Game Thread: San Jose Sharks @ Los Angeles Kings - Playoffs

[Kings4OT]

Kings played poorly. The Kings have had trouble all year when the other team out "Kings" them. Outside of a couple fluky goals LA lost badly. Martinez out will hurt quite a bit but the real struggle will be that Pavelski and Burns are not Thornton and Marleau

 

[heLL paso]

Apparently, Gaborik and MacBain are in tonight. Shore for AA, Martinez and Clifford out.

 

[pete6835]

Someone start a GDT - Mine failed

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Puck - looking forward to your take on Game 1.... And game 2 adjustments.

Jumping in late, got lots of stuff going on and it was Ms. Little Puck's 6th birthday Saturday so we were at Legoland. Did catch the game in the hotel though.

All I can say is wow...the Kings look sluggish, one step behind and the lack of defensive depth is killing them. McNabb looks worse than he ever has, McBain just played in his first playoff game ever and Schenn has very limited experience - I hit on that point in a thread just before the series started. Far cry from having guys like Mitchell, Regehr, Voynov. Losing Martinez really hurts, he is a great skater and can move the puck out of the Kings' end, which is where all the action seems to be this series so far.

Would love to see Greene back, he killed them in 2006 as a member of the Oilers and then again in the last few series the Kings and Sharks have played. They need some snarl, something to wake this team up. They look awful.

Better improve the overall play, possession game and forecheck if they plan on making this a series. The Kings' entry into the zone is horrible, which credit should be given to them, but the Kings are making it far too easy. And what is with the missed shots? They are missing the net, wringing around and the Sharks are breaking out that much more easy. No net front presence either.

No matter the outcome of this series, defense MUST be addressed this offseason. Lucic should be a priority and then see what Dumbo can do to upgrade this defense. There is a massive 2 tier drop off from Doughty ----> Muzzin/Martinez ---McNabb/Schenn/McBain/Scuderi. Greene I left out because he has been injured all season but doesn't seem to have stopped being a PITA to play against and guys like Gravel can't be counted on yet.

They need another RH puck moving two-way defender not named McBain. The effects of Voynov's departure have not stopped reverberating since the whole incident and suspension.

Offensively, the big guns have petered out. Kopitar needs to step up as does the core as a whole. Brown, not expecting much but if he could start dropping some bodies like he used to that would go a long way.

This SJ team is better than the 2013-14 team IMO, and the Kings have their hands full.

 

[lasportzphan]

Jumping in late, got lots of stuff going on and it was Ms. Little Puck's 6th birthday Saturday so we were at Legoland. Did catch the game in the hotel though.

All I can say is wow...the Kings look sluggish, one step behind and the lack of defensive depth is killing them. McNabb looks worse than he ever has, McBain just played in his first playoff game ever and Schenn has very limited experience - I hit on that point in a thread just before the series started. Far cry from having guys like Mitchell, Regehr, Voynov. Losing Martinez really hurts, he is a great skater and can move the puck out of the Kings' end, which is where all the action seems to be this series so far.

Would love to see Greene back, he killed them in 2006 as a member of the Oilers and then again in the last few series the Kings and Sharks have played. They need some snarl, something to wake this team up. They look awful.

Better improve the overall play, possession game and forecheck if they plan on making this a series. The Kings' entry into the zone is horrible, which credit should be given to them, but the Kings are making it far too easy. And what is with the missed shots? They are missing the net, wringing around and the Sharks are breaking out that much more easy. No net front presence either.

No matter the outcome of this series, defense MUST be addressed this offseason. Lucic should be a priority and then see what Dumbo can do to upgrade this defense. There is a massive 2 tier drop off from Doughty ----> Muzzin/Martinez ---McNabb/Schenn/McBain/Scuderi. Greene I left out because he has been injured all season but doesn't seem to have stopped being a PITA to play against and guys like Gravel can't be counted on yet.

They need another RH puck moving two-way defender not named McBain. The effects of Voynov's departure have not stopped reverberating since the whole incident and suspension.

Offensively, the big guns have petered out. Kopitar needs to step up as does the core as a whole. Brown, not expecting much but if he could start dropping some bodies like he used to that would go a long way.

This SJ team is better than the 2013-14 team IMO, and the Kings have their hands full.

Well said, the defensive core feels thin. The Sharks could have blown their team up and, instead, resisted the urge. Perhaps they plugged in the right holes accordingly because they are playing well.

 

[Kings4OT]

The Kings have never and will never recover from the Voynov debacle.

So far I see the biggest problem being the lack of forecheck. The pressure from the Sharks either wins the battle or makes the forward make a piss poor play, either way the Kings don't spend much time on the attack. The defense will never be great without another skater in there but can do just fine if the Kings forwards do what they are supposed to do and lead in the corsi crap. As I said in one of these threads the Kings biggest problem will be the that Pavelski and Burns are not Marleau and Thorton.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

The biggest problem is turning out to be the Kings' propensity to take needless penalties. Pavelski and Thornton have done the most damage, and it's almost been exclusively on the PP. I am simply not going to understand for the life of me how this team just continues to take stupid penalty after stupid penalty, it happened all season long and just rolled right into the playoffs.

You can take penalties and play rough and tough hockey if you have a superb PK, unfortunately the Kings PK is absolute shit this season and will be their demise in this series.

The Kings have scored 8 goals in 4 games, the Sharks 10 but 50% of the Shark goals have been PP goals while 37.5% have been PP goals for LA.

You have to consider too the Kings have not played one solid game except for Game 3; take away the PP goals and this is a very close series, if not in the Kings' favor but these morons keep giving games away to SJ. Not taking anything away from SJ but they have won every game by 1 goal and they are on their A game while LA is on their C+ game.