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Help Breaking Down La Lines & Their Game


MistaT

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Thanks to those who posted their analyses above. From my viewings one of their weak points is they have 2 good players on each of the top 3 lines, and one scrub.

They'll play a trap style game, but there is a chance the series will blow open like the Nashville series in the first round last year.

We have to play to our strengths, and be patient and not take a lot of risks. This could be like the Nashville series for us last year, with low scoring games with garbage goals.

Our 3rd and 4th lines will be the keys to our success.

And not to look past this series, but we need to stay healthy through this series, onto the next.

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The kings are the team I follow second most after the Canucks.

D: They are very physical - Greene will hack and slash and cross check to clear players around the net. Doughty is very chippy and will take shots at the sedins any opportunity he gets. The rest of their D is pretty sound but not very fast (loss of johnson hurts them)

Their 3rd pairing D can be exposed with speed.

Going to the net will be hard. see raymond disappear.

G: Quick has surprised me every year but I still don't think he is a top 5 goalie in the NHL. Why? The kings focus so much on defence that most of the shots he faces are from the outside. Get him moving and he will over commit. He is always good for a weak goal against in a big game. I always compare to cloutier minus the lidstrom shot.... maybe elder shatters quicks confidence. Lateral passes will open him up a lot because he is not as technically/fundamentally sound as other elite goalies. I can see canucks getting under his skin if they go to the net which will knock him off his game.

F: Forwards are very underrated. Kopitar is great at holding the puck and cycling and will look for backdoor passes. Brown will always tries to cut across the crease but usually loses the puck. Williams, Richards, and Carter are their wildcards. If they all show up, which is a big if, then the Canucks might be in trouble. They will all take runs at the canucks D. Especially richardson if he plays. Lewis and Clifford have surprised me this season and I would be weary when they are on the ice because I can see them scoring against the canucks. Not because they are so skilled but because the canucks often seem to get scored on by 3rd/4th liners. Stoll and richards are decent in the face-off circle but I would give the edge to the canucks. I also expect them to take runs at luongo...

Top 2 lines are much more similar than people may think but the canucks dominate the bottom 6 and I think thats where the series will be won. Higgins Lapierre, Hansen, Paulson.....wow can't wait for this series.

Hits Hits Hits, this is my biggest worry against the kings they will hit everyone. they had the 2nd most hits in the league and I am sure they will amp it up come playoffs.

Im not really breaking down lines because their lines all play a similar way and I don't think there will be much consistency in their lines. LIkely see Brown/Kopitar together and Richards/Carter together.

I can see canucks winning in 5 but if it goes 6/7 games they make take too much punishment to be healthy later in the playoffs.

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Probably can sucker King, Lewis, Nolan, Clifford into foolish penalties as they don't have much playoff experience. It'll be up to Lapierre to trigger those types of penalties from the 4th line guys like Nolan and Clifford, even an experienced guy like Fraser can be drawn in.

Also, target Doughty for extra punishment.

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Everyone knows Vancouver is top 5 for Goals for, and LA Kings are 29th for goals for.

Vancouver + LA are both top 5 for fewest goals against.

Vancouver can roll 4 lines (Seriously, who would Sutter want to match against Kopitar...there is no favorable matchup)

Expect a lot of 1-0, 2-1 games where Vancouver wins.

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Here is some stuff i found on LA message boards:

Kings can’t let defense slip in playoffs again

Posted by

Rich Hammond on 9 April 2012, 4:00 pm

From the Kings’ perspective, the Kings’ key to the series was summed up perfectly, in 124 words, by Dustin Brown today. It’s not about scoring goals; it’s about preventing them. Look at the Kings’ playoff series in the past two seasons. Two years ago against Vancouver, they scored 18 goals in six games and lost. Last year, they scored 20 goals in six games and lost. Why? In four of those 12 games, the Kings allowed either six or seven goals. That’s extraordinarily uncharacteristic for this group. A great recent example would be the game the Kings played against San Jose last Thursday. Was it exciting? Yes. Can the Kings regularly win those games? No. In the last 12 playoff games, the Kings have allowed an average of 3.75 goals per game. They can’t do that and win. A big part of that will be determined by how well Jonathan Quick plays, but as Brown said today, the Kings’ defensive game, overall, needs to be sharp against a high-scoring Vancouver team.

BROWN: “For me, it’s our defensive game. In a nutshell, why we’ve been so good in the last couple years has been our defensive game. Now we’re playing one of the better offensive teams. I don’t know where they rank, but they’ve got to be up in the top five. If we’re not on our game defensively, they’re going to pick us apart. The flip side of that is, we’ve got to find ways to get goals. But we’re capable of winning games 2-1, 1-0. It’s going to be really hard to win a game against the Vancouver Canucks if we’re giving up four or five goals. That’s just a fact. We’re not that type of team, where we’re going to trade chance for chance.’’

