Down the Frozen River

Tag: LA

  • December 28 – Day 79 – Hollywood vs. Hollywood North

    I predicted a Bruins win, but the Senators proved me wrong with a 3-1 victory on home ice in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

    Ottawa snuck in the only goal of the first period with only 19 seconds remaining.  After Jimmy Hayes was sent to the box for instigating, Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson assisted Mark Stone to a power play goal.

    That late goal did not sit well with Third Star of the Game David Krejci and the Bruins during the intermission, as he scored a goal after 7:54, assisted by Matt Beleskey and Loui Eriksson, to knot the game at one-all.  Again, the Sens waited until the end of the period to take the lead, as Bobby Ryan and Mike Hoffman assisted Second Star Mika Zibanejad to the game-winner with only 1:39 remaining in the second period.

    The final goal only occurred because Tuukka Rask was on the bench to give the Bruins a man-advantage.  It was a copy of the Senators‘ first goal, with Turris and Karlsson assisting Stone to an empty netter with 54 seconds remaining in the game, setting the score at the 3-1 final.

    First Star Craig Anderson made 38 of 39 saves (97.4%) to improve his record to 16-9-4, while Rask’s record falls to 13-9-3 after saving 19 of 21 (90.5%).

    The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 31-12-6 in favor of the home side, leading the roadies by 28 points.

    After 18 games over the weekend, Monday is a slightly relaxed schedule, featuring six matchups.  The action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when Washington visits Buffalo, followed half an hour later by Montréal at Tampa Bay (RDS).  Two games drop the opening puck at 8 p.m. eastern (the New York Rangers at Nashville [TVAS] and Detroit at Minnesota) and are the last games to start before 10 p.m. eastern, when Los Angeles visits Vancouver.  Finally, this evening’s nightcap gets started at 10:30 p.m. eastern when Colorado visits San Jose.

    Two of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Montréal at Tampa Bay and Los Angeles at Vancouver), while three are between quality squads currently qualifying for the playoffs (New York at Nashville, Detroit at Minnesota and Los Angeles at Vancouver).  Finally, Montréal at Tampa Bay is also a rematch of one of last season’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.

    Even though the rematch provides interesting storylines, I’m taking the personal leverage to instead focus in the Los Angeles–Vancouver, mostly because I want to look into the Kings‘ play.  I know, selfish.

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    This will be Los Angeles‘ second appearance in the DtFR Game of the Day – the other time they were featured, they fell in Chicago 4-2 on November 2.  Tonight’s game will be Vancouver‘s first appearance as the Game of the Day.

    The 21-11-2 Los Angeles Kings currently own a seven-point lead in the Pacific Division, and are tied for third in the Western Conference.  They’ve found that success by playing one of the best defenses in the league, even though their most recent showing, a 4-3 overtime victory in Arizona on Saturday may not be indicative of that.

    Thanks in part to Alec Martinez’ team-leading 73 blocks, the Kings have allowed only 958 shots to reach the net, of which 18-9-1 Jonathan Quick and co. have saved 92.1%, allowing only 78 goals, the second best in the league.  The Kings have also killed 82.11% of penalties, allowing 22 goals on 123 attempts.

    I say it on a regular basis, but more shots usually turn into more goals.  While the Kings‘ percentages may not be on par with the league average, 86 (led by Tyler Toffoli’s 14 goals) of their 1097 shots (led by Jeff Carter’s 103 shots) have found the back of the net.  One point that the Kings should focus on to improve their offense should be their power play.  They have been successful on only 18%, scoring 18 goals on, you guessed it, 100 attempts.

    Their counterparts, the 14-14-9 Vancouver Canucks, currently sit in third place in the Pacific Division, but eighth in the Western Conference.  They are currently riding a two-game win streak, with their most recent showing a 2-1 overtime victory over the Oilers on Saturday.  So far this season, the Canucks have been a better team with the puck on their stick, but both sides of the ice are performing below the league average.

    Led by Daniel Sedin’s 133 shots, Vancouver has put 1086 shots on net so far this season (well above the league average), but only 91 have found the back of the net, led by Sedin’s 16 tallies.  The main facet of Vancouver‘s offense that is holding them back is their lack of success on the power play.  On 124 attempts (well-above the league average), the Canucks only have the league-average 21 goals to their credit, led by Sedin’s five.  Given the weak competition in the Pacific division, I expect Vancouver to make moves to improve their offense in preparation of a playoff run.

    Defensively, the Canucks have needed all the help they can get.  Even though Chris Tanev has a team-leading 89 blocks to his credit, Vancouver has allowed 1129 shots to reach 10-11-6 Ryan Miller and co., of which they’ve saved 91.2% and allowed 102 goals.  The special teams’ issues continue when defending against the man-advantage, as the Canucks have allowed 124 opportunities to the opposition.  Of those, they’ve killed 79.69%, allowing 26 goals.

    Some players to watch include Los Angeles‘ Carter (+16 [tied for fifth in the league]), Quick (18 wins [tied for second in the league] and two shutouts [tied for eighth in the league]) and Toffoli (+18 [third in the league]) & Vancouver‘s D. Sedin (37 points [tied for seventh in the league] and 16 goals [tied for ninth in the league]) and Henrik Sedin (24 assists [tied for seventh in the league]).

    The Kings and Canucks have already played two games in their five-game season series.  The Canucks won the first meeting 3-0 on October 13 in the Staples Center, but the Kings were able to hold home ice on the first day of this month, winning 2-1 in overtime.

