What an opportunity the Kings had Thursday night. They had taken a 2-1 first-period lead on an exciting Wayne Simmonds penalty-shot goal, and just more than one minute later, at the 18:41 mark, the Senators started a mind-boggling run of penalties that eventually led to a two-minute, 5-on-3 for the Kings. What did they do with it?
18:41: Kelly interference penalty
18:57: Doughty shot wide
19:24: Alfredsson tripping penalty
19:32: Volchenkov penalty for closing hand on puck
19:43: Kopitar shot blocked
19:56: Stoll shot on goal
0:26 (second period): Stoll shot wide
0:32: Stoll shot on goal
0:59: Doughty shot wide
1:10: Stoll shot wide
1:40: Williams shot on goal
All told on the power play, that’s 2:59, zero goals, three shots on goal, four shots wide and one shot blocked. What did Terry Murray think?
Not surpisingly, Murray had a simple reaction when asked what he would have liked to have seen done different on the power play…
MURRAY: “Hit the net. The opportunities were there. We had penalty of shooting opportunities, but you have to hit the net. In the 5-on-3, our attitude up front is scoring and, to me, that needs to be changed. Just hit the goaltender, and now you’re looking for second, third, fourth opportunities. Everybody is turning around, looking to find the puck. They’re facing their goaltender, and that’s when you jump on it. We’re trying to put it inside the post, and get too fine.”
i disagree a bit. To me when you have that long 5 on 3, you should be working the puck gradually down low then shoot from in close and crash the net. 5 on 4 it can be all about initiating shots from the point, but with a 2 man advantage, the work it down low strategy should be the goal. Thoughts?
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If we would have lost .. this would be the reason we all point to.
When you look at those stats … it’s impressive we managed to come away with a win.
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Stoll should not be on 5 on 3… Makes it predictable( to borrow a comment from pierre mcguire)…
Stoll turned that into a 4 on 3… two passes and a shot. it’s simple…but we have to set up stoll which the other team already knows…
Feel like i am taking crazy pills. Get on it coaches
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its very simple, you put a guy behind the net and use it as a decoy, such as Kopi or even Brown. At that point both point men come down lower to the top of the faceoff circles. You make a pass to them and they one time into the net. It worked alot last season…..
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agree, on a 5 on 3 i would like to see less shots from the blue line. but i still want to see MORE MOVEMENT!!! Standing in one place and passing around is allowing the defense to NOT have to scramble around. MOVE! MOVE MOVE! unless someone can explain why that isnt a better idea. It seems to me that the teams that have consistent success on the PP move constantly.
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Dorian,
put a guy behind the net as a decoy?? Does he have the puck? if he doesn’t you have effectively created a 4-3.
We don’t have that type of player that can set up behind the net(with the puck)…
Our PP is ridiculously predictable. Always half boards on left side or one time pt shot from an umbrella. No diversification, very easy to coach against….Hence lack of success
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Seem like the rest of the boys need to stop goofing on Smytty and start using the plastic goalie so they can hit the net once in a while. Agreed, we are getting too predictable on the PP with Stolli…let’s change it up a bit.
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HB Kings fan, I disagree a bit. I dont mind the shots coming from the point so long as they get through. I think the problem the Kings are having is that their shot selection is really bad. On the 5-3, all teams employ the triangle. So if you are passing it back and forth the your guys down low are creaiting traffic, once that shots gets through you have 1) hopefully a screen, and 2) a great shot at the rebounds.
But I agree with most that they have to start rotating up top. That creates a lot of confusion which then allows for those shots to actually get through to the net.
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I have liked the coaching with the exception of the power play. If a power play is boring to watch there is a good chance its pretty easy to defend against. There is no movement on the power play, when they do move doughty scores, crazy. People should be moving constantly in front of the goaltender. Just watch other teams power play and it seems like they have plays getting backdoor goals that quick has no chance on. Our power play the goaltender usually has a chance to stop it.
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The Kings Future odds to win the cup have officially dropped to 15 to 1. That’s the lowest it’s been in a long long time. Even when Andy Murrays Kings were in first place his last year coaching the odds only got down to 20 to 1.
I got the Kings at 60 to 1 when the season started.
Blackhawks were getting 20 to 1 around this time last season, as a comparison.
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Hey Rich,
This one is a bit off topic, but I’m curious if the NHL has ever considered giving assist points to players that help setup a penalty shot that is capitalized on? That pass from Doughty to Simmonds, or The Tasmanian Devil as I like to call him, to setup the penalty shot was awesome. The fact that Doughty doesn’t get a point for that assist is a shame. Obviously it is up to Taz to put that puck in the net, but once he does, whoever setup the play that got him the penalty shot should get an assist. Do you think the NHL will ever look into this?
