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Staples’ House of Mirrors (more bullets re last night’s blow-out/meltdown/win/loss)

  • The Kings were lucky to have a 4-0 lead. Two of those goals were completely on Antti Niemi. One was a breakdown. The other was a fluke.
  • The Sharks have a goaltending problem. Niemi has ranged from not good to terrible in his 2.33 games so far. Who are the Sharks going to play tomorrow night? Either way, that’s a glaring weakness.
  • If you break-down defensively, the Sharks will make you pay. That’s what superior firepower gets you. Given the same defensive break-downs, the Sharks will finish more of them than the Kings would. This is why it’s important to focus on being air-tight defensively. This is why a wide-open game benefits San Jose, HUGELY.
  • Last night’s game, from the drop of the puck, was wide open. It was wide open and the Kings were rewarded for it, which unfortunately reinforced the wide-openness.
  • The Kings have never blown that big a lead before in the playoffs. It’s a statistical anomaly. That’s good news. Yes, you can look at it as an indicator of how sucky the Kings are, since they “achieved” something no other Kings team has ever achieved. I just look at it as evidence of how strange the game was, and how unlikely we are ever to see that again.
  • Really, the Kings played it was more like a 5-2 loss. Run-and-gun, and this is what you get.
  • Jonathan Quick was hung out to dry. I wouldn’t blame him on any of the goals. Not even close.
  • Michal Handzus was terrible in the faceoff circle. One win out of 14.
  • Rob Scuderi called the Kings’ performance “immature.” I wish I had thought to say that last night, as it’s the perfect description.
  • The axis of immaturity for last night was Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Dustin Penner. Two missed assignments, one lazy stick-check, one mindless offensive-zone penalty that led to a goal and one beer-league back-check.
  • Even now I am not exactly down on Penner. That’s really the first game I’ve seen him play for the Kings which I thought he should be embarrassed by. Funny how two glaring mistakes can cancel out a really nice assist on an important goal in an important series.
  • Doughty and Johnson need to settle down. They need to take yoga or something. If I were the other team, I would spend a lot of energy trying to rile those guys up. It only hurts their game. Or will, until they realize it and grow up.
  • I’m not down on those guys, either. Live by the sword, etc. They have won us lots of games, and we frequently benefit from their extremely high “compete” level. But until they learn to temper it, there will be break-downs.
  • Smyth’s goal aside, Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll and Ryan Smyth were more or less invisible last night. goal was nice.
  • Since I seem to be singling out “out-of-control enthusiasm” as an Achilles’ Heel for the Kings, I wonder about Dustin Brown’s “leadership” abilities. He is, after all, the patron saint of bang-crash kinetic energy. Sometimes this is great, sometimes — like when what’s called for is self-control and focus — it exacerbates the problem.
  • Or not. Maybe I disagree with myself. Brown plays the way he plays, and I wouldn’t want him to change it. At least, I wouldn’t want him to switch it off. But maybe, like Doughty and Johnson, he needs another knob in his control panel, so he can dial certain things down when needed.
  • Kyle Clifford, Brad Richardson, Trevor Lewis, Alec Martinez, Oscar Moller (game two) and Wayne Simmonds are all playing their asses off, if you ask me. Besides Clifford, every one of those guys is due a new contract (all RFAs) in July.
  • I believe the Kings will win tomorrow night. But if they lose, I hope they recall Brayden Schenn for game five. He can play one game without triggering his deal.

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