    Given Vancouver‘s defensive woes, it’s hard to pick against a stellar Kings team, even if the Canucks have played Los Angeles tough twice this season.  Expect Los Angeles to get the win north of the border.

  • November 2 – Day 27 – All defense, all the time

    Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Winnipeg Jets and the Montréal Canadiens ended in a 5-1 victory for the home squad.

    The Habs opened the scoring at the 6:34 mark of the first with a shorty from Third Star of the Game Paul Byron, assisted by Torrey Mitchell and Jeff Petry.  The game-winner came almost 10 minutes exactly from Second Star Tomas Fleischmann, assisted by First Star David Desharnais and Alexei Emelin.  The two-goal shutout held into the first intermission.

    Thirty-five seconds after dropping the puck in the second, Fleischmann scored his second of the night, assisted by Dale Weise and Desharnais.  Two and a half minutes later, the Canadiens set the score at 4-0 with a tally from Desharnais, assisted by Fleischmann and Nathan Beaulieu.  Montréal ended their offensive onslaught at the 17:51 mark when Lars Eller, assisted by Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban, fired his power play goal past Ondrej Pavelec.  The five-goal shutout held into the second intermission.

    Finally, the Jets got on the board at the 13:57 mark of the final period when Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers assisted Chris Thorburn to his second goal of the season.

    The Mike Condon Era (albeit only a week or so long) got off to a good start as he earned his fourth victory in as many starts by saving 18 of 19 (94.7%), while 4-1-0 Michael Hutchinson earned his first loss of the season after saving five of nine (55.6%).  Pavelec replaced him after Desharnais’ goal and saved 16 of 17 (94.1%) for no decision.

    The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 16-7-3, still favoring the home team by 13 points.  Montréal improves to 4-0-0 when featured in our series, while Winnipeg falls to 0-1-1.

    After a busy holiday weekend, there are only three games on the schedule this evening.  Beginning at 7:30 p.m. eastern at the Air Canada Centre are Dallas and Toronto (TVAS), followed an hour later by Los Angeles at Chicago (NHL Network).  The nightcap gets its start at 10 p.m. eastern when Philadelphia visits Vancouver.

    None of tonight’s matchups involve divisional rivals or two teams qualifying for the playoffs, but given the expectations for the Hawks, their game against the Kings provides for an interesting game.

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    After losing their first three games by a combined score of 12-2, the Los Angeles Kings have won seven straight games (their last victory a 4-3 win over the Predators on Saturday) to propel them to first place in the Pacific Division.  Their strength: the defense and goaltending.

    So far this season, the Kings‘ defense has only allowed 295 shots on goal (led by Alec Martinez’ 19 blocks), a total that trails the league average by 24 attempts.  Even better is the goals against total (21) that trails the NHL average by eight tallies.  Put those numbers together, and you’ll find Jonathan Quick and his backup, 1-0-0 Jhonas Enroth, owning a 93.2% combined save percentage, exceeding the league average by 1.8%.  Even on the penalty kill, the Kings have found success.  Although their seven power play goals against is on par with the league, they’ve held that number even though they’ve faced five more man-advantages.  Their 82.93% kill rate bests the league average by 1.73%.

    Los Angeles‘ offense has been working overtime to cover up their early season shortcomings, made evident by the 24 goals they’ve scored so far this season.  Center Tyler Toffoli leads the team by five tallies with nine goals to his credit.

    Probably the biggest struggle for this squad has been putting shots on goal, as well as getting them into the back of the net.  They’ve only managed 305 shots so far, which trails the league average by 15 shots.  Bring into account their 7.9% shot percentage that trails the league average by 1.2%, and we find a team that, should they resolve these issues, becomes a serious threat in the Western Conference.

    Turning our attention to the home side, we find a 6-5-0 team that hasn’t quite found the success yet that they’ve grown so accustomed to in seasons past.  Similar to Los Angeles, they’ve had to rely on their defense and goaltending for almost every point in the standings they’ve earned so far.  They enter the game on a two-game losing streak, their most recent a 5-4 loss in Minnesota on Friday.

    Goaltender Corey Crawford (5-3-0) and his backup, 1-2-0 Scott Darling, have only allowed 24 goals this season, trailing the league average by five tallies, but they’ve received a lot of help from Niklas Hjalmarsson (24 blocks) and the Hawks‘ defense.  Because of their efforts, Crawford and co. have only faced 307 shots and saved 92.2% of them, both numbers that are better than the league average.  Even on the penalty kill, the defense has been strong.  On 30 attempts, opponents have only scored five times (two less than average), giving the Hawks a 83.33% kill rate that leads the league average by 2.13%.

    The offense has only scored 24 goals this season, which trails the league average by five goals.  It has not been due to effort, though, as the offense has notched 348 shots, 28 over the league average.  But, because of that number, their 6.9% shot percentage trails the league average by 1.2%.

    Although the standard offense may not be up to standard, the power play lines earn DtFR Gold Stars, as they have eight goals to their credit with a 20% power play success rate.

    Last season, Chicago won two of three games against Los Angeles, but the more famous recent series occurred during the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Kings beat the Hawks in seven games in the Western Conference Finals en route to the four games to one routing of the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup Finals.

    Chicago is favored at -125 at home, but it is hard to ignore a Kings team looking for their eighth straight victory.  I think I’m picking the Hawks to win, but it should be an excellent game.