Back-to-back overtime losses to the Sharks are a bitter pill to swallow. Still though there is a lot to be optimistic about as the Kings head into the playoffs.
Here’s the chart:
- The Kings yet again won the puck possession battle.
- Interesting that Todd McLellan bucked his trend of getting Thornton away from Kopitar in San Jose. He chose to go 1st line versus 1st line and that did not go well as we can see from the above chart and the scoring chances.
- The Couture line had a much better outing this time around as they were again matched against Mike Richards. Having Carter back in the line-up for the playoffs will be a huge lift.
- It’s troubling for the Sharks that their 3rd and 4th lines had such a poor Corsi showing. Troubling because the Kings and Blues present similar match-up problems. The Blues are able to roll 4 balanced lines that are all pretty dominant on the puck. The Sharks’ bottom 6 are going to have to be better if they hope to get past the Blues in round 1. I personally am glad the Kings avoided the Blues, they are a nightmare for just about every team in the league. They are still somehow underrated despite racking up 109 points this year.
- Slava Voynov played more ES minutes than Willie Mitchell for the first time this year. A sign that, at just 22, he is seen as a dependable commodity by the coaches.
- Alec Martinez finishes the year as the league leader in Corsi. It should also be noted that he had the third easiest Corsi Quality of Competition.
- I’m going to work on a series preview in preparation for the playoffs and have it up soon. We’ll take a look at match-ups and puck possession results of the Kings-Canucks season series.
- In the mean-time….keep your head up everybody. The Kings have made it to the playoffs for the 3rd straight year!
- Links
1. Shots
2. H2H
3. Shifts
4. Zones
5. Scoring Chances
Even Strength Line Combinations:
(Click Links Below for Matchup Charts)
Kings Forwards:
- L1 = Brown-Kopitar-Richardson
- L2 = King-Richards-Williams
- L3 = Penner-Stoll-Lewis
- L4 = Clifford-Fraser-Nolan/
Kings Defense:
Sharks Forwards:
- L1 = Marleau-Thornton-Pavelski
- L2 = Clowe-Couture-Havlat
- L3 = Galiardi-Moore-Winnik
- L4 = Desjardins-Handzus-Wingels
- Sharks Defense: D1 = Boyle-Vlasic
- D2 = Murray-Burns
- D3 = White-Braun/