The Kings broke out of their scoring drought with four goals Saturday, in large part because of contributions from the blue line. Of the four goals and six assists the Kings totaled, four of the 10 points went to defensemen, including goals by Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez. That was highest total for defense scoring in seven games, since the Kings got five points from their defensemen in a Jan. 8 game against Columbus. That also doesn’t take into account the Kings’ first goal, a play that was started when Matt Greene picked off a pass in the neutral zone and helped start a 2-on-0 break. Before Saturday’s game, the Kings had only one point from a defenseman in their previous three games, and today, Terry Murray talked about the importance of getting production from the blue line.
MURRAY: “That’s really where you have to come to, today, with the way the teams play on the structure, in their home-plate attitude. You’ve got five (players) down tight. There’s not a lot of room to make plays. Unless something good is happening off the rush, or you get second options off of rebounds, now you recover pucks, you get your feet moving, you open something up, and that’s where those low plays develop. But the original puck-possession plays, most times, need to go low-to-high, get it to the net. Maybe great players can make something happen from low, but it’s a hard thing today.”
In discussing Doughty and Jack Johnson, and their ability to impact the Kings’ offense on the back end, Murray also brought up San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle.
MURRAY: “I had him for a while in Florida. He’s excellent at finding that open ice away from the puck, as a defenseman. I use that word — rover — often when talking about San Jose and his game. So to me, that defenseman, who has the mobility, the hockey awareness, the ability to get in and out, and not hang out in there but get in and out and find the seems, you can be a rover kind of a player and be very, very effective at it.”
Motivation, much?
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=350895
The Bruins are ranked #1 @ tsn…
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Paul G Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
@BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy, Power Rankings don’t mean much…if they did they would be the same order as the standings…winning games is all that counts…2 points > good power ranking
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RabidZiggy Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
@BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy, How the heck are we doing so bad and yet ranked 10th?! Crazy power rankings…
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BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
@RabidZiggy,
In a word? Yes.
Motivation? Hopefully…
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if they didn’t I’d think we would have to give Slava (aka Voynov) a call
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So much for those that thought Murray insists only on dump-and-chase…here he effectively approves the rover, and even though we have seen much more of the defensemen activating in the last 3 games, I wonder if the same green light was there earlier in the season. I mean, is Murray preaching the same as all year, or is this new now, or is it a matter of degrees that he has allowed the game to open up more often?
And what about that whole thing with Johnson being a “rover” from the Michigan style and needing to learn structure, as Dean Lombardi was quoted saying in that supposedly huge dust-up that wasn’t? You know, the one that was gonna make Jack mad and cause him to be a contract problem…
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Dominick Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
@Player-X, You pegged it. It’s recent. I wouldn’t mind the rover, but more on the weakside looking for onetimers. I would like to see the D patrol the up and down the lane and alternate with the forward to find open seams in the 4 man box. It would also create more movement away from the puck.
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Player-X Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
@Dominick, Good stuff Dominick. When you say to find open seams in the 4-man box, you mean power play, right? Doughty has been doing a lot of that recently, not exactly switching, but Doughty rotates to the half-boards and stays there a while, while the weak side forward rotates into the umbrella look until Doughty goes back to point. Like Doughty and Kopi trade turns being either point or half-board guy.
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wavesinair Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
@Player-X, It’s new. Murray has opened it up now. Remember, he was trying to find that magic fit on the LW and then Sturm came. Not to mention pairing (hancuffing) DD and JJ together…can’t have both guys moving the puck when paired! Then there’s the Poni poop out and the mercurial Mitchell who was needed to stabilize the D. The offense has suffered because of all this on top of the stale system.
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Player-X Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
@wavesinair, I agree about the lack of personnel and the disappointment from Poni and Sturm…and I also think, though, that Murray looked at the projected goal totals and knew what he was in for. Does he really want to play an open game all night long against all teams? Not if you can’t score…I guess I am semi-defending his early season style, in a way, in that if he gets in a shooting contest by playing just run-and-gun he won’t be able to match firepower. And then comes the playoffs, where you have to be able to win the one-goal tight-checking game. Maybe learning the D first as they did last year, then tweaking it to open up the game like this year, is why the Kings have been unable to stop those quick answer-back goals against. The Kings can score, but not defend. When they can defend, they can’t score. I think the transition between the two, or being able to adjust styles in-game, has really been a big problem this year.
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