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Kings vs. Avalanche; Game Grades and Stat Analysis

The Kings kicked off their homestand with an emphatic 4-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. L.A. was led by a fantastic defensive effort from Drew Doughty and the dominant puck possession skill of their first line

The team is now rolling. They’ve now won 3 in a row and 5 out of the last 6.

For more check out Eric’s recap here.

Now let’s take a look at how the team graded out overall.

Game Grades

Forward Lines

  • 1st line (Brown-Kopitar-Williams), Grade: A+. Wow. 2 Goals, 6 shots on goal, 8 scoring chances, and +13 in shot attempt differential. Lined up against Colorado’s 1st (Statsny) and 4th (Olver) lines and completely dominated the ice. Anze Kopitar lead the team in gaining the zone and did so aggressively most of the time. Great to see that from him as he’s lagged behind in that area so far this season.
  • 2nd Line (Lewis-Richards-Carter), Grade: A. 1 Goal, 5 shots on goal, 3 scoring chances. Saw all of their time against Colorado’s top 6. Sutter tried to offest their difficult matchups by giving them more starts in the offensive zone. This helped drive their positive offensive numbers. They also were able to keep the Avs chances to minimum. They only allowed 1 out of 9 attempts against.
  • 3rd Line (Penner-Stoll-King), Grade: C. Again Sutter gave them copious amounts of defensive zone starts and matched them against the opposing 3rd line (Mitchell). As a result the line struggled offensively and generated very few chances. Stoll struggled on faceoffs and only won 2 out of 10. They gave up more shot attempts than any other unit but were also able to keep play to the outside and gave up few quality opportunities.
  • 4th Line (Clifford-Fraser-Nolan), Grade: C. Nothing much happened when they were on the ice. they combined for 1 shot and scoring chance. Didn’t allow any chances in their matchup against the opposing fourth line. Played to a draw. I’d like to see somebody else get a shot in the line-up over Nolan who’s play in the offensive end has left a lot to be desired.

Defensive Pairings

  • Muzzin/Ellerby-Doughty, Grade: A. Ellerby and Muzzin split time partnering Doughty. Neither had a big impact on Doughty’s game as they gave up the same amount of shots and chances when paired with him. Muzzin was slightly more aggressive in handling the puck, and Ellerby looks like his confidence in that regard has been shaken. Doughty though was his regular dominant self. Won the possession and scoring chance battles. Limited Colorado to only 3 scoring chances in 21 minutes of even strength ice time. He did have one bad turnover, though, that resulted in a chance–but overall a solid effort.
  • Scuderi-Voynov, Grade: C. Split time evenly across the top 9 and started most their shifts in the defensive end. They had trouble limiting attempts and chances but luckily they allowed 0 goals. Voynov had one instance where he gained the zone aggressively and created a scoring chance but otherwise a quiet game for him offensively.
  • Ellerby/Muzzin-Drewiske, Grade C+. Ellerby saw a little more time down with Drewiske than Muzzin. They were matched exclusively against the Avs bottom 6 and started all of their shifts in the defensive end. Limited chances and won the possession battle. Drewiske was a little more active than usual in breaking out of the defensive end and had no turnovers. He did take a bad holding penalty in the first.

Power Play

  • Grade: A. 3 scoring chances and 5 shots on goal in only 2 minutes of pp time. Scary to think what the score might have been had Colorado taken more penalties. Great sign for a struggling power play.

Penalty Kill

  • Grade: A. 5:30 of PK time and only allowed 3 shots and 2 scoring chances. 1 goal which came on a 4v3. Also the unit managed 2 shots on goal and a shorthanded goal.
Goaltending
  • Grade: B. Team defense made it an easy night for Jonathan Quick. He did stop 5 out of 6 difficult saves (shots in the scoring chance area) and 23 out of 24 shots for the game.

Overall Team Grade: A.

  • Lots of talk this year about the Kings’ best players needing to be their best players. Well, that was the case in this one. Their top 6 and top pairing were dominant. Quick was solid in net.
  • Following up on my post about zone entries from yesterday, the Kings allowed Colorado to gain the zone more often than the Kings did themselves. One of the very few times that has happened all year. Still, they denied quality entries and allowed Colorado to enter with puck control only 43% of the time. Impressive considering that they held a large lead a good portion of the game.

Numbers

If you’re unfamiliar with shot attempts and scoring chances, check out these links to see why they are important: Corsi Scoring Chances.

Los Angeles Kings – Even Strength

Name SHOT ATTEMPTS FOR SHOT ATTEMPTS AGAINST SHOT ATTEMPTS +/- SCORING CHANCES FOR SCORING CHANCES AGAINST SCORING CHANCE +/- ZONE ENTRIES ENTRIES W/ CONTROL
ELLERBY 16 9 7 6 2 4 0 0
MUZZIN 12 6 6 5 1 4 4 2
SCUDERI 15 14 1 4 3 1 1 0
DOUGHTY 18 11 7 8 3 5 2 2
RICHARDS 12 9 3 3 1 2 4 2
KOPITAR 22 9 13 9 3 6 8 5
CLIFFORD 3 6 -3 1 0 1 2 2
WILLIAMS 20 6 14 8 2 6 3 1
LEWIS 12 9 3 3 1 2 2 1
BROWN 21 8 13 8 3 5 2 0
FRASER 3 3 0 1 0 1 0 0
PENNER 7 8 -1 3 2 1 3 1
VOYNOV 15 14 1 4 2 2 1 1
STOLL 6 10 -4 2 2 0 2 0
DREWISKE 10 8 2 3 1 2 3 1
NOLAN 3 4 -1 1 0 1 4 1
KING 7 11 -4 3 3 0 3 0
CARTER 12 9 3 3 1 2 3 1

Los Angeles Kings – Even Strength – Team Totals

PERIOD SHOT ATTEMPTS FOR SHOTT ATTEMPTS AGAINST SHOT ATTEMPT +/- SCORING CHANCES FOR SCORING CHANCES AGAINST SCORING CHANCES +/-
1 14 10 4 5 3 2
2 13 13 0 6 2 4
3 16 8 8 4 1 3
Total 43 31 12 15 6 9

For in-game scoring chance and shot attempt updates:

Talking Points