GDT: 2020-21 season Game 4 LA Kings vs Colorado Avalanche @7:00pm 1/21/21

[Reaper45]

Yep, very true

But the Kopitar trend is still really worrying.





I mean, I'd guesstimate that 35% of them over the last two games weren't even real penalties, they were Tim Peel fairytales. They at least toned them down a LOT tonight

Points aside Kopitar doesn’t look good. I’m getting Jason Allison Maple Leafs vibes and I’m shooketh.

 

[Steve Zissou]

The Good
-Grundstrom + Andersson
The Bad
-Mike Amadio
The Ugly
-Trevor Moore + Alex Iafallo

That about sums it up for me. I think Andersson and Tonka muck it up. Take a hit, dish a hit. Drive to the net, get shots on goal. Those are some simple and effective traits this club need to have and Amadio, Moore, and Iafallo have not done any of that.

 

[Crownroyal21]

Stop commenting

 

[Crownroyal21]

Good game. Wagner for Moore though. Grunstrum and Lias need to play. Babbsteps fellas. They are still figuring out the lineup. No preseason.

 

[The Butcher]

Anyone mention Quickie had a gem also?

He was brutal last year but maybe he has something left in the tank.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

You know what to do then.

For top pick in the draft or playoffs?

 

[bouncesonly]

Quick was a beast. He's been having a good start this season. Looks like Amadio got benched in the second half of the third:

12	3	2:49 / 17:11	3:32 / 16:28	00:43
13	3	5:43 / 14:17	6:40 / 13:20	00:57
14	3	8:49 / 11:11	9:43 / 10:17	00:54
15	3	11:59 / 8:01	12:42 / 7:18	00:43

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

That's gotta be a shitty feeling; he best step up.

Skaters benched in the second half of the third: Amadio (12:42 last shift), Maata (12:42 last shift), Moore (12:42 last shift till the end), Grundstrom (12:42 last shift).

 

[kilowatt]

Yep, very true

But the Kopitar trend is still really worrying.

I agree, but I think what we're actually finally seeing from Kopitar is that he can't create goals all by himself anymore. He's been on an island for several years now. The dude needs help offensively and defensively. He doesn't have the speed or skill to drag Brown and Iafallo kicking and screaming anymore. If Iafallo doesn't show anything soon, he needs to sit for a while too. Iafallo killed several zone pressures by just losing the puck tonight, it was brutal. I don't know that we have anyone ready to jump in and help, but if the OHL starts up, it wouldn't hurt to try:

Byfield - Kopitar - Carter
Kempe - Vilardi - Athanasiou
Iafallo - Lizotte - Andersson
Grundstrom - Anderson-Dolan - Brown

 

[Ollie Weeks]

Buncha WINNERS

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Anyone mention Quickie had a gem also?

He was brutal last year but maybe he has something left in the tank.

I had him slated on there, I don't know if I wrote over it or something.

He was an absolute monster tonight and his save on that 2-on-1 led to the 5-on-3 powerplay, it was an absolutely key moment, but even that moment aside he was huge tonight. One rebound that should have been picked up by the backchecker, one mackinnin PP snipe...he locked everything else down.

 

[bland]

Keep in mind I missed the beginning of the 2rd period before my masochism kicked back in, so some of this may be slightly inaccurate. I mean, it's always inaccurate, but this time it's also possibly misinformed!

The Good
-My lord, congratulations on the emergence, Mikey Anderson. What else can we say? I wish he'd put a little more heat on necessary dump zone exits, but I don't want that to take away from a stellar ascension to the top pairing where he somehow looked even better.
-2nd and 3rd period Drew Doughty--welcome back, my man. Looks like he got a wake up call. I don't want to lay blame on Maatta because DD owned his own share of stupid shit, but Anderson clearly had the calming effect that guys like Scuderi had on him in the past. Making GREAT breakout plays, and though still needs to clean up his end, Anderson simply absorbing some responsibility meant Drew didn't have to 'conserve' and swing feebly at pucks.
-Adrian Kempe played over 19 minutes and looked like a confident NHL vet minus one terribly unfortunate PP skate his forechecking efforts have a lot more purpose these days and his PK ability is trending up.
-Vilardi was playing angry and it got me all pumped up. That snipe was glorious. Hope his confidence and comfort keeps growing because he's one of the only guys on this squad with game breaking ability.
-Lizotte, as always, was a checking machine, and he absolutely nailed that empty net...how much have we missed that over the years?
-Grundstrom making his presence felt, another pretty good showing, along with Andersson. These guys are providing a good combo of sandpaper and silk for the bottom six. It's nice to have guys that can get in and check, actually win the puck battle, and then actually DO something with the puck.

