Blown Call or Blown 40 minutes of Hockey?

Aside from the LA Kings twitter account allowing Kevin Ryder, of the KROQ morning radio show Kevin and Bean, to take over the account for the second period last night and all of the "controversy" that followed, there was a hockey game going on too.

The Sharks ended up tying the series with another home-ice win. I, at least, expected the Sharks to take at least one game at home seeing how they've only lost in their home arena twice this year.

The referees are getting a lot of attention this series for their calls causing; a Kings 5on3 powerplay that ended up winning Game 2 for the Kings, A Sharks 5on3 powerplay that led to the Sharks winning Game 3, and a quick whistle freezing play that would have otherwise resulted in a Kings goal that eded up being the difference in the final score.

You can moan and groan about how Tuesday night's game should have gone into overtime, but it really shouldn't have. The Kings only played 20-25 minutes of good hockey.

Look:

The shots were even 23-23 at the end of the game. The Kings had 9 shots through the first and second periods. The Sharks had 2 shots in the 3rd period. The Kings out hit the Sharks 53-36, granted the Kings barely had the puck for the first period and registered many of those hits then. But, the Sharks faced a similar situation in the third and the Kings still out hit them.

Imagine if the Kings had played the entire game, or even just two periods, the way they played in the third.

Not to discredit what the Sharks did these past two games. Especially last night, they came out flying, looking like they wanted to win. The Kings on the other hand, looked like they didn't want it.

No forecheck. Losing 50/50 puck battles. Essentially zero offensive zone time. It sure didn't look like the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings (no I never get tired of typing/saying that phrase).

Additionally; Jeff Carter isn't scoring, the Kopitar-Brown-Williams line is being shut down.

#PlayoffMartinez Update:

Once again, Alec Martinez was NOT in the Kings lineup and once again the Kings lost. 0-4 without Martinez. 6-0 with. If you're thinking, "Come on, enough with the Alec Martinez stuff. The Kings would have lost both those games anyway," I have news for you; I'm not the only person who feels this way about Martinez. Let's take to twitter.

Obviously, Alec Martinez was the problem.
— The Royal Half (@theroyalhalf) May 22, 2013

I wonder when Darryl Sutter will notice that scratching Alec Martinez correlates with the Kings playing horribly.
— Driving Play (@DrivingPlay) May 19, 2013

After Jake Muzzin missed a point blank, wide-open net scoring opportunity...

Alec Martinez would've scored that.
— PumperNicholl (@PumperNicholl) May 22, 2013

SO. I think we know where I stand as far as which defensemen we should use Thursday night.

Who do you take out though?

Matt Greene: on ice for both a Sharks goal and lone Kings goal, 4 hits. Veteran experience. Not much playing time this year. Most likely to sit next game.

Slava Voynov: No. (A few defensive zone turnovers, one which led to a Sharks goal, last night but he's too much of an offensive assest to sit.)

Rob Scuderi: No. I don't understand why he wasn't a Vezina Trophy candidate. (Old video, I know, but he's been making similar plays all playoffs this year)

Instead of listing all of the Kings defensemen and saying why they shouldn't be scratched, I'll just say this: Sit Matt Greene. Put in Martinez. The only issue is that Marinez is a left-handed shot, where as Greene is right. That can cause funkiness as far as D pairings go, but as far as pairings with the "Stay-at-home" and "two-way" offensive D-Men go, they should be fine.

Doughty can play both a stay-at-home and offensive role on defense, and he has been which is why he's leading the team in ice time, and it's pretty evident we need all the offensive firepower we can get.

Stoll's absence is still being felt on the PK. Faceoffs however, Brad Richardson was 50% for faceoffs. Which isn't a terrible stat. Still room for improvement though as the Sharks won the faceoff battle 34-26.

If the Kings put together 3 periods like they did in last night's third period, get their top scorers to be exactly that, and play Alec Martinez, they'll win the series. It won't be easy. I see the series going 7 games, tops.

Unfortunately, it looks like Daryl Sutter doesn't see eye to eye with me on this whole Martinez issue.

#LAKings line combos at practice 13-11-14/25-10-77/74-22-23/15-24-73-71///44-8/7-26/6-2/27-5
— Jim Fox (@JimFox19) May 22, 2013

Sigh.

In other news, Dustin Penner sees some humor in how he got robbed of a goal last night.

“@lakings: WATCH: gets one past Niemi, but the refs blow the whistle - ow.ly/likOs” it's a league smoke youtu.be/K5F9JLfMSYI
— Dustin Penner (@Dustinpenner25) May 22, 2013

*Click on link in Penner's tweet to see his video*

At least he didn't pull out a gun after the call. (If you haven't seen The Big Lebowski I highly recommend it.)

