In 2014-15, the Kings played 10 different defensemen in total. They played eight, if you eliminate the limited appearances of Slava Voynov (6 games) and Jeff Schultz (9 games). So really, they had eight, regularly active defensemen over the course of 82 games.
This season the Kings have used 12 different defensemen. Again, eliminating some of the least used and limited appearance defensemen (Gravel, Greene, Schultz), that number comes down to 9 regularly used guys.
While it is not entirely necessary that you get scoring from your defensemen on a regular basis, it is nice to have those chip in goals and powerplay points from time to time. Last season, the Kings seem to rarely get that. They had just one player in double digit goals on the season, and that was Jake Muzzin with 10. In fact, of those eight regular defensemen, playing a combined total of 476 games, together they scored 35 goals. Seven of those were on the powerplay (Muzzin 4, McBain/Doughty/Martinez 1). Ergo, just 28 goals over the course of an 82 game season came at even strength from the Kings defensive corps. That does not seem like the greatest, right?
Move forward to this season. Same parameters, and the Kings nine regular defenseman (And Scuderi is your ninth at 12 games...), have 41 goals in 426 combined games. They have two players at double digits (Martinez, Doughty) and one slowly crawling up on it (Muzzin w/ 8). A major difference though comes in the form of powerplay production. A giant 16 goals have come with the extra man this season, led by Drew Doughty with 9 of his 14 coming on the powerplay. Without that extra powerplay production, the Kings defense would have 27 goals right now, which is still on a better pace of even strength scoring than last season.
What has changed?
Outside of a bit of luck that makes pucks fall for you or against you, really not much.
Take a look for example at Drew Doughty's heat map from this season to last via Sporting Charts.
While there is a noticeable three-foot increase in average shot distance, we are still talking about pretty low danger quality shots on average. In general we are also talking about a pretty similar shot rate individually per game. Doughty took 145 individual shots last season, a rate of 1.76 a game at even strength. He currently has 106 in 72 games, a rate of 1.47 per game. The real major difference is powerplay production, even though the shot difference and rate is pretty similar. Or rather, similar enough that you do not see some major change in game that caused it.
Also, it does not seem to matter who Doughty is paired with. While there are the smallest of differences, his individual shot generation is similar.
Martinez, likewise, is not seeing any sort of wild swing from last year's decisions to shoot versus this year.
All of his numbers check out pretty much the same as Doughty's. There is no major difference except the frequency at which Martinez has been shooting and the percentage that have gone in.
This year that luck is falling a little bit better on the Kings D group. Specifically Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez, who have jumped from 3.2 and a 5.8 to an 8.4 and an 8.5 shooting percentages respectively.
As a whole, the Kings defensive corps is shooting in total at a 5.91 SH% this year versus a 4.72 SH% last year.
Explanations? Anyone?
A lot of it is puck luck. There does not seem to be any huge difference in style. The simple truth is that the snake bitten Kings offense of last year are getting a few more bounces here and there. The powerplay production is also pretty nice, but even then the Kings have run pretty much the same powerplay style this year as opposed to last. If you want to get into stylistic or personnel differences, you might suggest that the addition of Milan Lucic as a front net presence has made it all the more difficult for goaltenders to see the puck. However, Martinez and Doughty have each scored two goals this season with Milan Lucic on the ice. For reference, Martinez has scored two with Nolan and Brown on the ice, and Doughty has scored two with Clifford on the ice.
This is one of those instances where you look at the slight increase in output and just take it for what it is. Next year might be different. It might be worse, it might be better. Hockey, as much as people do not want to think it is, is heavily luck based. The Kings defensive corps put 742 total shots on net last season. With that much rubber being fired at the net, you are sometimes going to hit a skate of a defender, sometimes get a perfect screen, and sometimes put a shot right into the upper corner. A lot of times you won't. However, the sheer fact that there is that much shooting going on from relatively low-danger areas (blue line and above the circles) with that much frequency, you are bound to see some swings year to year. Nature of the game. Defensemen, as much as they would like to say they work on point shots and getting pucks through, can be at times the victims of a luck based strategy of "Just get it on net". They are not getting it on net any more or less frequently than before, and they are just going in.
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