GDT: 2020-21 season Game 4 LA Kings vs Colorado Avalanche @7:00pm 1/21/21

[Martyros]

maybe we have a better chance of winning when we're down by 2 goals instead of being up.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Iafallo Kopitar Kempe
Athanasiou Vilardi Carter
Andersson Lizotte Brown
Moore JAD Grundstrom

Anderson Doughty
Bjornfot Roy
Clague Walker

On board with this, and though I definitely don't want Roy off the 2nd pairing, I feel like Clague would be safer with him, and Bjornfot with Walker, to preserve the mover/defender thing a little.

But prior to seeing Anderson with Drew, I had never even thought of Bjornfot on the 2nd pairing, Mikey emerging enough to play 1st, my god what a D we are putting together.

 

[TruKingFan]

Clague had a “quiet” 14:52 of ice time. There’s hope.

 

[kingsboy11]

Our defense:

Doughty 30:31
Anderson 25:12
Roy 18:15
Clague 14:52
Walker 14:00
Maatta 11:04

Of note, Doughty and Anderson played the same amount at even strength, Doughty had 5:25 of power play time.

Maatta was terrible, yikes.

Our offense:

Kopitar 24:53
Iafallo 19:44
Kempe 19:34
Carter 18:08
Brown: 14:34
Vilardi: 13:16
Lizotte: 13:16
Moore: 13:03
Amadio: 11:14
Andersson: 11:08
Grundstrom 10:53
Athanasiou: 10:09

I still think a lot of Kopitar's shifts need to go to Vilardi, but it was nice to see Vilardi out there with two minutes left taking the draw. Vilardi only played 11:00 at even strength, he needs to be up around 15:00 in my opinion.

Amadio was fine this game, surrounding him with better players than Wagner and Luff seemed to help. I still think he's the odd one out eventually, but he didn't hurt the team tonight. Get him off the power play though, he had one minute of power play time that could have been better elsewhere. Also, get Brown off the power play too, 4:05 on the power play? Yikes!

Maatta only played 11 minutes? Ouch. Don't suspect he's going to get that ice time back anytime soon.

 

[SufferingSelfCreated]

Vilardi looks like a difference maker. He's very noticeable.

 

[ru4reals]

I thought Clague was a bit better tonight. Hopefully he'll get more comfortable and see the development that we saw with Roy and Walker.

 

[SufferingSelfCreated]

Tmac made some astute adjustments with the lines tonight. I can admit when I am wrong haha.

 

[johnjm22]

Starting the season with 3 straight losses was frustrating, but we're now 1-1-2. Essentially .500. Not too bad.

The Kings only have 3 regulation losses in their last 17 games. They must be doing something right.

 

[Butch 19]

I love Vilardi!! What a shot!

keep em coming...

 

[Mats26]

Mikey Anderson is very underrated. Not many young D men can bounce back like he did after that first goal.

 

[kilowatt]

I thought Clague was a bit better tonight. Hopefully he'll get more comfortable and see the development that we saw with Roy and Walker.

He looked like a rookie and played rookie minutes, but it was nice to see him look a bit more comfortable and a bit more assertive.

I've started to notice a difference in breakouts from defensemen when different players are on the ice. Clague has had several short passes into "higher danger" areas of the ice when players like Andersson and Vilardi - the younger guys, really - are on the ice. It looks smooth and natural. When the Browns and Kopitars are on the ice, the breakouts are a little more strained. Those guys stick to the perimeter as the safer outlet play, but those plays are always contested.

I don't really have any analysis to provide, just something I thought I noticed as the game went on.

 

[doulos]

How did Vilardi look tonight?

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Kings are undefeated this season when I don’t comment in the GDT during the game.

 

[redcard]

Picking up 4 points in 4 games against Min/Col is a good result, if we can do the same in the next 4 games on the road against Stl/Min I'll be thrilled. The team's only going to get better as the young roster gets more games under their belt. Mikey with 25 mins in a win against that roster tonight ought to do some good for his confidence.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

So glad Vilardi is doing everything I hoped for. People know I was very high on him from the beginning.

Just remember if his skating wasnt this average, LA could never grab him at spot 11. Just accept it, perhaps it will improve a bit, he is elite at everything else.

 

[kilowatt]

Clague had a “quiet” 14:52 of ice time. There’s hope.

That's a fine amount of ice time for a third line defenseman. I chose a Kings game from 2014 (seven years ago, holy shit) to compare ice time...

Los Angeles Kings at Columbus Blue Jackets Box Score — January 21, 2014 | Hockey-Reference.com

Doughty: 26:32
Muzzin: 23:58
Voynov: 20:47
Mitchell: 19:28
Regehr: 14:25
Martinez: 13:36

For what it's worth, all four of Doughty, Kopitar, Brown, and Carter got more ice time tonight than they did in this game seven years ago. They weren't exactly young then either, at 24, 26, 29, and 29. Crazy though, seven years later and playing even more.

