The Kings don’t intend to make any changes on the defensive pairs tonight, meaning Drew Doughty will stay with Willie Mitchell, Jack Johnson with Rob Scuderi and Alec Martinez with Matt Greene. That was the look for the three previous games, and Doughty, in particular, seems to be enjoying a bit of a resurgence, although [...]
Archive of posts tagged Defensemen
The best offense includes some good defense(men)
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 [...]
Learning process for young defensemen
Yesterday, we talked about the development of young defensemen such as Davis Drewiske and Alec Martinez. It’s worth noting that the six current defensemen have an average age of 25.3. Even if you add 33-year-old Willie Mitchell into the mix, that only raises the average age to 26.4. Terry Murray was asked about the teaching [...]
Young defensemen show composure
On paper, it wasn’t the most obvious of moves. When defenseman Matt Greene returned to the lineup, the Kings chose to pair their two least-experience defensemen, Alec Martinez and Davis Drewiske, together. Drewiske, 26, has 90 games of NHL experience while Martinez, 23, has 19 games. So far, though, it has worked out well, particularly [...]
Greene, Mitchell updates
As posted earlier, the Kings are hopeful that Matt Greene will be cleared today to play, and that Greene will be able to return to the lineup for Sunday’s game against Anaheim. “He’s going to do his baseline testing here today, this afternoon, so he will be ready to go, post-holidays,” Terry Murray said of [...]
What to do on defense?
As discussed earlier, Willie Mitchell’s return to the Kings’ lineup is likely only a matter of days away, at which point — barring another injury between now and then — the Kings will be faced with a lineup choice. Which defenseman will Mitchell replace? The most obvious answer is either Alec Martinez or Peter Harrold, [...]
Harrold holding down a spot
For a third consecutive game, the Kings will go with a defensive pairing of Jack Johnson and Peter Harrold. Terry Murray is managing Harrold’s minutes carefully — Harrold has played fewer than 10 minutes in each of the last two games — and that pairing is unlikely to survive when Willie Mitchell returns, but for [...]
Call him Dr. Scuderi?
It has been suggested here, and elsewhere, that two of the Kings’ players — Michal Handzus and Rob Scuderi — seem to have teammate-elevating powers because of their strong, responsible veteran play. Forwards always seem to look better when they’re skating with Handzus, and same goes with defensemen and Scuderi. It’s no accident, and it’s [...]
Same look on defense
After today’s practice, Terry Murray said he intends to use the same defensive lineup against Calgary on Thursday that he used against Detroit on Saturday. That means Rob Scuderi paired with Drew Doughty, Peter Harrold paired with Jack Johnson and Alec Martinez paired with Matt Greene. That leaves Davis Drewiske on the outside looking in. [...]
