LA Kings (L) 1 vs. Calgary Flames (W) 3
The LA Kings continued their season opening road trip with a pathetic performance against the Flames in Calgary. Two things really stood out to me this game. #1 the Kings offense needs some help and as much as I hate dump & chase hockey sometimes you have to play it. #2 don't put too much stock in what a commentator tells you because half the time they don't know what they are talking about.
Lets look at #1 and try and figure out what is wrong with the Kings offense. Team speed is not always about fast skaters, its about moving the puck. Right now the Kings are suffering from the defense men not moving the puck quickly. In trying to get up the ice the forwards are reaching the offensive zone before the puck is passed to them. This is resulting in the puck being passed to players who are not moving. When this happens it is very easy for the defense to stand up at the blue line. Instead of then dumping the puck into the zone they are trying to keep with the teams new philosophy and carry the puck across the blue line where the opposing team is just taking it away and going back on offense. If the forwards are getting the puck at the blue line while they are not moving then they need to stop trying to carry the puck in the zone and just dump it.
Since I hate dump and chase hockey I will offer my remedy for the Kings offensive woes. First the defense men need to pass the puck quicker, I have noticed them holding the puck too long at the point also. Second the forwards have to help out, move! If the forwards are hitting the blue line without the puck being passed, circle back to the puck carrier. It worked for the Russians forever and will still work today, also don't show the puck carrier your back skate cross ice and make the pass easier this isn't table hockey. Finally SHOOT! make the goalie make a save, it is really not as easy as it looks, goalies make mistakes.
Now on to #2, it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and anyone that knows me or has read my book The Goalie Coach Handbook will tell you if a commentator has not played the position they are talking about don't listen to them. I have been a Kings fan ever since I started watching hockey and Jim Fox has always been the commentator. I find Jim to be excellent at his job and he offers very good insights into the game of hockey, but he is a forward and thinks like one. In this game he was adamant about Jonathan Bernier giving up a bad goal and it costing the Kings the game. Jim is correct if you are only looking at the goaltenders performance as a reason for the loss, but he has the goals backwards as too which is a bad goal. I will detail the reasons for this in the goalie breakdown below. Just be aware (and this goes with any sport) it doesn't matter if the commentator played the game at the highest level if he/she did not play that position then they have no experience to draw from and don't know a damn thing.
Jonathan Bernier
Goals (2) Shots (31) Saves (29) Save % (.935)
Bernier looked very solid and in control in his first game of the season. With the exception one glaring mistake I thought he played a very good hockey game. He is continuously referred to as a technical goalie and that is a correct in the sense that he plays a very well positioned game and doesn't waste a lot of energy with unnecessary movements. This tends to overshadow that Bernier is a very athletic goaltender as well and can use this ability to surprise opposing forwards.
The first goal of the game contrary to popular belief is the bad goal. Taking into account the sloppy play by the Kings power play unit and the fact that neither Johnson nor Doughty thought they needed to play defense most people will not fault the goaltender, but look a the video below. The #1 rule of goaltending is never make the first move. Not only does Bernier make the first move but he telegraphs it. Look at the angle starting from the :50 sec mark, notice that Bernier slid his blocker hand up the shaft of the stick too early, Glencross looked up and saw this and knew Bernier was going to try to poke-check. You can see Glencross watch for it and as soon as Bernier went for it Glencross walked around him and scored. This was a bad goal, if Bernier doesn't telegraph the poke-check or better still just stays with the shooter to try and make the save and it scores then its not on the goalie, but in this case he sold out and went for a desperation move when he didn't need too and its on him.
The second goal is in reality a good goal by a veteran player, but because of how it looked most people assume that Bernier should have stopped it. You'll see in the below video that it appears to be a soft goal because there is just not that much to it. Watching it real time I was a bit disappointed but after the replay a few things stood out to me. One wrist shots are quicker and more deceptive than slap shots. Two Conroy made sure to take the shot while Drewiske the Kings defense man was screening Bernier. Three the puck went in off of the far post which tells me the placement of the shot was very good. This is not a bad goal it just looks that way.
This is what Bernier had to say about the second goal courtesy of Rich Hammond at LA Kings Insider.
“I was screened and he [Davis Drewiske] said it hit his stick. I felt like I was kind of square on the puck, and then when the puck got in, I looked at myself and I felt like I was off a little bit, so I don’t know if it got tipped. He said he felt it hit his stick.”
I find this quote tells me a lot about this young goaltender, he acknowledges he was screened on the play but did not use it as an excuse. He tells us that his defense man said it hit his stick but he doesn't stop there, he states that even though he thought he was in position after the puck went in he wasn't so sure. This is a very honest assessment of the goal, he knows what happened but doesn't use it as an excuse. This kid has matured a lot and even after a bad goal and an unlucky one he still kept his head and team in the game with saves like the one below.
The third goal of the game was an empty net so trying to figure out how the goalie did on it is pretty pointless although I'm glad that Doughty plays defense instead of goal after watching his save technique.
Miikka Kiprusoff
Goals (1) Shots (22) Saves (21) Save % (.955)
Kiprusoff did a fine job of keeping the Kings of the scoreboard early, stopping several quality scoring chances before the Kings offense took a break till the midway point in the third. The one goal that he did allow seemed to be due to laziness on his part although it might have gone in either way. If you look at the video notice that after the first shot Kiprusoff doesn't get up to reposition himself for the follow up. He just slides around on his knees and as a result he is not square to the puck when the shot comes. This may not have mattered after the deflection by Dustin Brown but lazy goaltending is lazy goaltending and if he continues to play like that it will cost him and his team.
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