It seemed like another typical Kings road performance.
Get down early, outplay the opposing team, and come away empty handed. Last night, however, was a changeinthe normal script we've seen so much this season. The Kings potted two goals in the final two minutes of the game to not get their first road win in five games.
Both the ice cold Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams got late goals in the contest and the Kings prevented their division rivals from getting even a point.
While the Canucks did lead by two for a large portion of the game, it seemed like justice done. The Kings heavily outplayed and out chanced the Canucks for the majority of the game.
It wasn't even close, honestly.
The Kings out shot the Canucks 40-15 on the evening. They out corsi'd the Canucks 67-33, including a second period in which the Kings put 32 attempts towards Ryan Miller.
This has been the story of the Kings as of late, and they haven't been coming out on the positive side of things. The charts from the last two performances are similar, although not as impressive as the one against Vancouver. Simple fact, the Kings have outplayed opponents but failed to win.
Charts provided by Hockeystats.ca
The difference last night was that the Kings got more evened out performances across the board. Many of the Kings top performing lines in terms of chances and possession were the bottom lines. Players who have definitely struggled lately. Outside of Trevor Lewis, who has been masterful so far this season, Stoll, Brown, Kings, Schultz, Williams, and Clifford all put in solid work in the offensive zone. With a more even offensive output the Kings were able to limit chances in their own end while hemming the Canucks into their own end on more than one occassion.
Let's not act like this game wasn't two minutes away from turning into another frustrating loss though. The start was an issue and they got behind early. If anyone is keeping track, the Kings now have trailed first 21 times in 38 games, and have won just six of those contests. They hold a .286 win percentage when giving up the first goal, which puts them in the company of several struggling teams like Philadelphia, New Jersey, Buffalo, Carolina, and Edmonton.
However, the prevailing logic these days seems to be that the Kings have been slightly unlucky when it comes to losing these games and performing poorly on the road. They have performed well in many games they have lost on the road and the 5-8-6 road record might not be a fair assessment of their play.
Then, on the other hand you have those who feel that this team is just different on the road. The numbers seem to indicate that as well. They also indicate that the Kings may have been on the luckier side of things are home. Still the differences are noticeable.
Here are the home/away corsi and fenwick differentials as of 12-31-14 (Not counting the Canucks game)
Home
Away
Here are the scoring chance differences as well
Home
Away
The special teams have also been fairly different on the road vs. home.
+20 ES differential at home, -7 on the road. 27.4% PP at home, 12 on the road. 86.2 PK home, 75.4 road.
— Jason Lewis (@SirJDL) December 31, 2014But maybe this is something that evens out and eventually stops hurting the Kings. You can draw your own conclusions from the numbers. Maybe it's a mental thing, as the numbers aren't different enough but the mental mindset and belief is different at home versus the road. Who knows. At 82 games we will probably have a better idea.
Last night seemed like a game that was going to go the same way it has all year, when suddenly it corrected itself. The Kings-Canucks game can be considered a microcosm of the road woes so far. Do they correct themselves as they head into the 2015? We shall see.
Follow me on twitter for news and notes about the Kings and the NHL
++++I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in placing an ad on the blog here at HockeyBuzz then send me a PM!+++++