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Kings-Sharks Game Three Recap: San Jose Flips the Script, Converts Final Power Play to Win 2-1

2013-05-19T06:45:57Z

The Office showed its final episode on Thursday night after ten years on the air. It was a great send-off, and it got me thinking about my favorite quotes from the show. While his stolen Wayne Gretzky quote is absolute gold, the one I use most often in real life is this one.

Well, well, well... how the turntables.

And the turns sure did table tonight. After benefiting from a late 5-on-3 in Game 2, the Los Angeles Kings were faced with the same challenge tonight, with even higher stakes: not a late one-goal lead, but a tie game heading into sudden death. The Kings were 20 seconds away from getting back to even strength, but Logan Couture sealed the deal to give the San Jose Sharks a 2-1 win and a lifeline in the series.

[Box Score] [Game Highlights]

Things got turned around in other ways tonight as well. For instance, tonight it was the Sharks who got off to a perfect start. And eerily, it was a puck over the glass incident which made it happen. Jake Muzzin went to the box for violating the rule that no one likes, and the Sharks scored a textbook power play goal. Joe Pavelski won the faceoff to Patrick Marleau, who passed to Dan Boyle, whose point shot beat Jonathan Quick over the right shoulder. Joe Thornton ran traffic and made minor contact with Jonathan Quick, but it didn't seem to influence his ability to make the save. Quick was unhappy with the refs; he'd get a lot angrier later, but on the way, he made 38 saves. Yep, despite the loss, his playoff save percentage actually improved. He's playing pretty well.

A lot of people were really excited about the announcement that Dustin Penner, Trevor Lewis, and Tyler Toffoli would play together in Game 3, and they had a pretty good evening overall. They also produced the only Kings goal tonight, midway through the first. Penner and Lewis finished off a successful penalty kill, and Toffoli joined them after the Kings cleared their zone. Antti Niemi banked the puck around the end boards to Brad Stuart, whose lazy pass was out of the reach of Scott Hannan. Toffoli picked off the errant feed and nearly lost control of the puck, but he recovered and sent a hard backhand past Niemi to even the score. With the exception of the second line (who suffered at the hands of Thornton and Brent Burns), the forwards played reasonably well, but they wouldn't beat Niemi again.

[Zone Starts] [Shot Differential] [Shift Chart] [Head to Head Matchups]

(The other rookie, you ask? Tanner Pearson made his NHL debut, but only played 5:44 and got just eleven seconds of ice time in the third period. He didn't look overwhelmed, but I'd be surprised to see him in Game 4.)

From there until the end of regulation, injuries were the main talking point. The oft-injured Martin Havlat left the game in the first and didn't return. Justin Williams was crushed (cleanly) by Brad Stuart late in the first period and missed a few shifts in the second, but he would come back to the ice. Scott Hannan got dinged up by the boards but returned pretty swiftly. And Logan Couture was absent for a fifteen-minute stretch after falling awkwardly into the boards after a Jeff Carter check, but he, too, would return. No fault of Carter's own tonight, as Couture's skates were more to blame for getting caught up on the play, but Carter's going to need to watch his back if Sharks keep going down in his presence.

Back to the game itself: the goalies were locked in tonight. Quick came way out to deny Dan Boyle near the end of the first and made a huge pad stop on Andrew Desjardins in the second, while Niemi was game in the San Jose net. It looked like the goalies' efforts would keep the offenses frustrated through regulation and beyond, but the Sharks received a golden opportunity at the end of the third. At the three-minute mark the Kings finished killing a Dustin Brown slashing penalty, but Robyn Regehr put the Sharks back on the advantage when he was forced to hook Tommy Wingels in front of the net with 41 seconds left. LA held off the Sharks and Mike Richards and Trevor Lewis drove the other way with a chance to win it shorthanded, but the Richards shot was blocked by Boyle and Lewis barrelled into Niemi while being pressured from behind by Patrick Marleau. To the chagrin of the Kings, Lewis was called for goaltender interference with three seconds left. Though the game made it to overtime and the Kings killed off the first of the two penalties, it felt inevitable when Logan Couture finished off a feed from Marleau to win the game 1:29 in.

