NHL Playoffs 2012: 3 Reasons to Believe the Kings Will Sweep the Coyotes

With an identical 7-0 record in Stanley Cup playoff road games and in their last seven outings altogether, the Los Angeles Kings have a radiant invitation to put the Phoenix Coyotes on the precipice of elimination Thursday night in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.

The suspension of Martin Hanzal, who had five points in 10 postseason games before his boarding infraction on Kings captain Dustin Brown, is the least of the Coyotes' troubles.

Sure, it epitomizes the lack of discipline that cost them a chance to redeem Game 2 and pull even in the series, but the immediate past should have no bearing on Phoenix’s effort to redress the situation in the immediate future.

But Hanzal or no Hanzal, the course of this series may be permanently out of the Coyotes’ hands already. Los Angeles has percolated itself a dense stream of confidence in the wake of a 4-1 dismissal of Vancouver and a sweep of St. Louis.

That confidence has done nothing but smoothly flow into the third game of the third round, which will mark the end of an 11-day wait for another home game that began with the end of the Blues series two Sundays ago.

Barring a rapid reversal of the following three trends, the Kings will likely be looking at their second straight Sunday afternoon handshake at the Staples Center.

Smothering Smith

Not surprisingly, Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick’s decisive upper hand on Phoenix counterpart Mike Smith is personifying the course of the series so far. But Quick is heavily indebted to his skating mates for that.

Having stopped 80 of 87 shots through the first two games, Smith’s .920 save percentage during the series is hardly reprehensible. But the fact that he has coupled that with a 3.51 goals-against average indicates that the L.A. strike force is wearing him down, getting into his head and/or finding more seams by simple virtue of more shots.

And before you assume that Smith’s Game 2 total of 40 shots faced was inflated by excess penalty-killing time, note that the Kings took 25 of those shots within 36 minutes and 28 seconds of even-strength action.

That means, theoretically, at the rate Los Angeles was churning, it could have issued a night’s total of 41 stabs at Smith even if the game had been penalty-free.

In Game 1, the Kings took 40 of their 47 shots within 46:48 of even strength.

Also note that Smith has been flagged for a penalty in each of the first two conference final games, having roughed Justin Williams in Game 1 and slashed Brown in Game 2.

Power Play Perk-Up

The Kings were 2-for-8 on the power play in Game 2 after going 4-for-51 in their previous 10 playoff outings. Never mind the fact that both conversions came on a two-man advantage or that the Coyotes brought much of this on themselves through an egregious lack of discipline.

For LA’s sake, improvement on special teams has to start somewhere and now the Kings have some tangible conviction to feed off of.

In addition, the assortment of names drawing the 12 Los Angeles power plays, on top of the shot total against Smith, further underlines the threats of the Kings’ most leaned-on strikers.

Brown, the captain and top playoff point-getter, leads the team with three drawn penalties while Trevor Lewis and Williams have two apiece. The likes of Dustin Penner, Mike Richards and Jarret Stoll have drawn one apiece.

It’s hard to envision Phoenix losing control of itself in Games 3 and 4 to the same extent as it did in Game 2. Nevertheless, as long as the Kings continue to assert themselves on enemy property, they will have their share of opportunities to keep enhancing their power play.

Last Change in L.A.

While on the road, all three of the Kings’ defensive units and nearly all of their forwards saw at least a sprinkling of action against Antoine Vermette, the Coyotes’ top point-getter through the first two rounds.

As it happened, it didn’t matter much who was monitoring him. Vermette was held scoreless with a minus-one rating on three shots in Game 1 and never mustered a single stab at Quick in Game 2.

Ray Whitney and Radim Vrbata, Phoenix’s leading scorers in the regular season, are likewise pointless in the conference finals.

As the scene shuffles back to Los Angeles, head coach Darryl Sutter ought to have used the 45-hour interim between the last horn and the next puck-drop to decide which individual matchups will work best for his club. He will, in turn, have a chance to enact them on Thursday and Sunday and should be comfortable making any necessary tweaks along the way.