Pre-Game Talk: 2013 Western Conference Final: Kings vs. Blackhawks

[Johnny Utah]

Chicago is sitting all there physical forwards...Bickell and Shaw are the only scrappy ones in the line-up. Kings can take advantage of that with Penner, Brown, King, Fraser, Nolan and Clifford.

 

[Tijuana Trotz]

When going to Chicago...just one small thing... Don't order fish during the flight...

agreed. if your only choices are steak and fish, get the lasagna

 

[Whiskeypete]

Chicago is sitting all there physical forwards...Bickell and Shaw are the only scrappy ones in the line-up. Kings can take advantage of that with Penner, Brown, King, Fraser, Nolan and Clifford.

Clifford and Fraser are all that's needed head-to-head against these two. add RR and Greene into the mix and that is plenty of brawn to counter with. Nolan is complete overkill and the spot is better used for TTT to bring speed and skill on the #3 or #4 line. i would prefer to see Richardson in there 50/50 with Fraser to mix things up as well.

 

[Sydor25]

I think the top three lines are pretty much set for the series:

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
Penner-Richards-Carter
King-Stoll-Lewis

It is the 4th line that Sutter will adjust as the series moves along. Probably start with the veterans:

Clifford-Fraser-Richardson

If the Kings top three lines can't get it done, then it won't matter who is on the 4th line anyways. The Kings must take advantage of their center depth and size. If they try and skate with the hawks it will be over in 4 or 5 games. Even Quick won't be able to stop the cross ice one-timers that will occur in a skating battle. Kings defense will get exposed if the forwards don't protect the neutral zone. The Kings defense will need to be able to stand up at the red line and blue line to prevent speed build up by the hawks and that only happens if the forwards are tracking back and keeping the gaps close.

 

[TonySCV]

Kings had better lead the series handily in hits. That will be the main way of neutralizing Chicago's speed. If they are left to free-wheel, it's not going to be pretty.

 

[Thrice]

If we can take Game 1 I love our odds.

Ideally the series will be 1-1 come Monday.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

Sydor, that 4th line won't work. I think you'd better off injecting some talent by placing Toffoli in it. I think we need to match some of their talent because we already have a clear physical advantage.

 

[Muzzinga]

Doubt the top line do much offensively this series. Will be matched against Toews every game i imagine, and both lines will just negate each other

 

[Quattro]

If we can take Game 1 I love our odds.

Ideally the series will be 1-1 come Monday.

Well, no. Ideally, the series will be 2-0 Kings on Monday

 

[Ron*]

Gord Miller ‏@GMillerTSN
There's a Star Trek convention taking place at the LA Kings hotel in Chicago. Darryl Sutter meets the Trekkies.

This morning, Darryl Sutter asked a guy in a Star Trek uniform where the team bus was. Darryl thought he was the hotel doorman.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Holy crap that is hilarious.

I hope Sutter ran into this guy.

 

[Whiskeypete]

i was trying to figure out where they were staying based on Rosen's hotel pic. i had it down to two hotels, then i saw the twitter feeds on the trekkies at the same hotel. bingo i know where they are. the team is 5-minutes from my house. go stalker mode?

 

[Ron*]

Holy crap that is hilarious.

I hope Sutter ran into this guy.

Hahahahaha...Nomad!

"Non-sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated." I've used that quote several times in the past responding to morons on the main boards...that is, when I wasn't being infracted.

 

[agentfouser]

Doubt the top line do much offensively this series. Will be matched against Toews every game i imagine, and both lines will just negate each other

Not necessarily. This is from earlier this season, but it suggests that Chicago is more apt to match zones than lines. They're in the top five of the graph, while we're in the bottom, suggesting that Sutter's priorities are to match lines, with less regard to where the face off is. Of course, this is not absolute, since we don't usually see a guy like Colin Fraser taking defensive zone draws unless it follows an icing.

http://canucksarmy.com/2013/2/12/malhotra-lapierre-and-zone-matching

Chart is here: http://canucksarmy.com/uploads/Image/zonematchingfeb11.png

There's more: http://www.jewelsfromthecrown.com/2013/5/31/4378694/blackhawks-vs-kings-series-preview

In their series against Detroit, the Blackhawks gave Jonathan Toews 40% of all their offensive zone faceoffs, that's a lot. Conversely, they gave Dave Bolland 42% of all of their defensive zone faceoffs. Also of note, in games on the road Jonathan Toews only saw 4 total defensive zone faceoffs. So what we can conclude is that we are going to see a lot of Jonathan Toews in offensive zone faceoffs no matter who the Kings put out on the ice and especially in games at Staples, while the same can be said of Dave Bolland in the defensive zone.

It will be interesting to see how playing time is distributed among the centers on the two teams, and if Sutter or Quenville are able to find situations or match-ups that they can exploit. If Sutter wants to match his best players against the opposition's best players, we could see Kopitar and Richards starting an awful lot of plays against Toews in the defensive zone, and Lewis and Fraser starting against Bolland in the Hawks' end. Or, if Sutter wants to adopt the zone matching strategy, we could see Kopitar's line getting starts in the offensive zone against Bolland.

