Kings’ success needs to start in circle

At the start of this series, the battle in the faceoff circle figured to be a good one, as both the Kings and San Jose Sharks ranked in the top 10 in the regular season in faceoff percentage. The Sharks ranked second, at 53.7 percent, while the Kings ranked 10th, at 51.1 percent. The Kings battled the Sharks to a 50-50 split in Game 1, but won only 40 percent in Game 2 and 39 percent in Game 3. The most startling number game in Game 3, when the usually reliable Michal Handzus went 1-for-15 on draws. After today’s skate, Terry Murray talked at length about the importance of faceoff wins against the Sharks…

MURRAY: “It’s more than talking. This is huge. This is a big, big thing. They’re a very good faceoff team. They do put pucks to the net and arrive quickly to try to get a faceoff. That is part of the strategy. They come across the center red line with a lot of speed and take a long shot to the net, in hopes that maybe there might be a fumble, there might be a loose puck that you have to freeze, when they come with a guy like Setoguchi. Vancouver does that, to get more faceoffs. What also now comes into play here is that we need to be better in the faceoff circle, not only in the win aspect, clean wins — which is a hard thing — but you’ve got to be on your toes with your defensemen, you’ve got to be on your toes with the forward that’s coming in to pick up some loose pucks that are lying around. The other thing that we need to be better at is, our center icemen have to have more patience. We’ve got to get our sticks down second at home. We’ve got to wait until they’re in position. I think we’re a little too eager to get in there right away and put our stick down first, and now they’re coming over top. When you get in second, you have the advantage. So we need to show that read, make a better decision as a group of center icemen, to come in later, make sure that they’re set and give yourself the edge. That’s all you need, is a little bit of an edge in some situations. Now, we can’t overreact though, whenever we come in. We got thrown out of the faceoff circle seven times last game. It ended up, actually, costing us the first goal. Richardson got thrown out. He was just a little too eager. He’s got to relax, show composure. Now we have to put Clifford in there because Williams can’t take the faceoff. We lose it and it’s in our net. So that’s our own fault, and we have to clean that up. We have to have a greater level of composure coming in, as those four center icemen, to get the job done the right way, and don’t overreact. Don’t put the pressure on the referee, on the linesman, to have to make the decision as to who is in and who is out.”