GDT: 2020-21 season game 6 LA Kings vs St. Louis Blues @5:00pm 1/24/21

[johnjm22]

People have criticized Kopitar for looking slow and "lumbering" this year, but it's not like the guy isn't making plays. Big guys like him will always look slower.

 

[cyclones22]

Let's be clear the Kings outplayed St Louis tonight. Obviously they got casual with the lead on a couple lucky bounces and Quick with his mask being loose on that third goal. But a win's a win.

 

[tny760]

People have criticized Kopitar for looking slow and "lumbering" this year, but it's not like the guy isn't making plays. Big guys like him will always look slower.

i mean aside from the AA assist, i take nothing away from his production but there's something off about him right now

he's been lumbering for years but he never mishandled simple passes the way he is this season

 

[Steve Zissou]

I stopped believing in leads after the chicago series

Please, don't remind me of that series. Good God.

 

[onlyalad]

People have criticized Kopitar for looking slow and "lumbering" this year, but it's not like the guy isn't making plays. Big guys like him will always look slower.

Kings have 20 goals so far
Kopitar played a part in 10 of them.
Half the teams offense has gone through him.
Not the worst thing

 

[DoktorJeep]

Reign put up 5 goals in their game today and the big club put up six. Great to see.

 

[Steve Zissou]

 

[kingsholygrail]

I didn't know you could still buy such tiny screens.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Army needs his tailor to let’s out the waist on his pants and open up some room in the legs.

 

[Steve Zissou]

People have criticized Kopitar for looking slow and "lumbering" this year, but it's not like the guy isn't making plays. Big guys like him will always look slower.

No one has criticized him for not making plays. It's not the big-man-lumbering-up-the-ice that you are referring to.

The dude has no 'get-up-and-go' whatsoever. You can see it the most when he stops and starts.

 

[crassbonanza]

No one has criticized him for not making plays. It's not the big-man-lumbering-up-the-ice that you are referring to.

The dude has no 'get-up-and-go' whatsoever. You can see it the most when he stops and starts.

The Kings have just been through an absolutely brutal stretch after not having played hockey in 10 months. During that 6 game stretch he has put up 10 points, which leads the league. If you are into the fancy stats he is dominating those as well, putting up a +6.95 CF% Rel, a +59.05 GF% Rel, and a +10.12 xGF% Rel.

There is absolutely no reason to be criticizing his play right now.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Welp, that was terrifying, but we'll take the dub and the series split, a 5 goal outburst is nice, even though they got a little loose on D.

The Good

• We've brought our record to 2-2-2 and our goal differential to 0. Mildly satisfying statline.
• I was ripping the coaching before the game for not making roster changes--guess they had the last laugh, buuuuut the suggestions we made to swap out were our worst performing players again, so...
  
• Welcome to ESPN, Carl Grundstrom. That's a good way to stay in the lineup!
  
• Kopitar isn't quite looking like himself, but he's still racking up the points to the tune of tied for the league lead (in fewer games)--that's an excellent thing. What does he look like when he's fully operational? AND--they got his minutes down to 21 and a half, which is key.
  
• Drew Doughty, on the other hand, is very much starting to look like himself, and really racking it up.
  
• Adrian Kempe has truly found a new gear. The guy is just doing everything right and imposing himself on the game shift after shift. Across the board, the top line got about 2/3 of the shot attempts their way.
  
• Quick appears to be back in peak form, even down to the anger!
• Lias Andersson--so happy for him to get that first goal. I joked earlier he's such a grinder he turned a breakaway where he beat the goalie cleanly into a grinder cleaning up the trash in front.
  
• Kale Clague has arrived! 18 minutes tonight, including some PK work--would love to see him get a crack at the PP too but it's nice to have another puck moving/skating presence in the lineup. And his defense has been really, really strong too.
  
