GDT ***LA Kings vs Tampa Bay Lightning GDT 1/4/25 >>6:00pm<< on FanDuel***

Nyssa42 said:
They (TB) were certainly very, very good at denying that blue line. I said to my friend, "How in the heck do they have 12 guys standing up at the blue line on every play?!?" They're missing a few (many) pieces from their Cup runs, but Cooper's game-plan still works very, very well. And their giant D-men are very effective in their own zone. They are just a few players away from another deep run. Or they will fall apart a'la the 2015-19 Kings and need a few years to regroup - but that salary cap increase could be a big boon to this Tampa team to get a superstar veteran to help out Kucherov because he seems to be doing a lot of work on his own now, with Point seeming to be the only other really effective forward when the structure breaks down on offense. (which is how we won this game - we are very good at controlling 1-line teams)
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Too funny...I literally said the same exact thing last night: "It's like they have eight guys out there playing defense."
You gotta hand it to Cooper and his system. That's an extremely well-coached team, and along with all those big bodies, they're tough to beat.
But the Kings keep finding ways to win games. And they're winning games in many different ways, which is beyond impressive.
Once again, I don't want to get too excited here, but dang, this team has no quit in them. The Kings are a perfect combination of veteran leadership and young talent...not to mention a pretty good goaltending tandem.
The Kings are rapidly becoming a team no one wants to play.
 
This team is finding ways to win. They may have been outplayed for most of the game. But they kept it even until they got one little opportunity. And that play by Turcotte, wow! That was equal parts skill & effort. We’ve had enough games to say he belongs on that top line with Kopitar & Kempe. He’s finally looking like he deserved to be drafted 5th overall. I do kind of wished that in the post game interview Carrlyn had asked him about the US playing for gold in the WJC, what with him & Kaliyev being gold medal winners for the US. Anyway that was a huge win.
 
Halfwall said:
What the heck is wrong with Hiller, a game like that and Kopitar with just a smidgen over 18 minutes.
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Not sure anything is wrong with Hiller. When the Kings are chasing, as they were for most of the evening, Kopitar can be a liability with his lack of speed. That said, great win with the seemingly rare goaltender saved our butt.
 
Nyssa42 said:
They (TB) were certainly very, very good at denying that blue line. I said to my friend, "How in the heck do they have 12 guys standing up at the blue line on every play?!?" They're missing a few (many) pieces from their Cup runs, but Cooper's game-plan still works very, very well. And their giant D-men are very effective in their own zone. They are just a few players away from another deep run. Or they will fall apart a'la the 2015-19 Kings and need a few years to regroup - but that salary cap increase could be a big boon to this Tampa team to get a superstar veteran to help out Kucherov because he seems to be doing a lot of work on his own now, with Point seeming to be the only other really effective forward when the structure breaks down on offense. (which is how we won this game - we are very good at controlling 1-line teams)
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What I found bizarre is how I would see 3 Lightning players below the faceoff dots in the offensive zone pressuring the Kings D. Then, when the Kings got control of the puck and moved up the ice there were already 3 guys standing across the blueline. How the heck were they able to achieve that so darn frequently. It was like they had 6 skaters most of the time.
 
waynet said:
Not sure anything is wrong with Hiller. When the Kings are chasing, as they were for most of the evening, Kopitar can be a liability with his lack of speed. That said, great win with the seemingly rare goaltender saved our butt.
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Yep, on the last few games of the road trip, Kopi seemed gassed towards the end of games. Father Time and all.
 
symbology said:
What I found bizarre is how I would see 3 Lightning players below the faceoff dots in the offensive zone pressuring the Kings D. Then, when the Kings got control of the puck and moved up the ice there were already 3 guys standing across the blueline. How the heck were they able to achieve that so darn frequently. It was like they had 6 skaters most of the time.
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No sheet. I swear it was like the Lightning were playing with a man advantage all game.
 
Dr. Tran said:
This team is finding ways to win. They may have been outplayed for most of the game. But they kept it even until they got one little opportunity. And that play by Turcotte, wow! That was equal parts skill & effort. We’ve had enough games to say he belongs on that top line with Kopitar & Kempe. He’s finally looking like he deserved to be drafted 5th overall. I do kind of wished that in the post game interview Carrlyn had asked him about the US playing for gold in the WJC, what with him & Kaliyev being gold medal winners for the US. Anyway that was a huge win.
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Can you imagine how good this team will be if we can figure out that overtime/shootout thingy?
 
