alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Sharks coach Todd McLellan was asked, after his team’s morning skate, about the difference between this season’s Kings and last season’s group…
MCLELLAN: “They’re more confident. They earned the right to be confident as the season wore on last year. I thought the coaching staff — and I said it last time in here — did a tremendous job with that team, with the young players. Doughty, when you compare him at this time, last year to this year, he’s obviously way more confident, and feels real good about his game. The goaltending has been tremendous. They’re a very, very good hockey club. We certainly understand that, and we know that we’ll have our hands full.”
Later, McLellan was asked about the standings, and the fact the Sharks enter tonight’s game with only a four-point lead over the Kings for first place in the Pacific Division. McLellan was asked the question, are the Sharks looking in their rear-view mirror at all?
MCLELLAN: “I have a sneaking suspicion that there are going to be teams behind us, or in front of us, throughout the year that are going to within four or six points. That’s going to happen all year. So for us to be at Dec. 9 and looking behind us and saying, `They’re creeping up on us,’ I don’t think that’s a very good approach for us to take at all. I think the approach we have to take is, one, are we getting better? And two, are we giving each other, as teammates, what we need to get better? We’ll continue to evaluate that way.”
I get what McLellan is saying and it should be that way for the Kings as well. The whole season is likely to have teams in front and behind that are within 4 to 6 points of the Kings. This division (and even the league) is so tight that the cliche of “there are no easy games” is exactly the mentality that has to be instilled into the player’s minds. Detroit, Vancouver, Columbus, Edmonton, St. Louis, Minnesota and Anaheim currently are not in the playoffs as of today. That is how tough the West is.
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Well…Hawkings…I would be willing to bet that Edmonton, Minnesota and Anaheim won’t be in the playoffs come April either.
St. Loius, Columbus and Detroit could be, with Columbus the one out of that group that really needs to get their crap together.
Anaheim is simply put just not a very good team, and Minnesota just cannot score. Edmonton has more guys hurt than playing.
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M7, I do not disagree with anything you said, although as much as I hate the Sux, I would not count them out (and it would be great for hockey in California to have all 3 teams in the playoffs). I caught the last few minutes of the radio this morning and I think it was Butch Goring on XM radio who made the comment that there are 3 teams taking up playoff spots that were not really expected to be there, Kings, Avs and the Yotes. Who in the top 8 drop if any of the bottom 7 are going to get in?
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What they’re playing for is always ahead of them, so there’s no need to look behind and waste energy on what’s going on behind them. If the Kings remained focused on what they need to do and execute fairly effectively, at this point they can’t be written off from taking the division (as impractical as that may sound).
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HawKings,
From a marketing stand point, I hear what you are saying. I would love for the Kings, Sharks, Yotes and Ducks to be in the playoffs. That would be amazing and will raise so much more awareness for hockey.
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In this division a three game losing streak could potentially knock you out of the playoffs!
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running man -
Correcting for games played, one loss and you could drop from 4th to 10th.
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I dont think Phoenix will make the playoffs, and I dont think the Avs will either.
Taking their place will be Vancouver and Detroit.
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