 

[Ron*]

i was trying to figure out where they were staying based on Rosen's hotel pic. i had it down to two hotels, then i saw the twitter feeds on the trekkies at the same hotel. bingo i know where they are. the team is 5-minutes from my house. go stalker mode?

Post your photos both with trekkies and with Kings here, please.

 

[CowMix]

Sutter should really consider Martinez over Muzzin, while Muzzin hasn't been horrible, Martinez is much better at passing and starting the break out.

 

[Ron*]

Sutter should really consider Martinez over Muzzin, while Muzzin hasn't been horrible, Martinez is much better at passing and starting the break out.

Agree totally. This is the series where Martinez should play and Muzzin should sit.

 

[LAKings88]

I like Muzzin except for one routine play. He constantly turns into defenders in his own zone. Aside from that he has been solid through the playoffs a few gaffs aside. He does well on the PP and is a big body.

Martinez is a good player but for whatever reason Sutter is just not that into him this year. I don't expect to see him unless there is an injury.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

Agree totally. This is the series where Martinez should play and Muzzin should sit.

Yup, we don't need to worry about their forecheck so we don't have to worry about size. We just need better mobility and passing from our zone. Amart would be a great decision for these series.

 

[Rorschach]

Well, no. Ideally, the series will be 2-0 Kings on Monday

Haha, yup.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Yup, we don't need to worry about their forecheck so we don't have to worry about size. We just need better mobility and passing from our zone. Amart would be a great decision for these series.

I don't know about that. The Hawks are a dangerous team offensively and can also get physical when called upon. I guess it all depends on how worn out they are after the previous round. We don't know how they're going to respond to the Kings play and if they could adapt to it.

I prefer Martinez over Muzzin as well, but I guess the coach's will go with what's gotten them this far until they see something they don't like. It's worth noting that in the last meeting against Chicago, Muzzin played over 22 minutes while paired with Doughty (who played in 29 minutes in that game), so I'm thinking that they're leaning towards Muzzin to start the series. Martinez was only used a little over 9 minutes in that very same game, which was the lowest minutes in that game among defensemen and only higher than Nolan's 7 minutes in that game.

 

[riseandfall9]

I have read every single post in this thread and I am surprised nobody has mentioned it.

Jonthan Quick plays notoriously bad against the Blackhawks. Regardless of GAA and SV% and Wins and Losses. He always seems to play bad against them. That is the only reason I didn't want to face the Blackhawks in the playoffs.

Now... The Hawks have never faced Quick in the playoffs which is the biggest X-Factor in my mind. Another important thing is the Kings cannot allow a goal in the first 5 mins of the game. Which if my memory serves me correct has happened many times against Chicago in the last 2-3 years. If the Kings dont let goals in, in the first 5 mins, Hit like there is no tomorrow and Quick can get the Blckhawks anxiety out the Kings will win this series.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Hahahahaha...Nomad!

"Non-sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated." I've used that quote several times in the past responding to morons on the main boards...that is, when I wasn't being infracted.

I think those responses would apply very well to some of the questions that Darryl Sutter was asked in today's conference, in particular the dumbass who talks about the "attractiveness" of their style of play.

 

[losingsand]

I have a feeling this series is going to come down to BOTTOM 6 scoring.

The way detroit kept Toews in check was to put mr. selke datsyuk on him. Telling Datsyuk, we don't care if you get ZERO points this series, just keep SHARP/TOEWS/KANE in check. We saw that it was quite effective. I think chicago and LA's top 6 will neutralize each other..

Their 1st line has an advantage over ours --
Our 2nd line has an advantage over theirs --
like others have said .. the D is a wash

sure our goaltending is a bit better, but Chicago has grip of serious
finishers. And a few pretty good ones on their bottom 6... which
I sadly think will be the difference in this series.

So LA's Key is to get our 2nd line.. which is PENNER/CARTER/RICHARDS to be a difference maker on the score sheet. Keep the game at 5 on 5 to limit Chicago's snipe-chances.

So i'm talking to YOU CARTER/RICHARDS/PENNER... and to YOU Lewis/Toffoli/King/(stoll) we need our bottom 6 to match chicago's bottom 6.

#nervous
#gokingsgo

ps. Also a difference from last year, we can't convert on any breakaways this year... we gotta really start putting those away... it was a key for us last year.

 

[Scottkmlps]

People are talking about the Hawks speed, which starts from the back end. The one thing they are over looking is the Kings can neutralize that speed with their relentless forecheck. The more pressure the Kings forwards put on the Hawks d-men, the more likely they are going to panic which creates a fist full of turnovers. That will be the key for the Kings.
Also, go to the net hard. Hawks smallish d-men will have a hard time clearing out the Kings bigger forwards.