that I might be able to get some relief – but I (and most people) don’t qualify.
– Tom Macfarlane, Temple City
A. Sorry, Tom.
But let’s consider the positives – Honk can go deeper into the answer now, and your name is getting some ink.
A camper shell can indeed cancel out the commercial weight fee that shows up on truck registrations, letting that vehicle carry auto instead of truck license plates (On a 2011 Ford F-150, that annual fee alone is $154).
“(But) the addition of a camper shell must meet the definitions for human habitation or camping purposes,” said Angelica De La Pena, a spokeswoman for the DMV.
And, yes, to hit that mark, Tom, you do need those elements you mentioned.
Winning approval doesn’t take a DMV inspection. But, as De La Pena pointed out to Honk, the owner “must certify under penalty of perjury the vehicle meets the definition for human habitation” or face a possible citation if nabbed.
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Q. Hi Honk: The curb out front of our house, from the driveway to the intersection with a stop sign, is painted red. This is quite good. However, it is so faded it is almost not visible. Neighbors took it upon themselves to paint their fading curb red. I was wondering who is responsible for maintaining the color on the curb? It is important and should be properly maintained. Very much appreciate the feedback.
– Mauricio B. Edberg, West Hills
A. In the City of Angels, and probably just about anywhere in the Golden State, residents shouldn’t head down to a store for a bucket of red paint and a brush and go clandestine. Even if city officials have let the residents down by not sending a crew out to update the curb.
(Honk has a neighbor with a red curb that just doesn’t have the right hue. Hmmmmm.)
Colin Sweeney, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said his agency oversees the city’s curb markings. The LADOT works with residents, businesses, council members and neighborhood councils to make sure the markings are efficient, he added.
Your neighbors, it sounds like, were just trying to make the curb look a bit more spiffy and to warn drivers to not park there.
But …
“Residents should not take it upon themselves to maintain or make any alteration to traffic devices and markings,” Sweeney told Honk in an email. “Instead, residents seeking service should contact the local LADOT district engineering office with any requests they may have.”
Messing with a curb is illegal, he said, and could come with a fine in addition to getting saddled with the cost of removal.
By the way, Mauricio, the LADOT just received $2 million to develop a digital inventory of, among other things, curb markings to better keep tabs on them.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at [email protected]. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
Orange County Register
Read MoreBig West Conference baseball ‘as good as it’s been in years’
- April 14, 2023
If the midseason report on Big West Conference baseball is any indication, the stretch run might require the kind of detailed analysis one might find in politics trying to separate red and blue states.
Eight of the 11 teams are competing for the Big West regular-season title and the automatic NCAA postseason berth that comes with it. Three teams already have 21 wins, five teams have a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 77 or better, and the conference RPI was ranked eighth nationally, third-best among non-Power Five conferences.
Parity has become the league’s theme recently, but this jump for the conference as a unit recalls days when as many as four Big West teams were contending for an NCAA tournament berth.
Most notably, Cal State Fullerton has rebounded from the first real slump in program history and is getting local and national attention. Fullerton’s national reputation was a big part of Big West success in the past.
“The conference is a lot better,” said second-year Fullerton coach Jason Dietrich, a former Titans pitching coach. “I was gone for five years, and when I came back last year I thought it was a little light.
“The talent is better and we have so many good coaches who take pride in their program and the league. It’s so good to see.”
Fullerton (16-11 overall, 9-3 Big West), which visits UC Riverside (6-23, 0-9) this weekend, has won all four league series to date and is led by pitcher Flynn Chester (4-0, 2.73 ERA) and hitters Carter White (.416) and Brendan Bobo (five home runs).
Dietrich brought in 22 new players to the program for 2023, and they’ve jelled nicely with the returnees.
“I would never put it on any one player or pitcher,” he said. “It’s really about guys buying into the program. We really worked hard to build a roster of players who understood what we wanted.”
“It’s been a good year for the Big West,” UC Irvine coach Ben Orloff said Thursday as the Anteaters (19-10, 5-7) head north to play preseason favorite UC Santa Barbara (21-9, 6-3) this weekend. “We had one of the best nonconference records in the sport, so it’s not surprising to have so many good teams.
“I think we’re back to being the kind of conference that has multiple teams good enough to get a postseason bid.”
The Anteaters are led by first baseman Anthony Martinez (.350, six home runs, 33 RBIs), and have scored eight runs or more in 14 games. A program that has traditionally featured stingy pitching has been a bit unsettled after a good start.
Long Beach State (21-10, 8-4), which hosts Cal State Northridge (19-8, 6-3) at Blair Field beginning Friday night, has won 11 of its past 13 games and is having a prodigious season at the plate, with four starters batting over .300 including Johnathon Long (.318, nine home runs, 34 RBIs), while starting pitchers Graham Osman (5-0, 1.93 ERA) and Nico Zeglin (4-2, 2.44), transfers from Gonzaga and Arizona State, respectively, have been dominant.
“It’s been a fun run, and we’ve played a lot of one-run games,” LBSU coach Eric Valenzuela said. The Dirtbags have been involved in 10 walk-off games this season. “There’s no doubt that Blair is a pitcher’s park, but we finally have developed a hitting philosophy after two of the last four seasons were during COVID.
“The conference is as good as it’s been in years. No one is talking about them, but Northridge and Hawaii (14-12, 4-5) are tough teams to play.”
CSUN is leading the league in most hitting categories and has five starters hitting above .300, taking advantage of their home field’s modest dimensions. Oddly, the team leading the league is UC San Diego (21-10, 10-2), which Valenzuela said was the best team the Dirtbags have played this season. The Tritons are still transitioning from Division II and are not yet eligible for league titles or postseason play.