• Can't mention the 2nd pairing without Roy--gotta credit him for holding it down for Clague the way Anderson has for Doughty. Steadying presence, had no problem stapling people to the boards all night, and really unfortunate minute racking him down from +4. He's a key player now and the expectations have to be even higher.
  
• Vilardi looking more and more comfortable as time goes on, wish we could get his minutes up but I definitely get it. Really nice that him and Brown are getting chemistry going and that line is a bit of a pain in the rear with their grit.
  
• Walker--I want to give him some props because he was definitely not getting favorable situations and still found ways to grit it out and skate the puck out of trouble himself on numerous occasions.

The Bad

• Carter, Athanasiou, Lizotte--you guys were drunk last game and though a lot better in this one, there's a long way to go. The only forwards to be minus (-2). But I did like some of their disruption and skating--but all the stuff we were talking about in the other thread earlier caught up to them.
  
• Macdermid--Was hesitant to put him here because I think he took too much of a beating earlier, but the results are the results. Sorry. It's like Erik Karlsson--no one cares how much positive you can do if you're constantly on the wrong side of the score counter.

The Ugly

• Like Kopitar, Alex Iafallo doesn't appear to be himself. He's just constantly getting the puck in trouble and doing nothing with it, or skating it into trouble and losing it. But at the same time, it's really hard to be mad at a guy who scores a goal, plays nearly 18 minutes, controls 100% of the high danger shot attempts...I'm really hoping for some of these guys it's just shaking off the ten-month funk. I did see some encouraging signs tonight, and at least he's playing in high traffic areas.
  
• Starting to get a little worried about Mikey Anderson. I don't want him to simply turn into Derek Forbort. Starting to see a little panic creep in, a lot less of the smooth plays, and constant falling. Some of that is simply reps and strength, but have to wonder if putting him next to Drew is too much too soon. Bjornfot time, let Mikey slide down next to Roy or Walker for a few? As far as I'm concerned, Maatta doesn't exist.
• The NHL.com box scores still have Lias in a Rangers jersey. Boo.
• The game got REALLY sloppy and out of control. Kings are young and I expect volatility, they're riding emotions extremely high and extremely low. And some of this is early season junk. But they need to even it out a bit, can't constantly give up two goal leads.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The Kings have just been through an absolutely brutal stretch after not having played hockey in 10 months. During that 6 game stretch he has put up 10 points, which leads the league. If you are into the fancy stats he is dominating those as well, putting up a +6.95 CF% Rel, a +59.05 GF% Rel, and a +10.12 xGF% Rel.

There is absolutely no reason to be criticizing his play right now.

Last game, at the end of a game that was well within reach, he slowly crossed the blueline and softly turned the puck over for a clear 3x in a row.

Yes, the production is HUGE, and he looked like he was turning a corner tonight. But why would he be immune from criticism? I mean, he's playing #1 dman minutes, so he's visible half the game!

This is a guy who was, prior to tonight, leading the team in scoring but amongst the lowest minuses.

No one wants to bag on Kopitar, he's all class and has led this team in scoring by 20 points for damn near his whole career--we've got plenty of visual evidence to draw on when we say something is 'off' and it's not just random ass haterade.

 

[redcard]

Welp, that was terrifying, but we'll take the dub and the series split, a 5 goal outburst is nice, even though they got a little loose on D.

The Good

• We've brought our record to 2-2-2 and our goal differential to 0. Mildly satisfying statline.
• I was ripping the coaching before the game for not making roster changes--guess they had the last laugh, buuuuut the suggestions we made to swap out were our worst performing players again, so...
  
• Welcome to ESPN, Carl Grundstrom. That's a good way to stay in the lineup!
  
• Kopitar isn't quite looking like himself, but he's still racking up the points to the tune of tied for the league lead (in fewer games)--that's an excellent thing. What does he look like when he's fully operational? AND--they got his minutes down to 21 and a half, which is key.
  
• Drew Doughty, on the other hand, is very much starting to look like himself, and really racking it up.
  