 

[kilowatt]

So glad Vilardi is doing everything I hoped for. People know I was very high on him from the beginning.

Just remember if his skating wasnt this average, LA could never grab him at spot 11. Just accept it, perhaps it will improve a bit, he is elite at everything else.

Vilardi obviously isn't going to win a fastest skater award at the all star game, but he's not noticeably slow when backchecking and he is creative enough to beat players at slower speeds. Foot speed is absolutely not going to be a problem for Vilardi for the foreseeable future. We may not want to put him at the point on the power play though.

 

[The Butcher]

"It wasn't a Picasso" Todd Mcclellan

Great quote

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Keep in mind I missed the beginning of the 2rd period before my masochism kicked back in, so some of this may be slightly inaccurate. I mean, it's always inaccurate, but this time it's also possibly misinformed!

The Good
-My lord, congratulations on the emergence, Mikey Anderson. What else can we say? I wish he'd put a little more heat on necessary dump zone exits, but I don't want that to take away from a stellar ascension to the top pairing where he somehow looked even better.
-2nd and 3rd period Drew Doughty--welcome back, my man. Looks like he got a wake up call. I don't want to lay blame on Maatta because DD owned his own share of stupid shit, but Anderson clearly had the calming effect that guys like Scuderi had on him in the past. Making GREAT breakout plays, and though still needs to clean up his end, Anderson simply absorbing some responsibility meant Drew didn't have to 'conserve' and swing feebly at pucks.
-Adrian Kempe played over 19 minutes and looked like a confident NHL vet minus one terribly unfortunate PP skate his forechecking efforts have a lot more purpose these days and his PK ability is trending up.
-Vilardi was playing angry and it got me all pumped up. That snipe was glorious. Hope his confidence and comfort keeps growing because he's one of the only guys on this squad with game breaking ability.
-Lizotte, as always, was a checking machine, and he absolutely nailed that empty net...how much have we missed that over the years?
-Grundstrom making his presence felt, another pretty good showing, along with Andersson. These guys are providing a good combo of sandpaper and silk for the bottom six. It's nice to have guys that can get in and check, actually win the puck battle, and then actually DO something with the puck.

The Bad
--More like the mediocre--but again, Kopitar's fallen a long way from the guy that absolutely dominated Mackinnon head-to-head. It's starting to look like his days as a "don't worry" matchup center are behind him. He's not dominant defensively. I'm glad he's scoring and still making good plays for the most part, and it may be stupid to say he was mediocre on a night where he assisted the GWG--and he looks better with Kempe, and it's probably at least part AI being a problem--but again, it's looking like a combo of playing MORE MINUTES THAN ANYONE IN THE GAME BUT DOUGHTY AND ANDERSON (including more minutes than ANY avs player--yes including all their dmen) and Father Time is kicking the everliving shit out of him. Reduce his minutes for the love of god, he's still playing more than most #1 Dmen. Also--he's now leading the league in assists, so there's that!
--Jeff Carter has been excellent so don't want to beat him up too much, but him and Athanasiou were pretty garbo tonight. Worst line on the team by CF%, and most of them were out there for the ESGA.
-Saw more praise for Mike Amadio tonight than usual which is nice to see but imo the dude that I usually defend was making some pretty glaring puck errors in bad spots that will get him in the doghouse pretty quickly if he doesn't clean it up.


The Ugly
-1st period Drew Doughty--got completely clowned by Mackinnon twice and was really starting to look like it was Old Yeller time. Couldn't handle the puck, couldn't defend.
-Trevor Moore has completely lost what made him good in the first two games which was speed and tenacity and getting the puck deep. The skating ability of the Avs defenders neutralized his speed, but he couldn't stick a check and handled the puck like a golf ball.
-Alex Iafallo is just really, really disappointing right now. Not even sure how to diagnose.
-Olli Maatta is just totally, totally lost but creates so many of his own problems it's unbelievable. I actually really, really liked the rest of our d-men once Maatta was moved down, but poor Walker, who had a pretty monster game and ended up having to bust his ass twice as hard. Hard to see how anyone coming into his spot could be worse. Right now he's making Mark Alt look like Rob Blake.

 

[Steve Zissou]

If this team could just take less penalties they’d have a better shot at winning games.

I’d say at least 35-40% are unwarranted or unforced penalties, or penalties that were taken not because the other team was dominating you.

 

[The Butcher]

That's a fine amount of ice time for a third line defenseman. I chose a Kings game from 2014 (seven years ago, holy shit) to compare ice time...

