Yes BUT
Kings have to figure out these games. They're not going to win with overwhelming offense and odds are in the playoffs they're going to run into a .930 goaltender at some point. This is the stuff that keeps us up at night.
Smoking the Ducks is fun but beating hot teams is important. There are plenty of reasons/excuses for tonight depending on your level of optimism/pessimism but this is exactly the worry I have. And odds if it playing out again in the Avs game are high. If we lose these two in a row after running thru some random opponents it's gonna be a huge red flag no matter how cool the standings look.
No one should give a shit about the regular season at this point. It's fun and a division win would be nice. But I'm still not seeing a team that will get beyond the first round as they shit their pants when hitting adversity. Did anyone go to the net hard last night? Why did so many rebounds hang out near the net? Kings still aren't willing to get their makeup runny. This is the 2010s Sharks all over again until I see some moxie. beating the Ducks, Habs, Coyotes, and Blues then losing to the Caps and Avs? 4-7 at home? I want to be proven wrong but this movie is happening again. Right now this is a team that looks built for volume regular season wins and that's going to make the ownership happy. But I'm not seeing anything but a first round exit until we are regularly beating contenders and hot teams.
This is valid, and it's going to happen here and there. As long as it's not a habit, it's not a big deal.
More importantly, think about if we played the Capitals 7 times. If the game was similar to last night, would we win 4 out of 7? That's the key question. Half the time Lindgren's head was moving after he got hit with the puck, he literally didn't know where it was. There was also the offside goal. Great positioning, but there is some measure of luck involved and oing that in consecutive games would be quite the task. I certainly wouldn't be confident if the Kings won a game like that, mostly everyone would be bemoaning the fact that luck would never get us through a series against a good team.
And I would argue that the Kings
have figured out how to win these types of games since the beginning of the year. The same thing happened in Ottawa, really lopsided chances. Korpi put up a .933 in that one. Same thing with Florida to a lesser extent, Bob put up a .955 in that one. They found a way to win both of those. But it is optimism/pessimism level for sure, I don't see how this team doesn't win a series or two. How many stinkers have they had this year, maybe 2 or 3? Sure they lost to Washington and the Avs, but they've beaten (and outplayed) the Knights. They beat Florida, they dismantled the Leafs and Winnipeg.
Serious question: Are there any teams that regularly beat contenders and hot teams? I mean, the Kings are near the top in winning percentage of the league with the toughest schedule played. Who is doing better? I know Kings fans always hedge their bets and don't like to get their hopes up, but looking at all the information things don't look bad in the slightest.