Wednesday evening presented an opportunity for the Kings to draw level in this series and return to Los Angeles with a glimmer of hope that they may yet come out of this series.
San Jose seemed ready as ever to squash those hopes.
The Kings did not get scored on within the first minute of the game or on the first shot, so that was an improvement. They did however return to their old demons of penalties and powerplay goals against.
While last night's 3-2 loss was a pretty even affair at even strength, the Sharks massively impressive powerplay unit
(That we broke down right here) maimed the Kings for three goals on four opportunities. Burns put the Kings behind just two and a half minutes into the second period as Jeff Carter served a post whistle roughing minor.
It was later consolidated halfway through the second frame with Joe Pavelski's fourth goal of the series with Rob Scuderi in the box for tripping. Finally, with McBain serving one of Sutter's beloved "Stick infractions" of the high variety, Patrick Marleau scored his first of the series from Logan Couture and Brent Burns.
All three Sharks goals game with the extra attacker. Altogether it was actually a decent 5-on-5 game for Los Angeles, outside of an abysmal second period where three of the four minors came into play and roughly 10 of the 20 minutes was played on special teams.
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A late charge in the third was made as the Kings Luke Schenn got point shots through on Martin Jones that eventually found net. Jones, who had been perfect in the low and medium danger areas, allowed his first low danger goal of the series on the second Luke Schenn point shot. The first goal was credited to Trevor Lewis, as he deflected Schenn's shot from right in front of Martin Jones.
While the Kings made it interesting late, they could not quite hammer in a tying goal to recreate a micro level "It was 3-0" on San Jose.
The Sharks now take a true stranglehold on the series with three opportunities to put the Kings to bed and exorcise the demons of 2013-14.
Turning Points:
The second period was a train wreck for Los Angeles. Not only did they give up two powerplay goals, they failed on two of their own powerplays. Due to the special teams battles they had a stretch where they put just two even strength chances towards net (Corsi) in around 14 minutes of play. The penalties in which the Kings were taking were also somewhat infuriating, as Carter's post whistle roughing call was entirely unnecessary, Rob Scuderi's trip was due to being flat footed, and Jamie McBain's early third period powerplay was due to losing control of his stick. Luke Schenn would also serve time in the box for a roughing minor in the second. They were penalties that altogether could have been eliminated, thus limiting the chances of the Sharks. At least two of these penalties came against players (Carter and Scuderi) who play roles on the Kings penalty kill.
Unlike Game 3, where the Sharks were unable to gain entry as easily on the powerplay and were forced to dump the puck in numerous times, Game 4 presented a change in approach. The Sharks were able to get clean entry through neutral ice and at the blue line, much like Game 1. Here is an example of this on the Sharks second goal from Joe Pavelski
While good players will find ways to gain zone entries when given enough opportunities, it seemed as though the Kings killers were much more active on the half wall in Game 3 in forcing a dump or disrupting a clean carry-in.
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With a clean, controlled entry given to the Sharks most of the evening, they were able to set up and go to work on their powerplay. The same powerplay that has had an overarching dominance in this series and has ultimately given the Sharks a 3-1 series lead.
Key Stats:
25% and 72.2%
That was the rate of penalty killing for last night's game for the Kings and their post-season average. If you want to factor in that another goal had come right as a penalty had expired, the Kings are basically killing around 68% for the series. That might not be as big of a problem if the Kings weren't allowing 4.5 powerplay opportunities a game. At this rate, the Sharks are basically assured a powerplay goal if the Kings take at least three penalties a game.
Another key stat that is not exactly in control of the players, but still interesting nonetheless:
LAK - 30:33, 23:12, 22:38.
SJ - 22:44, 21:54, 21:10.
That is a side by side comparison of the ice time of the top three defenders for each the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks. For the Kings, that is Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, and then 37-year old Rob Scuderi with 22:38. That's right, Scuderi played just 30 seconds less than Jake Muzzin.
On the opposite side of things, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Justin Braun played much more manageable and reasonable ice times.
You do not really start seeing the effects of this until you hit the bottom three defenders.
LAK - 17:13, 15:55, 10:32
SJ - 18:42, 16:26, 15:19
There was a pretty massive difference in how much the Kings bottom set of defensemen were playing versus the bottom set of Sharks defensemen. Peter DeBoer has managed his lineup much better than that of Darryl Sutter and it is showing in depth usage. While rolling four lines has routinely been a theory employed by Sutter, DeBoer is outdoing him in this regard and it showed last night with the limited minutes given to the Kings bottom pair and bottom line. The injury to Martinez is having an impact, but should it be so much an impact that Rob Scuderi is playing more minutes than Vlasic, Braun, Paul Martin, Brayden McNabb and almost as much as Jake Muzzin?
Key Players:
Pavelski-Burns-Thornton. You knew this was the three headed dragon coming into the series, and they proved it again with dominating play in the O-zone and on the powerplay. When the Sharks saw extended time in the zone and legitimate scoring chances it pretty much revolved around that of Pavelski, Thornton, or Brent Burns. While the Kings top line centered by Anze Kopitar continues to get the best of them at even strength, there has been no answer on special teams. The Sharks also got very strong games from depth guys like Spaling, Wingels and Tierney last night. The latter of which was out late in the game with the Sharks up by one, and pushed the Kings back numerous times with his speed.
For the Kings, Jeff Carter. Where is he? The only noteworthy contribution of the night for No. 77 was an after whistle punch to the face of Vlasic that led to the first Sharks goal. He has one goal in the series and has averaged under two shots a game outside of the six shot Game 3 performance. He is also a 49.48 CF% in the playoffs so far.
Moving Forward:
It is do or die time for Los Angeles now.
They have a chance on Friday night to win on home ice and force the Sharks to think about their home ice record this season one more time. Closing out a series is difficult, and the best thing the Kings can do is to limit powerplays against, play stingy and disciplined, and make the Sharks take the series rather than serving the opportunities up to them. So far, San Jose has been more than up to the challenge in seizing control of opportunities given to them.
For the Sharks, it is not a position they are unfamiliar with, having won series before. A simple "Play our game" mentality is probably going to be paramount heading into Game 5. They have been effective when they have needed to be and that is the reason they currently have the advantage in the series.
Game 5 is tomorrow night at Staples Center at 730 PST 1030 EST. Tune in to see whether or not the Kings live to fight another day, or the Sharks bury Los Angeles once and for all.
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