WCQF Gm#3: KINGS vs. BLUES - 5/4/13 - One Down, Three To Go! GO KINGS GO!

[Ron*]

Those that know Bernier's talents, are stupid fans. Interesting take and you wonder why things are hostile around here.

My context was more in some fans calling for Bernier after game 2. "Stupid" is harsh word, perhaps a better word would have been "un-knowledgeable."

Bottom line, we are not hearing from the likes you in regard to Quick's play. In other words, you are very hesitant to give Quick credit where credit is due, but should he screw up you guys are calling for his head and pushing Bernier.

That's my whole point. Give credit where credit is due.

 

[Ron*]

I have to agree with member agentfouser analysis of the Kings problems, The kings are not playing as a team. Last nights must win was incredibly sloppy and the Kings play is not improving as the series progresses. WHY!! Is it coaching? Or player injuries? Until the Kings find a way to improve I will cross my fingers and everything else I have that they continue to find a way to win!! GO KINGS!!!

Offensively I agree with you, but I credit the Blues' incredible defense for that. They have been standing up at the blue line all series long and its been effective.

Defensively, the Kings played great. Lots of good defensive moves by the forwards throughout the game. That is what impressed me the most...if you can't get it done offensively, get it done defensively. Expect more low scoring games as the series progresses; however, I still believe Elliott has a five-goal game in him...hopefully tomorrow night.

 

[MsMeow]

My context was more in some fans calling for Bernier after game 2. "Stupid" is harsh word, perhaps a better word would have been "un-knowledgeable."

Bottom line, we are not hearing from the likes you in regard to Quick's play. In other words, you are very hesitant to give Quick credit where credit is due, but should he screw up you guys are calling for his head and pushing Bernier.

That's my whole point. Give credit where credit is due.

There's a lot of that going on among certain fans here. They don't post when certain players play well but when they don't they are in here cracking the whip and pointing fingers. It's really tiresome.

 

[Herby]

Anyone who wanted to go to Bernier at any point is out of their mind.

This is Quick's team. He is the franchise player.

 

[The Butcher]

Kopitars play is probably the most alarming thing of the entire series. If that trend continues it's going to be tough to advance but not impossible.

Other than that I've seen momentum swings both ways in all the games so far. St. Louis is talented and motivated but I think just one big play could be all we need to shift the mojo back in our favor. Anyone who has been around this game long enough and seen enough playoff series know that teams are capable of rising from the dead.

 

[ARIES626]

St Louis vs Quick

 

[Reclamation Project]

Quick is a very, very special player. The definition of untouchable.

 

[Live in the Now]

Quick is a very, very special player. The definition of untouchable.

Yep. The debate of Bernier playing ever again is done, over, fin. Great that we have him for that term and money.

 

[ARIES626]

Offensively I agree with you, but I credit the Blues' incredible defense for that. They have been standing up at the blue line all series long and its been effective.

Defensively, the Kings played great. Lots of good defensive moves by the forwards throughout the game. That is what impressed me the most...if you can't get it done offensively, get it done defensively. Expect more low scoring games as the series progresses; however, I still believe Elliott has a five-goal game in him...hopefully tomorrow night.

Again I agree, The Kings defence has played great at times even with our core Dmen out with injuries. The Blues do deserve credit they have played well. What I don't understand is why the Kings offense is so shy in the blues end, even our PP can be so static. You would think Sutter would want his offense to fire the puck at Elliot at every opportunity. Just ask Quick, sometimes the simplest shot could win the game.

 

[agentfouser]

This is a very good analysis.
On the opposite side of the coin, this is a Blues team that cannot beat a Kings team that has some of its top D Men Injured and a Kopitar that is playing injured. I think that says a lot about how weak this St. Louis team is if they cannot capitalize. Imagine what this series would be like if these guys were healthy....It would be very different.

However, this is the series we have. So looking at it, First, we have taken some stupid penalties that we have yet to pay for. Most teams can make you pay on a PP but St. Louis is pretty inept here even with us playing with players who are not remotely ready for the playoffs (Ellerby, Muzzin). It's different if you have forwards who are weak, but our D men are the backbone of our structure and St. Louis still can't score when it is weakened.

Second, St. Louis cannot seem to get the puck on net for quality chances on five on five. They don't seem to generate a lot of firepower. Leopold and B-Meister are not that great and while they have a good forecheck, they appear to be capitalizing on our Defensive lapses as opposed to truly penetrating our Blue Line.

Third, St. Louis lacks composure and it looks easy to get under their skin. While they do not take too many bone headed penalties they do lose their cool easily when we do score. If we can get a garbage goal and play with more uptempo on breaking out of the zone, then this team is breakable. On top of that, if our D can stifle and Quick can post another shut out, he will be in their heads and then it's total mind game. A 2-0 game would eat at them.