The refs are going to let things go late in playoff games, but they have to call what they see as a no-doubt penalty, right? In Game 2, the Brad Stuart trip was on a clear-cut Toffoli scoring chance, while in Game 3, the Robyn Regehr hook was on a clear-cut Wingels scorning chance. In Game 2, if the refs didn't believe Marc-Edouard Vlasic's clear touched Jeff Carter, it's a definite two minutes. And in Game 3, if the refs didn't believe Trevor Lewis was pushed into Antti Niemi, it's a definite two minutes. The Kings (other than Jonathan Quick, who got a 10-minute misconduct for yelling at the refs, and Dustin Penner) kept some perspective and seemed ready to move on.

Rob Scuderi:

Certainly we’re not happy with the calls, but what team really is?

Trevor Lewis:

It is what it is. Can’t change it now. We need to focus on the next game.

And after two consecutive games of late penalties dramatically influencing the result (one each way), the refs are going to be more eager than ever to let the teams play.

Poll

What are the odds that a penalty is called in the final two minutes of Game 4?

Kings-Sharks Game 3 Preview

2013-05-18T16:20:16Z

Los Angeles Kings v San Jose Sharks (HP Pavilion)

Time: 6.00 PM

TV: RDS, TSN, NBC Sports Network

Enemy reading: Fear the Fin

Previous series coverage: Preview | Game 1 coverage | Game 2 recap

Sharks (projected) lineup:

Marleau-Couture-Pavelski
Galiardi-Thornton-Burns
Sheppard-Gomez-Wingels
Kearns-Desjardins-Kennedy

Vlasic-Braun
Irwin-Boyle
Hannan-Stuart

Niemi

Injured: Burish, Havlat; Scratched: Demers, Hamilton, Oleksuk, Pelech, Stalberg, Acolatse, Demelo, Petrecki, Tennyson

Kings (projected) lineup:

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
King-Richards-Carter
Penner-Richardson-Lewis
Nolan-Fraser-Toffoli

Regehr-Doughty
Muzzin-Voynov
Martinez-Scuderi

Quick

Injured: Mitchell, Greene, Clifford, Stoll (THANK, RAFFI); Scratched: the Manchester Monarchs

Game notes:

The Kings got their sixth straight victory on Thursday night, but they have yet to play a great, truly dominating game during these playoffs. Not every playoff game, or series, is going to be pretty, but I can't be the only one who's a little concerned that they're scraping out quite a few of these wins. The Sharks penalty kill collapsed late in the game, and the Kings certainly can't rely on that happening again. I have full faith that this team can take this series, but I remain cautious about their prospects in general.
That being said, they did what they had to do at home, and they still haven't lost at Staples Center since March. That's pretty neat!
Tyler Toffoli: whatta kid. Such a great game from him on Thursday, and an awesome glimpse of what is (we hope, obviously) ahead for him in his NHL career.
I don't anticipate/see any news about lineup changes for either team, although the Sharks re-iterated that Jason Demers is approaching game readiness and will be "an option" very soon.
Prediction: Kings win after I hold a prayer circle for Anze Kopitar's face. Raffi Torres probably kicks a puppy in the press box.

Sharks vs Kings Game 2: Stats

2013-05-17T18:10:25Z

Shot Chart

via Behind the Net

Matchup Charts

Even Strength - On-Ice Player Stats

NAME	ATTEMPTS FOR	ATTEMPTS AGAINST	ATTEMPT +/-	CHANCES FOR	CHANCES AGAINST	CHANCE +/-
JAKE MUZZIN	14	5	9	2	0	2
ROB SCUDERI	13	17	-4	2	4	-2
DREW DOUGHTY	18	14	4	4	3	1
MIKE RICHARDS (A)	9	14	-5	3	3	0
ANZE KOPITAR (A)	18	17	1	1	3	-2
JUSTIN WILLIAMS	11	18	-7	0	4	-4
BRAD RICHARDSON	4	2	2	1	0	1
TREVOR LEWIS	6	2	4	1	0	1
DUSTIN BROWN (C)	13	16	-3	0	3	-3
COLIN FRASER	5	3	2	1	2	-1
DUSTIN PENNER	12	2	10	2	0	2
SLAVA VOYNOV	16	18	-2	2	4	-2
ALEC MARTINEZ	4	5	-1	0	2	-2
ROBYN REGEHR	11	14	-3	2	4	-2
JORDAN NOLAN	5	1	4	1	1	0
TYLER TOFFOLI	13	0	13	3	0	3
DWIGHT KING	8	17	-9	2	4	-2
JEFF CARTER	10	15	-5	3	3	0

Series Stats from Hockey Analysis

Kings-Sharks Game Two Recap: Two Late PP Goals Turn Impending Defeat Into 4-3 Victory

2013-05-17T16:20:46Z

The Los Angeles Kings wrote a lot of history on their way to a Stanley Cup last season, but one chapter didn't get any new entries: the chapter on dramatic comebacks. But tonight, we saw quite the late comeback. It wasn't quite the Miracle on Manchester or the Frenzy on Figueroa, but the Kings' late heroics turned a 3-2 deficit at the two-minute mark into a 4-3 regulation win over the San Jose Sharks.

