The Kings are 3-for-11 on the power play in their last three games, a good success percentage and a clear improvement over their previous 0-for-10 skid. A change was made to player positioning in the offensive zone, but it hasn’t been a complete panacea. The Kings look more effective once they get set up in the zone, but often have trouble getting control in the zone. Terry Murray talked about the need to further improve the power play…
MURRAY: “It seems to me that we’re having a little concern with the entries now. The puck recovery is not as clean. Our playmaking, coming through the middle of the ice, seems to get disrupted now. The opportunities to set up are just not quite the same. The other part of it, earlier, we had great breakouts, setups, but then we were not having that net presence and shot mentality. There’s always an issues in special teams that you have to correct. The first one (against Dallas), when Doughty scored, everything went well. The puck is chipped in. Poni recovers the puck with his body, protects the puck and gets it back up top and we make the play and then he screens the goaltender. That’s the way you diagram it and want it to happen, but it doesn’t work that way all the time.”
It seems there should be an advantage to having two different power play teams with two different strategies, anyway. This is because the opposing penalty kill has to scout both strategies, but the players on each power play team only have to study one.
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Bill M. Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, Not to mention it forces the PK to be constantly aware of WHICH power play they are facing…
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BobKnob Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?,
As long as that strategy isn’t the old one.
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Anybody watching the HAWK=SHARK game??? 1-0 Sharks
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Interesting tidbit, TM changes up the PP from JK’s system to his system, and the Kings score a PP goal in each of the last 3 games. Good Job TM, but what took you so long?
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Scot Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 12:55 am
@CB14,
Yep. Soooo, Jamie Kompon does what now these days? Brings TM his coffee to the morning skate? And a toasted bagel?
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Can we have JJ shoot more?
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We need to ride Martinez’s hot hand. JJ should be looking to be the feed-man because he’s doing great on his assists and not doing much with his booming shot from the point as of late. Match JJ with either Marti or DD on either/both lines and let those kids work from the top. Smyth’s been really slow and at times lost as of late and needs to dig deep to bring but his chemistry with Stolly. Stolly’s been awesome on the faceoffs but just cant seem to get his shot from the point past anything or even on net sometimes. All teams just wait for us to feed it past up to the point on the PP, we dont cause an inside threat or ever even make runs to the middle for one-timers. 90% of our shots are taken from the point and usually get deflected off of someones (Both ours or theirs) skates or sticks. The saddest disappointment is watching JJ and DD getting the puck at the point for a primetime shot and then just passing it without checking if the shot was ever there. We’re a solid team and I’m not worried, because come playoff time, they’ll have taken so much heat about the PP the boys will force the system to work (Like last years PO against Vancouver).
Go Kings Go!!!
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GirlyKingsFan1986 Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
@TheRussianKing,
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
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BobKnob Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
@TheRussianKing,
You probably didn’t notice but they made some changes to the PP the last 3 games and it’s been giving us better puck possession and movement, more open space and time and space with the puck, and more open point shots, and we still have a man parked out in front. The shots are often closer in as well since we are actually running an umbrella formation (unlike before where I think they were calling it that but it didn’t actually resemble one) with 1 high point guy and two lower side point shots.
We could probably do well to mix it up a little with some down low plays isolating one of the D.
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Fact: The kings are nearly undefeatable when Kopi scores.
We need 6 wins to reach 95 points.
Kopi needs 6 goals to reach 30.
Coincidence? I say it’s fate.
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Kostamojen Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
@Bill M., The math looks right, and I think 95 points will get you the 7th or 8th spot this season. Honestly, I’m hoping for at least a 99 point season and the 3rd-5th seed.
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LA KING BOBchi Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
@Kostamojen, Ya at least 99. It would be good to get to or beat last years 101.
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hip-check Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
@Kostamojen, I predict 103 points….
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KC23 Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 6:09 am
@hip-check, Exactly my prediction as well. 103 points and a 4th or 5th sead. If Dallas beats SJ tomorrow and we beat the Preds that will change things though. I have a bad feeling about the Preds game though. I’m getting that same feeling I got before the Isles game when I predicted we would lose, but then again that was pre-Penner.
xeropoint Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
@Bill M., Sounds doable, on both fronts.
