(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES — Two games into the 2009-10 season, the Los Angeles Kings are right where most everyone expected them to be, sporting a 1-1-0 record.
But that did not happen, to coin a phrase, according to Hoyle.
Indeed, the Kings were expected to easily defeat the bankrupt, owner-less Phoenix Coyotes on October 3 and then lose three days later to the class of the Pacific Division, the San Jose Sharks.
Instead, the Kings looked more like the Keystone Kops than a National Hockey League team in an embarrassing 6-3 loss to the Coyotes and then turned right around and defeated the Sharks on October 6, 6-4.
Against the Coyotes, one word describes the Kings’ performance.
Disastrous.
Phoenix easily ran around, past and through the hapless Kings in the Kings’ home opener. They were so bad that the phrase “comedy of errors” does not even begin to describe just how awful they were, especially in their own end.
Poor positioning. Standing around and watching the other team. Lack of poise. Poor decision-making. Blatant turnovers. Failure to win physical battles. The list of problems was very, very lengthy.
“It’s definitely not the start we wanted,” said center Anze Kopitar, who scored a goal and added an assist in the game. “We had some breakdowns in the defensive zone that led to their six goals.”
“We weren’t managing the puck good, we weren’t passing the puck, we didn’t play heavy enough or support each other,” added Kopitar. “Those are all small details that lead to a good result in the end.”
The Kings saved their worst for their own zone.
“It has to be a team effort in the defensive zone and we did not have that tonight,” said defenseman Rob Scuderi. “We had guys who were covering the same guy, we’d lose our coverage on a one-on-one and it created a small two-on-one. That’s all any NHL player needs to create some space and some two-on-ones in front of the net and they were able to do that for the majority of the night.”
“It’s tough to create in your defensive zone for your team,” added Scuderi. “Every time we got the puck out, we had to make a line change and get off the ice because you played thirty seconds of defense. That’s all you can play if you’re doing it the right way and we weren’t generating anything offensively.”
Scuderi said that the young Kings have to learn how to play at a consistently high level.
“We had some periods in the first and third where they couldn’t generate much, but that’s not enough,” he said. “You can’t even give a team ten minutes in this league. Otherwise, they’re going to turn that into a couple of goals.”
“That’s something that can’t happen,” he added. “We’ve been preaching team defense and that’s got to be our building block. That just wasn’t the case tonight. I don’t know how many quality scoring chances between the dots we gave up and that can’t happen if we’re going to be a consistently winning team.”
Head coach Terry Murray saw things much the same way that Kopitar and Scuderi did.
“That’s probably the worst scenario you can have on an opening night,” Murray lamented. “We looked very out of synch, we were not passing the puck well, over-handling, a lot of turnovers. Just sloppy play.”
“Making plays was not there,” Murray added. “That was something we did well last year on a game-to-game basis and that was not evident here at all.”
Then there were the turnovers. And not the little ones that a player can sometimes get away with that many people fail to notice. Rather, these were big, fat turnovers, the ones everyone sees coming a mile away and always end up with a goal by the team receiving the overly generous gift.
“There might be three or four goals where we had the puck and ended up turning it over,” said Murray. “We were going one way and ended up turning the puck over and they were coming back at us in odd-man situations. That’s the part we have to be better at.”
Goaltender Jonathan Quick allowed six goals on thirty shots against, but he could not be blamed for the loss.
“I had no thoughts of pulling Quick,” said Murray. “I’d like him to be better. The first goal [a blast from the right face-off dot by Coyotes forward Radim Vrbata], I’d like to have that one back. But then the giveaways were a couple of real fast plays in front of him that he had no opportunity on. He’s our number one guy.”
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