WCQF Gm#1: KINGS vs. BLUES - 4/30/13 - Tough Pill, But We'll Bounce Back!

[kingsfan28]

Well if you go back (I think in the Willie Mitchell thread ?), Tonellisghost did mention Martinez might be going on the IR when Greene came back, but the option wasn't needed nor exercised because of the expanded roster limits after the Trade Deadline. No need to put him on IR when he could rehab while practicing with the team.

But you'd have to think IF 100% healthy and in Game Shape ... that GREENE and MARTINEZ would both be in the line-up, that they aren't is all the info you need to know that Sutter isn't comfortable putting them in right now, and like it or not ELLERBY and MUZZIN are the better options in his mind and HIS is the only one that matters or has some control over it, so people need to just stop and accept this fact.

Sutter talks about Greene not being in game shape, plus getting more games in, well how does this happen when he's not playing?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I just realized that they had Steen, Schwartz and Cracknell as the 3 stars for the game. Really? Steen and Quick were by far the 2 best players on the ice. The OT gaff should not matter. Quick deserved, without a doubt, to be named at least the 2nd star.

It's usually homers (members of the local media) who make the picks. Doesn't matter one bit when the Kings eliminate the Blues.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Ellerby has the Rob Blake hip check down for sure, but that's about it.

The Kings dominated when we had Mitchell-Voynov, Scud's-Doughty, and Martinez-Greene. One puck mover with one skilled guy....And Martinez showed in the NJ series he can throw his weight around.

Now we are left with Regehr-Doughty, Voynov-Scuderi and Muzzin-Ellerby.

By the way, I mentioned awhile back...why didn't Lombardi pursue a guy like Morrow at the trade deadline? Kings could have sure used a tough LW. Now we are stuck with Penner and King. Reaves and Cracknell walked all over the Kings. Jordan Nolan was out to lunch.

 

[Martyros]

Canucks played with the same fire against us in game 1 of last year, they wore down quickly, just like the Blues did by the time OT came around. I'm not as worried as many people would expect us to be.

 

[Omni Owl]

Makes me wonder if Nolan sustained some kind of head injury because he's not nearly as effective as he was for last years run....

 

[takk]

Found a vid of Roy going full Pejorative Slur like Quick against Devils in 2001.



It happens. Luckily it happened in the first game of first round instead of a more crucial game. Quick has the elements for maintaining his stellar play he showed last night.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Makes me wonder if Nolan sustained some kind of head injury because he's not nearly as effective as he was for last years run....

You could say the same about Dwight King, and Clifford had a similar problem in his sophomore year. Who knows what it is, but I don't think these guys would be playing if they had some type of head injury.

 

[Muzzinga]

I don't think Martinez is that good. He played well last year in sheltered minutes with a veteran d-man, but he wouldn't have the same circumstances these playoffs.

How can you come to that conclusion? He didn't just play well, he CRUSHED his sheltered minutes harder than any dman in the league, and hasn't been given a chance to show what he can do with real minutes. Where is the argument for him not being that good?

At least Martinez can move the puck out of the zone a bit, which automatically cuts down opponents chances. When Ellerby is on the ice, he may aswell not leave the front of the net

 

[kingsholygrail]

Found a vid of Roy going full Pejorative Slur like Quick against Devils in 2001.



It happens. Luckily it happened in the first game of first round instead of a more crucial game. Quick has the elements for maintaining his stellar play he showed last night.

Yeah it happens even to the best. Nice to see the expletives appear to be the same. lol

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Found a vid of Roy going full Pejorative Slur like Quick against Devils in 2001.



It happens. Luckily it happened in the first game of first round instead of a more crucial game. Quick has the elements for maintaining his stellar play he showed last night.

And Roy's considered one of the greatest goalies of all-time, yet he's had a few of those monumental mental errors during the playoffs. Here's another one.

 

[MollerManor]

I think if someone just reassures me what happened last night wouldn't be that be that big of a deal if it was game 2 or 3 or even 4 and made the series 1-1, 2-1, or 2-2 then I think it will make me feel a lot better. I think the fail right out the gate is not helping any of our egos right now. (especially mine.)

 

[vital]

Even Brodeur had a bone head play.

 

[CowMix]

NHL.com has a playlist of odd goals to make us feel better about ourselves haha

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hdpid=49&id=244121&navid=DL|NHL|home

 

[Reclamation Project]

That Brodeur one is pretty bad

 

[kingsfan28]

Even Brodeur had a bone head play.

This makes Quicks turnover mild by comparison. I wonder if the puck doesnt bank off the back of the net, that Steen gets to the puck first.It seems to slow the puck down just enough for Steen to get there and make the play.

 

[Cup 4 the Kings]

This one by Halak is pretty funny. Bats it into his own net, then looks around like "What the heck happened?"

 

[Bandit]

Hey, I agree 100%....I certainly don't expect to see anything like that this year. BUT WHAT I DO EXPECT, is to NOT get outworked, out hustled and out muscled for 95% of ANY game.

Totally fair and I agree 100%. Losing is one thing, getting outworked for 59 minutes is something else entirely.