[Box Score] [Video Highlights]

Let's be honest: the Kings could have played a lot better over the course of the night, and that fact alone will give Sharks fans some hope as the series moves to San Jose. But the start and the finish couldn't have gone much better for Los Angeles. Granted, the Sharks got some good looks at Jonathan Quick early, including a legitimate scoring chance just ten seconds in. But the Kings' first shot found its way into the back of the net, and to no one's surprise, it was Jeff Carter who got the goal. It was a vintage Carter goal, too; he took the puck inside his own blue line, and streaked down the right side all the way into the offensive zone. Once he got a bit further and had half a step on his defender, he let loose a wrist shot which beat Antti Niemi on the far side. It wasn't Niemi's finest hour, but Carter's been scoring those types of goals on a lot of good goalies this year.

That goal came unassisted at even strength and was far from the best chance in the period. The Sharks and Kings both looked pretty good on early power plays but could not convert; the killed Jordan Nolan and Alec Martinez penalties were encouraging for a PK missing Jarret Stoll, while the PP saw two minutes of sustained zone time and was encouraging in its own way. The remaining first-period chances did not go, and the game was 1-0 until the first Los Angeles power play of the second period. Scott Hannan went off for interference, and a magnificent forecheck by Dustin Penner, Brad Richardson, and Trevor Lewis (everyone's favorite power play unit!) kept the puck in. Richardson made a great backhand cross-ice lob pass to Drew Doughty, and with Penner screening Niemi and Niemi going low to see the shot, Doughty's slap shot beat the goalie in the top corner.

With the Kings staked to a 2-0 lead, the onus fell on Jonathan Quick to protect the lead. He came up with a stunning save on Marc-Edouard Vlasic immediately after the goal and an equally great save on Tommy Wingels on the Shark's next power play to keep the lead at 2, but even Quick wasn't getting to Patrick Marleau's tap-in goal soon after that. The goal was essentially a power play marker, as it came five seconds after Alec Martinez's penalty expired; the Kings couldn't clear, and Couture passed to Thornton on one side, who immediately made a perfect pass across to an open Marleau right in front. The goal snapped a 125:08 shutout streak for Quick. But it only took five minutes for San Jose to equalize. Scott Gomez dangled across the blue line and fed a trailing Stuart, who took advantage of a Tommy Wingels screen to beat Quick for his first goal since March 26, 2012. The Sharks' faceoff domination and shot advantage was starting to get to the Kings, and they had to kill off Jeff Carter's charging penalty on Vlasic (a hit which drew attention from Sharks fans and might garner a look from the NHL) just to keep the score tied. Though San Jose largely controlled the first two periods, the #fancystats look pretty even.

[Zone Starts] [Shot Differential] [Shift Chart] [Head to Head Matchups]

Why? The Kings needed to play a lot better in the third period, and they did, outshooting the Sharks 18-7 to even up the overall shooting. Anze Kopitar threw a scare into everyone when he took a puck to the face, but he returned to the game and the offense continued generating chances. But it was San Jose who took the lead despite not getting a shot until 8:56 in. A Sharks rush sent the Kings' D scrambling, and with a delayed penalty on the Kings, Stuart's point shot hit hard off the boards and came back in front. Vlasic's stick got there before anyone else's, and through the crowd he tapped the puck in to give the Sharks a 3-2 edge. Darryl Sutter made a few changes late to give the Kings a better chance at evening the score; Nolan, Fraser, Richardson, and (surprisingly) Williams didn't see the ice in the final minutes, while guys like Tyler Toffoli and Trevor Lewis were trusted to help get the game back.

