The Predators jumped ahead early and then locked up the ice, making it difficult for the Kings to make any headway offensively. The effort was there for the Kings–that is reflected by the eye popping shot attempt numbers, but struggled to translate that effort into quality opportunities.
For more info on the game, check out Eric’s recap.
Game Grades
Forward Lines
- 1st line (Brown – Kopitar – Williams), Grade: B- Again dominant on the puck, but had a difficult time generating quality opportunities. Also uncharacteristically shaky in the defensive zone in the first period where they allowed a goal and 3 scoring chances.
- 2nd line (Gagne-Richards-Carter), Grade: C. Line combined for very few chances. Had a difficult time penetrating the defense, despite copious amounts of zone time. Very good in the defensive zone, as the majority of their touches resulted in quick zone exits.
- 3rd Line (King-Stoll-Lewis), Grade: C. Very good defensive zone coverage, albeit against weaker competition. Difficult time getting control of the puck and moving it out of the zone at times, but for the most part able to drive play forward. Like every Kings forward corps, very few quality shots. Nothing special against the Predators’ depth forwards.
- 4th Line (Clifford-Fraser-Nolan), Grade: B-. Possibly the Kings’ best line of the night. Fraser was on ice for more Kings’ scoring chances than Anze Kopitar. Even though they were on ice for a goal against, for the most part solid in the defensive zone. No defensive zone turnovers and for the most part, when they had control of the puck they were getting out and pushing play forward. Kyle Clifford did take a poor penalty in the offensive zone and we all know how much Sutter hates those (see: D. Penner).
Defensive Pairings
- Scuderi-Doughty, Grade: D. Sloppy in the defensive zone as they combined for four turnovers. Also on ice for both even strength goals against. The only defensive pair to be in the red in scoring chance differential as well.
- Martinez-Voynov, Grade: B. Another solid game for the Kings second pair. And again mostly due to the play of Slava Voynov– who again saw more even strength ice time than Drew Doughty. Voynov handles the vast majority of the pair’s puck moving responsibilities and did so with a high rate of success although did turn the puck a bit more than the team would like. Martinez did take a couple decent runs at carrying the puck into the offensive zone to try and generate offense, but other than that was mostly MIA.
- Muzzin-Drewiske, Grade B+. Davis Drewiske relied heavily on Jake Muzzin to handle the puck. Muzzin was the Kings most efficient defenseman at exiting the zone. The pair was on ice for more quality opportunities than the other pairs and also allowed none. All of this should be tempered by the fact that they saw minutes exclusively against the bottom 6. Would like to see Drewiske be a bit more active in the defensive zone.
Power Play
- Grade: D. 5 minutes of PP time. 3 shots, 1 scoring chance. Ho-hum.
Penalty Kill
- Grade: C. 3 minutes of PK time. 3 shots and a goal allowed. Ho-hum.
Goaltending
- Grade: D. Quick doesn’t deserve blame for this loss obviously, but was again unspectacular. Save percentage of .786. Only 4 saves out of 7 difficult shots.
Overall Team Grade: D.
- Very dominant possession numbers but a lot of that was affected by the score. Need to figure out how to get more shots through and start creating more quality opportunities offensively. Goaltending has to try to keep the team from falling behind early. Probably the Kings’ worst effort since the opener.
Numbers
Tables are sortable.
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