Schultz part of a kill that improved late in round two

Though Jeff Schultz had appeared in 399 regular season NHL games with the Washington Capitals, forgive the Kings if they weren’t a hundred percent sure if they knew what they were getting when he stepped into the lineup to replace Robyn Regehr, who hasn’t played since suffering an undisclosed injury in Game 1 of the Anaheim series.

The cool and composed Schultz, whose last NHL game came on March 31, 2013, has averaged 19:08 of ice time in the six games he’s spent as Slava Voynov’s defensive partner.

He has also averaged 2:56 of shorthanded ice time per game, a valuable contribution given that that Regehr and Willie Mitchell, who lead the Kings in that statistic, were unavailable for all but a small portion of Game 1 of the second round.

Schultz led Los Angeles with 5:14 of shorthanded ice time during the team’s perfect five-for-five penalty killing performance in a 2-1 Game 6 Kings win.

“Didn’t have to kill too many penalties, other than Game 6,” Darryl Sutter said. “I think what’s more important there, is we said if we killed all our penalties in Game 6 and 7 – I said it before Game 6 to our players – that we were going to win the series. It’s not just Jeff Schultz.”

Sutter is right – it’s never only one player responsible for any result or development within a game or a playoff series. Similar to the San Jose series, the penalty kill showed marked improvement as the second round series evolved.

“I think we’re just aware of who is on the ice and tried to take away their time and space coming up the ice in the neutral zone and have them force the dump and go back and retrieve it and get it down the ice and have them go back again,” Schultz said of the team’s shorthanded efforts.

Of the five power play goals scored by the Ducks in Games 2 through 7, Schultz, Voynov, Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez were on for two goals against, while Matt Greene and Jake Muzzin were on the ice for one goal.

The penalty kill wasn’t an issue at all in last year’s playoff series against Chicago as the Blackhawks were 1-14 with the man advantage. In the 2013-14 three-game season series, Chicago was 2-11.

Instead, these are two teams known for their outstanding possession habits and quality even strength play. The Kings led the NHL with a +11.1 Fenwick differential (Los Angeles averaged 11.1 more shots on goal plus missed shots than their opponents per 60 minutes), while the Blackhawks ranked second at +8.0.

Of course, that was the regular season, and circumstances were much different then than they are entering a third round playoff series.

“I just think the compete level and the intensity is just ramped up that much more compared to the regular season. You never say die,” Schultz said. “It showed in the last series and now we look ahead to this next one, but we can’t look too far ahead.”

Jeff Schultz, on whether this experience is enjoyable:
It is, yeah. It’s been a lot of fun the last six games. I never thought it was going to happen. But it just took to come in and help contribute and we’ll see how far we’ve gone so far. It puts a smile on my face.

Schultz, on playing for Darryl Sutter:
It’s been great so far. He really holds everybody accountable and he expects the most of everybody. He gets guys going before the game and just expects our best every night.

Schultz, on whether his Game 7 experience with Washington helped him yesterday:
Yeah, maybe a little bit. You kind of know what to expect with the crowd and stuff like that. It’s been a while since I’ve played in Game 7s, so there were a few nerves early on but got those out of the way.

Schultz, on whether Chicago is a fun place to play:
It is. I haven’t played there in a couple years. From what I remember, it’s a tough building but it’s a fun building probably in the playoffs.