Game 9: Kings vs. Predators Shutout Loss

[Martyros]

As much **** as Penner gets for his play, he is SOMEWHAT useful for atleast one godamn shift. King is doing nothing, Fraser and Lewis go all the way down the ice and turn it over, Stoll is Stoll...

 

[Docgonzo]

The team is not the same without Greene and Mitchell and it shows. Forwards aren't taking the same chances leaving the zone because they have to watch over the 2nd and 3rd D pairings.

Plus without Green and Mitchell our PK is not nearly as aggressive or effective. And a PP where you keep having to chase the puck down the ice and reset is a motivational killer. Teams are able to set up longer in our zone now and get better chances.

Plus they are our 2 most physical Dmen and when they could separate body from puck and get the puck up quickly to the forwards. Hurts our transition game by requiring our forwards to come further into the D zone.

Since our offense can't score, we'll continue to struggle till our D gets healthier, or new people.

 

[SLang]

Man one of the worst things about the lockout was potentially not ever getting to see our Stanley Cup winning team come back 100% intact. I have now seen it and it is not been pretty.

Seriously though didn't this team just get four goals in each of the two previous games? So are we really that offensively inept? I think the answer is clear:

Will-ie.....Will-ie.....Will-ie.....

 

[Muzzinga]

King (whose worse than Penner), Lewis and Fraser continue to escape criticism.

Probably because he gets paid 1/4 the cost of Stoll to be Stoll.

Before the game i started writing a post about how bad the 3rd line has been, but deleted it because i didn't want to be a negative nancy.

Its not just a case of they aren't scoring, but they are playing against bottom 6/bottom pairs and are getting destroyed out there. I had the corsi numers and such in my original post, but the essentials are they get favourable matchups, offensive zone starts, yet the opposition controls the puck the majority of the time they are on the ice.

All 3 have been awful, King mostly

Trading King would be ideal, he has high value at the moment, and Penner can do what he does with a tiny bit more skill.

Lewis I don't expect much out of anyway. Only difference i'd see is moving him to the 4th line and max his pk time, while giving Nolan his ES time.

Stoll stays on the 3rd unit to maximize boarding penalties/60 minutes

 

[Pucknut50]

I know it's not looking to good right now but they are going to make a run. And when we get in the playoffs the Kings will have confidence that they can do it again. I'm calling it right now we beat Detroit!

 

[damacles1156]

The Kings still haven't, and won't ice the Same Stanley Cup team.

Mitchell and Greene are two huge holes in the Defense. The Kings have ZERO prospects that can fill that void.

Doesn't surprise me the Kings are struggling.

Everyone is blown away by Chicago/Sharks/Ducks right ?

Those teams are healthy, Chicago had some pretty good injuries they fought all of last year.

Sharks/Ducks too.

For all the crap Crawford got last year, Right now he is playing LIGHTS OUT.

 

[johnjm22]

This isn't the 2nd season in a row that the Kings will need to go on a hot streak to save their season, it'll be the 3rd season in a row.

 

[damacles1156]

Also for as good as everyone makes them out to be, and all the hype.

The Blues last three games, have gotten their A$%s kicked.

They are healthy too, so they have no excuse.

Philly is also 4-6-1 and looks pretty bad. The Rangers are 5-5 and Hank looks awful.

At least Quick is ready to play every game.

 

[Rod Buskas*]

Outshot them 32-14. They also had 19 blocked shots to our 5

No need to fold the franchise just yet

Lol. Big time over reaction. I agree. We thoroughly outplayed them again.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Lol. Big time over reaction. I agree. We thoroughly outplayed them again.

Seemed like a long game of chess to me. There wasn't much room for the Kings to create any scoring opportunities. That's the boring Nashville Predators brand of hockey. They just capitalize on mistakes, which the Kings made plenty of.

That's what happens when you ice an inexperienced blueline I guess. But that doesn't explain the lackluster and nonexistent performance from the forwards.

 

[redsfanhere*]

atleast we may get a good draft pick

 

[johnjm22]

Really the Kings haven't been great in the regular season since 1991. That was 21 years ago.

There's been a couple mediocre seasons since then, but no division titles and no home ice advantage earned.

This will probably be the 18th time in the last 20 seasons that the Kings have finished 3rd or lower in the division.

 

[RonSwanson*]

reposting in PGT so people can lawl at it, The Kings PP Late in the third

That's pure domination by LA. Three can control 5 Predators.

 

[Choralone]

That's pure domination by LA. Three can control 5 Predators.

Look at that huge seam they've opened up. It stretches all the way around the boards.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Could be worse...

We could be Caps fans...?

 

[KingKopitar11*]

all and all what bothers me the most is that this team plays with no passion for so often except the playoffs. I miss the players like Palffy, Deadmarsh, and Allison. I just hate not being one of those top 3 teams in our conference. It gets deeper, I think kopitar is amazing but he has these moments for a long stretch that he looks so disinterested. Now its spread to the team. I also dont think brown is a good captain, i thought he was amazing in the playoffs but he drops off too often. I just dont understand the inconsistency. I want to be a top team for once in the regular season. Some of you say its too early but honestly, when would it be time? We won the cup i understand that, but when will we ever have a team that gives it their all more consistently man.

