The first game of the home-and-home is in the books and it was a doozy.
Amid all the controversy and emotion the underlying current of the game was that the Kings were again dominant in controlling the action at even strength.
Let’s take a look at how the shot differentials broke down (and if you missed it click this to see what some of this stuff means):
- In this post, we looked at what to look for in terms of matchups. We discovered that it looked like the Kings try to get Kopitar on the ice against Thornton as much as possible. All of the fights and penalties definitely disrupted the flow so if that was the gameplan, it went out the window pretty fast. Still, it looked as though the Kings tried to keep Richards away from Thornton.
- It is striking that the Kings were dominant on the puck no matter who they had on the ice. And they were most dominant versus the Thornton line. It is worthwhile to note that the top two lines the Kings had going against Thornton were Kopitar and Stoll. Both were more than effective in winning the shot and scoring chance battles.
- Another thing that is striking is that Alec Martinez still rules. Their pairing (D3) was the most dominant of all (albeit against weak competition). JFTC is basically now just an Alec Martinez fan site.
- New to the above chart is Zone Adjustment. Read more about Zone Adjustment here. Zone adjustment accounts for the tendency of teams to accumulate shots resulting from offensive zone faceoffs. It is an effort to get more accurate numbers.
- What the zone adjustment shows us is that, even though the Kings received the lion’s share of offensive zone starts, they were still very dominant when that is taken into account.
- For the Kings, this all bodes well for the finale. If they can keep their emotions in check and play their game they should be in pretty good shape, but then again after what we witnessed last night…who knows what will happen.
- Keep an eye out for how the Sharks try to use Thornton. Will they avoid Kopitar and try to get him out versus Richards as the trend suggests? How will Kopitar fair if/ when matched against what was the Sharks most effective line (Couture) on Thursday night? Can the hearthrob of Canadian sports journalists everywhere, Ryane Clowe, possibly top himself in the final act? We shall see!
- Links
1. Shots
2. H2H
3. Shifts
4. Zones
5. Scoring Chances
Even Strength Line Combinations:
Kings Forwards:
- L1 = Brown-Kopitar-Richardson
- L2 = King-Richards-Williams
- L3 = Penner-Stoll-Lewis
- L4 = Clifford-Fraser-Nolan/
Kings Defense:
- D1 = Scuderi-Doughty
- D2 = Mitchell-Voynov
- D3 = Martinez-Greene/
Sharks Forwards:
- L1 = Marleau-Thornton-Pavelski
- L2 = Clowe-Couture-Havlat
- L3 = Galiardi-Moore*-Winnik
- L4 = Winnik-Desjardins-Wingels
*Torrey Mitchell left early in the game due to injury and did not return.
Sharks Defense:
- D1 = Boyle-Vlasic
- D2 = Demers-Burns
- D3 = White-Braun/
Line Combos: Left Wing Lock.
Line Charts (new and improved?): CLICK HERE.