Kings-Canucks Playoff Preview Part III
This is the final part of our series preview between the Kings and Canucks. Perhaps that makes sense, since the game is tonight! In this section, we’ll look at both the goaltending matchups, a well as the intangibles, which includes the ever talked about “experience.” So here we go!
First the Canucks:
Roberto Luongo is arguably one of the most elite goaltenders in the NHL. After toiling away in mediocrity with the Panthers, he’s recently escaped Florida and made his way to hockey-mad Canada. His skills cannot reasonably be questioned, and earlier this spring he led Canada to the gold medal in the Olympics. However despite the fact that according to the management of Team Canada, Luongo is the best Canadian goalie in the league, I tend to disagree. At least at this point Luongo isn’t on his game. Take a look at his numbers: 2.57GAA, .913 sv%. Are they terrible? No, but they’re not anywhere close to the sort of numbers that one might expect from Luongo. You might blame the fact that the Canucks have let in more goals than every team in the Western Conference playoffs besides Colorado and Nashville on the defense, but clearly Luongo has been doing his part to let in some goals. The 8 goals the Kings scored in the last regular season game against the Canucks was probably a fluke, but the terrible performance by Luongo wasn’t. He’ll need to be on his game to pull out a Canucks win in this series.
Now on to YOUR LOS ANGELES KINGS!
Jonathan Quick has been a revelation this season. For years the Kings have failed to have a really strong goaltending situation. In fact that might be the understatement of the century. The Kings have had terrible goalkeeping for decades. Since Kelly Hrudey, and perhaps before, the Kings have been terrible between the pipes. Jonathan Quick stepped up this season and set a record for wins in a season with 39, and put up solid numbers. He’s put up a 2.54GAA and a .907 sv%, which compared to Luongo’s numbers isn’t bad. He’s got a slightly worse sv% and a slightly better GAA. The question is, has Quick hit a wall? Heading into the playoffs, Quick has been struggling in net, and failed to get a win in the last seven games that he played. It’s been rough going to be sure, having given up 25 goals in the last 23 periods. The Kings will need him to perform better if they want to win this series, but it’s worth noting that Luongo isn’t doing much (any?) better, having given up 28 goals in the last 24 periods. In fact it looks pretty close on almost every statistical category this season, and the winner may be the goaltender who steps his game up to the next level.
Advantage: Vancouver Canucks (barely)
Finally let’s take a look at the intangibles. The playoffs are almost all about intangibles, and the Kings-Canucks series is not going to be any different.
First the Canucks:
Almost every look at the teams has pegged the Canucks as the ‘experienced team’. They’ve got the players that have been in the playoffs recently, and that’s certainly true. Of course they don’t have a lot of experience in real high-level games, and very little experience with Stanley Cup Champions. In fact, only one player on their team even has a Cup ring to his name. That might be a significant factor in this series, but we’ll have to wait and see. It’s also worth pointing out that the Canucks will have all the pressure. They won their division, they play in Canada, they’ve got a gold-medal winning goaltender. They should win. Right? Only time will tell, but the pressure could have the Canucks gripping their sticks a little tighter, something they’d definitely prefer to avoid if at all possible. For the first two games, it’s also worth pointing out that the Canucks have the 2nd best home record in the NHL, and no team has more home wins than the Canucks.
The Kings are inexperienced. Right? Well, not really. Not only do they have significant experience in high-pressure games, including Brown, Johnson and Doughty playing huge minutes in significant roles in the USA-Canada Gold Medal game just months ago, but they’ve got more playoff experience than it might appear. The Kings have four Stanley Cup winners on their roster, with O’Donnell (Ducks), Scuderi (Penguins), Williams (Hurricanes), Modin (Lightening) as well as Greene, Stoll, and Smyth with Stanley Cup Finals experience. That’s not experience to scoff at. In addition, the Kings will (hopefully) be playing far looser than the favored Canucks. If the Kings can get a jump on the Canucks, they’ll be ready to roll and could get off to a big start. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a loose Kings team come out and grab a win in one of the first two matches in Vancouver. While the Canucks have the 2nd best home record, the Kings have the 2nd best road record, making it seem that the home-ice advantage battle may be even more important than normal in this battle.
Advantage: Los Angeles Kings (barely)
Overall Prediction: Kings in 6.