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LAK 5 : NYR 4 - Kopitrick!

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King'sPawn said:
I disagree, but the point is, a lot of people here think Muzzin is a great bargain as a #2, especially at his price, and McNabb is being criticized for not being Muzzin yet (taking longer than him to "get it"). It's just... odd.
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It's not that mcnabb still doesn't "get it". I think it's more than that. I think mcnabb does a lot of things well. But I don't think he's a top pairing and it's more of a talent stand point than just if he "gets it".

We will be aggrevated if he keeps playing top min. I'm with raccoon dude... Trade him for someone else
 
I think it's too soon to give up on McNabb, he's shown some promise in the past and while I don't expect him to be the next Muzzin he can still become a valuable member of the d-core.

But what concerns me a bit is his inability to solidify whatever pairing he's on, he's the one that needs to be baby sat no matter who he plays with. I can understand him struggling on the top pair, that's a lot of minutes and some high quality competition for a relatively inexperienced guy... but by now he should be able to carry a lesser partner on a bottom pair in sheltered minutes, instead he's been an even bigger disaster every time he's moved away from Doughty. I'm struggling to see where he fits unless he gets his game back on track. Not that we have many options right now other than to play him with Doughty.
 
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Luck is what it is.

As for McNabb and Muzzin, Muzzin has more raw talent, and you could see that even when he was forced into a larger role in 12-13 because of injuries to Mitchell and Greene. McNabb needs to simply things. Take better angles if he's not too fast, and make the quicker pass instead of holding onto it one second too long. Not moving the puck is what gets McNabb into the most trouble. Muzzin did the same thing in his first full year, but again, he's also a better passer.

In the big picture, McNabb isn't hurting the team, in terms of ultimately winning or losing games, just like Muzzin didn't in 12-13. Have to let him go through the ups and downs.
 
Kopitar showing why he is one of the top 5 players in the game.
 
Always great to see Sutter beat AV.

The Rangers have no answer for Kopitar, just a terrible matchup for them.
 
Kopitar is getting more shots on net again. Not as much as a few years ago, but far more than last year. Last year he averaged 1.7 shots on net, and had 16 goals, in 79 games. This year, 2.2 shots on net, and is already at 16 through 54 games.

Maybe it's partially who he's playing with. Gaborik wasn't having as good of a year in terms of goal scoring as he did last year. Lucic isn't really a shooter. He's averaging 1.6 shots on net this year. Less than Kopitar last year. At least with the Kings, Lucic is looking more pass than shot. He's played some with Toffoli. Brown obviously isn't scoring a bunch. Maybe Kopitar is being forced to get more shots himself.

Getting more shots on net, and he's got the 3rd highest sh% of his career so far this year. When he's getting the shots to the net, he's much more than fine.
 
jfont said:
It's not that mcnabb still doesn't "get it". I think it's more than that. I think mcnabb does a lot of things well. But I don't think he's a top pairing and it's more of a talent stand point than just if he "gets it".

We will be aggrevated if he keeps playing top min. I'm with raccoon dude... Trade him for someone else
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Again, you're comparing McNabb to a very good, if not great, #2 defenseman. He may not be a good fit on the top pairing, but I think using Muzzin as a measuring stick is not the best way to evaluate him.
 
I didn't catch most of the game (listened to pieces of it on XM in the truck and caught the final 5 minutes and OT during the replay), but the top matchup throughout the night was Stepan/Kopitar, right? Or did AV change it up (which would be even more beneficial)? That's a matchup I take 11 times out of 10. Kopitar will dominate him.
 
King'sPawn said:
Again, you're comparing McNabb to a very good, if not great, #2 defenseman. He may not be a good fit on the top pairing, but I think using Muzzin as a measuring stick is not the best way to evaluate him.
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Yeah I don't get how or why McNabb is being compared to Muzzin's development. One of Muzzin's biggest assets was his skating, the same can't be said about McNabb. A lot of McNabb's issues on the ice are caused from his skating. Look at how he got burned yesterday, the guy looked like a turnstile because by the time he turns around, his opponent is well ahead of him.

McNabb was brought in to be the future Regehr replacement, and when he plays well and keeps his game simple, he does an admirable job of that. But he has no business playing with Drew Doughty. He is put in that position because Doughty is good enough to clean up for his mistakes. There really isn't any other skater who can be paired with McNabb, sadly.
 
Right, which is why I say McNabb is miscast. He's not 'the future Muzzin' but he's playing on the top pairing and his developmental mistakes are expected but different. And the real problem we're seeing is that some of these guys can't play with other guys.
 
A guy to play with Doughty is what would give the edge to the Kings over every other team in the playoffs. Muzzin can play there, but if he slots on the 2nd line with Martinez, it's a matchup problem for any other team. Schenn can play with McNabb, who is perfectly fine as a 3rd pairing guy who doesn't draw top opposition. DD's partner doesn't have to be a dynamo, just a solid, dependable, veteran type.

Doughty looks fantastic this year, but imagine if he had a little more latitude with a veteran partner. That's a great back end with a great forwards group. Toss in Quick and you got yourself pretty goods odds of that 3rd cup.
 
Kopitar is awesome. He is closing on Toffoli for the goal lead and has almost jumped up to ppg for the season despite his extremely slow start and people creating trade Kopitar threads :P Ridiculous player, worth every penny.
 
Fishhead said:
A guy to play with Doughty is what would give the edge to the Kings over every other team in the playoffs. Muzzin can play there, but if he slots on the 2nd line with Martinez, it's a matchup problem for any other team. Schenn can play with McNabb, who is perfectly fine as a 3rd pairing guy who doesn't draw top opposition. DD's partner doesn't have to be a dynamo, just a solid, dependable, veteran type.

Doughty looks fantastic this year, but imagine if he had a little more latitude with a veteran partner. That's a great back end with a great forwards group. Toss in Quick and you got yourself pretty goods odds of that 3rd cup.
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I said this elsewhere re: Doughty:

Raccoon Jesus said:
Amen.

People keep wanting to pretend he's a passenger on a great team but he's a driver on a great team with a shaky current d-core; McNabb is a boat anchor he's carrying around and Doughty plays nearly half of every game while sporting a best-amongst-d-men 58.7% CF%. His 6.4 CFRel is only behind Karlsson, Hedman, and Lindholm, which has to be impressive given his team blows away the competition by nearly 3% at 56.3%. All this while being top-10 in dman scoring at at 53 point pace and top-10 plus-minus despite his boat anchor...I know he's a popular "is overrated" target lately but the dude is phenomenal and his shot attempt differentials help paint the picture. Especially on the defensive side, where he's crushing it.
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Get Doughty away from McNabb should be mission #1. That could happen with either a partner for Doughty (Hamhuis? but I think DL thinks longer term there) or a partner for Martinez so muzzin can come back up (Trouuuuuuba! :P).

Think of how many odd-man breaks Doughty has had to break up this year and the amount of times he gets stuck under our goal line moving the puck out since he has to bail out his partner and err on the side of defense time and time again. It's sort of like when he was with Scuderi, when opponents could just leave Scuds wide freaking open and just send two-three checkers at Doughty since Rob was just going to go glass and out...McNabb is better than that offensively of course (at least moving the puck out) but I think it's a similar deal.
 
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