 

[Herby]

The Kings have issues right now because they are designed as a team who's strength is on the blue line and down the middle and right now Kopitar, Richards, Muzzin, Voynov and Ellerby are just not getting the job done.

Sutter has juggled the lines a lot and he just can't seem to get anything out of Kopitar and Richards. They have point totals because the PP was pretty good, but 5 on 5 neither guy has been very good, especially recently. As for the defense, Greene is currently out, Mitchell isn't coming back and something fishy is up with AMart. That is half our defense from last years team, and our two centers playing like garbage.

At this point I think it's time to have something like...

Brown - Carter - Williams
Richards - Kopitar - Richardson/Toffoli
Penner - Stoll - Lewis

It might just be throwing **** at the wall and hoping it sticks, but they need to try and find some chemistry because there was zero last night outside of Lewis and Stoll.

 

[King'sPawn]

The "sheltered minutes" argument is pretty weak in this instance. By definition, a 3rd D-unit pairing is only going to be on the ice when the Top 4 defensemen aren't. So if Doughty was playing 30 min., Scuderi was playing 20+, Voynov was playing 20+, Mitchell was playing 20+, how many minutes are left for the other 2 dmen and who is left to play against?

Martinez played almost 3 minutes per game on the powerplay, out of his 11 minutes on the ice. He played 24 seconds shorthanded. Between those minutes and responsibilities, he SHOULD play well... but the fact that he played well doesn't mean he dominated.

You site how many minutes everyone was playing in the playoffs. Greene, his defensive partner, played only 12 minutes a game, but 3 and a half minutes of that was shorthanded. Hard minutes.

Everyone saying how much better Martinez would be compared to Ellerby forget the limited responsibility Martinez has had to face, so he's not going to struggle as much. Ellerby, on the other hand, has played 14:28 per game, three more minutes per game than what Martinez played. He also played 1:36 minutes per game shorthanded. Six seconds of his overall ice time per game is spent on the powerplay.

Even so, last night Ellerby played seventeen minutes. 3 and a half minutes were short handed.

You people want Martinez in to replace Ellerby, and to play difficult, priority minutes he never played before, yet you're so certain he would do a better job? Laughable.

Until someone has a credible link saying that Martinez is injured, then I'm going to continue working under the assumption that Sutter has a similar assessment of Martinez.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

What's really concerning to me is the lack of faceoff wins by the Kings' centers. Kings only won 35% of their draws. That is dreadful.

 

[Sam]

Martinez played almost 3 minutes per game on the powerplay, out of his 11 minutes on the ice. He played 24 seconds shorthanded. Between those minutes and responsibilities, he SHOULD play well... but the fact that he played well doesn't mean he dominated.

You site how many minutes everyone was playing in the playoffs. Greene, his defensive partner, played only 12 minutes a game, but 3 and a half minutes of that was shorthanded. Hard minutes.

Everyone saying how much better Martinez would be compared to Ellerby forget the limited responsibility Martinez has had to face, so he's not going to struggle as much. Ellerby, on the other hand, has played 14:28 per game, three more minutes per game than what Martinez played. He also played 1:36 minutes per game shorthanded. Six seconds of his overall ice time per game is spent on the powerplay.

Even so, last night Ellerby played seventeen minutes. 3 and a half minutes were short handed.

You people want Martinez in to replace Ellerby, and to play difficult, priority minutes he never played before, yet you're so certain he would do a better job? Laughable.

Until someone has a credible link saying that Martinez is injured, then I'm going to continue working under the assumption that Sutter has a similar assessment of Martinez.

You're looking at the ES TOI/G for Martinez and Greene instead of the TOI/G. Martinez averaged 14:28 last playoffs and Greene 16:05. Martinez averaged 16:01 this season, BTW.

 

[losingsand]

Liked that ellerby was being more physical, something we haven't seen all year long... also noticed that richards has taken it up a notch physically as well. With the style of play that the league is used to seeing from richards, which borders on effectively wreckless, it wouldn't surprise me if he came to the conclusion that he can't play this way 82 games a year... year after year... but just save it for the playoffs. Can't argue with it... it's smart for Richards-sake.

Thought the kings played decently, but st. louis was just firing on all cylinders... then the Williams goal happened and then they played scared... but just happened to eek out victory after being dominated in OT. Important for the kings to know that as good as st. louis can be, the team is still young and still fragile. I think if we get in Elliot's head, the kings should be able to scrap out a series win. This isn't going to be easy though-- Our 3rd line pairing gives me heart-attacks...call me crazy but i miss the Doughty / Muzzin pairing. Wouldn't mind seeing that so Regehr can play clean up from Ellerby's miscues. Love the nickname Matthew Barry had for him: "Helen Kellerby", that's one out of 1,000,000 million jokes that i actually liked from matt.

Give major credit to st. louis, they looked focus. Get a couple of softies on ELLIOT!!

gokingsgo

 

[KingsKnight]

Forgot to mention after the game, listening to sports on KPCC and the guy kept referring to Quick as "Jason Quick". Not really too surprised.

Audio in link, starts at about 6:30:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-t...-roundup-jason-collins-lakers-out-la-kings-a/