This will be the third time in the past four postseasons that the Kings meet the Sharks, they’ve split it 1-1…not that it matters much this time around. It’s interesting to note as well that Tomas Hertl will make his return from injury…and the culprit who set him out after what was looking like a Calder lock performance? Dustin Brown and his magical knee. Aside from having probably what will be the nastiest first round series this season, the Kings have had to deal with a bit of a roller coaster year with consistency not being a major strong point. What we learned is that this team has mastered the art of team defense, so much so that they have made three separate goalies look like Vezina winners whilst they were in be it Scrivens, Jones or Quick. The Kings have to be a part of that elite top crust of favourites and they have a little bit of everything in the right places.
Why won’t they win? Well it’s hard to say, but step one is getting by the Sharks.
The home team in the past 17 games between the Sharks and the Kings have won 16 times. San Jose has historically been a fortress at home and was so again this season. The numbers don’t bode well in an historical context, but hey, that’s why you play the game.
Health of Drew Doughty
Doughty has had a fantastic season, he is solidifying himself as one of the best two-way defenders in the game and it’s crazy to think he has two Gold Medals and a Cup at the age of 24. Doughty missed the final four games of the season after receiving a hit by...oh would you look at that, San Jose’s Tyler Kennedy, how fitting. His injury was a shoulder one, and I don’t think I can count how many times we’ve seen players play through shoulder injuries in particular through the playoffs and have people complaining about why they seem to be struggling only to find out after the series is over that they were hurt. Doughty will play, that is certain, but he is the key to their defense. Voynov is great and a favourite of mine, but the drop off from Doughty to him is extreme. Without his elite play they simply don’t come close to winning their Cup in 2011-2012, they’ll need him to be at that level again. I can’t remember a team that has won the Cup without their number one defenseman playing at an elite and healthy level aside from Carolina way back in 2006 (Keith, Doughty, Chara, Keith, Gonchar, Lidstrom, Pronger…and Niedermayer). His health will be one of the major factors in how far this Kings squad goes.
Can they score?
The Kings are the lowest scoring team to make the playoffs this season with the worst power play of the lot. They’ve been consistently inconsistent in their capacity to score all season and it is one of the few criticisms one can label on this team. They picked up Marian Gaborik for just said reason and that should help, but what they really need is for a certain captain to get back to his scoring ways.
Dustin Brown has had one of the worst seasons in his career finishing with just 15 goals and 27 points. Putting that into perspective that is worse production than he had in the half season with a 39 game difference and as bad as his sophomore season 8 years ago when he was 21. He had only 1 goal in the final 8 games to close out the season.
Yet it isn’t simply Brown with the below par year, Mike Richards had a pretty blasé season scoring only 11 goals and 41 points while having the distinction of being the worst +/- on his team and one of only three regular players to do so. Not only this, but Richards has only 2 goals (and points) in his last…get this…last 18 GAMES. Holy cow, talk about slumping. That simply isn’t good enough for one of their main offensive threats.
It seems like aside from Kopitar and Carter (and now Gaborik perhaps) this Kings squad has major problems getting it done on the score sheet despite having more talent than the numbers indicate. Their scoring at least from what we’ve seen is nowhere near on par with the other major contenders.
The old cliché about how “Defense Wins Championships… is sometimes very true, and if the Kings have any hope of winning the Cup this year, that will be how they do it.
Thanks for reading.