-The decision to start Jonathan Quick over Jonathan Bernier was the appropriate one. While Sutter spoke of riding the hot goalie, he also said “got to get them both sharp, simple,” and Sunday’s performance was a confident step in that direction for Quick. Considering the youth of the defense in front of him, and that the Kings were playing the league’s second best offense, a 34-save performance on 37 shots in holding the Blackhawks below their average goal output depicts an encouraging presentation in net. Los Angeles’ goaltending has solidified over the past week. You’re setting yourself up for the unknown when you start predicting lineups games in advance, but I expect Quick to start in Edmonton and Bernier to start in Calgary. This balance and competition in net appears to be good for both Jonathans.
-The absence of Willie Mitchell and Matt Greene was felt most on Chicago’s second goal. Before Jonathan Toews’ tap-in, there was an ongoing battle for space between Davis Drewiske and Andrew Shaw in front of Quick. Shaw won that battle, and by the time the puck got down low, Drewiske was in a spot on the ice where he wasn’t able to assist Quick or Scuderi, who was battling Toews for the puck. Shaw offered terrific net-front presence for someone listed at 5’10 and 180 pounds.
-Before leaving for Chicago, Sutter said of the Blackhawks that “they’re not on a different planet than us”. Fair. I’ll even argue that the two are in the same state. But if Chicago was Mt. Whitney, L.A. was the Palos Verdes Hills. The Blackhawks appeared to be on a power play for the first 20 to 30 minutes of yesterday’s game, and by the time the Kings registered their first Grade-A scoring chance, they were already down 3-0. That said, the third period was an encouraging step forward for L.A. – not that you’ll find anyone on a 5-6-2 team satisfied with that silver lining. The power play has goals in seven of the last nine games, a 9-for-37 (24.3%) stretch that can partly be credited by the movement of Mike Richards back to the point. The goaltending has regained consistency, the power play has awakened, the Kings still limit their opponents to the second-fewest shots in the league and have been strong on possession. This is a team making the correct adjustments and dealing with key injuries on defense as best as it can, even if it didn’t show for the majority of Sunday’s game. Should the Kings beat Edmonton and Calgary for a 2-1-0 stretch away from Staples Center, this would be a successful trip. So, no, they’re not the Blackhawks at this point, but L.A.’s game is trending more towards the Sierra Nevada range than Death Valley.
Our D is the major issue right now, they need to keep it simple, period……
Our F need to finish, but what can they do as each time over the boards its new linemates, and who is directing traffic, sorry DS……..
Look no further right now……..
-yes he brought the cup to LA
-yes he’s a good coach
-yes guys like him
-yes he’s likeable
**but, you cannot play the game this way and have players preforming with trust and creativity.
Bottom Line, like it or lump it…….
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I trust DS to do what is necessary. The players, maybe not so much.
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I listened to the first period and the first 5 minutes of the second. I didn’t turn the game on again until after I saw the Kings score a goal. It sucks to say it, but if the Kings aren’t going to pay attention to the game, why should I?
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Jon, interesting choice using the highest and the lowest points in the continental US. Considering that Mt. Whitney is only 76 miles from Death Valley only serves as a reminder of those great words uttered by David St. Hubbins: “There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”
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neil Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 9:31 am
@Michael J., or fine line between winning the Cup or missing the playoffs…..
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devilmachine Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 3:31 pm
@Michael J., I felt myself using an English accent rather easily while reading your post. hmm. hopefully the Kings aren’t asking “where’s the stage?” by the end of the regular season!
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Duncanz Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
@Michael J., Not only in the lower 48, but did you know also in California?!
Ironically, I found myself contemplating this very phrase while standing in Badwater looking hopelessly up at Mt Whitney.
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I like your encouraging words, Jon. It’s about the big picture overall and it won’t help to dwell on the negatives.
And staying on that positive note, what goes up must come down (ie: Blackhawks in this case) and the Kings can only improve from here. The heart and soul is missing from the team but they’re making it work as best they can. They have the talent and capabilities to be one of the best teams in the league. They just need to remember that and play with the confidence of being a SC champion.
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I’ve said it time and time again on this blog. Good defense begets good offense. Or how Magic Johnson said “showtime” was all about defense. Until the Kings defensive house is in order, this team will continue to flounder. And I’m not just talking about defensemen. This includes every aspect of defensive play, goaltending, forecheck and backcheck.
