Playoff hockey & the Kings

[YoungGuns24]

After watching the games so far in every series but the Wild/Avs (boring), I've come to realize why the Kings don't make the playoffs, and why if we do we'll be knocked out in the first round.

Our team is NOT PHYSICAL.

Almost every player on both Philly & Washington had a decent/semi-hard hit at some point during that game. Some guys who arent normally known for hitting were throwing the body around a lot more, and the usuals (ovechkin) we're laying it down big time.

Now if the Kings were to ever make the playoffs, who would step it up in the post season? Who would be willing to sacrifice their body for the big hits/blocks, and take it to the next level? Im sorry to say this, but I don't see Frolov, Handzus, Kopitar, Calder, Preissing, Lubo, Cammalleri (whats he gonna do?), Moulson, or Harrold PHYSICALLY stepping their play up and taking it to the next level.

The bottom line is... the tough teams make the playoffs and the weak teams sit out. This is why SJ, ANA, DAL, CAL, and even DET, whose plenty physical, make the playoffs and teams like the Kings, STL, CHI, VAN, COL don't.

edit: COL = Columbus, not Colorado. should be CBJ^

[Palffy3314]

Not only do we need to be physical...we need some ****ing defense lol. In fact...we need a lot of things. :|

[VegasHockey]

Let's not forget that come playoff time, pretty much every team turns it up a notch. But yes, we still need to be more physical.

[DiehardKingsFan]

We're as soft as a team gets. Last place in the NHL in fights, and it's rare to see anyone on our team respond when someone takes a run at one of our players. We need to add some gritty players who can scrap.

[symbology]

After watching the games so far in every series but the Wild/Avs (boring), I've come to realize why the Kings don't make the playoffs, and why if we do we'll be knocked out in the first round.

Our team is NOT PHYSICAL.

Well, the teams are just playing playoff hockey. The Kings have not played any playoff type hockey for a while. Comparing playoff games to the way the Kings have played the past few years is almost pointless. We are tied for last place in the league because we SUCK!! You are right though, the lack of phyiscal play and toughness are one of the reasons we suck. I just don't think its fair to compare a team's play in a playoff game, to a non-playoff team's play.

I was really sorry to see that Boyle will be missing the playoffs this year. It would have been nice if he could have gained some experience in those types of games.

But, yes.... The Kings need to get bigger on D, and more physical for sure.

[KingsForCup]

Have you even watched the Wild/Avs series at all? Both games have been very exciting to watch. The first game was one of the best of the playoffs so far.

[FlyinKIng]

Instant that funny, were not physical, but Brownie lead the league with hits... Too bad Blake thru his purse at people more than hit them!

[Jawa Ambush]

And let's also not forget--let's not forget, Dude--that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city--that isn't legal either.

[mikedonnelly]

I don’t know who is making that criticism, so it is hard for me to comment on it. I think we can always improve in our mental toughness and we can always improve in our physical toughness. If you compare us to say, San Jose or Anaheim, yeah, they are physically tougher teams. They are bigger and stronger and they have more experience, and they have more experience in big games. From the standpoint of saying did it cost us games, our physical or our mental toughness, no, I don’t think it did. I thought we recognized the type of team that we had in the summer and we knew that we were going to have to be the kind of team that didn’t take a lot of penalties to have a chance. And we did that. Our penalty killing is still suffering because we don’t have a lot of good, experienced penalty killers. We are developing our penalty killing and it can be painful when you do that. At the same time, you look at it and there were 13 teams that gave up more power play goals than us this season, so we made a good adjustment in what we did there and how we played. We were the second least penalized team in the league this year, so you have to deal with what you have, and that’s what we have. On the other side, we drew a lot of penalties this year and I think we were in the top five or six and at one point we were the leading team in drawing penalties, and consequently we were giving ourselves better opportunities to be in games and to win games because we were getting more power play opportunities than giving up, which is in direct contrast to the way it we were the year before when we were among the league leaders in penalties taken

[backofthenet]

I would say we are very, very close.

All we need is

1. A great goaltender (not just a good one)
2. A number 3, 4, and 5 dman.
3. A true number two center.
4. A great 3rd line.
5. A shut down 4th line.
6, A system that the team believes in and can play within.
7. Luck

See, that's really not too much, right? Very close.

[paki4]

man anyone have highlights or a tape of game one or two vs colorado in 2002? the first round series. man..those were arguably the two hardest hitting games i've EVER seen the kings play.

[NewCastle]

Originally Posted by mikedonnelly

I don’t know who is making that criticism, so it is hard for me to comment on it. I think we can always improve in our mental toughness and we can always improve in our physical toughness BLAH BLAH no, I don’t think it did. I thought we recognized the type of team that we had in the summer and we knew that we were going to have to be the kind of team that didn’t take a lot of penalties to have a chance. And we did that. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

I hate Marc Crawford more for his quotes than the coacing. Do you like how he turned the topic from team toughness to penalties and special teams?
Congrats on dodging the issue. But thanks for agreeing that we aren't tough like 2 of our division rivals. We KNOW that.

[NewCastle]

I posted this up on Rich's blog as well. Thought it'd belong here too.

"Even if an Orpik or Commodore [which i'm a fan of getting one of them] is added on the blueline, this doesn't address the overall level of toughness on the team. It just addresses one part.

While Brown throws big hits and Johnson [is getting] there and Stuart was doing it later in the season and John Zeiler checks the boards better than anyone, the Kings are lacking in team toughness. Ivanans is the only one that will throw down regularly (though I d