Game Thread: Los Angeles Kings @ San Jose Sharks Game 4

[lasportzphan]

Season on the line Friday

Gotta win three in a row, happened before.

 

[smackdown380]

That was a different time, different team

 

[histkng23]

Nice to see the trade for Lucic paying dividends! Probably the only thing we'll get out of him this whole series will be him going ape-shit in the handshake line again!

Also, someone want to tell Toffoli that 2016 started a while ago? Dude has been nonexistent since the start of January.

 

[smackdown380]

 

[lasportzphan]

Interesting. I don't know how the team does this in light of various contracts (e.g. Brown). I suppose they don't sign Lucic? And with Vinny coming off the books there is a little dough.

 

[davnlaguna]

Really? We all know the Kings have to do something.
Heck Lucic alone fills the bill. Some people will be blown away if we keep him, others if we let him go. This is a tweet for twits. No matter what the Kings do he can claim he called it.

 

[lasportzphan]

That was a different time, different team

Indeed. This is not a shocking result in light of Martinez's injury and the poor defensive depth. Still admire how the team fights.

 

[lasportzphan]

Really? We all know the Kings have to do something.
Heck Lucic alone fills the bill. Some people will be blown away if we keep him, others if we let him go. This is a tweet for twits. No matter what the Kings do he can claim he called it.

Exactly, seems like a tweet of catharsis rather than logic.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I wonder if Burns scrotum misses it's hair that's now on his chin?

I missed all but the 3rd period last night, they bumped us up to Advanced A and it was my first game in 3 weeks. Huge difference in our league between A and B, I was gassed but we won 2-1 in OT. Funny you mention the beard, this asshat kept whacking my goalie after whistles and even sat on him once making me go apeshit so I cross checked him into the net and then we got into it, and his f**king stupid hipster beard got knotted up around my fingers during blows.

So sick of that stupid look like guys Thornton and Burns are sporting, be a fucking man not a retard.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Back to my point of the post...Kings PK is horrible and their penchant for taking penalties will have done them in if they can't win the next 3 games. Same crap we saw all season long, can't be parading to the box when your PK is below average.

Half the Sharks' goals in this series have been PP goals (5/10), take those away and it's a different series. But more importantly I think he defense has been proven to be subpar to 2012 and 2014, and SJ has improved as well. They will have earned this series if they win it.

 

[Psych3man]

I read in a well-informed Hawks fans mag an interesting comment before playoffs--while the league gets faster as well as bigger, the Kings continue to get just bigger, not faster (see Lucic addition, Lacavelier, Schenn, Scuderi, keeping King and Nolan on roster, etc), and that this would catch up with Kings this year. Bingo!
Watch other teams' power plays--quick movement, passing, and cutting. Our PP is slow and plodding, and our defense of their PP cannot keep up with all the quick movement. Also, how poor we are at getting up ice and gaining entry when our goalie is pulled, no quickness to back them off. I predict Kings will begin to shift to a quicker team by next year and especially '17-'18.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Reminds me a little bit of the team during the mid 1990s, that's the model Melrose and McMaster Disaster tried to do. Case in point, getting guys weighing 215+ like Stumpel, Moger, etc.

I think while the fan you're referring to is onto something, I have kept my eye on this for some time as well because it there are very similar traits between those mid 90s teams and now but Dumbo has done a good job trying to blend the mix of size and speed well. While he has taken big guys like Nolan and King, he has allso tried to augment that with guys like Acevedo, Weal, etc. who are fast, smaller but skilled. He tried that with Moller and we saw how that worked out, he got thrown around like a rag doll. Can't all be winners.

It's a tough job being a GM trying to find a good mix/balance but I think Dumbo has done that well overall although I think the Kings do need some faster players, especially in the B6. Those are the lines that win wars and I'm sorry but the Shores, Andreoffs, Nolans, etc. are too slow to be there.

The only speed the Kings have there is Lewis but unfortunately he has hands of stone 90% of the time.