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yetiman_oc Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 9:39 am
@Cav Pilot, i don’t disagree with you but why then did the kings have the same offensive results for much of the season last year. they had one of the top defenses all last year and still struggled to score goals with the same basic core players.
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Cav Pilot Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
@yetiman_oc, Yep, you gotta finish or its all for naught.
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Nevermind Davis. The fact Scuderi couldn’t make contact with the puck to knock it away when it was right on his stick was baffling.
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The biggest difference I see this year is our inability to move the puck out of the zone, which is understandable wth all the D changes. The second is that we are trying to carry the puck over the line and be fancy with it in the O zone. Last year we were awesome at getting it deep. Last night we couldn’t get our forecheck going for most of the game. This offensive personnel will only be successful with lots of posession.
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Just wanted to say R.I.P. to former Kings owner Dr. Jerry Buss. Probably the best owner in the history of sports with what he did with the Lakers.
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BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 10:00 am
@Kopi Bryant,
Can’t agree with that more…
–Great loss for the City of Los Angeles.
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puck73 Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 10:06 am
@Kopi Bryant, He will be greatly missed Kopi.
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I could NOT disagree more! If you look at the goals scored Quick was swimming on two of them. He is trying to hard and trying to do too much. That is obvisous to anyone paying attention to the game. It is like Jack Johnson when he was here. He wanted to be the #1 guy so bad that he tried to make the spectacular play rather than just wait and react.
That is what Quick is doing right now. Putting a goalie that is OBVISOUSLY struggling in against the best offense in the league was a mistake! Everyone makes them, and I love Sutter’s coaching style, but this one was an error!! Plain and simple!!!
For now Bernier has got to play and Quick will learn from his calm and steady style.
I am not saying that Quick was the only problem, but he is the one that is most glaring right now. Any goalie would have had to steal that game for us, we got outplayed for the 1st half of the game. What is encouraging is that we picked it up and almost tied the game dispite being outplayed by a WIDE margin in the 1st half of the game.
What is also obvious is that we need Mitchell and Green back. I love Voynov’s game he is great at what his game is. But his game isn’t battlling bigger forwards in front of the net on powerplays! The goal that Toews scored was due to Voynov having to be out when he isn’t normally out.
Injuries are also a factor with 3 of our top 6 defensmen out.
So Bernier has got to play the majority of the games till Mr. Conn Smythe gets his game back to normal.
Out!
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Bingram Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 11:14 am
@cetericeman,
I would add, the team needs to be ready to play from the opening face-off.
Get it together boys,
Go Kings, go!
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Doughty's deciple Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 11:26 am
@cetericeman, I see what your saying but not to be mean I disagree,the question is this,why in the 2 games Bernier played we literally played almost totally mistake free,shutdown hockey? And as soon as Quick plays,all the sudden it’s a frickin’ firing squad on Quick? Not to mention all the mistakes and penalties they were committing yesterday putting more pressure on the goalie why? Because now the other team (being the #1 offensive team in the NHL) is on the power play! Which this is not the first time Quick has had to endure this kind of play by the guys in front of him this year. It’s ridiculous. Quick saw 37 shots yesterday. Bernier has seen what slightly over 40 in 2 full games? Again it’s the difference in the play of the guys in front of the goalies. Has Quick struggled or had some bad games this season yep absolutely and last time I checked that’s gonna happen,however the guys in front have to help him out too. Oh and 1 of those goals shouldn’t have counted(the one where Quicks stick was pushed farther away from him by the Chicago player,that was a penalty that wasn’t called. So technically how does the game end when it’s only 2-2? We’ll never know
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phil sykes Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 3:33 pm
@cetericeman, yea i disagree with jon rosen as well ……. quick too agressive and the net is wide open for easy tap ins …. it was no different last game ….quicks game is better suited to a strong defensive and stable team – like we have had the last 3 years
right now hes getting exposed with all the inexperienced dmen in the lineup ……. and teams are properly scouting and gameplanning how to beat quick … lure him out … backwall bankshots , passes off to the side , point shots that are deflected off line or rebound off line – boom …. empty net tap in everytime …… looked to me the blackhawks knew exactly what they were doing in exposing him …… the oilers and avalanche earlier this year as well
he needs to change his style and backup while we have all this inexperience in the lineup
next year when we have all the vets back then he go back to being the agressive quick and he will be great again like he has been these past 3 years ……….. but right now – he needs to change
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kissmyblarneystones Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
@cetericeman,
If you were in deed paying attention to the game, then you would have noticed that someone on the Blackhawks kicked Quicks stick away just before the first goal, and Kopi was standing on it while the second goal was scored. It’s hard to defend goal without a stick, no?
