Pre-Game Talk: 2013 Western Conference Final: Kings vs. Blackhawks

[Ollie Weeks]

That is what I expected, happy to see the end of the ridiculous Clifford experiment with Kopitar. Never again DS.

Why? In the short term he serves as a great catalyst until the skill players shake their rust off.

In Game 5 Clifford helped set up Kopitar's GWG, I believe he also received an assist.

Even more impressive was later on in the same game during the fore-check, Clifford leveled a San Jose defender who was trying something cute in the slot; he coughed the puck up into the slot and gave Williams a beautiful look at the net, shame he ripped it just wide.

Game 6, he takes a terrible penalty early on, is fairly mediocre from then on out and suddenly the bad washes out all the good.

While Clifford was doing his thing, Brown, Kopitar and Williams pulled themselves back together, and their play prompted reunification. He did a pretty good job and went back to his regular fourth line duties. It was never a long term solution.

 

[Ron*]

Why? In the short term he serves as a great catalyst until the skill players shake their rust off.

In Game 5 Clifford helped set up Kopitar's GWG, I believe he also received an assist.

Even more impressive was later on in the same game during the fore-check, Clifford leveled a San Jose defender who was trying something cute in the slot; he coughed the puck up into the slot and gave Williams a beautiful look at the net, shame he ripped it just wide.

Game 6, he takes a terrible penalty early on, is fairly mediocre from then on out and suddenly the bad washes out all the good.

While Clifford was doing his thing, Brown, Kopitar and Williams pulled themselves back together, and their play prompted reunification. He did a pretty good job and went back to his regular fourth line duties. It was never a long term solution.

Here is my biggest issue with mixing up the lines:

Some players feed off familiarity with their line mates. By constantly shuffling lines, these players can never get comfortable. I much rather see Brown/Williams/Kopitar back up on the front line...Kopitar's pass to Williams for his second goal and Brown's awesome pass for Williams' near miss hat-trick goal in the second period told me all I needed to know about keeping the lines consistent from game-to-game.

Let's not forget this beauty either. I never will.

 

[Ollie Weeks]

I don't know about that. The Hawks are a dangerous team offensively and can also get physical when called upon. I guess it all depends on how worn out they are after the previous round. We don't know how they're going to respond to the Kings play and if they could adapt to it.

I prefer Martinez over Muzzin as well, but I guess the coach's will go with what's gotten them this far until they see something they don't like. It's worth noting that in the last meeting against Chicago, Muzzin played over 22 minutes while paired with Doughty (who played in 29 minutes in that game), so I'm thinking that they're leaning towards Muzzin to start the series. Martinez was only used a little over 9 minutes in that very same game, which was the lowest minutes in that game among defensemen and only higher than Nolan's 7 minutes in that game.

I went through our defencemen's stats for fun, and Martinez, albeit in limited time, was by far the least physical of the group. Far less so than Muzzin.

I remember Martinez laying out some punishing hits from time to time last postseason, and every round the commentators would love to single out his game for its simplicity and tenacity. He and Greene were among the best at timely pinches to keep the opposition hemmed in their own end; they worked particularly well with Stoll and Lewis' line at the time.

I can only surmise that Sutter is unimpressed with Martinez's lack of productive hitting, both compared to his teammates (specifically Muzzin) and the style of play he established last year during the playoffs. The fact that he got completely torched in the last game he dressed also probably affected the decision.

I don't necessarily agree with the decision, but we're winning, and Muzzin is doing little things better here and there, and though is still making boneheaded errors, he's making less.

 

[Ollie Weeks]

Here is my biggest issue with mixing up the lines:

Some players feed off familiarity with their line mates. By constantly shuffling lines, these players can never get comfortable. I much rather see Brown/Williams/Kopitar back up on the front line...Kopitar's pass to Williams for his second goal and Brown's awesome pass for Williams' near miss hat-trick goal in the second period told me all I needed to know about keeping the lines consistent from game-to-game.

Let's not forget this beauty either. I never will.

Oh I agree. But Sutter doesn't just throw the plan into a blender when we start losing like Murray would.

The first line's individuals were all struggling and needed a temporary reprieve from one another. Clifford and Richardson helped provide that reprieve by filling in until Brown felt groovy again. I mentioned that in past seasons Kopitar would sometimes centre those bottom 6 type guys guys for a little bit to get his edge back, and it usually worked, prompting a switch back to the normal lineup.

Sutter switches lines in a calculating manner I feel, with changes being generally temporary unless some magical chemistry emerges. He always intended to reunite them when/if they started showing flashes of inspiration.

 

[KingsCorona]

People are talking about the Hawks speed, which starts from the back end. The one thing they are over looking is the Kings can neutralize that speed with their relentless forecheck. The more pressure the Kings forwards put on the Hawks d-men, the more likely they are going to panic which creates a fist full of turnovers.

That's exactly what happened in our last game against them during the regular season. We can definitely beat them, or anyone really with that high pressure hockey we play, but we haven't often been able to muster it up this offseason the way we did last year.

 

[losingsand]

I'm on the Martinez > Muzzin side of the argument.

I'd rather cut down our mistakes then have a little more game-breaking plays that muzzin brings.

Martinez is no slouch handling the puck either.