Ever been so set in a routine that you do that when something goes awry, maybe something really small, it throws it all of? Even if it seems like something insignificant, like your whole morning feeling "Off" because the Kuerig machine was broken (not to use examples from our own life or anything...). In the end it really does not affect what you have to do in the morning, but it seems to make life a little more difficult, a little bit sloppy maybe.
The same theory applies to hockey, and it applies to the Kings in a way that it may not apply to most other teams.
By now we know that the Kings have not looked very good in their first three games. There were two very poor efforts against Vancouver and San Jose, and a frustrating throwback to last year game against Arizona where they had possession and could not score. Arizona withstanding, a lot of the Kings troubles have come from poor breakouts and poor neutral zone possession. Some of this has to do with teams reading the Kings plays well enough to disrupt them, and some of it simply has to do with the Kings not being sharp whatsoever. The mistakes, the execution, are not all that far off.
We detailed some practical reasons not to freak out in the last blog . One that was not included was the simple fact that the Kings are just executing poorly, and that will eventually turn around. You would hope with the same system in place, the same coach, nearly the same exact players trying to execute the exits, entries, and breakouts, that it is only a matter of time before it gets better.
However, the fact that the Kings ARE struggling with execution on zone entries, exits, and neutral zone breakouts, leads to some interesting theories.
The Kings are a team that thrives on structure. Structured breakouts, structured zone entries. The rarely deviate from their gameplan. That is why when the Kings are on, they are REALLY on. It looks like they could play the game in their sleep. When it is off, it leads to some of the most unwatchable and frustrating hockey out there. Tape to tape passes do not exist. There is hesitation in the defensive AND offensive zone.
As far as the good goes, here is an example from the very opening stages of the Arizona game.
The Kings breakout from below the goal line, to the halfwall, to the center of the ice, and up into the neutral zone. They break out as a 5-man unit.
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Every man is involved. Every man is an option. The more options, the better the potential break out and neutral zone play. This was literally the first play of the game for the Kings, and it set the tone for the night...at least through the neutral zone and out of their own zone.
That play out of the zone led to a neutral zone play that looked like this:
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Through the neutral zone with speed, with options, and with the defense backing up rather than stepping forward. (You will see an example later on of what San Jose did) It did not lead to a grade A scoring chance, but it led to a shot on goal.
You could find this sort of structured breakout 20 times in a Kings game. These are the Kings. The structure, when it is good, leads to better 200-foot play in general. It leads to more possession time, fewer chances against, fewer penalties, and what have you.
Now look at what happened against the Vancouver Canucks, a game in which the Kings were heavily outshot and out possessed for long periods of the game. We are going to step our game up here at Hockeybuzz and give you some GIFs of the frustration.
First play: Starts the same as any Kings breakout. Drew Doughty gets the puck does the standard up the wall. OOPS, Dustin Brown can't control it, and instantly the Kings are a mess. They have Kopitar converging from center to get the puck, a giant hole in the middle of the ice, and Gaborik having no idea what to do on the far side:
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Hey, it's okay though, just seconds later they got the puck back and reset for a breakout. All is good again. But it was a reset breakout, non-structured, and completely on the fly, testing the creativity of every player on the ice. What happens? You have Brown on his off wing, Gaborik flying across the ice in his own zone, and what looks like an altogether anachronous attempted breakout. Vancouver is perfectly alright settling into what looks like a 1-2-2 forecheck *maybe a modified 2-1-2), and waiting for the Kings to come in.
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At this point the Kings really have almost zero chance of a controlled entry, and Vancouver turned this broken breakout into two shots for of their own.
And this whole series of plays started with one very minor misplay. You can hardly even say it was a mistake, but rather a bad bounce: Brown did not control Doughty's breakout pass along the halfwall. One misplay led to around 30-40 seconds of meaningless possession, two turnovers, and two Vancouver shots on goal.
This nicely sums up the Kings game against Vancouver. With San Jose it was a combination of neutral zone issues, penalties, and the Sharks just plain being good. Still, there were times when the defensive zone breakouts and attempted zone entries were bad. There were also times when the Sharks did things like this, which upset the Kings ability to move through the neutral zone and carry the puck into the offensive zone with pressure.
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This is coaching, and exploiting the Kings weaknesses. Compare this to what happened with Arizona in some of our first images on the blog.
Overall, there is a point we can perhaps derive from this. The Kings, while failing to execute properly in these early moments of the season, also lack creativity.
When there are breakdowns, like the Vancouver GIFs, the Kings really look scrambly and incapable of recovering in a manner that allows for a clean breakout. While many like to believe that the Kings are a dump and grind team, they really are not. They are a team that has thrived on the rush as of late, with good crisp breakouts in their own zone. This leads to a five-man unit pressing up ice against a three or four-man defense. What happens when that breakout fails is ugly. The Kings have to fallback on individual creativity. They have to, to go back to our original analogy, start their morning with a broken coffee maker.
Maybe it is by virtue of this style being pounded into their head for several seasons, but when that breakout is not there it just does not look crisp or clean. Players do not know how to react. This is perhaps a big leap and assumption to make, but there is at least evidence. This dependency on structure is what makes the Kings a great team as a whole, but a poor team for individual performances. Players regularly see production dips when they come to Los Angeles, but they remain on a competitive team and look like altogether competent players.
Then you look at maybe the opposite end of the spectrum with Dallas. This is a team full of enterprising forwards like Spezza, Benn, Seguin, Nichushkin, and Hemsky. No structure leads to some stupidly wide open games, but it also leads to swashbuckling plays out of their own zone like this:
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You see things like this from the Ducks as well with Bruce Boudreau with Corey Perry. The reins are pulled off, and the players pretty much dictate how things go. Perry will cherry pick the red line and wait for a feed. This is not in any playbook, I guarantee you. This is Boudreau saying "Do what you feel Corey." He did the same with Ovechkin, but this eventually led to his dismissal and the hiring of a more structure oriented coach in Adam Oates and eventually a great in between in Barry Trotz.
With two cups, it is hard to argue the merits of a very structured system. That being said, know that this systematic approach has its flaws. When it is good, it is very very good. It is crisp, hard to stop, and almost robotic in execution and implementation. When it is bad it is an out of synch and impotent mess that limits individual creativity.
When the execution comes around the Kings will be in better shape. Just know that when it is ugly it is going to almost be unwatchable. The first three games this year have been prime examples of that. Tonight they get a chance against Minnesota to better their lacking execution.
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