That's why im so fond at letting some of our players go more easily than some of you. I want new blood in the group, its just not working. This team is too uninspired too often and it needs a shake up and new blood. Browns not even hitting, Kopi is barely shooting. Where is the passion. We are down defenseman and no one is stepping up. Thats why I want stoll lewis penner fraser all gone. Maybe adding an influx of top 6 players from manchester will bring life. I just dont see it anymore. There is too much dead weight off the line up and in the line up. We need to change some players, and hell maybe change the system so the players can actually rush the slot instead of hovering the damn perimeter, where the talent and the flare. Watching Kane today made it so obvious we have no dynamic player at all.

 

[SCARFACE909]

atleast we may get a good draft pick

Kings don't have a first round pick this year.

 

[SCARFACE909]

all and all what bothers me the most is that this team plays with no passion for so often except the playoffs. I miss the players like Palffy, Deadmarsh, and Allison. I just hate not being one of those top 3 teams in our conference. It gets deeper, I think kopitar is amazing but he has these moments for a long stretch that he looks so disinterested. Now its spread to the team. I also dont think brown is a good captain, i thought he was amazing in the playoffs but he drops off too often. I just dont understand the inconsistency. I want to be a top team for once in the regular season. Some of you say its too early but honestly, when would it be time? We won the cup i understand that, but when will we ever have a team that gives it their all more consistently man.

That's why im so fond at letting some of our players go more easily than some of you. I want new blood in the group, its just not working. This team is too uninspired too often and it needs a shake up and new blood. Browns not even hitting, Kopi is barely shooting. Where is the passion. We are down defenseman and no one is stepping up. Thats why I want stoll lewis penner fraser all gone. Maybe adding an influx of top 6 players from manchester will bring life. I just dont see it anymore. There is too much dead weight off the line up and in the line up. We need to change some players, and hell maybe change the system so the players can actually rush the slot instead of hovering the damn perimeter, where the talent and the flare. Watching Kane today made it so obvious we have no dynamic player at all.

Many teams don't have a Patrick Kane.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Lol. Big time over reaction. I agree. We thoroughly outplayed them again.

Now this I definitely can't agree with. Nasnville had us where they wanted us the entire night. Weak shots from the outside with zero traffic in front of the net equals doom against Rinne and Nashville, and we played right into their hands. Honestly, who had a good scoring chance last night for the Kings? I'm seriously having a difficult time coming-up with one. Meanwhile, Nashville got very few shots, but several were from prime scoring areas (including being left alone in the slot). We won the puck possession battle because we were content with cycling the puck until it eventually got back to a defenseman (or a forward who was at the blueline) that resulted in a shot that was blocked or one that Rinne grabbed with no difficulty because there was no traffic.

 

[PensFan6687]

lol I feel bad for asking this again, but I have a lot of interest in Muzzin, but how did he look? Notice his ice time went up a smidge.

 

[Mkoll]

Because it is stupid thinking. We should be glad our coach doesn't use that line of thinking. You don't play a worse player just because he has ran good in a small sample against a certain team.

Coach Stevens did that with the Flyers when they played Atlanta a few seasons ago. Niittymäaki was 11-0 against them.

 

[redsfanhere*]

Kings don't have a first round pick this year.

im a columbus fan

 

[Bandit]

King (whose worse than Penner), Lewis and Fraser continue to escape criticism.

King continues to be a rookie. Rookies have ups and downs...

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

King continues to be a rookie. Rookies have ups and downs...

King has been nothing but down since he started playing in Manchester this year. This was my observation of him back in November:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=56003057&postcount=495

I'm surprised Dwight King has not received more criticism. Other than his first two games back, he's been awful. His one goal is an empty net goal (I know goals aren't everything), and he's not doing much else correct out there, either. Bad puck possession along the boards (which is something he should be good at), bad puck possession in the middle of the ice. I've been pretty disappointed in his play this season. He needs to step it up if he wants to find himself a regular spot on the Kings if the NHL does eventually return.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Whoever makes up the top 6 on this team, they have a combined 7 goals at ES, through 9 games. The top 2 lines are averaging 1 ES goal between the 6 players, and 2 of them(or 3 if you count Penner) have 0 ES goals. The 3rd line has 1 goal, from Stoll, and that was when Gagne was on the ice with him. The 4th line hasn't scored in a long time.

Couple that with the Kings still overall poor PP, and we're right back to the pre-playoff Kings again.

4 goals against Phoenix and Columbus, with LaBarbera and Mason in net. 4 goals against Anaheim, in a game where the Kings couldn't stop Anaheim from scoring.

Then it's 2 against Chicago, and Vancouver(not counting the SO goal), 1 against Colorado, Edmonton, and Nashville, and 0 last night.

As long as I know this is the regular season version of the Kings we're watching, then at least the expectation can be tempered somewhat. Just a struggle for a low seed in the playoff race, because they can't score. If that's what they are, then that's what they are.