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Die hard….once the whistle blows play is over…
I’m not rich but the answer is no.
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FYI, I’m watching the Manchester game online and…Wow do they look good. its 4-0 with 2 fights in the first already. They are just dominating the Wolfpack. Vionov (sp) looks solid and has 2 points already tonight, can’t wait to see him up with the Kings. MeeKoosh scored a sweet goal…. oops Cliche just scored too. 5-0… Fun game to watch, we just went on the PP
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it seems to me that a lot of teams like pittsburgh, detroit, san jose, etc work the 5 on 3 advantage by working hard down low with close scoring shots. Any rebounds kicked out then are fired by a point man. Point shots on a 5 on 3 are worthless for us, we need action down low
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Rich,
Just something I would be very interested in knowing. Would the Kings be willing to offer and package a deal to get a player like Kovalchuk? This Kings team looks good right now but as I have said before, they could be real threats if they got a sniper and one more tough guy. Just my opinion, but someone like Kovalchuk to LA would be some what similar to when DL was in San Jose and he got an impact guy like Joe Thornton.
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Mikus scored!
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Yes Mikus Scored… He’s living Vicariously through himself…
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6-0. Martinez scored….
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Having a 2 man advantage gives you more freedom to move and create scoring chances. When you are not moving, passing around the end boards and keeping the puck outside is ridiculous.
You need sharp passing, (stick to stick passing), a lot of movement to catch players out of position. TM says just put the puck on net??? It’s a wonder our PP has been struggling with that kind of philiosophy.
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No way Kovalchuk goes anywhere. I was hoping Atlanta would falter so that he would want out. They look like a team that will consistently make the playoffs over the next few years. Atlanta will lock him up long term before the trading deadline.
The Kings will have to look somewhere else.
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Been watching hockey since 1969. That may have been the worst 5-3 I’ve ever seen by any team.
Not only did it look poorly executed, but it look poorly coached. In my mind it puts whoever is coaching our special teams in serious question.
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CupRun, I was joking about that Shooter Tutor earlier this week, now maybe they should be spending time at it… light practice today, in fact mostly shooting drills (but I was late, might have been other things going on when they hit the ice).
Agree with pretty much all of the above. Start high, begin to cycle, but move in and pressure down low, don’t expect all your PP goals to come from the D on the blue line.
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KC23, remember a few years ago, believe it or not we had worse power plays… lots of them…
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KC23 couldn’t agree more. That 5-3 last night was the worst I’ve ever seen. And I was lucky enough to watch it in person.
On the brighter side, just imagine, to improve, the Kings have to learn how to overhelm a team when they are skating two men up. I believe there are harder lessons to learn.
The Kings are a young maturing team. The Kings are now winning games they lead in the third period. Last year with the Kings, no lead was safe.
Let’s go Kings. Tomorrow afternoon lets make St. Louis sing Blues.
Go Kings Go!!
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@Pucktime, NO. It has never been worse than last night. The offense looked like statues.
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Bingram, agree with both of you, it was incredibly painful to watch. Maybe I’m influenced a bit by cautious optimism, whereas before it was just wondering at what point in December/January were we going to be out of playoff consideration. At least we saw a little improvement later in the game in our 5-4 play.
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Pucktime, as a Kings fan, when I’m optimistic, it is cautiously.
But so far I like what I’m seeing. And the Kings did do better on the 5-4.
Compared to the Dark Ages (you know the previous five years), life is improving.
Go Kings Go!!
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Here’s an idea…..Get a new head coach + new PP coach and TM coaches the D
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Gee, Teeder, why didn’t anyone else think of that? Maybe because it’s a stupid, kneejerk thing to say?
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Teeder=not a genius. Its our best start in like 20 years, lets fire the coach!
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I’ve read all of your comments and I have to say that the shot count is what’s disturbing. If you don’t get shots on goal you won’t score. I haven’t been a fan of Stoll out there but at least they need to START by getting off shots.
Set up Doughty or Jack back there and pound shots…but they have to get through and on net. Once that happens continually, teams can’t just counter the only move you do because then you can fake that shot and let Kopi, Brown, Fro, etc go to work down low. As long as they’re only looking for Stoll…as someone said up top it’s very easy to counter.
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Hmmm…when I read “shot count” I immediately thought of the rising totals of the opposition, and I think THAT is what needs attention.
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