The Bad
--More like the mediocre--but again, Kopitar's fallen a long way from the guy that absolutely dominated Mackinnon head-to-head. It's starting to look like his days as a "don't worry" matchup center are behind him. He's not dominant defensively. I'm glad he's scoring and still making good plays for the most part, and it may be stupid to say he was mediocre on a night where he assisted the GWG--and he looks better with Kempe, and it's probably at least part AI being a problem--but again, it's looking like a combo of playing MORE MINUTES THAN ANYONE IN THE GAME BUT DOUGHTY AND ANDERSON (including more minutes than ANY avs player--yes including all their dmen) and Father Time is kicking the everliving shit out of him. Reduce his minutes for the love of god, he's still playing more than most #1 Dmen. Also--he's now leading the league in assists, so there's that!
--Jeff Carter has been excellent so don't want to beat him up too much, but him and Athanasiou were pretty garbo tonight. Worst line on the team by CF%, and most of them were out there for the ESGA.
-Saw more praise for Mike Amadio tonight than usual which is nice to see but imo the dude that I usually defend was making some pretty glaring puck errors in bad spots that will get him in the doghouse pretty quickly if he doesn't clean it up.


The Ugly
-1st period Drew Doughty--got completely clowned by Mackinnon twice and was really starting to look like it was Old Yeller time. Couldn't handle the puck, couldn't defend.
-Trevor Moore has completely lost what made him good in the first two games which was speed and tenacity and getting the puck deep. The skating ability of the Avs defenders neutralized his speed, but he couldn't stick a check and handled the puck like a golf ball.
-Alex Iafallo is just really, really disappointing right now. Not even sure how to diagnose.
-Olli Maatta is just totally, totally lost but creates so many of his own problems it's unbelievable. I actually really, really liked the rest of our d-men once Maatta was moved down, but poor Walker, who had a pretty monster game and ended up having to bust his ass twice as hard. Hard to see how anyone coming into his spot could be worse. Right now he's making Mark Alt look like Rob Blake.

Gotta say, I completely disagree with you about Moore over the past two games. Best two games as a King. Hounding pucks, getting them deep, and made a hell of a play on the Lizotte empty netter. Everything you need out of an energy player.

 

[Steve Zissou]

This 2-on-1 save by Quickie was vintage JQ.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Gotta say, I completely disagree with you about Moore over the past two games. Best two games as a King. Hounding pucks, getting them deep, and made a hell of a play on the Lizotte empty netter. Everything you need out of an energy player.

Fair. I just thought he was a lot better in the first two games. He's definitely at least in the play fast and being disruptive.

 

[Ghetty Green]

Gotta say, I completely disagree with you about Moore over the past two games. Best two games as a King. Hounding pucks, getting them deep, and made a hell of a play on the Lizotte empty netter. Everything you need out of an energy player.

I agree I thought Moore lias grundo were our best forecheckiners all nite

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

I thought Clague was a bit better tonight. Hopefully he'll get more comfortable and see the development that we saw with Roy and Walker.

I thought he was a LOT better.

 

[Schmooley]

I thought he was a LOT better.

Yea i thought he played a lot better tonight also. In his first game called up last year he had a ton of speed and offensive ability. Looks a little slower and tentative now and am hoping he can become that offensive dman the team could use right now. No problem though if coach wants him to get comfortable and defensively sound before he gets the ok to roam and make mistakes.

 

[All The Kings Men]

Is it going to be 6-0,5-1 or 4-2?

Turns out it was 4-2

 

[Statto]

I think we need to be patient with Vilardi’s ice time. He has missed sooooo much hockey over the last few years that I fully expect his minutes will be increased gradually. There will be no point in increasing his minutes to 18 per game if he’s going to be gassed late in games. Remember Vilardi talked about struggling late in shifts last season even after playing plenty of games. He’s worked on it but it’s still going to be something they will need to increase as his conditioning improves.