 

[Kings4OT]

I thought with the absence of Stoll the penalties would ease up, instead they doubled down on them. The Kings have had trouble all season with teams that put the pressure on the puck carrier. The defense cant move the puck up the ice, the forwards cant win a chase to the puck or a board battle and the only time in the offensive zone is usually along the boards circa ~2010 when they don't make anything of it other then great puck movement along the boards. The PP just stands around trying to get DD a shot....

We all know how these guys can battle back but Williams is gone and Martinez is hurt so its up to someone else to step up and we know that wont be the C

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Penalties doing them in:

LA Kings need more 'common sense' to stay out of penalty box

Stay out of the friggin box. It's obvious the refffing has been sketchy at best, and knowing that should make some of these players be a bit smarter out there. No dumb OZ penalities, keep the sticks down when battling, don't hook or hold in transition. Pretty basic fundamentals that for whatever reason these guys are not getting through their thick skulls.I'm not saying stop banging bodies and playing Kings hockey, just be smart about it.

It either bites them again tonight and the season is over or they play smart, give themselves a chance to win and go to Game 6.

 

[lasportzphan]

Penalties doing them in:

LA Kings need more 'common sense' to stay out of penalty box

Stay out of the friggin box. It's obvious the refffing has been sketchy at best, and knowing that should make some of these players be a bit smarter out there. No dumb OZ penalities, keep the sticks down when battling, don't hook or hold in transition. Pretty basic fundamentals that for whatever reason these guys are not getting through their thick skulls.I'm not saying stop banging bodies and playing Kings hockey, just be smart about it.

It either bites them again tonight and the season is over or they play smart, give themselves a chance to win and go to Game 6.

Perhaps easier said than done.... when you're chasing the game (in any sport) the potential to commit a penalty increases tenfold. Credit the Sharks for playing their game, staying tight defensively and, quite frankly, out playing the Kings.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I agree, SJ completely ran circles around LA. I think that also begs the question however, if the defense was up to par would that have happened? If a Voynov or a Mitchell was here, would that have happened? No idea, but my money says no.

Their defense was pinned in most of the series, and that is where SJ ate them up. Guys like the McStiffs, slower vets like Scuderi had no answer for their forwards and forecheck.It was also very alarming to see guys like Kopitar and Doughty beat on plays that ended up in the net, I think it happened more times in 5 games than it did all year.

Quick also was very un-Quick, I don't think I have seen him that lit up since 2010 when Vanloser beat the hell out of them. This series was just a perfect storm of all kinds of crap - poor goaltending, lack of defense, lack of offense, lack of fundamentals all coming into one series at the same time.

That's what I saw from LA, not taking anything away from SJ - they completely earned this series and outplayed and outclassed LA. If they lost 4-2 or even 4-3 I would say the series was closer, but they laid the hammer down on the Kings. It wasn't even close.

 

[Fox4Kings]

I feel like the absence of Martinez was huge in this series. Doughty was relied upon very heavily to shut down the other team and it really killed his offensive opportunities. Muzzin is OK once in the offensive zone, but he can't really skate it up and setup plays so much like Doughty or Martinez. McNabb/Mcbain combo was horrible.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Martinez out absolutely killed their breakout from the back end. He has the wheels to get out of the zone, plays physical enough and can get into the zone and set it up like Doughty. With him gone, no one else but Doughty could do that, and it showed. Martinez makes good first passes too allowing the forwards to transition. That too obviously was missing.

Agree about Muzzin, he is more of the trigger man than set up man in the offensive zone. He didn't scare me nearly as much as I thought he would but then again that isn't saying much considering there was no production from the back end at all.

I'm extremely disappointed in McNabb, he has not progressed well at all since coming over from Buffalo. Bonehead plays, not making much of a difference in either zone and doesn't seem to understand what to do in the defensive zone. He's young enough where he could turn the corner but so far that is looking like Dumbo got hosed on that deal.

The Kings were too busy defending constantly, which will happen when you have a 1D and then a bunch of 3-7Ds.

 

[Kings4OT]

Besides DD, LA could have lost any other dman instead of Martinez and probably been ok...probably wouldn't have won the series tho with the play of the T6