Habs 2, Kings 1 -- Post-Game Bullets
by Quisp on Dec 4, 2011 11:45 PM PST
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- The Kings have scored 59 goals in 26 games.
- That's 29th in the league.
- 34 even-strength (5on5) goals.
- That's dead last.
- Mike Richards has 8 even-strength goals. Anze Kopitar and Simon Gagne have 6 each. The rest of the team has 2 or fewer.
- The Kings are on pace to score 186 goals this season.
- That would be their lowest total since 1969-70, when the Kings scored 168 goals in a 76 game season (which prorates to 181 in an 82 game season).
- I'm not counting the strike-shortened 1994-95 season, in which the Kings scored 142 goals in 48 games.
- To put this crappiness in perspective: since the lock-out, only one team has scored fewer goals than 186 (the Kings' current pace) in a season: the Devils, last year.
- The Kings have four forwards on pace to score more than 10 goals. Okay, five if you think Justin Williams will play all 82 games, in which case he's on pace for 10.
- Dustin Brown is on pace for 16 goals.
- Jarret Stoll is on pace for 7.
- Dustin Penner is on pace for 4.
- Scott Parse would have been on pace for 18, but no.
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I guess if every game ends with the score 2.27 (Kings’ g/g) to 2.15 (Kings’ ga/g) Terry Murray’s happy?
I have been railing against TM for two years, I’m frankly tired of it/myself. But I’m even more tired of the retort, “It’s the players.”
If all the players are doing badly, than unless the players all suck (and a good many of our Kings are in fact very good), then it’s the system.
The advertisements put out by the Kings talk about how this year is a real opportunity, we’ve got new good players. Odd, they don’t mention mediocre, because that is what this team is.
Line combinations are irrelevant until Terry Murray is out.
by soccersucks on Dec 5, 2011 7:03 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
If all the players are doing badly, than unless the players all suck (and a good many of our Kings are in fact very good), then it’s the system.
I whole heartedly agree with this. I think at this point, there have been too many players who have proven they can score either before they got to the Kings right after they left the Kings to say it’s all the players fault. Lombardi can go out and keep getting more offensively minded players, but when they get to LA, and are forced to play Murray’s system, they won’t score. Richards is the exception that proves the rule. At some point, something needs to be done, and if Murray can’t or won’t fix it, then it’s time for someone else to take over behind the bench.
Williams has looked lost out there for more than a few games. He’ll skate around trying to get into the zone in some sort of creative way, only to dump the puck after crossing the blue line.
We also need some sort of production from Doughty and Johnson. They’re key to our success. I’ve seen Drew try to skate it from one end to the other about once a game but holding on to the puck until he runs out of shot options.
Anyway… that Montreal game and the 1st period of it illustrated that having more shots aint necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.
Its early
I’d say its a bit early to worry too much.
Dallas leads the division with a negative goal differential (-3). While Vancouver is 1 point better than the Kings with a goal differential of +16 and Detroit is only 3 points better with a differential of +19. The Kings currently have a differential of +2. Meaning, their defense is playing well – and honestly to my eyes their defense is playing just “okay”.
To the above point, the players are under-producing and I think that’s a system thing too. But Kopitar had an awful beginning when Murray first came on and by game 35-40 really came around quick. I’m going to worry if by the All-Star game the Kings are still struggling to score 2 goals.
If this was a new problem, I’d be inclined to agree with you, but it’s been going on for longer than just this season (they were bottom five in goals for last year if I recall correctly). I think at this point it’s fair to say that this is the way Murray wants them to play – and it quite simply does not produce enough goals.
I’d be happy with the low 5v5 scoring if the PP was strong but it isn’t (14th). That’s especially troubling when you have Kopitar/Richards and Doughty/Johnson on your first unit. That’s too much talent to be a middle of the pack PP team.
On the bright side, no one in the Pacific has run away with the division lead. One point behind Dallas and I don’t think many people think the Kings have played their best hockey yet.
On the bright side, no one in the Pacific has run away with the division lead. One point behind Dallas and I don’t think many people think the Kings have played their best hockey yet.