What a great, exciting performance though. I have said it repeatedly but I have loved this pick from day one. Vilardi has game breaking skill and it was always crystal clear he’d be a too NHL player. Even with the overstated ‘issues’ with his skating I’ve never understood how he dropped so far. Glad he did though!!!

 

[Frolov 6'3]

Before we draw any conclusions like any teen after a WJC game. We are 4 games in and Kopitar cant do this or that anymore...bla bla.

Yes, points aside, he looks lost and MacKinnon beat him a couple of times too.

These are the first games after a stoppage of almost a year. I am not saying it will turn out fine but give me a break...

 

[Statto]

Before we draw any conclusions like any teen after a WJC game. We are 4 games in and Kopitar cant do this or that anymore...bla bla.

Yes, points aside, he looks lost and MacKinnon beat him a couple of times too.

These are the first games after a stoppage of almost a year. I am not saying it will turn out fine but give me a break...

Quite. I think people sometimes like predicting doom and gloom.

There seems to be an expectation that players will just step onto the ice after such a break and be on their games. Even after a normal off season there are plenty of players that take a few games to get going. If we didn’t have players that were underperforming then that would have been hugely surprising.

I am actually encouraged that he has 6 points from 4 games and is still yet to find his game.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Before we draw any conclusions like any teen after a WJC game. We are 4 games in and Kopitar cant do this or that anymore...bla bla.

Yes, points aside, he looks lost and MacKinnon beat him a couple of times too.

These are the first games after a stoppage of almost a year. I am not saying it will turn out fine but give me a break...

Also, remember that our first 8 games are against teams that were in the playoffs. Kings’ season ended in March, their opponents played again in August. Lots of rust to get rid of.

 

[RossLonsberryFan]

I think we need to be patient with Vilardi’s ice time. He has missed sooooo much hockey over the last few years that I fully expect his minutes will be increased gradually. There will be no point in increasing his minutes to 18 per game if he’s going to be gassed late in games. Remember Vilardi talked about struggling late in shifts last season even after playing plenty of games. He’s worked on it but it’s still going to be something they will need to increase as his conditioning improves.

What a great, exciting performance though. I have said it repeatedly but I have loved this pick from day one. Vilardi has game breaking skill and it was always crystal clear he’d be a too NHL player. Even with the overstated ‘issues’ with his skating I’ve never understood how he dropped so far. Glad he did though!!!

I believe the reason Vilardi dropped was because he didn’t fully participate in a significant amount of the pre-draft NHL combine. After being eliminated early in the 2017 OHL playoffs, Windsor had a layoff before the Memorial Cup in which Vilardi played very well. But I believe that at that time he was having undiagnosed problems with his back and he was trying to downplay it with the scouts.

When he fell to the Kings they must have had him ranked much higher that they just couldn’t pass like the previous teams did.

 

[RossLonsberryFan]

Also, remember that our first 8 games are against teams that were in the playoffs. Kings’ season ended in March, their opponents played again in August. Lots of rust to get rid of.

The Kings will need Quick and Petersen to steal a few games for them this season to make it into the playoffs. And they can’t afford for their blueline to play like clods in front of their goalies.

 

[Ray Martyniuk]

I think we need to be patient with Vilardi’s ice time. He has missed sooooo much hockey over the last few years that I fully expect his minutes will be increased gradually. There will be no point in increasing his minutes to 18 per game if he’s going to be gassed late in games. Remember Vilardi talked about struggling late in shifts last season even after playing plenty of games. He’s worked on it but it’s still going to be something they will need to increase as his conditioning improves.

What a great, exciting performance though. I have said it repeatedly but I have loved this pick from day one. Vilardi has game breaking skill and it was always crystal clear he’d be a too NHL player. Even with the overstated ‘issues’ with his skating I’ve never understood how he dropped so far. Glad he did though!!!

The shot and goal were Major league...but not to "shit" on your parade he scored on Colorado's 3rd string netminder,but I saw more things in his game that stood out,speed being one of them...Vilardi with Brown and Lias Andersson was pretty good I think

 

[Lt Dan]

The shot and goal were Major league...but not to "shit" on your parade he scored on Colorado's 3rd string netminder,but I saw more things in his game that stood out,speed being one of them...Vilardi with Brown and Lias Andersson was pretty good I think

How could you not mention Mikey Anderson?
Dude looked like a seasoned vet