Fourth: You pretty much hit on the head when talking about our breakout as that decreases our lapses and increases our offensive chances.

What this really comes down into IMHO is that St. Louis is trying to exploit our defensive lapses created by injury and lack of experience with two D Men. If we can get Green back, and stabilize our Blue Line, this series should swing back our way because it will limit their chances and shore up our N. South as Green has more experience in our system. Sutter is minimizing the gap by playing 7 D Men now because he is limiting Muzzin and Ellerby's ice time with the insertion of A Mart.

Thanks. I think you're right about a lot of things here: with a fully healthy roster, I think we would be the heavy favorites to win, even with the Blues' improved roster and performance from last year. Plus, we had their number through the regular season.

I don't agree that the Blues are not generating good opportunities, however; they had plenty of looks at open corners last night, and Quick has come up very big in all three games. It's true, the Blues are not by any stretch an offensive juggernaut, but they are dominating the possession game, and over time that will lead to wins. Maybe we won't get blown out, but we're not going to win if we can't play our game. Right now, most of our offense comes on rush attacks, but we don't really have the footspeed or the raw skill necessary to make that work, particularly with Kopitar's slow play.

As for composure, I think the Blues have actually been remarkably robust. The Kings got to them for one period, the first period of game two. There, we saw the Blues structure come apart as they lost focus, but other than that they have been quite stable. There have been moments where the Kings had the opportunity to break games open, such as Brown's breakaway about midway through game two. If he had scored and made it 2-0, with the Blues losing focus due to our physical play, I think momentum could have shifted dramatically in that game. However, credit to St. Louis, Brown missed and they regained their composure.

All this said, and I know my post was overall pretty gloomy, if the Kings can tighten up their structure, they can absolutely win the series. This same team beat St. Louis three times this year. I'm just worried that we're running out of time for us to establish our structure and system. The Kings don't win many games with sudden turns of events, they win by grinding opponents down. If they continue to get outplayed for long stretches of games, it will be difficult to win those games, even with Quick's excellent performance, even with St. Louis's underperforming offense.

EDIT: If there's one good chance for the Kings to win, I think it's special teams. The penalty kill has been good, and even a source of momentum so far. If the Kings can start scoring goals with a man advantage, then the series could really turn around. Last night's performance was a disgrace, however. A five-on-three in which they passed it around for :25 and then turned it over? That's totally unacceptable when the season is on the line. And sure, the Blues are doing a good job getting into shooting lanes, but that's why the Good Lord gave us the one-timer. You HAVE to get the puck on net in such a situation. There are no excuses not to.

 

[Basilisk]

3 total goals in 3 games ......methinks the floodgates have to open sooner rather than later.....

 

[MynameisKing]

Some peoples analysis here are spot on. If anyone knows hockey can plainly see the offense is struggling. Either it be injuries, lack of mobile defensemen, great Blues D system, we WERE WINNING 2/3rds of the way into each of the last two games!

If nothing else, the Kings can win playing terrible offense. We are a defensive team. The success of the offense during the regular season was just fluffy clouds. We can't expect that on a consistent basis against the Blues. We are just gonna have to out defend and out duel Elliot. The latter sounds quite attainable as I believe once we crack his shell the Blues are gonna be done!

Just think if we ever did get past this round our team would feel like any other teams defense is like a roomy ocean no matter how closely they are being checked!

 

[Steve Zissou]

I just think we have to realize that it's going to be quite a bit more difficult and challenging.

Mitchell is gone, Kopitar and Richards are shells of how they were last year, Greene isn't playing, King is nowhere near the level he was at last season, same with Nolan and Fraser.

Last year was just the perfect storm for the Kings. Quick was historically good, the defense had the same 6 guys the entire playoffs and the chemistry was great, Kopitar and Richards were both playing well and didn't have many of their trademark "no-shows" throughout the entire run.



DS has tried everything to get #11 and #10 going this year, different lines and linemates, hell he even tried them together, but there have been no answers to how bad they have been 5 on 5. We just need to hope that our wingers Brown, Williams and Carter can carry whatever center they are playing with.

Is it a different team? You bet. With losing those two on the back end at the beginning of the season, this... just didn't seem the way they were.

But I didn't expect the passion and the grit and the hard to play against mentality would be absent.

Bummer, man.

 

[kingsfan28]

Speaking of junk goals... how about that goal last night? I think there were 9 bodies in the crease when Voynov scored.

Two teams that are as close to parity both in style and skill (particularly on D) as you'll get. No goals scored by either team, crippling forecheck, smothering defensively.