Long Beach State’s Jonathon Long celebrates his two-run home run during the third inning of a 10-inning victory over Cal Poly earlier this month at Blair Field. Long is hitting .318 with nine home runs and 34 RBIs for LBSU (21-10 overall, 8-4 Big West). (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Orange County Register
Read MoreAlexander: A satisfactory night for Kings, Ducks and their fans
- April 14, 2023
ANAHEIM — A gentleman wearing a Jamie Drysdale Ducks sweater stepped into a nearly full elevator at Honda Center on Thursday night, a half-hour or so before faceoff, and said: “Any Kings’ fans in here willing to guarantee a win tonight?”
No, he wasn’t spoiling for a fight. The Columbus Blue Jackets entered the night a point ahead of the Ducks (they beat Pittsburgh), and the Chicago Blackhawks were even with Anaheim (they went to overtime with Philadelphia and picked up a point). A Ducks loss to their historic rivals from up the freeway would secure last place in the league and with it the best chance to win the draft lottery and select generational talent Connor Bedard.
Goin’ Yard for Bedard. That’s what it came down to for the Ducks, who went into a full-on rebuild this season and have endured more than a full season’s worth of growing pains.
In a sense, then, both the Kings and Ducks got what they (sort of) wanted Thursday night.
The Kings got the win, 5-3, featuring an Adrian Kempe hat trick, and will begin the playoffs on Monday night in Edmonton on a fairly positive note, winning their last two after a three-game skid that cost them not only a shot at the division title but home ice in the first round.
Kempe’s empty-net goal with a little more than a minute to play was his 41st of the season, giving him his first career 40-goal campaign following a 35-goal performance last season. Better yet, he burnished his reputation as an all-around player this season; he finished last spring a minus-2, but finished this regular season a plus-22 and also finished third on the team in scoring (67 points) behind Anze Kopitar (75 with his 28th goal and two assists) and Kevin Fiala (23 goals and 72 points, but currently injured).
“A couple of years ago, I feel like I had a lot of good looks (but) always was a pass-first guy,” Kempe said. “And, you know, I figured out that if I try to put the puck on net a little more, it’ll go in. And, yeah, kind of a switch went off in my head, and coming into last year I think was the biggest step I took just in terms of volume shooting.”
The Kings also had the good fortune to get out of Thursday night with everybody still ambulatory, always a plus. Health has been an issue down the stretch; in addition to Fiala, defenseman Alexander Edler and right wing Gabe Vilardi have been unavailable and were injury scratches Thursday night, and Mikey Anderson only recently returned from an injury suffered when Connor McDavid boarded him in Edmonton two weeks ago.
“The relief comes in the fact that … we’re as healthy now as we were coming into the game,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said Thursday night. “I’d be lying if I said we weren’t concerned about that, a game that really doesn’t mean anything to either of the two teams playing. You hate to see somebody block a shot and go down or take a hit. But that’s where the relief comes from.
“I don’t think we can take a deep breath and relax. That would be a mistake for our group and we don’t have enough time to do that anyhow.”
But Thursday’s results did mean that the Kings were locked into a rematch with Edmonton, and that could be problematic. Never mind last year’s result, when the Oilers knocked out the Kings in seven games in the first round. These Oilers come into the postseason on an even more blistering pace, 18-2-1 and with nine straight victories to end the regular season. Their goalie, Stuart Skinner, has a .972 save percentage over his past five starts and stopped 63 of the 64 shots he faced in the two recent victories over the Kings.
A questioner suggested to McLellan on Thursday night that facing the Ducks’ young talent might have set the Kings up for their meeting with the Oilers. A few years from now, that might be true. Now, not so much.
“Oh, I don’t think there’s anything that sets you up for Edmonton,” he said. “It’s a different monster there, you know. … I think that they have a little bit of a different approach. Certainly, their power play’s a little more dangerous, and there’s just different elements.”
Simply put, what Edmonton has – building with talent around a budding superstar – is what Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek would like to emulate. And while the sights and sounds of the rivalry on the ice and among the fan bases were the same as always Thursday night, those in the audience who were plugged in certainly would have considered this a good loss if it has the desired effect on lottery night.
Losing enabled the Ducks to sew up 32nd and last place and with it the best chance to draft the Regina Pats’ Bedard. He doesn’t turn 18 until July 17, but he finished his junior season with 71 goals and 143 points in 57 games – and added an exclamation point with nine goals and 14 assists in seven games for champion Canada at the World Junior Championships over the holidays.
How important was it to finish 32nd instead of 31st? In the NHL the last-place team has a 25.5% chance of getting the No. 1 pick. Chicago, by finishing 31st, has a 15.5% chance.
Then again, there was this sign held by a Ducks fan in the stands Thursday night: “Top Three Draft Pick – Better Than First-Round Playoff Loss.” That might depend on who you’re able to take with that pick. But you work with what you have.
And while the athletes don’t and shouldn’t be expected to care about such things when they’re on the ice, everybody in the Ducks’ room has been aware of the situation for a while. While it can be a difficult situation for players, their compete factor doesn’t seem to have diminished. (And the smart ones are well aware that when it does, they’re expendable.)
“It’s been a long time coming of kind of compressing things and going over what we need to do as an organization moving forward,” right wing Troy Terry said. “No matter the (circumstances) we’re playing to win. Everyone in here is competitive. I think you can see it in our game. Whether we lost or not, what I was proud of is we kept battling until the end.
“It’s hard to go through that. Especially last year it felt like we took a step (only) to have it go backwards this year. Just to keep everyone in this room together, that’s something that we’re proud of. There’s a lot to address this summer about what we need to do moving forward.”
The first step is May 8, lottery night.
Orange County Register
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