Rittich must be doing stick flips in practice. And pissing the coaching off
Fair enough but I think starting shaky would be the Kings worst play. What happens for instance if Talbot costs them a potential game 1 and plays like shit again just as he has lately?
Yep. Kings shouldn't land on one goalie in anycase. Neither of these goalies can play 3 games in a row at this tenure. Talbot gets tired and Rittich is good for maybe 1.2 games in a row.
He's not 100% so probably will have difficulty completing the extra rotation. Will get pts deduced but not calls deducted. Laferriere is another diving competitor.
I think we take them in 5 but they sometimes are a greasy team. Mike Anderson and Doughty can cause some trouble.
LA had 7 power-plays in last years game 1 to our 4, including a Desharnais penalty in overtime. I guess what I really meant is we need to be more disciplined throughout the entire game, not just the first 10 minutes.
I don't disagree, but I'll say, they're going to rotate those guys, they clearly want a 4th line with more grit, and Janmark plays a grittier game than Brown (no slight, just my observation) and with Holloway really stepping up, this team has a lot of options.
Anderson isn't playing well either and isn't doing much of anything. Not been physical either. Even Kings broadcast wondering about that. Doughty has been good this season and eating a lot of minutes. Kings are a good first round opponent for us. Enough to get our work boots on and enough to give us some challenge. The Flames were the worst opponent because they are no challenge.
For sure. My bigger point was that Edmonton traditionally has started pretty well in these Game 1s at home to start the playoffs, but falter as the game goes. Last year penalties became an issue, as the game wore on. In some ways I remember thinking at the time it seemed to be in response to LA getting few penalties early leading to game management as those penalties contributed to a 2-0 deficit. This led to a few soft calls, then discipline became an issue forcing the refs hands.
Seems like their game plan is going to be spreading out their offense over 4 lines in hopes that Kopitar/Danault can keep things close enough that their bottom 6 can outscore ours.
