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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    Shore Improvement; Does LA Play Down to Competition

    jedi17
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    • Post n°1

    Shore Improvement; Does LA Play Down to Competition Empty Shore Improvement; Does LA Play Down to Competition

    Post by jedi17 Sun 08 Jan 2017, 9:45 pm

    Shore Improvement; Does LA Play Down to Competition?
    January 7, 2017, 10:38 AM ET [4 Comments]
    Sheng Peng
    Shore Improvement; Does LA Play Down to Competition La
     Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
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    Thursday night's 4-0 loss to Detroit was an abrupt thud after the high of a home-and-home sweep of San Jose.

    Afterwards, there were many complaints about LA's purported tendency to play down to their competition. And while earlier losses to Colorado and Buffalo were less than ideal -- the idea that the Kings are particularly prone to "taking the gas off the pedal" is probably overblown.

    If you're willing to consider these teams as the dregs of the league -- Arizona, Buffalo, Colorado, Detroit, New Jersey, and New York (Islanders) -- let's see how other Western Conference playoff-bound squads have fared against this dirty half-dozen: Chicago (6-0-1), Minnesota (4-4-1), Anaheim (3-2-2), San Jose (4-2-1), Edmonton (4-2-2), St. Louis (4-2-1), Calgary (8-1-1), and Vancouver (6-3-0).

    (My arbitrary definition for the NHL's cellar-dwellers is being five-plus points out of a playoff berth. But considering that Buffalo, Detroit, New Jersey, and New York are all within eight points or less of the postseason at the moment, there's really just two surefire lottery squads right now.)

    Los Angeles -- currently on the outside looking in -- owns a not distressing 4-3 record versus these squads.

    Consider that the Wild have lost to the Avalanche twice, the Sharks have dropped two contests to the Coyotes, and the Oilers have been downed by both the Sabres and Coyotes two times each. Also, the Flames have engulfed the Avalanche and Coyotes for six wins, while the Canucks have bullied the Sabres and Coyotes for five victories.

    So if you're looking on the bright side -- losing to bad teams isn't just an LA story. Also, Calgary and Vancouver's schedule is going to get much harder.

    Anyway, all this serves to remind us not to get too worked up over one loss, however terrible. Right now, the Kings still look like a postseason team -- albeit, a very flawed group.

    ***

    The Kings are a solid 12-11-2 against current playoff teams, including signature efforts against Columbus, Pittsburgh, San Jose, and Chicago.

    ***

    Yesterday, Darryl Sutter offered some solid insight to LA Kings Insider about the team's young, bottom-six pivots. If you missed it:

    "I think that Nick Shore and Nic Dowd are pretty well balanced right now just based on minutes played. That’s how we’ve used ‘em...We don’t have a three or a four right now. We have guys that are balanced in."


    "I’d say that Shoresy can be a more productive guy in terms of the actual goals and assists part. I think he’s a really reliable player and he’s been an awesome penalty killer for us this year and his ability to take faceoffs against top centermen has really gone up for us...Dowder, he’s shown that he can be a pretty good power play guy for us in terms of making the play or hanging onto the puck and making a good decision with it. Obviously his play in his own zone, playing away from the puck [inaudible], all those things, in terms of what those really third and fourth line centermen bring, so for sure that he has to improve on."


    I agree with most of what was said, except this reference to Shore -- "his ability to take faceoffs against top centermen has really gone up." 

    Shore is last among regular Los Angeles centers with a 46.1 Faceoff Win %. Since his season-low 42.7 on November 23rd, he's won an improved but hardly overwhelming 50.0.

    So I wonder what Sutter was talking about? Perhaps the Kings are tracking faceoffs specifically against "top centerman"?

    Probably not, but encouragingly, Shore came into the season with a 52.3 career Faceoff Win %. Hopefully, his 2016-17 will round to form in this department.

    However, Shore's 5v5 game has improved. At the end of November, he sported a mediocre 49.6 Corsi For % and 45.0 Scoring Chances For %. From December on, he's had a 52.9 CF% and an even better 59.5 SCF%. 

    As for his penalty killing, Shore leads the entire league with a 48.5 SH Fenwick Against/60. This is out of 230 qualified skaters who have played over 50+ shorthanded minutes this season.

    (Fenwick, or unblocked shots, "shows the highest correlation to goals against on the penalty kill.")


    While this doesn't necessarily make Shore the best penalty killer in the NHL -- his gaudy numbers are likely skewed by the fact that he isn't LA's first-choice PK'er, meaning he doesn't automatically face the opposition's top power play unit -- this impressive stat shouldn't be dismissed either.
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