Kings lines changed again today

[kingsholygrail]

Stoll was money for the FOs until they made the Stoll rule in the new CBA. Now he's pretty worthless, honestly.

 

[Winger23]

I am sorry winger but if that is what you think our D does and can't see that our entire system is predicated by the defencive play of our entire team then you are missing the mechanics of how the Kings play and how we have played to win the cup. You are also missing the wrinkles to the system that DS put in place.

Our D owes its prowess in its own end to the checking system (low D rotation cycle of our forwards allows for our D to join in a 4-1-G or 3-2-G rotation below the dots which not only allows for us to always have a player ready to break out of our zone but also allows coverage and separation in front of the net).

That said, our D's job in its own end in so far as moving the puck up the ice or clearing the zone in a manner that either allows time for our forwards to establish a clear exit from our zone and into the neutral then O zone is only part of their importance to our overall offence.

Our system relies largely on the ability to slow our opponents while picking key gaps for our players to find speed into open pockets. Without going all into X's and O's DS uses a system that a coach that I used to play for developed years ago and was perfected by a few coaches along the way (see NJ and Det's successes for examples).

So I guess what I am saying is that our D is a system and missing the players that we are missing isn't as simple as just plugging in another similar player and moving on. I mean, these are individual players with individual talents and each having to learn a specific system (which takes time and practice to learn, two things that our newest players haven't received) that is difficult to do.

If it were a matter of just putting in a stay at home D where we are missing a stay at home D then everyone would be perfectly equal every year. That just isn't the case.

Ron is right here, there is allot more going on then you seem to think winger. I apologize if I am making assumptions about your position here but I can only base my response on what you have said. I look forward to learning where I am missing out on your position.

That said, Ron and I don't always agree but the guy knows his hockey (though we do agree on many things) cold. I am not saying you don't, just that Ron does and I think he is very right here.

I understand everything you are saying, and agree, to an extent. The kings breakout is suffering due to the injuries. I get it. It prevents speed through the neutral zone etc. I'm not trying to counter otherwise.

My position, is there are many times when the breakouts are clean. Once they get across the red line, whether they carry or dump it in, the offense ends right there.

I think the best analogy is Kopitar. Kopi is on his game when he is attacking the net. When he slumps he will spend 99% of the time with the puck along the boards. Half of the forwards have had very few quality scoring chances at all so far. Teams are able to just take away the point men because they know nothing is happening below the circles.

If the forwards are playing up to their capabilities, even with the lack of gaps and speed through the neutral zone, once the Kings have the puck in the offensive zone, there should be times where scoring chances are generated. For the most part, once the Kings are in the offensive zone even strength, there's not much going on.

With the depleted d-corpse I'm not expecting the Kings to win as many games as they would with them in there. The Kings are going to give up 3 or more goals a game more often or not. Hell, they may not even be able to score as much as they would if they were healthy. That is not what I'm arguing. There is very little scoring chances provided by these forwards who are not producing at all. It's not like they are hitting posts, or goalies making great saves. They just are not producing many quality chances, at all.

Every time Carter is on the ice, I feel the Kings can score. If he's not, I'm not even seeing many scoring chances. Not just against Chicago either.

This is just my opinion, and even sutter has called these guys out. Willie and Greener are very important to this team, no doubt. They are not however, responsible for the complete lack of offense generated by most of the time right now. It should not stop the offense completely and if it does, then this team just isn't as good as we thought.

 

[damacles1156]

Better post below

 

[RonSwanson*]

You guys crack me up.

You're writing off King because he has no points while playing on the 4th line with Fraser.

Yet you want Gagne at LW2 who has been given plenty of time on the top two lines and has zero goals.

Give King a chance. He's shown already that he can be a stud in a scoring role.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

Reading some of the hypothetical causation as to why we can't score is pretty funny. My favorite is this one.

We can't break out because of Mitchells absence, that's true, but how come when we are in the offensive zone we cycle, them cycle some more, and lose the puck. Then followed up by more cycling, in the mean time no one's in the slot, but when they are accidentally in the slot they don't shoot.

We don't shoot when we have the chance, the slot is completely locked up because our forwards are stationary. Everyone is trigger shy besides Carter, amen. We cycle the hell out of teams that's why we have so much possession time but we do nothing with it. We just turn it over. No one's creating plays, they are stationary, and no one's shooting, but I'm sure that's because Mitchell isn't there to tell them to shoot right damacles?

 

[damacles1156]

Better post below/

 

[damacles1156]

Also the Kings are shooting plenty, They on average out shoot opponents.

I don't know where people got this idea that, they don't shoot the puck.

Problem is they are getting a lot of the shots blocked.

 

[damacles1156]

There was no more notable example of that than against Chicago. Against Columbus and St. Louis this never had to happen because their team speed and top forward play isn't so great. There's just a few things that need to be looked at to understand why we're struggling. It isn't line combos, it isn't lack of talent up front. It's because the distance between defense and attack is minimal. Forwards are not supposed to have to go to the faceoff circles or below to go get the puck.

What are our forwards supposed to do? Expecting three guys to skate from the faceoff dots in our zone into the oppositions defensive zone and put on pressure to score goals, I'm sorry but that isn't going to happen. There hasn't been a single breakout offensive performer this season for a reason. Everyone is below PPG pace for a reason. The only line we've had that looked good was one with two guys comfortable carrying the puck the whole way up the ice (Clifford-Carter-Williams).


We are the best breakout passing team in the league at full strength. We're not at full strength. We will probably lose more games as a result of turnovers in the neutral or defensive zone. That's just life, nobody is going to change it. **** happens. What we really need is better passing from our defensemen because lots of these rushes forward are being turned into cycling sessions when they should be turning into attacks with speed.

People need to read this post again, Don't just gloss over it, Read it.

This is spot on, and explains better than my rambling.

 

[HookKing]

People need to read this post again, Don't just gloss over it, Read it.

This is spot on, and explains better than my rambling.

No its not -- its downright absurd. Matt Greene is no Bobby Orr nor is Mitchell. The Kings have plenty of time and opportunity in the offensive zone -- unfortunately the forwards are inept. Wiliams has blown how many grade A chances wide open in the slot? Who goes to the net hard other than Clifford? The timing is way off -- no one can shoot a one-timer, few cross ice passes etc.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

No its not -- its downright absurd. Matt Greene is no Bobby Orr nor is Mitchell. The Kings have plenty of time and opportunity in the offensive zone -- unfortunately the forwards are inept. Wiliams has blown how many grade A chances wide open in the slot? Who goes to the net hard other than Clifford? The timing is way off -- no one can shoot a one-timer, few cross ice passes etc.

Exactly, but some people won't understand, watch damacles some how tie our inept with Quick. He will do it somehow.