On Day 2 of the Kings’ winter break, how did things go for them? We’ll continue to look at the games involving Western Conference teams, and how they impact the Kings. Of course, when it’s West vs. West, it’s more subjective, but I’ll tried to determine which result would be “better” for the Kings. Here’s a look at Saturday’s games…
Dallas 4, Detroit 3: Win. Yes, Dallas is a division rival of the Kings, but Detroit’s victory would have pulled the Wings within four points of the Kings. Now, both teams are six points behind the Kings.
Nashville 5, Calgary 3: Loss. Either Calgary or Colorado was still going to be ahead of the Kings, by virtue of being in first place in the division. With its victory, Nashville jumped the Kings for fourth place in the West.
Anaheim 4, Phoenix 2: Win. With a win, the Coyotes could have pulled within one point of the Kings, with one game in hand. The Ducks are still 12 points behind the Kings.
Ottawa 4, Minneosota 1: Win. East beats West in regulation.
Colorado 5, Columbus 2: Loss. Almost a tie, but a Blue Jackets win would have been better for the Kings since they’re still 12 points ahead of Columbus.
Washington 4, Edmonton 2: Win. East beats West in regulation.
So, after two days, I’m putting the Kings’ “record” at 5-3-0. Today, it’s Detroit at Chicago and St. Louis at Vancouver. Going in, I’d say the Kings want regulation wins from Chicago and St. Louis.
So here’s today’s “estimate” of what the top ten teams in the standings could look like on the morning of Dec 26. It is calculated based on teams winning an average of 1.3 points per road game and 1.6 points per home game, while the Kings don’t play at all.
Pos Team Games Pts
1 Chicago 36 52
2 San Jose 37 50
3 Colorado 39 49
4 Nashville 37 48
5 Los Angeles 37 47
6 Phoenix 38 47
7 Calgary 36 46
8 Detroit 37 44
9 Dallas 37 44
10 Vancouver 37 43
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Thanks for pulling this together Rich!
What’s the King’s practice schedule this week look like. I was thinking about taking my son to watch practice since he’s out of school right now.
Thanks for everything that you do and enjoy the holidays.
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how come no practice today?
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The Kings will be on the ice in El Segundo tomorrow at 10 a.m., and also Tuesday and Wednesday (probably at 10 a.m., but I haven’t confirmed that). Terry Murray announced a few days ago that the Kings wouldn’t practice on Sunday:
http://lakingsinsider.com/?p=2496
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love the theories, rich…!
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Good stuff! I like hearing different reasoning for preferred wins and losses.
Colorado 5, Columbus 2: This should be a tie! (at the very least, not a loss)
As you noted with the Calgary loss, “Either Calgary or Colorado was still going to be ahead of the Kings, by virtue of being in first place in the division.” Therefore, it doesn’t effect the Kings during this particular stretch of games.
Right?
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Greetings Rich,
Thanks for your work here.
Does the movement of all of the youngsters back to Manchester possibly signal a trade during this long break? I heard that the Kings are interested in a move on Hockey Night in Canada and I know that those players are not a cap hit when they are sent back down there. I am very surprised Parse went back; I thought he was up for good.
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Its all about controlling your own destiny.
We shouldn’t worry about division leaders at this time of year since it really doesn’t mean anything yet. Since the conference is soooooo close points-wise, and there will probably be more than one team tied at the end, I think a better focus would be on the number of Wins/Games Played. The assumption about division games being more important only matters when there are more games left against a division opponent than other teams in the conference. As of right now (excluding Anaheim in last place), Colorado is the main concern with 4 games left against the Kings, followed by Nashville,Detroit,Dallas & San Jose with 3. So your analysis of the Nashville game is slightly off…
We didn’t want Nashville due to their number of wins/gm played. We didn’t want Calgary because we have fewer games left with them. But, because we have 2 more games left with Nashville we have 2 more chances to make up 2 points on them, so that result was actually a better result. The lesser of 2 bad choices, but its close.
The rest of your analysis is fine, but actually the Dallas win is good for us because they have so few wins/games played. Now, Detroit has fewer chances to get more wins by the end of the year. Also, since we have 3 games left with each of them, its a better result.
Thinking of the whole entire year (not just where we stand now), I think that the Kings should always hope the team with less wins/games played beats a team with more wins/games played. And that teams we’ve played more games against lose to teams we have more games left with. So that as the year goes on our chances of improving on anybody ahead of/behind us would be greater. Thinking about improving in the standings on a day-to-day basis is good for the players, but as a fan I want the team to have the best shot to be in the top 8 at the end of the year as opposed to the best shot at being in the top 8 now.
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@Mark
I was surprised by the Parse move too. Thought he did more than enough to stay with the team and get that time off.
Manchester note:
-All 4 players who were sent down scored the only points in the game last night (Moller, Parse: Goals – Elkins, Martinez: assists).
-Last nights’ game was the last before xmas. No more games until, yep, Dec. 26 (same as the Kings).
-Bernier recorded a shutout.
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Rich, what do you know about this?
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=303092
Kings sign Jacob Muzzin? a former first round pick
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OOPS not a first rounder, but the Penguins drafted him in 2007
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@ Mark & wavesinair
i think rich mentioned it or a blogger but we all figure that it would be best for the younger players to get a few extra games in with the monarchs. im sure that we will see parse and maybe someone else be called up again to come back up after the christmas break.
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@Doughtys_Teeth
Not that it matters, but for the record, of the 4 sent down to Manchester, Parse is the oldest at 25.
There are currently 9 players on the Kings that are 25 and under, including the captain of the team (Brown 25).
Parse is hardly one of the “younger” players so the age argument for extra playing time just doesn’t fly.
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I agree with everything other than Calgary losing to Nashville being a loss. An OT or SO (i.e. 3 point game) would have been a loss. The Kings are competing with both of these teams, so as long as one of them gets zero points out of it, that’s a win for the Kings.
Re Parse: obviously he’ll be recalled on the 26th.
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re: “obviously”
who are you? dustin brown?
the move makes me think it isn’t obvious at all he’ll be recalled right away. makes me think there’s a question mark there.
you’re probably right though…
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Hey Rich, cool idea to do this. I’m always trying to figure it out. Now you’re doing it for us. Merci.
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RE: wavesinair
i didnt know parse was that old. well notold but you know what i mean. then im guess maybe since his first start or at least i believe first start in the nhl that they just wanted to give some of the guys back to manchester since weve taken so many of their players. and its always good to play a few more games just to keep up play. i agree though parse has played great! im sure he will be called back up to the kings come practice time.
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