Growing Pains

 "Oh no.  We suck again."  Well, I may have gone a bit far with that.  This team is far from terrible, but growing pains are likely to be a common theme this season.  Despite loosing, there are some takeaways from Saturday's rather entertaining game.  

It would appear that we are quite a ways from getting blown out of too many games.  While, as a fan, I would prefer the teams that I root for to be dominant night in and night out, I can live with being competitive.  I guess that is my bottom line.  Watching a team that simply isn't competitive is agitating at best, and I don't need that stress in my life.  

The best thing that I saw Saturday night was some competitive pride from Kopi.  Early in the game, line three was by far the best line on the ice.  Granted this is in part because they aren't playing against the top lines, but it was clear that line one and Kopi himself took that to heart, and began to respond with some significant pressure themselves.  The long term success of this line seems to hinge on Kopi's energy level and Kempe improving his decision making.

A continued positive has been the play of the fourth line.  The Kings fourth line as a whole is consistently better than the lines they face.  They fore check relentlessly, getting into passing lanes, grinding with speed and energy and generally giving the other team headaches.  Grundstrom especially continues to land some solid and punishingly physical blows.  He continues to play a fundamentally sound game and brings a physical presence that many of the youngsters who simply don't carry enough mass can't bring.  More importantly, he isn't head hunting.  He isn't creating issues for his teammates by asking for retribution, just playing the game much as it should be.

If the Kings are loosing, then obviously there are some areas where they need to improve.  The first area is the accuracy of the passes.  I'm going to put a bit of this on McClellan.  It appears that his expectations in camp were not very stringent for the quality of the Kings passing.  I could be wrong, and it could be completely that the players just aren't focussed enough in this area, but either way, McClellan must correct this.  I wish I could blame this all on the youngsters, but Doughty, Brown, and Kopitar have all been guilty of this.  While the idiotic passes have decreased significantly (they haven't gone away completely), the passing is still off enough to have a dramatic effect on the game.  This issue is still costing us offensive opportunities and creating scoring opportunities for the opponent.  The skill level on this team is such that everyone, including the players themselves should expect much better.

One of the weakest players on the ice has been Mikey Anderson.  However, I like that McClellan keeps putting him out there.  If you have read this blog before, you might know that I hated the way Doughty played as younger player.  He was fundamentally terrible, but the team recognized his skill and gave him the freedom to make mistakes and continue to learn.  Mikey Anderson needs the same.  He is behind the speed curve right now with regards to decision making.  He's holding on to the puck a hair too long.  He's bobbling pucks he should accept.  He is thinking too much.  I will venture to guess that it won't be too long before he begins to process the speed of the NHL, and the game will seemingly slow down for him.  I see a great deal of skill there, so patience is key.

Finally, again last night, Cal made a couple mistakes peppered in between some great plays that kept us in the game.  A recurring theme in Cal's mistakes seems to be traffic in front.  He seems to be struggling to pick up the puck through the mass of bodies in front of him.  Yes, he needs to do a bit better, but the Kings defense also has to make sure he has some lanes through which he can see the puck.  

One of Cal's more stellar plays was a big stop on a two on one caused by Carter.  Carter was in position to help on defense, but lazily, didn't check the outside where a St. Louis player streaked past him.  The Kings vets need to harness some of the hunger of the youth.  The vets need to lead by example.  Without that, they serve little purpose except to cash large checks.  

I'm looking forward to seeing some improvements.  To McClellan's credit, we have already seen some.  With any luck, this team will become more than just competitive.