***LA Kings @ Washington Capitals GDT 11/17/25 4:00pm on FanDuel***

[VCRW]

Barely so.

I’d prefer to see Malott sit and Turc move up to the Kopi-Kempe line. Helenius between Perry and Armia.

Exactly. Malott is an AHL-er. And Turc is wasted on Line 4. And Armia does not belong with Kopi and Juice.

 

[Birdman]

321 doesn't really have that much of an impact, it's the loser point that does the most

I need you to analyze the last 10 seasons of play, and show me how it would or wouldn’t have made a difference. Pretty graphs too.

You know the spreadsheet guru in you wants to do it Jammer. It would be a great Holiday project when it’s way too cold to go outside.

 

[jammer06]

I need you to analyze the last 10 seasons of play, and show me how it would or wouldn’t have made a difference. Pretty graphs too.

You know the spreadsheet guru in you wants to do it Jammer. It would be a great Holiday project when it’s way too cold to go outside.

I'm nearly positive there's an analytics guy that does this annually, almost none of the changes end up making big differences in the standings overall. I personally would rather go back to ties and no OT. Second choice would be 3-3 OT but with a blue line back court rule. Third choice would be how they have it now because they could always make it worse.

 

[DarkLeftHand]

Kings out-Kinged the Sens, but the Caps out-Kinged the Kings. Simple as that.

 

[emsomaso]

The Kings game plan of boring the opposition to death seems to be working.

Not just the opposition but it is also killing us viewers! It is so incredibly boring to look at Kings games at the moment, even when they win. BORING!!!!!

 

[Statue4Deano]

It’s very funny that the Kings dominated possession in the 3rd but they simply have no ability to create consistent dangerous chances 5 on 5 so Washington was perfectly content going into a full shell defense and coasting to a win.

 

[Halfwall]

The Kings were more boring than usual. Just a waste of time.

I was half asleep so I didn't notice but are they back to the 1-3-1?

 

[Bollocks]

I'm nearly positive there's an analytics guy that does this annually, almost none of the changes end up making big differences in the standings overall. I personally would rather go back to ties and no OT. Second choice would be 3-3 OT but with a blue line back court rule. Third choice would be how they have it now because they could always make it worse.

But this does not take into account the variable of how motivated a team is towards the end of a close game and how willing the coaches are to play riskier hockey in order to win instead of being OK with a loser point if it goes to the OT...

 

[hokiecat]

At this point is Danault any better than Helenius would be?

He's much better. Helenius has no positive features except for his size.
Danault has been very good for years and was one of our stronger playoff performers. I don't think his game has cratered in 4 months time.

 

[jammer06]

Already?

 

[jammer06]

Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed within +/-1 of 30 saves and/or that the Caps first goal would come within +/-1:00 of 3:41 of the first:

30 saves (2 points):
SirJW
Clif
Nyssa42
pray4mojo

29,31 saves (1 point):
hornman
Guinevere
VCRW
Ecktore
Dr. Tran
Rusty

2:41-4:41 of the first (1 point):
VegasHockey
dannybuoy1
Nyssa42

Was on radio for most of the game due to a very long day at work. I did manage to watch the condensed game and there were fixable breakdowns on both goals. Bad luck to be on the other end of this one considering all the breakaways the kings had (granted the caps missed some too). The roadie is at the house money point but there's a division game coming up and they need those points.

 

[Clif]

He's much better. Helenius has no positive features except for his size.
Danault has been very good for years and was one of our stronger playoff performers. I don't think his game has cratered in 4 months time.

You can’t have this lack of production from even a defense-first third line. Danault has 4 assists and no goals in 20 games. That’s a kind of cratering.

Helenius is no better than a 4th line center but he hits effectively. He’s not just a pylon out there. He is also young and needs to play. Best solution is bring him in and move Turcotte up.

 

[DryKing]

He's much better. Helenius has no positive features except for his size.
Danault has been very good for years and was one of our stronger playoff performers. I don't think his game has cratered in 4 months time.

I'm with you, though he has struggled this season. That said, there's no reason to think he won't rebound (as he did last season during the playoffs).

The good:

Faceoff % 52.8 (4th best on team, 3rd best if we remove an outlier)
75% of his assists have been primary assists
Giveaways 14 (4th best on team)
Expected % of unblocked shots that missed the net 24.4% (2nd best on team)

The average:

PIM drawn 8 (8th best on team)
PIM Differential -2 (tied for 6th on team)
COSI 51% (tied for 13th)
Rebound created above expected 1.7 (5th best)


The bad:

Goals above expected -2.7 (worst on the team)
Takeaways 3 (tied-5th worst on team)
Shooting % 0 (averaging 5.18 shots per game)
Fenwick 48% (18th)
On-ice goal differential -5 (17th) (expected goal diff -4.7)