• Adrian Kempe has truly found a new gear. The guy is just doing everything right and imposing himself on the game shift after shift. Across the board, the top line got about 2/3 of the shot attempts their way.
  
• Quick appears to be back in peak form, even down to the anger!
• Lias Andersson--so happy for him to get that first goal. I joked earlier he's such a grinder he turned a breakaway where he beat the goalie cleanly into a grinder cleaning up the trash in front.
  
• Kale Clague has arrived! 18 minutes tonight, including some PK work--would love to see him get a crack at the PP too but it's nice to have another puck moving/skating presence in the lineup. And his defense has been really, really strong too.
  
• Can't mention the 2nd pairing without Roy--gotta credit him for holding it down for Clague the way Anderson has for Doughty. Steadying presence, had no problem stapling people to the boards all night, and really unfortunate minute racking him down from +4. He's a key player now and the expectations have to be even higher.
  
• Vilardi looking more and more comfortable as time goes on, wish we could get his minutes up but I definitely get it. Really nice that him and Brown are getting chemistry going and that line is a bit of a pain in the rear with their grit.
  
• Walker--I want to give him some props because he was definitely not getting favorable situations and still found ways to grit it out and skate the puck out of trouble himself on numerous occasions.

The Bad

• Carter, Athanasiou, Lizotte--you guys were drunk last game and though a lot better in this one, there's a long way to go. The only forwards to be minus (-2). But I did like some of their disruption and skating--but all the stuff we were talking about in the other thread earlier caught up to them.
  
• Macdermid--Was hesitant to put him here because I think he took too much of a beating earlier, but the results are the results. Sorry. It's like Erik Karlsson--no one cares how much positive you can do if you're constantly on the wrong side of the score counter.

The Ugly

• Like Kopitar, Alex Iafallo doesn't appear to be himself. He's just constantly getting the puck in trouble and doing nothing with it, or skating it into trouble and losing it. But at the same time, it's really hard to be mad at a guy who scores a goal, plays nearly 18 minutes, controls 100% of the high danger shot attempts...I'm really hoping for some of these guys it's just shaking off the ten-month funk. I did see some encouraging signs tonight, and at least he's playing in high traffic areas.
  
• Starting to get a little worried about Mikey Anderson. I don't want him to simply turn into Derek Forbort. Starting to see a little panic creep in, a lot less of the smooth plays, and constant falling. Some of that is simply reps and strength, but have to wonder if putting him next to Drew is too much too soon. Bjornfot time, let Mikey slide down next to Roy or Walker for a few? As far as I'm concerned, Maatta doesn't exist.
• The NHL.com box scores still have Lias in a Rangers jersey. Boo.
• The game got REALLY sloppy and out of control. Kings are young and I expect volatility, they're riding emotions extremely high and extremely low. And some of this is early season junk. But they need to even it out a bit, can't constantly give up two goal leads.

I don't share your concerns re Anderson. If we were 0-6 and he was getting brutalized every night, maybe I'd be concerned about his confidence. But getting 20+ minutes with Doughty in wins can't be hurting him. He's gonna make mistakes from time to time, he's gonna get beat, but he's seeing enough ice time to work those mistakes out and we're getting results.

 

[Steve Zissou]

The Kings have just been through an absolutely brutal stretch after not having played hockey in 10 months.

So has a lot of other teams. Newsflash: There's a pandemic going on right now. All teams have had to adjust.

There is absolutely no reason to be criticizing his play right now.

Your logic: Because a player put up points no one can critic any part of their game.

Love to go back-and-forth with ya on that one Chief but I'll just say 'Good Night, And Good Luck'.

 

[kilowatt]

as expected

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

as expected

One fewer game than Marner too if memory serves right, its' beautiful

 

[The Butcher]

There is a preseason for a reason. People concerned with sloppiness, poor passing, and other mistakes maybe should back off a bit, myself included. It seems like they are making some good adjustments.

I'm glad Doughty is looking closer to his salary again.