Follow on twitter @SuttersLonghorn for my stream of consciousness during games/random tweets during the day/stupid puns/my new hashtag #lakingsbandnames (feel free to add your own)

Special Teams do Special Things

Well, last night was pretty crazy to say the least. You hate to see a hockey game be won or lost on a controversial delay of game call...unless you're me or really any Kings fan. I'll take it. I'm sure Trevor Lewis will take it. Daryl Sutter, if he saw it, will take it. It was great.

#PlayoffMartinez Update: 2 penalties. One of which cut our power play short by 31 seconds and, although it was technically even strength, resulted in the Sharks first goal 5 seconds after their power play ended. At this point I'm not so sure I want to keep up with my boy #PlayoffMaritnez, BUT...

The LA Kings are 6-0 with Alec Martinez in the lineup.
— PumperNicholl (@PumperNicholl) May 17, 2013

...I suppose that's not a bad thing.

There was a noticeable tenacity last night in one of the rookie players, Tyler Toffoli, . This kid (he's 7 months older than me) really, really wants to score. He had the assist on Trevor Lewis's game winning goal, but also had 5 shots on goal. That ties him for the highest shot total of the night, on either team, with Drew Doughty.

Albeit none of Toffoli's shots went in, unlike Mr. Doughty's, he is definitely making progress, showing that he's not afraid to shoot like some guys (pretty much everyone on the top power play unit), and he's looser out there, making smart plays as opposed to the easy ones.

As a surprise to no one, except for Antti Niemi, Jeff Carter scored. Again. He just sniped it, far side, past Niemi on the Kings' first shot of the game. It was beautiful, sexy, filthy, etc. Here are a few of my favorite tweets describing the goal:

Top Shelf where Jeff Carter orders his liquor.
— The Royal Half (@theroyalhalf) May 17, 2013

Just like every night at the bar, Jeff Carter scored unassisted.
— PumperNicholl (@PumperNicholl) May 17, 2013

Check this out: the Kings weren't outshot in last night's game! Shots were even 31-31.

The Kings also had 2 less penalties called against them. 11 of their shots and 3 of their goals came on the power play. The Sharks did not score on the power play. Needless to say the Kings are winning the Special Teams battle.

Even strength: Kings were outshot 19-24. That's not too bad. All of the Sharks goals were even strength (counting the goal that came 5 seconds after Martinez's penalty had ended).

Again, I think the Kings are going to need to up their forecheck even more. Opposed to last game, the Kings didn't replicate their efforts of keeping the Sharks on the perimeter, and they had some SERIOUSLY good chances up front.



Jonathan, you're the man. (forget about the part where the Sharks score a few minutes later)

Anze Kopitar took a shot to the face (his own teammates shot) in the first minute of the 3rd period. Kings fans far and wide can most likely remember the last time the Kings played the Sharks in the playoffs without Kopitar in the lineup...

(wipes tears. composes self. continues writing) 

Here's a link to the video of it, if you want to watch, in other words, if you have some serious self-loathing issues.

So I think I can speak for everyone when I say, until Kopitar came back onto the ice later in the third, worried was an understatement. But when he came back into the game...



Props to Dieter Ruehle for playing the theme from Rocky when Kopi came back on the ice. That standing ovation was awesome.

The Kings are already thin up the middle with the absence of Jarret Stoll, so the prospect of Kopitar pulling a Sydney Crosby (too soon?) was worrisome.

That being said, Stoll's absence was really felt last night. The only King who was above 50% in the faceoff circle was Colin Fraser (60%). I'd give you the stats per player, but it'd just be depressing. I'll say this, last night the team as a whole won 32% of the faceoffs.

Brad Richardson came into the lineup to try and fill the void last night. He was a -1 with an assist on Doughty's goal (sidenote: Doughty clocked over 28 min. of ice time, wowsers). I recall reading somewhere that Richardson had the potential to add a bit of an offensive spark to the team, and sure enough the Kings scored 4 goals, one of which Richardson directly caused.

There's talk on the Twittersphere that Kyle Clifford could potentially be back in the lineup soon. He's a good physical presence on the ice which could be used as I felt the Sharks upped their physical game last night. The Kings did answer back with physical play from just about everyone, totaling 38 hits against the Sharks 31. Fraser and Lewis led the Kings with 5 hits a piece.

Now on to Game 3. The Sharks should feel confident going into their home arena as they outplayed the Kings for most of the past 120 minutes of hockey. It's only a matter of them getting bounces, staying out of the penalty box, and scoring on the powerplay before we have ourselves a tight series.

Be sure to follow @SuttersLonghorn on Twitter so you'll know when I post new things/take pictures of Red Wings fans at a game between the San Jose Sharks and defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings.