The New York Rangers made it three in a row last night with a strong win in Anaheim against the NHL’s leading team. Tonight they look for revenge in LA, taking on the Kings team that beat them in the Stanley Cup Finals in June behind three overtime/double overtime victories. Yea, it still stings.
The Kings are an interesting team because they are never dominant in the regular season, but they are a fantastic playoff team. A #fancystat darling team, the Kings surprised a lot of people by not buying out Mike Richards in the offseason, and that has led to some issues on their fourth line. They have a +9 goal differential, and the Rangers have them beat in goals for (117 to 112) and goals against (103 to 91).
What have they done lately?
The Kings are an interesting team. They really ride Jonathan Quick’s highs and lows. They held the Sedin’s in check to start the year, then gave up seven to Nashville. They are barely above .500 in their last 10 (4-2-4), and have been treading water in the tough Pacific Division.
That said, they are doing all the right things lately, and are again one of the top possession teams in the league at 54.1% score-adjusted Fenwick. Over their past few games though, they’ve been dominant:
They may be a 54% score-adjusted team, but they’ve been around 60% Fenwick over their past 10 games. They do this not only by generating a good number of shot attempts in the offensive zone, but by clogging up the middle of the ice in the neutral/defensive zones and severely limiting opposition shot attempts. They are one of the best in the league at forcing the opposition to dump and chase.
They’ve been done in by some poor luck (7.3% shooting rate) that puts them near the bottom-third of the league. This is par for the course for the Kings though. Their rolling five-game average has their PDO below 95.
Eventually this will turn around for the Kings, but they are running into a red-hot Rangers team that has no sign of slowing down. Then again, this is just the team that can slow the Rangers down.
Kings Systems:
Daryl Sutter has the Kings playing a system similar to that of John Tortorella’s Rangers. They generally run an aggressive overload 2-1-2 forecheck (forecheckers attack the same side of the ice) and they play a 2-1-2 zone defense off the wall (two guys take the hit zone, one takes the support zone, two have the slot). Once the puck moves up high, depending on the matchup, they’ll attack the blue line or collapse their forwards. They play a hybrid penalty kill, and a 1-3-1/modified umbrella on the powerplay.
Rangers lineup:
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Martin St. Louis
Carl Hagelin-Kevin Hayes-Jesper Fast
J.T. Miller-Dominic Moore-Lee Stempniak
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Dan Boyle
John Moore-Kevin Klein
Cam Talbot is in net tonight.
Scratches/Injuries: Tanner Glass (healthy), Matt Hunwick (healthy)
Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game.
Game time is 10:30pm on MSG.
Share:
More About:Uncategorized