I'll admit that my eyes don't see the game as well as some of you but in regards to kopi his play has never been razzle dazzle explosive stuff, he's always done things very quietly and consistently. It's one of the reasons he's going to be in the hockey hall of fame one day.

It's been a long time since we've seen the Kings kick someone's ass and I'm starting to love watching them play again!

 

[Steve Zissou]

I'll admit that my eyes don't see the game as well as some of you but in regards to kopi his play has never been razzle dazzle explosive stuff, he's always done things very quietly and consistently. It's one of the reasons he's going to be in the hockey hall of fame one day.

Live look at Kopi celebrating after scoring tonight...

Guys, it really went off my stick.

 

[LAK74]

If Kopi can get 40 points in the remaining 50 games, he can reach 1000 career points by the end of the season.

 

[crassbonanza]

Last game, at the end of a game that was well within reach, he slowly crossed the blueline and softly turned the puck over for a clear 3x in a row.

Yes, the production is HUGE, and he looked like he was turning a corner tonight. But why would he be immune from criticism? I mean, he's playing #1 dman minutes, so he's visible half the game!

This is a guy who was, prior to tonight, leading the team in scoring but amongst the lowest minuses.

No one wants to bag on Kopitar, he's all class and has led this team in scoring by 20 points for damn near his whole career--we've got plenty of visual evidence to draw on when we say something is 'off' and it's not just random ass haterade.

I'm not a huge advanced stats guy, but I think this issue does show how the eye test can be misleading. He is absolutely dominating defensively and offensively against some of the best competition in the league. I just don't know how much more you can ask from the guy, he has been one of the best players in the league so far.

 

[crassbonanza]

So has a lot of other teams. Newsflash: There's a pandemic going on right now. All teams have had to adjust.



Your logic: Because a player put up points no one can critic any part of their game.

Love to go back-and-forth with ya on that one Chief but I'll just say 'Good Night, And Good Luck'.

Well, your first part isn't true. The Kings are one of the magnificent 7 who didn't make the bubble. I only pointed out that gap to show how crazy it is that he is playing this well.

As for the second part, I provided some possession/defensive stats to show that he is also carrying the load by those metrics. It is extremely impressive what he has been doing so far and I don't know how many players have been better than him despite the fact that he has played so many minutes after the long lay off.

 

[kovacro]

Probably just me but, strange seeing Clifford with the Blues especially after those playoff battles the Kings had with them years ago.

Much respect to the Big Red Dog.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I'm not a huge advanced stats guy, but I think this issue does show how the eye test can be misleading. He is absolutely dominating defensively and offensively against some of the best competition in the league. I just don't know how much more you can ask from the guy, he has been one of the best players in the league so far.

I'll use Muzzin as an example--he always had some of the best stats in the league but his problem was "great 95% of the time" and the other 5% wasn't just rough, it was abysmal. or, the Muzzin Martinez pairing--by advanced stats, they were best in the league and it frankly wasn't close! Yet, those guys couldn't keep the puck out of their net because of turning the puck over at inopportune times. Literal best advanced stats, almost league-worst real stats.

In this case, yeah, like I said above--Kopitar has mostly been a monster and the results bear it out. The criticism is about those 5% plays, that visibly he LOOKS different and is getting pushed off pucks and softly turning it over like he never used to. That's not something that's going to get captured in advanced stats, especially CF%, as that's shot attempts; if he misses the net or just continually murders shinguards the counter goes up. Is it injury? Is it rust? Is he out of gas from playing 25 minutes a game? Whatever it is, something is visibly off. And I'm one of his biggest cheerleaders on this forum over the years, so I would think me criticizing him would be somewhat more meaningful. I mean, it doesn't have to just be a criticism--if he's racking up points while looking like 75% of his usual self, what happens when and if he's full power? That's awesome.

 

[kilowatt]

Who else thought that after six games we'd have the same number of points as the Avalanche and Lightning?