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cetericeman Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 5:38 pm
@kissmyblarneystones, Yes I did notice, did you expect Chicago to just give the conn smythe winner a shinning clean crease? The reason that quick was without his stick is that he was being over aggressive with it and it got knocked out of his hand.
Again, it obviously isn’t permanent.
Just right now he isn’t getting the job done. And in a short season as we have we can’t allow points to slip away when there is a chance to win.
And a struggling goalie isn’t the best option against a team like Chicago was playing sunday.
Goalies pratice without a stick play regularly. It isn’t like Quick has never played a short time without a stick.
I ask you, does he need his stick to stay on his feet? I will assume your answer to be no?
My point is that he is swimming around like a bass, and he needs to get his game back to what it was just 6 short months ago.
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Doughty's disciple Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 5:06 pm
@cetericeman, I see what your saying but not to be mean I disagree,the question is this,why in the 2 games Bernier played we literally played almost totally mistake free,shutdown hockey? And as soon as Quick plays,all the sudden it’s a frickin’ firing squad on Quick? Not to mention all the mistakes and penalties they were committing yesterday putting more pressure on the goalie why? Because now the other team (being the #1 offensive team in the NHL) is on the power play! Which this is not the first time Quick has had to endure this kind of play by the guys in front of him this year. It’s ridiculous. Quick saw 37 shots yesterday. Bernier has seen what slightly over 40 in 2 full games? Again it’s the difference in the play of the guys in front of the goalies. Has Quick struggled or had some bad games this season yep absolutely and last time I checked that’s gonna happen,however the guys in front have to help him out too. Oh and 1 of those goals shouldn’t have counted(the one where Quicks stick was pushed farther away from him by the Chicago player,that was a penalty that wasn’t called. So technically how does the game end when it’s only 2-2? We’ll never know
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cetericeman Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 5:32 pm
@Doughty’s disciple, As I said it wasn’t all Quick, but the goals that went in were in the net with quick sprawled on his face. Did we play real well in front of him, NO.
But that is immaterial. In fact a goalie when the other team is dominating needs to take less chances and stay on his feet and be square to the shooter. Quick didn’t do this in that game and has done the same in other games as well.
If you have played hockey before you know that the goalie is esential to the teams calm and cool play. If the team in front of the goalie sees that he isn’t playing calm and cool then they are trying harder and feeling that they have to block shots or make the great play because they can’t allow shots on goal.
When Bernier is in his attitude passes along to the team, calm and collected.
I grant you that Bernier had lesser oppoents and I am not here to say that this type of change is permanent. Quick is the conn smythe winner.
Just in my humble opionion he isn’t on his game and needs to watch a little hockey from the bench until such time as his game is back in order.
And again IMHO putting a struggling Quick in against a team that is hitting on all cyinders was a big mistake!
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phil sykes Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 5:39 pm
@cetericeman, if he would only back up a foot or two … problem solved .. but i doubt he will …. so will continue to be a problem until we get our great veterans back
In hindsight wonder if we could’ve gotten a defender for Westy?
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One goaltender each Alberta game…don’t care which.
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whoa there jon rosen ….. i think your doing the best job ever on this blog ….. but lets not put the cart before the horse ……. i know u said ” should they win the next 2 games ” ….. but thats still getting way ahead of ourselves ….. considering the way they are playing , lets take it one shift at a time before we start talking about a successful road trip
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phil sykes Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 3:49 pm
@phil sykes, i mean to borrow your terms ……… there game is trending alot more towards death valley than lone pine in my opinion … yes 2 wins in canada could hopefully be a start in changing that , but again , lets wait and see
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Waking up with the Kings would imply the Kings have woken up. They clearly haven’t But they better wake up soon or they’ll miss the playoffs.
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