The entire conference looks balanced (hell, even Columbus could get back into the race with a modest winning streak). This could be good or bad. It’s bad because even a short losing streak could bump the Kings way down the standings. It’s only good if the Kings can demonstrate that they actually are an elite team in a mediocre conference, something they have yet to do at all this season.
Needs More Hunter
"Matty Mo thinks it's different. He must be extra high today." BobbyNystromOwnsYou on Moulson's response to Isles black jerseys.
Contributor to Lighthouse Hockey not sure if I'm the Sniper or the Enforcer.
Well, there's one thing...
Last year’s Devils had bizzarely bad shooting luck early on, and it rebounded in a big way toward the end.
That’s not to negate the overall concerns about generating more shots and 5v5 scoring and overall possession, however. But even for Murray teams, this is weird.
Dinglebarnin' It JftC
In a sense it is weird for a Murray team, and in a sense no.
Some posters on various blogs are saying how talented the team is. And much of that is true.
But when we’re talking goal scoring, if your bottom six is comprised of Hunter, Moreau, Lewis, Clifford, Westgarth, and whoever else, I think that very much negates much of the other talent.
If you have to always seemingly count on Richards, Kopi and eventually Brown and or Gagne to score it doesn’t speak to a lot of depth.
When the Wings were winning those cups they had a third line of Maltby, McCarty and Draper.
When the Ducks won it was Moen, Pahlsson and Niedermayer. You know obviously various third liners on Pens (Dupuis, Talbot, etc) and the list would certainly go on for other teams.
Not saying this is the principle issue for this team, but clearly being dead last in scoring, it has to rank as one of them. And as much as I’m having issues w TM lately as many are, I’m not sure it’s all down to him exclusively. He didn’t bring in Hunter and Moreau.
Well, even the guys who aren’t scoring in the bottom six have a better career shooting average than that. That’s all I’m saying.
TM hasn’t been able to figure out the third line at all. I have no idea what their plan is there (if one exists). Lokti is a better playmaker than Stoll, and what is Moreau doing there?
The third line used to be at least thwarting when it wasn’t producing on the score sheet.
Dinglebarnin' It JftC
In a sense it is weird for a Murray team, and in a sense no.
Some posters on various blogs are saying how talented the team is. And much of that is true.
But when we’re talking goal scoring, if your bottom six is comprised of Hunter, Moreau, Lewis, Clifford, Westgarth, and whoever else, I think that very much negates much of the other talent.
If you have to always seemingly count on Richards, Kopi and eventually Brown and or Gagne to score it doesn’t speak to a lot of depth.
When the Wings were winning those cups they had a third line of Maltby, McCarty and Draper.
When the Ducks won it was Moen, Pahlsson and Niedermayer. You know obviously various third liners on Pens (Dupuis, Talbot, etc) and the list would certainly go on for other teams.
Not saying this is the principle issue for this team, but clearly being dead last in scoring, it has to rank as one of them. And as much as I’m having issues w TM lately as many are, I’m not sure it’s all down to him exclusively. He didn’t bring in Hunter and Moreau.
Glaring
Without going too deep into all of this … here is my net/net.
From last year to this year there have been only (off the top of my head) a few personnel changes;
OUT
Ryan Smyth_23 G, 24 A, 47 P
Wayne Simmonds_14 G, 16 A, 30 P
Alexei Ponikarovsky_5 G, 10 A, 15 P
Michal Handzus_12 G, 18 A, 30 P
Marco Sturm_4 G, 5 A, 9 P
IN
Colin Fraser_3 G, 2 A, 5 P
Simon Gagne_17 G, 23 A, 40 P
Trent Hunter_1 G, 3 A, 4 P (17 games)
Andrei Loktionov_4 G, 3 A, 7 P (in 19 games with LA)
Ethan Moreau_1 G, 5 A, 6 P (in 37 games with Blue Jackets)
Mike Richards_23 G, 43 A, 66 P
All in all, 10 less goals (49 G) from the “IN’s”, 128 points from the “IN’s” versus 131 from the outs.
Maybe I needed to lower my expectations, I thought we got better over the off season, although the data doesn’t support that.
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