It is unbelievable how bad the offense is.
Tonight they were shut-out for the 7th time this season.
This comes from a combination of things;
- They only have 5 capable scorers; Kopitar, Frolov, O'Sullivan, Brown, and Stoll. When they put 3 on the same the line, their opponent simply puts their best defensive unit out against them. When they spread them out, the players they end up playing with are so bad they slow down and mess up the entire line.
- Coach Terry Murray preaches defense defense defense... in the old NHL, a system revolving around defense/trapping and just picking your spots on offense worked fine. But in the new NHL, not only do you need to be defensively responsible, but you also need to be fast, cycle the puck on offense, get creative in the offensive zone, etc. Terry Murray seems oblivious to this and only seems to care about defense. While this has resulted in improved defensive numbers for the Kings, it has also severely crippled their young players growth on offense; since they are so concerned with being defensively responsible, they aren't able to focus on putting the puck in the net.
- Coach Murray's other problem which gets on my nerves quite a bit is his constant fidgeting with lines. Not only are many of his line combinations annoyingly ineffective, but he never keeps them together for much more than a few shifts, let alone a few games. Of course situational line-altering is standard in the NHL, but on a team with so many young forwards, allowing them to gel and build chemistry with the same linemates is important. The constant musical chairs theme makes an already incapable offense even worse.
- Oscar Moller, the Kings most promising offensive prospect, left the Kings to play in the World Junior Championship. There he fractured his clavicle and thus can not return to the Kings. As if this offense could afford to lose one of its competent weapons?
The point to all this is just to let you fans outside of Los Angeles know a bit more about the Kings an why they've been so terrible of late. They have a road heavy schedule down the stretch; I wouldn't advise blindly fading them, but I'd at least keep my eyes open on their games for decent numbers on the other side.
Also, keep your eyes open for good numbers on the UNDER. As I said, they play defense first hockey; and Ersberg and Quick are two fairly capable young goaltenders. Getting Jack Johnson back in a few weeks is going to make the defense even better. If they don't make some moves to shore up the offense (and I don't believe they will), look for lots of low scoring games down the stretch.
Hope someone finds this interesting
Tonight they were shut-out for the 7th time this season.
This comes from a combination of things;
- They only have 5 capable scorers; Kopitar, Frolov, O'Sullivan, Brown, and Stoll. When they put 3 on the same the line, their opponent simply puts their best defensive unit out against them. When they spread them out, the players they end up playing with are so bad they slow down and mess up the entire line.
- Coach Terry Murray preaches defense defense defense... in the old NHL, a system revolving around defense/trapping and just picking your spots on offense worked fine. But in the new NHL, not only do you need to be defensively responsible, but you also need to be fast, cycle the puck on offense, get creative in the offensive zone, etc. Terry Murray seems oblivious to this and only seems to care about defense. While this has resulted in improved defensive numbers for the Kings, it has also severely crippled their young players growth on offense; since they are so concerned with being defensively responsible, they aren't able to focus on putting the puck in the net.
- Coach Murray's other problem which gets on my nerves quite a bit is his constant fidgeting with lines. Not only are many of his line combinations annoyingly ineffective, but he never keeps them together for much more than a few shifts, let alone a few games. Of course situational line-altering is standard in the NHL, but on a team with so many young forwards, allowing them to gel and build chemistry with the same linemates is important. The constant musical chairs theme makes an already incapable offense even worse.
- Oscar Moller, the Kings most promising offensive prospect, left the Kings to play in the World Junior Championship. There he fractured his clavicle and thus can not return to the Kings. As if this offense could afford to lose one of its competent weapons?
The point to all this is just to let you fans outside of Los Angeles know a bit more about the Kings an why they've been so terrible of late. They have a road heavy schedule down the stretch; I wouldn't advise blindly fading them, but I'd at least keep my eyes open on their games for decent numbers on the other side.
Also, keep your eyes open for good numbers on the UNDER. As I said, they play defense first hockey; and Ersberg and Quick are two fairly capable young goaltenders. Getting Jack Johnson back in a few weeks is going to make the defense even better. If they don't make some moves to shore up the offense (and I don't believe they will), look for lots of low scoring games down the stretch.
Hope someone finds this interesting