Both teams are going to be tenderized after this series. Glad to see the Kings making a series out of this. I still don't see the Kings winning the next 3 of 4 sans Greene, but if St. Louis prevails they're going to be pretty banged up (likewise for the Kings). Tough round 1 match-up. Vancouver would have been far more preferable.

If the Kings DO manage to win this series, that's going to be when earning the 5 seed pays off as it's shaping up to be LAK vs. ANA in Round 2.

SJS would get CHI. Heh.

I thought about this over breakfast this morning. The set up is there, and it would be pretty awesome.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

My context was more in some fans calling for Bernier after game 2. "Stupid" is harsh word, perhaps a better word would have been "un-knowledgeable."

Bottom line, we are not hearing from the likes you in regard to Quick's play. In other words, you are very hesitant to give Quick credit where credit is due, but should he screw up you guys are calling for his head and pushing Bernier.

That's my whole point. Give credit where credit is due.

This game was on saturday night, I was there at the game.

Sorry that I forgot that one of the first things I need to do before going out and celebrating the win with friends, is that I need to check in with HFBOARDS and give credit to Quick so some like yourself can sleep easy night. Christ.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

Anyone who wanted to go to Bernier at any point is out of their mind.

This is Quick's team. He is the franchise player.

This. He's been stellar except that one goal which he passed. He's been great. It's cause of him we aren't down 3-0

 

[KingKopitar11*]

Blues defense is crazy good. When our defense gets better we will be attacking more.

 

[Quattro]

But I didn't expect the passion and the grit and the hard to play against mentality would be absent.

Bummer, man.

Really?!?!? C'mon, what games are you watching? There may be some things missing from the Kings game right now but the 3 you listed are there in abundance.

 

[Papa Mocha 15]

Anyone have an update on Greene? Is he skating with contact right now?

 

[jml87]

The thing is, is that after watching last years cup run we know what the players on this roster are capable of, and let's be completely honest - this team isn't playing anywhere near it's potential. And most of all, we are not the inspired team that is playing to win - they are playing not to lose.

I know, I know - crazy talk after a Kings win, right? But after two previous games and now after the third and some of the things aren't changing that needs to to go dead into the playoffs... that is the troubling part.

No Mitchell, no Greene, Kopitar is obviously hurt. That puts a lot more pressure on the rest of the team to pick up the slack, defensively and offensively. Kopitar's play disrupts the first line and Carter hasn't registered a point yet. There's your lack of scoring. They haven't played up to their potential means that they still can. They can still figure things out. I disagree that they are not an inspired team, the Blues are very good, better then they were the beginning of this season. Elliot has been very good. It's not a matter of playing uninspired or passionless. It's a matter of not being able to do things cause the other team is playing well.

You go over to the Blues thread, no doubt some fans are calling their team passionless, too, for not scoring more goals, but this is playoff hockey. Everyone is giving their all out there. Just cause they are low scoring games does not mean that there is no fire there. You can say that they are better than this, you can say that they suck, but you can't say they aren't trying or inspired to play because that's just not true.

 

[Peter James Bond]

Anze Kopitar is a shell of his former self right now. He doesn't take over shifts... he's not skating well and he's not protecting or controlling the puck well at all. Here are some fun facts that aren't so fun:

1) Kopi has 6 goals in his last 41 games and here's a REALLY bad stat...
2) Kopi has 0 PP Goals in 79 straight games including playoffs. ZERO!!

I mean, when was the last time you saw Kopi drive to the net for even a rebound?

Kopitar, on the first PP unit forever and 0 PP goals in 79 games?!? Face Wash, I know you for years on here, but still had to check for myself...as a Kingfan since 1973, that is thee most brutal stat I have ever seen in my life! Yes, in 40 years.
When you consider the 1st PP unit says, "we enter the zone and look for Kopi and
get him the puck" and he has no PP goals in 79 games? If you had told me he had 0 PP goals in the last 25 games, I wouldn't have believed it.

 

[Puck U]

Not sure if some of you have seen ...

Kopitar front and center in Kings' search for goals
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=669239

LOS ANGELES -- Anze Kopitar smiled and laughed the notion.

After the bulk of reporters cleared from his scrum, the Los Angeles Kings forward sat at his locker and confirmed that, NO, he is not hurt.

"Everything's fine," he said.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

Not sure if some of you have seen ...

Kopitar front and center in Kings' search for goals
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=669239

Its the playoffs hes probably lying. But if he isnt then FUUUUUUUUUUUU lol.

 

[Sydor25]

Isn't he still wearing the knee brace?

 

[Martyros]

All this talk about Kopitar....why isn't Richards doing anything? All i've seen is Williams taking control of this team...atleast brown is also throwing his weight around.