Led by a stellar effort from their back-end, the Kings got a big 5-2 win against their crosstown opponent. They’ve now won 4 in a row and will faceoff against Detroit later tonight.
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+. This line was rolled out evenly across the Getlaf, Ryan and Selanne lines and destroyed them all. 1 goal, 5 scoring chances, 7 shots on goal, and +18 in shot attempts. Williams and Kopitar were very active in breaking out of the defensive zone. They led all forwards in touches in the defensive end. Dustin Brown gained the zone 9 times, 8 with possession which helped generate more shots than any other forward. A dominant performance in all three zones.
- 2nd Line (Lewis-Richards-Carter), Grade: B. Matched mainly against the Selanne and Getzlaf lines. They tilted the ice heavily in their favor, as Richards out-attempted them 18-9. Richards also gained the zone 10 times, more than any other King. They did have a tough time translating that into quality chances. One reason could be that they frequently elected to dump the puck in instead of gaining the zone aggressively. They also had a lot of defensive zone breakdowns relative to how little time they spent back there. Half of the Ducks‘ attempts while Richards was on ice were registered as scoring chances– one of which resulted in a goal.
- 3rd Line (Penner-Stoll-King), Grade: A. Dustin Penner finally got the Gigantopithecus blackii off his back as he scored his first goal of the season. As a whole, the line performed well in a more defensive role. They started most of their shifts in the defensive zone and saw most of their time against the Selanne and Ryan lines. They gave up 0 scoring chances and were able to record 3 of their own. Offensively, Dwight King is often stunting their momentum by defaulting to dumping the puck in far too often.
- 4th Line (Clifford-Fraser-Nolan), Grade: C. Hard-matched against the opposing fourth line and were played to a draw. Not much happened in the way of offense while they were out there. The two units pretty much batted the puck around while looking to pummel each other. Great if you like that sort of thing or a great opportunity to take a break from the game and watch a kitten riding on a turtle if you don’t.
Defensive Pairings
- Muzzin-Doughty, Grade: A. If you read our last game grade post, you’ll remember that we observed that Ellerby and Muzzin were pretty much competing to see who would get the privilege of getting to play with Drew Doughty. Well it looks like Muzzin won as Doughty saw virtually all of his time partnering him. They spent most of their time against the Selanne line, but it is interesting to note that they saw 2nd most time against the Ducks 4th line. The easy matchup resulted in them registering 3 shots on goal and being on ice for 6 scoring chances as well as 25 shot attempts.
- Scuderi-Voynov, Grade: A+. This pair was given the shutdown role as they saw all of their time against the Ducks top 6 and started more shifts in the defensive end than in the offensive zone. They did give up a goal, but other than that their results were superb. Voynov was +8 in shot attempt plus/minus, and only allowed 2 scoring chances. Offensively, he scored a goal, was on ice for two others and 8 chances total. Voynov’s meteoric rise continues. Get it? Meteo…ok sorry.
- Ellerby-Drewiske, Grade A. Saw a lot of the Ducks’ bottom 6 and liked what they saw as the ice was tilted in their favor all night. Not much created in the way of offense, but defensively didn’t allow an inch. The first time the Kings defense has gotten straight A’s in a game this season.
Power Play
- Grade: A. The Kings only got one shot on the power play, but luckily enough it was a goal. Not bad given they only had 2 minutes of PP time. On a side note, why are the Kings drawing so few penalties this season? You’d think they’d be at least close to leading the league in penalties drawn given that they control the puck more often than any other team in the NHL.
Penalty Kill
- Grade: D. 5:49 of PK time and allowed 1 goal, 6 shots on goal and 5 scoring chances. Not their best night. Sutter went away from using Doughty and trusted Drewiske with more power play time. The results were not good. Still for the season, the Kings have been decent on the PK– 9th best in shots allowed.
Goaltending
- Grade: B. Quick stopped 6 out of 8 scoring chance shots. A .923 sv% in 26 shots for the game. Another solid performance as it looks like the goaltending ship has righted.
Overall Team Grade: A.
- People are still under-estimating the Kings defense. One could make a very strong argument that defense has actually been their strength so far this season. They are denying shots attempts at a record setting pace.
- PDO is a way of monitoring variance in the NHL. The Kings have been snakebitten to start the season but they are now progressing to the mean and the wins are starting to roll in. Although Dean Lombardi has made some slightly unpopular moves this season (waiving Hickey, trading Loktionov and today trading Gagne) he deserves credit for not pressing the panic button early given the Kings depleted defensive corps. The Kings defensive numbers have been excellent and they are proving that a move is not necessary.
Numbers
If you’re unfamiliar with shot attempts and scoring chances, check out these links to see why they are important: Corsi – Scoring Chances.
For in-game scoring chance and shot attempt updates: Follow @RobertJftC