Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed the Kings would score 3 goals over 2 games or that both goalies would combine to within +/-2 of 48 saves:
3 goals (1 Point):
hihocarp
empire
Kurisu
46,50 saves (1 point):
Jerram
Big congratulations to Jerram for being the only poster even within 2 of the combined saves of the game!
For the game itself, similar to the Av's game its pretty clear that you have to big picture this vs looking at it as a top team matchup with predictive power. Both teams on b2b starting their backups (yes it works out well that one is Quick's revenge game). At that the singular incidences of the game are definitely far from normal, losing Danault for a period or so to a puck to the face, losing Gavrikov for 2 periods (maybe more), a game that even the NY beat writer called "strangely officiated". Add in the 3 in 4 aspect and the absurdly low shot totals by both teams and its fair to say the takeaways from the game that matter are probably in order:
1) While the feistiness around the net is something that vocal fans want to see, the Kings are clearly not in their element with it in terms of effectiveness on the scoreboard. Those powerplays hurt, alot, especially down 2 of your top PK players.
2) That said, watching Kopitar absolutely maul a guy in a bear hug had to be only topped by watching Q with two rags in a headlock.
3) Roy without Gav was a stark reminder of who's the 3 and who's the 4. He made that great outlet pass to Grundy, but aside from that his own end work was rougher than we've seen.
4) This might be lower than some would like to see, but down Danault for a period plus I think many of us want to see "more" from PLD. I'll refrain from openly bashing him on it simply because I'm not sure what "more' from PLD should look like. I mean people used to say Kopi wasn't worth the 7 million on his second contract because he was "Perimitar". Kopi's game hasn't changed but his salary went up and the team won 2 cups because they let him drive the bus. I don't know if Todd's got a plan for PLD to be able to do the same so he can flourish. But man did it sure look like he was standing straight up and watching a lot of play this night.
5) I don't want to make too much of the 5 in 8, I do think the 3 in 4 is a genuine predictive stat in the NHL these days. But 5 in 8 on the road in the east....If that's an excuse then this team having 5 games in hand on everyone due to the light schedule predicts that there's lots of pain ahead in December.