(AND DID THEY EVER)

If you skipped down to this part, I can't blame you. In the midst of perhaps his best game as a Los Angeles King, Toffoli drew a tripping penalty on Brad Stuart after some good Kings pressure with 2:41 to go. (For some idea of how good he was, check the shot differential link above.) Marc-Edouard Vlasic put the puck over the glass 22 seconds later; replays were inconclusive as to whether it tipped Carter on the way out, but regardless, the Kings had a golden 5-on-3 opportunity. Dustin Brown tied things up 36 seconds after Vlasic made his way to the penalty box. Drew Doughty got in the way of Logan Couture's clearing attempt, and Mike Richards got the initial shot with a bunch of traffic in front. Brown knocked in the rebound, and with a 5-on-4 for another minute and a half, the Kings went in for the kill. With the Staples crowd roaring, Jake Muzzin led Toffoli into the zone with a crisp cross-ice pass, and Toffoli blew by Brad Stuart and put a shot off Niemi's pad. Trevor Lewis was perfectly positioned to tap in the rebound, and wild and disjointed celebrations ensued.

(Niesy's postgame poll has the NBCSN video, by the way. Either way... SICK!)

The Kings were fortunate to avoid overtime, but you can't say they didn't earn this victory. With Stoll out, it was interesting to see the impact of special teams on the night. Quick stopped all six shots with the Kings down a man, while the three power play goals put LA over the top. San Jose is going to be a desperate team during Game 3, and we just saw that coming back form two games down ain't out of the question. But LA is probably pretty pleased to be where they are.

(Leave your praise for Tyler Toffoli in the comments. Dude was unbelievable last night, wasn't he?)

Postgame Poll: 2 Goals in 22 seconds!

2013-05-17T05:59:49Z

TREVOR LEWIS!

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

Like a badass, I hope!

BOOM.

It's almost enough to make Sutter get over his missing pair of glasses...almost. Carter, Toffoli, Brown: we love you too.

Poll

What's your takeaway?

Raffi Torres suspended for the series; Will he be able to appeal?

2013-05-16T23:49:58Z

The NHL has suspended Raffi Torres for the remainder of the Kings-Sharks series for a check to the head of Jarret Stoll.

We argued yesterday that the angle of NBC's replay--the one most commonly circulated--makes the hit look like shoulder-to-shoulder contact gone wrong. However, the reverse angle makes it seem more like shoulder-to-head contact to me.

The Sharks' defense of Torres hinged on the argument that Stoll's head was not the principal point of contact, but his shoulder. (Principal means "most important" rather than "initial" or "first".)

Shanahan rejects that defense in his ruling, saying that shoulder-to-shoulder contact could only have been glancing given the way Stoll's body reacted to the hit.

Shanahan also points out that Torres had time to change his approach to deliver a legal check to the body.

Why reputation matters

This was a hit that likely would have received a 1-2 game suspension at most if it had involved a first-time offender. Once the league determined this was a check to the head, though, Torres' record of multiple fines and suspensions had to be taken into account.

Torres went half a season without being suspended, but this redemption effort does not count as much as his past when it comes to handing out punishment. He is already classified as a repeat offender under the disciplinary guidelines of the CBA.

Can Torres appeal?

The truly bizarre wrinkle in all of this is that we don't have a set number of games the suspension will last. This may be a tactical move by the NHL. Under the reported rules of the new CBA, Torres would be able to appeal to an arbitrator if the suspension was six or more games. There are only six possible games in this series left. Will it even get to that point? Will there be time for appeal if it does?

Stoll's injury may make it more difficult for the Kings to close this out. Tactics wise, Torres-for-Stoll is a good tradeoff for the Sharks. Besides being a top penalty killer, Stoll was used to shut down SJ's top lines at the start of Game 1. San Jose has naturally discussed how best to exploit his absence.

Questions for the day: How do you think of the Wheel of Justice did in this case? Do you agree with the argument that it was principal contact was with Stoll's head?

You can't #FreeRaffi from his own reputation. But should we?

Kings-Sharks Game 2 Preview: VENGEANCE

2013-05-16T20:01:42Z

Los Angeles Kings v San Jose Sharks (Staples Center!!!)

