After Wednesday\u2019s defeat in Colorado, Peter Laviolette said that the footage from that game would certainly be used when the team got back to the rink on Friday. <\/p>\n
In the locker room today, players spoke about seeing a good chunk of video before practice, centering on a number of different topics. Comes with the territory after surrendering eight goals in Game 1. It felt as if there was more video than usual, with a variety of different focal points. <\/p>\n
How would Laviolette describe it?<\/p>\n
\u201cExtensive, is that the word you said? Yeah. Probably a good word for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no panic after a defeat in Game 1. The Kings are the oldest team in the NHL and that probably helps with that. Still, there are numerous areas the Kings wanted to address after the season-opening loss in Colorado and there was a lot of time spent today, before practice, on getting to it. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of things that we can clean up,\u201d Laviolette said. \u201cFrom what we do in the offensive zone when we don\u2019t have the puck, line rushes against, penalties. There\u2019s lots of things, I think the penalty kill [also]. Lots of areas where we can get better at and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three largest focal points in the locker room we heard today \u2013 penalty kill, discipline and defensive reads 5-on-5.<\/p>\n
All would make sense.<\/p>\n
On the defensive side of things, eight goals against feels like a natural starting point. You can break down the eight into four on the penalty kill and four at 5-on-5, although one of the even-strength goals was a product of the Kings power play, as it came on a 2-on-1 rush, stemming from a wayward shot at the other end of the ice. <\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t think the team\u2019s 5-on-5 defending was all that poor, overall, but there were some chances off the rush that either went in the back of the net or resulted in a save, but the chance was there nonetheless. So, the penalty kill was a focus, but the video session today didn\u2019t ignore the rest of it either. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe touched up on the kill and then we touched up on some 5-on-5 stuff,\u201d defenseman Cody Ceci said. \u201cWe gave up a little too much off the rush, just outnumbered in a few situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rush offense did directly lead to a couple of Colorado goals and especially early in the game, a few good chances that resulted in Darcy Kuemper saves. Per SportLOGIQ No team in the NHL last season generated more shots from the slot, off the rush, than Colorado. Also per SportLOGIQ, San Jose had 11 shots from the slot, off the rush, on Thursday against Florida. Only New Jersey had more in a season opener. Certainly a focal point, against a team that can attack in that way like the Avalanche did. <\/p>\n
The discipline was certainly a cause for concern.<\/p>\n
Laviolette didn\u2019t feel that there was a theme with the minors. On past occasions, we\u2019ve seen coaches comment on seeing too many stick infractions or too many penalties in the offensive zone. One game might be too short a sample size to assess that but the number of minors was far too high. Colorado doesn\u2019t need a numbers advantage on top of the personnel advantages already on the table. <\/p>\n
The message was received, though, that the overall number of penalties has to drop. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest takeaway was discipline, you can\u2019t really give those guys many opportunities on the power play with the caliber of guys they have, so I think that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to have to work on,\u201d forward Alex Laferriere added. \u201cI think if we can get better at that, I think our 5-on-5 play spoke for itself there and we\u2019re going to have chances to win a lot of games if we stay out of the box.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the video session, the Kings hit the ice for what felt a bit more spirited and intensive than practices we\u2019ve seen the days before games in past seasons. I would add longer into that mix as well. I think in past years, the skates the day before a game might have been a little shorter, with maybe a little less skating. Today\u2019s practice had some skating involved, including a couple of short-area sprints, as well as some competitive 2-on-2 situations towards the end of practice. <\/p>\n
As has been the case, both power play and penalty kill got some on-ice work, as you\u2019d expect after the struggles in Denver. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t believe that the Kings took line rushes, so I don\u2019t have a formal alignment for you, but the jersey colors we saw the players wearing would point to no major changes from the Colorado game, which is shown below for reference.<\/p>\n