I was a little concerned last night on the go ahead goal because it looked like Turcotte skated off awkwardly. Then Lewis replaced him for every shift after that, which I under Hillers intent, given the circumstances of him playing his 1000th game. I also could not spot Turc on the bench for the final minutes, nor did I see him on the ice for the win celebration. Obviously he came out to speak with Carrlyn to address the crowd, so that was reassuring, as I think they’d send someone else out there if he was hurt, or even dinged up. Anyone else notice that, or am I just overly paranoid about this kids health at this point?
 
OK, on Locked On, Eddie said he wasn’t noticing this, so I did my own unscientific check using the first period of this game. I looked for situations where a team obtained clear possession in their own defensive zone and made one or more passes inside the defensive zone. I also checked whether something went wrong to where the opposing team got an offensive chance.

I’m no statistician and someone else might mark it differently, but I counted six times where a Lightning player got clear possession in their own D zone and made one pass to a teammate in the zone. In all other situations the player either carried the puck out or passed/shot the puck out of the zone. In none of the situations did the Kings get an offensive chance. For the Kings, I counted ten times where the King made one pass, four times where they made two passes in the zone, and one remarkable sequence (13:22-13:31) with six passes in our own defensive zone. As I saw it, these passing instances led to three offensive chances for Tampa Bay.

This just can’t be good. Every pass is a chance for something bad to happen. I don’t view Tampa Bay as run and gun, but they get the puck the heck out of the D zone. I get valuing possession, but it’s almost a tic at this point.
 
Dr. Tran said:
There’s no such thing as deserved.
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! 0 Deserve.jpg
 
jcwla said:
OK, on Locked On, Eddie said he wasn’t noticing this, so I did my own unscientific check using the first period of this game. I looked for situations where a team obtained clear possession in their own defensive zone and made one or more passes inside the defensive zone. I also checked whether something went wrong to where the opposing team got an offensive chance.

I’m no statistician and someone else might mark it differently, but I counted six times where a Lightning player got clear possession in their own D zone and made one pass to a teammate in the zone. In all other situations the player either carried the puck out or passed/shot the puck out of the zone. In none of the situations did the Kings get an offensive chance. For the Kings, I counted ten times where the King made one pass, four times where they made two passes in the zone, and one remarkable sequence (13:22-13:31) with six passes in our own defensive zone. As I saw it, these passing instances led to three offensive chances for Tampa Bay.

This just can’t be good. Every pass is a chance for something bad to happen. I don’t view Tampa Bay as run and gun, but they get the puck the heck out of the D zone. I get valuing possession, but it’s almost a tic at this point.
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This is really astute, will take this amateur stat work any day.

While I joked @ICE24 over a post (it was a timing thing), the post was accurate regarding Kings reaction to a good forecheck. Tampa was relentless and Kings just held on. While it’s hard to ask more from this defense which has proved elite overall, Doughty’s return will bring more poise when under pressure in the dzone. He will be less reactive and carry the puck better.
 
DarkLeftHand said:
I was a little concerned last night on the go ahead goal because it looked like Turcotte skated off awkwardly. Then Lewis replaced him for every shift after that, which I under Hillers intent, given the circumstances of him playing his 1000th game. I also could not spot Turc on the bench for the final minutes, nor did I see him on the ice for the win celebration. Obviously he came out to speak with Carrlyn to address the crowd, so that was reassuring, as I think they’d send someone else out there if he was hurt, or even dinged up. Anyone else notice that, or am I just overly paranoid about this kids health at this point?
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Hopefully it’s just the normal procedure, where Hiller plays a more experienced and defensive minded forward (like Foegele or Lewis) when protecting the lead.

But that doesn’t explain if Turcotte missed the win celebration…
 
How’d you like to be the Lightning right now? Everyone last week saying how good they were & ready to take a run. Then they come to California & lose all 3 games. And I don’t know about San Jose, but they outplayed both the Kings & Ducks. I’d rather be us than them, that’s for sure.
 
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