Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
More of the kids!
As much as this pains me to say, the Kings are really not going to contend for anything this year, except maybe the first pick in the NHL draft.
So, since we're all in agreement, let the kids play on the same line! Kopitar, Cammallari and O'Sullivan should be getting plenty of playing time together, since we are building around this nucleus, and not Armstrong, Conroy and Blake. Against the Red Wings, Crawford had these guys paired up on some of the PP opportunities. This should continue.
And speaking of the Kings power(less) play, the Kings lead the league in PP opportunities. In 6 games, L.A. has had 53 chances with a man up. The Kings have responded with 6 goals in those 53 chances. That's less that 10 percent of the time, we score with one or more man on the ice! Pathetic!
Because we can't score on the PP, teams are going to take runs at our top players. Other teams' thugs are going to try and goad Avery into fighting. At 53 chances for a PP goal, L.A. is getting NO respect from the league. And it's just going to get worse. Because guess what? The Kings are near the top of the league in penalty minutes as well!
