Angeles Analysis – A Few Thoughts on NY + A Long Todd Quote

First off, Insiders, identify those legs!

This picture to me was hilarious and made me laugh this morning when looking for the cover photo for this article. Hopefully it adds a laugh to your day as well.

Last night was a weird game. In a lot of ways, it’s been a weird trip as we reach the final stop in Winnipeg.

I thought the Kings were quite good in both Minnesota and Long Island and everyone who was asked tended to agree on both nights. Todd McLellan put the New Jersey game into perspective pretty well the morning after – “I thought we played hard, we didn’t do a good job of having possession.” The Kings did play hard, they did some good things and they deserved the point they got, even if they’ll rue the manner in which they didn’t get the second one. It wasn’t a commanding game, though, even though the effort was good. Then there’s last night’s game in Manhattan Not So Beach. At times last night, the Kings were unlucky. At times, the Kings fell short. For all of the times when they were neither, in a good way, it just wasn’t enough to overcome the areas that went wrong.

How far away were the Kings from a result last night? What if the wonky deflection off Matt Roy’s stick goes wide? What if Artemi Panarin is called for tripping when his skate made contact with Pheonix Copley’s skate immediately prior to New York’s fourth goal, on which Copley was out of position due to the contact? What if Adrian Kempe’s shot off the post, which cleanly beat goaltender Igor Shesterkin, is an inch to the right? As Gordon Bombay once said, a quarter of an inch and he would have had it. As Charlie Conway then retorted, a quarter of an inch the other way and he would have missed completely. I dunno. Perhaps it doesn’t change the outcome. When you look at those key moments in the game, they all seemed to go the other way and more often than not, those are the games you lose.

McLellan is usually protective of his group in that he’ll acknowledge when a line was subpar or a segment of the team was subpar, but rarely will he do it in the media without having first had the conversation with the players themselves. It’s respected. We’ve also seen a response to criticism in the past and look no further than the fourth line from New Jersey to New York. McLellan was, again, critical of that unit last night, even though they had to log more difficult matchups than usual with the Rangers down to three lines for almost the entire evening.

You see and read the comments on who’s at fault, who’s to blame and the frustration is understandable, even if it’s perhaps unfairly shouted towards certain people. What’s the value of one game versus 5, 10 or 20? Clunkers in there for everyone, but being reactive to 60 minutes isn’t a long-term plan of success. When mistakes are made, there is accountability for that in the National Hockey League. The question is, how much weight does one night for any individual player, pairing or line carry against a larger run? How do you weigh the third defensive pairing’s month coming in, where they’ve controlled nearly 54 percent in shot attempts, more than 56 percent of scoring chances and exactly two-third of high-danger chances against a -3 evening? Or their play since the magical turnaround day in Buffalo in mid-December, where they rank in the NHL’s Top-10 amongst defensive pairings in fewest shots on goal against per/60? Last night wasn’t good enough for about a third of the roster in McLellan’s eyes and they’ll get a shot at turning it around tomorrow.

Wherever you’d like to place the blame, the reality of the situation is a record of 1-2-1 through four games of this road trip. The Kings have not been at or below .500 this season on a trip of longer than four games. Once before they entered that final game riding the line and the resulting performance was the 3-2 shootout win over Boston. Speaking a couple of weeks back, Kings General Manager Rob Blake was complementary of his team’s character on the final games of trips, highlighting the win over the Bruins and the point in Carolina. They’ll need more of that character tomorrow evening against a Winnipeg team that leads the Western Conference in home victories this season.

Wanted to finish with a quote from Todd McLellan from the other day. He was asked about how trade rumors in the hockey sphere can affect the psyche of a player or a team. His answer below –

I think that varies dramatically by situation. Rumors exist, there’s a lot of chatter. I don’t know what the media is going to do on March 4, I guess they’ll break the trades down, but by March 7th, they’ll be empty for a month. In any case, depending on the team situation and what the noise around them may be, it could be any day, it could be any moment. Certainly on trade deadline day, things are starting to happen in the league, there’s a buzz, players are watching. I think what’s forgotten in all of this is that we’re not trading marbles on the playground like we did when we were kids. We’re trading families and individuals that have little ones in school and players that have roots in communities and they’re going to another country. We often talk about it like they’re marbles and they just move from one pocket to the other and it’s no problem. I get it, it’s sport and it’s the industry, the business but there are a lot of other factors that come into play, that can affect the lives of many others. So, that is what players go through.

Trade Deadline circled on the calendar in T-Minus four days. We’ve seen the who, what and where of LA Kings links. We’ve also seen how quickly a move can come together from off the board. Tanner Jeannot was linked with Tampa Bay during the third period yesterday and was traded to the Lightning by the team was on the plane. Don’t think that was circling the rounds too often until yesterday. We also know that both McLellan and Blake have publically said they are comfortable with a group – on the ice and off the ice – that’s gone 18-8-3 since December 15, good for the best winning percentage in the Western Conference.

T-Minus four days!

Boots on the ground in Winnipeg, practice report from Canada Life Centre to follow later on today!