You can't argue with Bernie here. Last year, Kopitar's most frequent 5v5 linemates were declining stars Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown, followed by defensive forwards Trevor Lewis and Dwight King.
Fellow journalist Don Perez posed an interesting follow-up question:
Well, this led me down the rabbit hole. I looked into Kopitar's regular season 5v5 Points/60 with every Kings forward from 2007-17 -- from Andy Andreoff to John Zeiler.
Here were some of my favorite findings. Be careful about making judgments from this WOWY (With or Without You) data -- in most cases, there simply isn't enough data i.e. combined time on ice between Kopitar and the forward in the question to draw any conclusions about their chemistry. You'll see why in a second -- the full chart is below:
• Which forward has Kopitar been most successful with over the last decade? Would you believe Matt Ellis? The Slovenian scored 7.17 Points/60 with Ellis, a grinder who potted 21 goals in 356 career NHL games. To put this 7.17 figure in perspective, Connor McDavid led the league last season with 2.89 Points/60. So did Kopitar become McDavid x 2.5 with Ellis? Of course not -- they played just 16:44 together.
• As much (deserved) flak as Dean Lombardi received for the package that he sent to Boston for a single year of Milan Lucic, Kopitar, as intended, did flourish, ringing up 3.09 Points/60 with the burly winger.
• I was surprised to discover that Kopitar never posted a 5v5 point with Jarret Stoll on the ice. Of course, both were strictly centers, and consequently, saw just 41:33 together, but for all the years that they were teammates, I figured there would be something on the scoresheet.
• After Brown (5259:54 together), Kopitar's most frequent linemate has been Justin Williams (3219:09). Kopitar put up a solid 2.19 Points/60 with Williams. Perhaps Los Angeles should've kicked the can on Williams more seriously? He signed a two-year, nine-million dollar with the Hurricanes -- while the Kings have about six million of cap space right now.
• Speaking of Brown, Kopitar has notched a less robust 1.7 Points/60 with the hard-hitting winger. Keep in mind our general cheat baseline for 5v5 Points/60 (2.0=1st liner, 1.75=2nd liner, 1.5=3rd liner, 1.00=4th liner). Not surprisingly, Kopitar WOWYs with Brown falter with the ex-captain's decline. From 2007-13, Kopitar totaled 1.82 Points/60 with Brown. From 2013-17, 1.37.
• In much the same way, Kopitar's production has nosedived with Gaborik. From 2013-15, not including the playoffs, the Slovenian tossed up 2.3 Points/60 with the sniper. Since then, 1.53.
• For what it's worth, the captain has registered a solid 2.19 Points/60 with Lewis. With King, 1.67.
• The most 5v5 minutes that Kopitar has played with a forward without scoring a point? 107:35. His linemate? Raitis Ivanans, naturally. It should be noted, however, that Ivanans suited up for Los Angeles in 2006-07, which is not accounted for here.
• Kopitar's 1.33 Points/60 with Tanner Pearson is surprisingly low. It's worth examining if there's an actual incompatibility with their games or if there isn't enough data yet. On the other hand, the captain's 2.26 with Tyler Toffoli suggests that maybe they should skate together more.
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Over 12 seasons, defenseman Igor Kravchuk suited up for the Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames, and Florida Panthers.
In St. Louis, he played one season with new LA assistant coach Pierre Turgeon.
I caught up recently with the
Kunlun Red Star assistant coach to ask about Turgeon.
HockeyBuzz: Can you tell us more about Pierre Turgeon's special faceoff technique?
Igor Kravchuk: He held his stick very low. Both hands together very low. There was obviously a lot of power at the bottom of the stick. He was so successful, he would actually point out where the puck was going. He would tell you stay there. Most of the time, he did it.
HB: Ray Ferraro mentioned that Turgeon also went out of his way to explain to his linemates where to go so Turgeon could find them on the ice. Is this something that you saw in St. Louis?
IK: Yeah, I did. Like I said, he played power play. Even strength. Some penalty kill as well. It's too bad we only played together one season.
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(click for a clearer view)
View post on imgur.com
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Stats as of 6/28/17, courtesy of Behind the Net, Corsica, Hockey Analysis, Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com, Puckalytics, and Sporting Charts.
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