Before their New Year's Eve rendezvous with the San Jose Sharks, the ninth-place Los Angeles Kings were on the outside looking in at the postseason party.
LA went on to beat the defending Western Conference champs soundly -- well, as soundly as you can win a 3-2 affair -- reminding observers and perhaps themselves why they're still a dangerous group.
The Kings were especially dominant in the first period of this tilt:
LA throttled SJ in 1st: LAK 26-12 5v5 Corsi, 13-3 Scoring chances, 5-1 high-danger...LAK 1.43 - SJ 0.31 xGF all...of course, 1-0 feels slim
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 1, 2017
LA poured it on 5v5 in 3rd: 28-11 Corsi (62-43 overall), 18-3 Scoring chances (36-21), 5-0 High-danger (16-10)...LAK 4.17 - CBJ 3.70 xGF all
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 21, 2016
Besides the obvious -- excellent goaltending, timely scoring -- here are seven things which I found, plays big and small.
Winning Battles
Successful dump-and-chase is also an organizational hallmark -- and winning battles is essential to that as well:
So how about when Los Angeles strings together battle win after battle win?
Shot Volume
While the Kings don't get a quality scoring chance, they earn an offensive zone faceoff, which is exactly what they want. From Darryl Sutter's first game as LA's bench boss, the team has led the league with a 35.06 Offensive Zone Start %. In theory, more offensive zone faceoffs will lead to more shots on goal.
Gravel's low-percentage bid is an example of some prioritizing of "shot volume" over shot quality. "We want volume," Sutter stressed in 2015 to LA Kings Insider. “Volume’s better.…
As we've seen over the years, volume doesn't always lead to goals. However, it has led to plenty of winning for Los Angeles.
To help achieve overwhelming volume, the Kings, at their finest, are constantly pressuring their opponents like so:
Tight Gap Control
Closing the Gap
Tight gap control is one thing. However, an ideally aggressive LA defense prefers to encroach on their opposition's time and space further up the ice.
But if you think closing the gap in the neutral zone is impressive, check out how many times an active defense stepped up on Columbus and San Jose breaking out:
While successfully closing the gap doesn't always lead to goals or even shots, at the very least, it disrupts the opponent's offensive flow, allowing Los Angeles to set up its defensive posture.
Carrying It In
Of course, Doughty and company shouldn't only pressure when the opposition has the puck:
Stretch Passes
But like I said, roads this wide are rarely available. So what's a supposedly "slow" team like Los Angeles to do?
Speaking of execution, that's the name of game with stretch passes. Precision, as I wrote about recently, is all important:
Backcheck
Of course, mistakes will happen. But just as critical as anything I've outlined is how you recover:
In Closing
How many excellent Kings plays can you spot here?
• Winning Battles • Shot Volume • Tight Gap Control • Closing the Gap • Carrying It In • Stretch Passes • Backcheck
It's been an up-and-down season, but these frames give me hope that Los Angeles can still paint a playoff masterpiece. The Kings are still capable of strong, sustainable hockey against top-notch opposition. A lot has to go right for LA to challenge for the Cup -- perhaps too much this time -- but Bob Miller put it best on New Year's Eve:
"This exact date a year ago, San Jose was 20th in the league with the same number of points that the Kings have...and San Jose went on to go to the Stanley Cup Finals."
Stats as of 1/2/17, courtesy of Behind the Net, Corsica, Hockey Analysis, Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com, Puckalytics, and Sporting Charts. ++++I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in placing an ad here at HockeyBuzz, then send me a PM!++++