-

  • As frustrated as we might be about the last couple of games it is most definitely worth noting:

    In the final 20 games of the season:

    LA was 12-5-3 and scored 3.05 goals per game while allowing 2.20 goals per game

    VAN was 11-9 and scored 2.40 goals per game while allowing 2.35 goals per game

    While Vancouver had a "great run" in the last ten games they also played 6 of those games at home 8 of those games were against teams not in the playoffs Ducks, Oilers, Flames twice, Stars twice, Avalanche twice. The only teams they played that were real competitors were the Kings and the Hawks, they lost to the Hawks 1-0 and beat us 1-0. I am not nearly as impressed.

    We had 5 home games and a cross country back to back, we played Boston, Nashville, St. Louis, Vancouver, San Jose and Detroit in our last handful of games. What we did was respectable. We are absolutely capable of embarrasing the Canucks and the Hockey Analysts who have the blinders on. If we had won our last two contests we would have finished the season 14-5-1

-

Also their fans all believe we'll beat them in 4 or 5 games... the people that actually said their team would win said it would be in 7!

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BTW people i didnt mean it was bad to talk about them!

jebus-crap people!

it was an honest suggestion since i realized i didnt know anything about LA (cause i mostly follow the canucks and their players/points)

It was an honest suggestion that apparently makes me an idiot so F-you jerk fans seriously. Jerks.

unlike you guys i WASNT BEING AN ASS. so again F-you jerk fans... enjoy your f-ing playoffs jerks.

*sighs and politely wanders off.*

*runs back in*

Oh! and im sorry i came off wrong OP!

*runs off again*

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Alright - much appreciate the feedback from everyone who was willing to contribute!

Seems to me the big LA areas and ways to exploit them are:

1) Lack of Scoring

While Kopitar is a phenomenal player he isn't surrounded by particularly impressive wingers, and their 2nd line isn't a whole lot better. If we can slow or shut down Kopitar it seems like the LA Kings will really struggle to score as the following isn't that impressive:

Williams - 22 goals (9pp)

Brown - 22 goals (9pp)

Richards - 18 goals

Carter - 21 goals (10pp)

What I'm seeing is that the surrounding cast of Kopitar isn't going to get it done without him. Shut off the supply from Kopitar or PP opportunities and we should really see their scoring dry up.

2) Lack of Depth

Past their top 2 lines there isn't a player on their team that I would consider anything special. Gagne/Penner/Stoll/Green/Clifford are hardly the kind of players that you think will excel in the playoffs.

If we can get a few goals and solid defense from our 3rd/4th lines, and roll our 4th line out in games we're winning to hit the crap out of LA while resting our top lines we should be money. I love the thought of Jansen/Lappiere/Higgins and co. using their speed to blast by these LA lines.

We really need to punish their top 2 lines so they get worn down ASAP and then use our depth to counter them.

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Here is some stuff i found on LA message boards:

Kings can’t let defense slip in playoffs again

Posted by

Rich Hammond on 9 April 2012, 4:00 pm

From the Kings’ perspective, the Kings’ key to the series was summed up perfectly, in 124 words, by Dustin Brown today. It’s not about scoring goals; it’s about preventing them. Look at the Kings’ playoff series in the past two seasons. Two years ago against Vancouver, they scored 18 goals in six games and lost. Last year, they scored 20 goals in six games and lost. Why? In four of those 12 games, the Kings allowed either six or seven goals. That’s extraordinarily uncharacteristic for this group. A great recent example would be the game the Kings played against San Jose last Thursday. Was it exciting? Yes. Can the Kings regularly win those games? No. In the last 12 playoff games, the Kings have allowed an average of 3.75 goals per game. They can’t do that and win. A big part of that will be determined by how well Jonathan Quick plays, but as Brown said today, the Kings’ defensive game, overall, needs to be sharp against a high-scoring Vancouver team.

BROWN: “For me, it’s our defensive game. In a nutshell, why we’ve been so good in the last couple years has been our defensive game. Now we’re playing one of the better offensive teams. I don’t know where they rank, but they’ve got to be up in the top five. If we’re not on our game defensively, they’re going to pick us apart. The flip side of that is, we’ve got to find ways to get goals. But we’re capable of winning games 2-1, 1-0. It’s going to be really hard to win a game against the Vancouver Canucks if we’re giving up four or five goals. That’s just a fact. We’re not that type of team, where we’re going to trade chance for chance.’’

-

  • As frustrated as we might be about the last couple of games it is most definitely worth noting:

    In the final 20 games of the season:

    LA was 12-5-3 and scored 3.05 goals per game while allowing 2.20 goals per game

    VAN was 11-9 and scored 2.40 goals per game while allowing 2.35 goals per game

    While Vancouver had a "great run" in the last ten games they also played 6 of those games at home 8 of those games were against teams not in the playoffs Ducks, Oilers, Flames twice, Stars twice, Avalanche twice. The only teams they played that were real competitors were the Kings and the Hawks, they lost to the Hawks 1-0 and beat us 1-0. I am not nearly as impressed.

    We had 5 home games and a cross country back to back, we played Boston, Nashville, St. Louis, Vancouver, San Jose and Detroit in our last handful of games. What we did was respectable. We are absolutely capable of embarrasing the Canucks and the Hockey Analysts who have the blinders on. If we had won our last two contests we would have finished the season 14-5-1

-

Also their fans all believe we'll beat them in 4 or 5 games... the people that actually said their team would win said it would be in 7!

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