from Helene Elliott of the LA Times,

Kings general manager Rob Blake said his desire to hear a new voice and see renewed energy within the team led him to fire coach Todd McLellan and elevate assistant Jim Hiller to the head coaching job for the rest of what has been an erratic and disappointing season.

If firing a coach who received strong support from key players recently doesn’t jolt the Kings out of a slump in which they’ve won three of their last 17 games and plummeted to a wild-card playoff position, the next voice Blake hears will come from his bosses and it will tell him he should find another job. And it would be deserved.

“I fully understand the repercussions if this team does not win or have success,” Blake said at a news conference Monday, his first public comments since he fired McLellan last Friday.

“This was done in an effort to correct the way we have played of late,” Blake said, adding that he hadn’t been pressured from above and had made the decision to fire McLellan on his own. “Our offense, our defense, our overall game, individuals, and the team have not been up to a level of our desired needs.”

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