Time: 7.00 PM

TV: RDS, TSN, NBC Sports Network

Enemy reading: Fear the Fin

Previous series coverage: Preview | Game 1 coverage

Sharks (projected) lineup:

Marleau-Couture-Pavelski
Galiardi-Thornton-Burns
Wingels-Gomez-Sheppard
Desjardins-Kennedy-Kearns

Vlasic-Braun
Irwin-Boyle
Hannan-Stuart

Niemi

Injured: Burish, Havlat; Scratched: Demers, Hamilton, Oleksuk, Pelech, Stalberg, Acolatse, Demelo, Petrecki, Tennyson

Kings (projected) lineup:

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
King-Richards-Carter
Penner-Richardson-Lewis
Nolan-Fraser-Toffoli

Regehr-Doughty
Muzzin-Voynov
Martinez-Scuderi

Quick

Injured: Mitchell, Greene, Clifford, Stoll (THANK, RAFFI); Scratched: the Manchester Monarchs

Game notes:

Raffi Torres' hearing for his hit on Jarret Stoll was completed earlier today, but no supplementary discipline, if any, has yet been announced. I'm not going to opine on what will, or should, happen. But Raffi Torres is generally a pretty big dirtbag, so I'm not going to feel bad if he gets the book thrown at him.
I'm not in love with Darryl Sutter's decision to simply drop Brad Richardson into Stoll's place on the third line and keep the rest of the lineup intact, but I am not the expert, and line chemistry, and blah blah blah.
You know what would be useful right about now? Still having Andrei Loktionov. Yeah.
In Torres' absence, Joe Pavelski joins the Sharks' first line, and the bottom six looks dramatically different than it did for Game 1. Sutter did well in getting the line match-ups he wanted during Game 1, and let's hope that continues tonight.
Jonathan Quick and Antti Niemi were both quite good in Game 1, but Quick was slightly better. He's going to have to continue to be better tonight, because the Sharks are (obviously) going to be pressing to even the series at Staples.
Prediction: Kings win to avenge Jarret Stoll, and I fire Raffi Torres into the sun.

San Jose Sharks at Los Angeles Kings: Game 1

2013-05-15T22:22:26Z

The Kings took game one thanks to Slava Voynov big night offensively. Not all was rosy as Jarrett Stoll was injured on a hit from Raffi Torres. Full coverage below.

Los Angeles Kings v San Jose Sharks (Staples Center!!!)

Time: 7.00 PM

TV: TSN, NBC Sports Network

Enemy reading: Fear the Fin

Previous playoffs coverage: Kings-Blues match-ups | Kings-Sharks preview

Sharks (projected) lineup:

Marleau-Couture-Torres
Galiardi-Thornton-Burns
Desjardins-Pavelski-Wingels
Sheppard-Gomez-Kennedy

Vlasic-Braun
Irwin-Boyle
Hannan-Stuart

Niemi

Injured: Burish, Havlat; Scratched: Demers, Hamilton, Kearns, Kennedy, Oleksuk, Pelech, Stalberg, Acolatse, Demelo, Petrecki, Tennyson

Kings (projected) lineup:

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
King-Richards-Carter
Penner-Stoll-Lewis
Nolan-Fraser-Toffoli

Regehr-Doughty
Muzzin-Voynov
Martinez-Scuderi

Quick

Injured: Mitchell, Greene, Clifford; Scratched: Richardson, the Manchester Monarchs

Game notes:

In case you somehow missed it while the Kings were tussling with the Blues: the Sharks dispatched the Canucks in four games in the first round, completing the first sweep in franchise history, and now we're not allowed to call them chokers anymore because they won with #grit and #heart or whateverrrr.
Speaking of Joe Thornton, here is a chart. (And an explanation of said chart.)
Adam Burish was injured in the last game against the Canucks and has been ruled out for round two. Martin Havlat and Jason Demers are both almost ready to play again, I believe, but I doubt either one gets inserted into the lineup tonight. My semi-educated guess is that Tim Kennedy fills in on the fourth line for at least game 1.
I'd still prefer a switch with Dustin Penner returning to the second line and Dwight King to the third, but I don't see any lineup changes happening for the Kings tonight. Kyle Clifford is practicing in a no-contact jersey with the Black Aces, and we still have no idea what is wrong with him.
Robert's excellent-as-usual series preview (linked up top) takes you through how the Kings and Sharks look to match up. If you're too lazy to read all those words, the highlights: the Sharks have had an up-and-down season but got a lot better after the trade deadline (RIP Crankshaft), the Kings first line will need to remember that they're one of the best lines in hockey, and the Kings have to stay out of the penalty box because the Sharks power play is pretty deadly. (Hey, no problem - the Kings are always super-disciplined against the Sharks, right? Yup.)
For those of you who don't know, I am Canadian. And when anyone says California, this is what I think of:
I'm sorry for sharing that with you, but I needed you all to understand my pain. Anyway. Prediction: Kings win, Logan Couture gnashes his teeth in fury, Selena Gomez refuses to comfort him. And Barret Jackman remains incredulous.