Los Angeles Kings at Columbus Blue Jackets Box Score — January 21, 2014 | Hockey-Reference.com

Doughty: 26:32
Muzzin: 23:58
Voynov: 20:47
Mitchell: 19:28
Regehr: 14:25
Martinez: 13:36

For what it's worth, all four of Doughty, Kopitar, Brown, and Carter got more ice time tonight than they did in this game seven years ago. They weren't exactly young then either, at 24, 26, 29, and 29. Crazy though, seven years later and playing even more.

I sometimes wonder if the success window could have stayed open a little longer if Voynov didn't decide to push his girlfriend through a TV.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Also important

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Tmac made some astute adjustments with the lines tonight. I can admit when I am wrong haha.

Yep, very true

But the Kopitar trend is still really worrying.

If this team could just take less penalties they’d have a better shot at winning games.

I’d say at least 35-40% are unwarranted or unforced penalties, or penalties that were taken not because the other team was dominating you.

I mean, I'd guesstimate that 35% of them over the last two games weren't even real penalties, they were Tim Peel fairytales. They at least toned them down a LOT tonight

 

[The Butcher]

Keep in mind I missed the beginning of the 2rd period before my masochism kicked back in, so some of this may be slightly inaccurate. I mean, it's always inaccurate, but this time it's also possibly misinformed!

The Good
-My lord, congratulations on the emergence, Mikey Anderson. What else can we say? I wish he'd put a little more heat on necessary dump zone exits, but I don't want that to take away from a stellar ascension to the top pairing where he somehow looked even better.
-2nd and 3rd period Drew Doughty--welcome back, my man. Looks like he got a wake up call. I don't want to lay blame on Maatta because DD owned his own share of stupid shit, but Anderson clearly had the calming effect that guys like Scuderi had on him in the past. Making GREAT breakout plays, and though still needs to clean up his end, Anderson simply absorbing some responsibility meant Drew didn't have to 'conserve' and swing feebly at pucks.
-Adrian Kempe played over 19 minutes and looked like a confident NHL vet minus one terribly unfortunate PP skate his forechecking efforts have a lot more purpose these days and his PK ability is trending up.
-Vilardi was playing angry and it got me all pumped up. That snipe was glorious. Hope his confidence and comfort keeps growing because he's one of the only guys on this squad with game breaking ability.
-Lizotte, as always, was a checking machine, and he absolutely nailed that empty net...how much have we missed that over the years?
-Grundstrom making his presence felt, another pretty good showing, along with Andersson. These guys are providing a good combo of sandpaper and silk for the bottom six. It's nice to have guys that can get in and check, actually win the puck battle, and then actually DO something with the puck.

The Bad
--More like the mediocre--but again, Kopitar's fallen a long way from the guy that absolutely dominated Mackinnon head-to-head. It's starting to look like his days as a "don't worry" matchup center are behind him. He's not dominant defensively. I'm glad he's scoring and still making good plays for the most part, and it may be stupid to say he was mediocre on a night where he assisted the GWG--and he looks better with Kempe, and it's probably at least part AI being a problem--but again, it's looking like a combo of playing MORE MINUTES THAN ANYONE IN THE GAME BUT DOUGHTY AND ANDERSON (including more minutes than ANY avs player--yes including all their dmen) and Father Time is kicking the everliving shit out of him. Reduce his minutes for the love of god, he's still playing more than most #1 Dmen. Also--he's now leading the league in assists, so there's that!
--Jeff Carter has been excellent so don't want to beat him up too much, but him and Athanasiou were pretty garbo tonight. Worst line on the team by CF%, and most of them were out there for the ESGA.
-Saw more praise for Mike Amadio tonight than usual which is nice to see but imo the dude that I usually defend was making some pretty glaring puck errors in bad spots that will get him in the doghouse pretty quickly if he doesn't clean it up.


The Ugly
-1st period Drew Doughty--got completely clowned by Mackinnon twice and was really starting to look like it was Old Yeller time. Couldn't handle the puck, couldn't defend.
-Trevor Moore has completely lost what made him good in the first two games which was speed and tenacity and getting the puck deep. The skating ability of the Avs defenders neutralized his speed, but he couldn't stick a check and handled the puck like a golf ball.
-Alex Iafallo is just really, really disappointing right now. Not even sure how to diagnose.
-Olli Maatta is just totally, totally lost but creates so many of his own problems it's unbelievable. I actually really, really liked the rest of our d-men once Maatta was moved down, but poor Walker, who had a pretty monster game and ended up having to bust his ass twice as hard. Hard to see how anyone coming into his spot could be worse. Right now he's making Mark Alt look like Rob Blake.

"Old Yeller time".

Great expression, stealing that one for sure.

 

[Reaper45]

Kings are undefeated this season when I don’t comment in the GDT during the game.

You know what to do then.