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The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem.
Think the coaches meeting a week ago may have gone some thing like this.
TM says: “Jamie the Kings PP is 19th in the NHL.”
Jamie Kompon says: “Hi, My Name is Jamie Kompon and my PP is 19th in the NHL and I definantely have a problem.”
All Coaches say: “Hi Jamie”
TM says: “Now lets have some ideas from everyone on how to fix this.”
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Slim Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
@luc20rules, One penalty at a time..
Let go and let goal..
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Dominick Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
@luc20rules,
LOL That was funny! I think Kompon needs a 12 step program on how to stop bad power play addictions.
step 1: admit you have a problem.
step 2: acknowlege that you are powerless to stop diagraming low to high plays.
step 3: It’s the same distance side to side as it is low to high.
step 4: variety keeps the other team from figuring out your going low to high, before you go low to high.
step 5: if you use the middle of the ice for 1 timers, low to high is more effective once the 4 man box collapses in the middle.
step 6: low to high has no backdoor.
step 7: you can use shot passes on low to high for deflections on the weekside, or the middle.
step 8: low to high is more effective if the PK actually thinks your going to make a play down low(see #4).
step 9: Nobody else uses low to high as their only plan of attack on the power play(again see #4) behind the net is another place you can set up from.
step 10: if you only get the bombs from the point the PK will continually block the shooting lanes.
step 11: read the Blog. when a simple minded blogger named Dominick from lakingsinsider.com can figure it out, that’s the signal that proffesional teams in the NHL already figured it out a month ago.
Step 12: when all else fails let TM take over.
I think he skipped 1 thru 11.
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kinginsaltlake Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 3:54 am
@Dominick, Dom, that was a good early morning read. Some of your steps are way off any 12 step program an addict might need, but for the Kings it’s perfect. Step 11 might just work. LOL
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BobKnob Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
@Dominick,
good post, nice analysis!
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How many points will it take to make the playoofs in the Western Conference? I say 97
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Doesn’t matter to me if you’re the #1 PP in the league every PK unit is going to make entry into the zone difficult. You just have to find creative ways to get into the zone to where you can control the puck more. Every PP opportunity isn’t going to score a goal but getting 1-5 or 2-7 is a helluva lot better than going something stupid like 0-15 or whatever their last string was.
PP is starting to produce now just need to figure out different ways to enter the zone effectively.
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If entries are a problem, why not shoot a lazy shot at the goalie and in the meantime another forward beats cheeks to force the goalie to hold on for a whistle. Now you have entry and we just need to win the faceoff
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Dominick Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 6:39 am
@xrtfan,
That is already a strategy the Kings use alot. Probably one of the better teams in the league at dumping it in on the goalie and forcing the faceoff.
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JB Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 10:19 am
@Dominick, And any other team w/ a halfway decent goalie has figured that out so goalie plays the puck staright to his D man or an easy space in the corner for him to quickly clear.
Problem with these “gimick” plays is they can be easily handled when recognized. For example the old drop pass in the neutral zone is another one where if you recognize that the PP quarter back, say in our case Kopitar or Stoll is hanging back you know they’re going to try and droppass the puck. So you just need to disrupt that pass a little bit and you throw off the whole timing of the other players. And if you force them to dump the puck all his teammates had to slow down at blue line because they were planning on the guy getting the drop pass to carry the puck in.
Basically there is no substitute for good ol grinding it out along the boards and winning the puck.
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PP is “movement, movement, movement…. gotta skate…change position. Have you noticed when the Kings often play “catch” with each other during PP, opposing teams are all to glad to let the clock tic.
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I think we’ve always been not that good at zone entry, it doesn’t matter if it’s power play or 5v5. We very rarely break into the zone with the puck on our stick with the D backing down and an opportunity to get a shot (with a screen from the D’s legs) off, or drive to the net. It normally only happens if we catch the other team with their pants down.
Usually we are getting stood up at the blue line with most of the opponents getting back. It’s like they are waiting for us.
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BobKnob Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
@BobKnob,
The last comment applies to 5v5 as mot PK’s are setup like that against everyone.
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