With the exception of the Chief's little "experiment", we do not really care too much about the baseball season. That being said, being from Los Angeles, one of the few things we truly enjoy about the long season is listening to a game being called by the legendary Vin Scully. Sure, he might have lost it a bit in these last few seasons, but there is something about the way he seems genuinely excited to be at the ballpark everyday. And of course, there are all his predictable catch phrases. Though he is no Jim Brockmire when it comes to catch phrases, if there are two balls, two strikes, and two outs in the inning, you know Vin is going to drop "The deuces are wild". And if there is a runner on third, you can bet he will ask "Begs the question, how many wild pitches has [insert pitcher here] thrown?" It is like clockwork; and we love it.
A significant percentage of our readership has recently contacted us regarding the content of our site. While these readers continue to appreciate their Friday entertainment, they are concerned that (1) there has not been a lot of any original content recently, and (b) there has been a heavy dose women. As it turns out, we have a solid female readership that actually enjoys our perspective on things other then women. Who knew? So all this begs the question, what ever happened to that blog dedicated to sports and life?
Well, the Chief dropped a tablet of truth this morning and here it is: the Chief feels like he has lost his "voice" and has gotten a little gun shy. And once he got that feeling that his "voice" was gone, he fell back on one of the easier topics to cover: attractive women. When dealing with attractive women, writing takes a back seat. All you have to do is link to a picture and let it do all the work. It was a quick and easy solution for the guy who lost his confidence. Sure, he had to try and find a way to make the ladies relevant to the here and the now, but, as you can see, that was not really that difficult. Having taken a good, hard look at himself in the mirror this morning, the Chief decided it was time to get back in the saddle. And there is no day like today, the start of the Los Angeles Kings' first-round playoff series, to do just that. You did not actually think we were going to spend an entire post talking about baseball, did you?
I am a firm believer that patterns play an integral role in the sports world, and when you look at the Kings over the last two weeks of the regular season, you see one: the deuces are wild. Heading into to the final two weeks of the season, the Kings were on a tear, having gone 19-4-5 over a span of twenty-eight games and surged into contention for home-ice in the opening round of the playoffs. In game twenty-six of that the stretch, they lost Justin Williams, their second-leading scorer, to a dislocated shoulder. Two games later, they lost Anze Kopitar, their leading scorer, to torn tendons in his ankle, which required surgery. Two games, top two offensive weapons gone, in the tightest playoff race the Western Conference had seen in recent memory. Yup, that is pretty much the worst thing that could happen to the Kings.
Over the final two weeks of the season, the Kings played seven games against Western Conference opponents, the final five against division rivals. Over those seven games without their top two scores, the Kings scored more than two goals once. They did manage to win three of those games thanks to solid goaltending from the two Jonathans, Quick and Bernier. When the Kings finally clinched a playoff spot with their April 6th win over Phoenix, they had two games left and needed only two points to clinch the fourth seed in the West and secure home-ice advantage in the first round. Sadly, the Kings lost both of the games by scoring a combined two goals and dropped to seventh in the Western Conference heading in the playoffs.
That brings us to today, when the Kings begin their opening-round playoff series against the second-seeded San Jose Sharks at HP Pavilion. Like most Kings fans, my dreams of a deep playoff run were crushed when it was announced that Kopitar needed surgery and was out indefinitely. And sliding all the way down to seventh did nothing to ease my fears of not advancing to the second round. For starters, the Sharks have quietly been one of the best teams in the league all season. Their offense is led by two thirty-goal scorers, including Patrick Marleau who has absolutely destroyed the Kings throughout his career. More over, the Sharks had the second-ranked power play during the regular season, going off at a 23.5% efficiency. Ouch.
But while I began my outline of this post expecting to write about the absolutely dismantling the Kings were going to face at the hands of the Sharks, the numbers (other than all those twos) started to tell a little different story. For starters, the Kings did post their second-straight forty-win season and reached the playoffs for the second straight year after an eight-year drought. And, it was announced yesterday that Williams will be back for tonight's game, a much needed boost to the Kings stagnant offense (though, I would have also liked to see the Kings recall über-prospect Brayden Schenn after his QMJHL team was eliminated from the playoffs, but that doesn't seem to be happening now). That being said, Williams will have to pick up his offensive production against the Sharks, having registered only two assists in the four games he played against San Jose this season. More importantly, it turns out the Sharks had done an impressive job shutting down Kopitar this season, holding him to four assists in the five games he played. Against the Sharks, the Kings have been led offensively by captain Dustin Brown (4 goals, 1 assist) and veteran winger Ryan Smyth (2 goals, 1 assist), both of whom are healthy and ready to go. And while the Sharks may have the second-best power play and sixth-best offense in the league, the Kings have the fourth-best penalty kill and sixth-best defense in the league. And though the Kings ranked only twenty-first on the power play (16.2%), the Sharks ranked twenty-fourth (79.4%) on the penalty kill. They say that special teams are an important part of winning a playoff series, and San Jose's strengths and weaknesses on special teams match up perfectly to those of the Kings. When compared to the other Western Conference playoff teams, the Shark's offense-first mentality may just be the ideal match-up for the Kings and their defense-first mentality.
So where do all these numbers leave us? There is no denying that the Kings are facing an uphill battle just to advance to the second round this year. While the return of Williams should help a struggling offense, they still lack a true offensive leader with Kopitar out. But if the Kings can manage to light lamp more then once a game, and play responsibly in the defensive zone (staying in position, clean breakouts of their zone, and not taking silly penalties), it is not too far fetched to see Jonathan Quick take care of business in net and lead the Kings past a team with a long history of playoff failures. Surprising the Sharks and taking game one tonight would be a big step in that direction.
And while my heart still only sees the Kings raising Lord Stanley's Cup come June, my brain tells a different story. It says the Sharks take the series in six. However, win or lose, you can expect this series will take at least two years off my life.
Go Kings Go!
