Did Game 1 between the Wild and Avs highlight just how good the Kings were defensively against Colorado?
The Los Angeles Kings, like us, are now sitting at home watching the rest of the playoffs for the summer. But something interesting just transpired Sunday night: Game 1 of the second-round matchup between the Avs and the Wild.
Despite getting swept out of the postseason against the Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles showed they could hang defensively with one of the NHL’s most explosive teams, but in the end, their inability to generate offense proved to be their downfall.
Through the first three games of that first-round series, LA limited the high-powered offense in Colorado to just eight goals, a respectable mark against a team that was averaging 4.40 goals per game coming into the playoffs.
But, while the Kings' defense on hindsight looks to be even more impressive now after what we saw from the Wild and Avs in Game 1 last night, the blame on their offense remains justified.
Los Angeles scored a total of five goals across the four-game series sweep against the Avalanche, an average of 1.25 goals per game, making it incredibly hard to win, regardless of how well they defended.
This contrast becomes even more glaring when looking around the league during last night's opening series of the Western Conference second round.
In Game 1 of their playoff series, the Minnesota Wild exploded offensively, scoring six goals in the game and putting up five goals in just the first two periods alone. That’s more offense in 40 minutes than the Kings managed in four full games against Colorado.
Even with Minnesota scoring six goals, they still lost the game because they couldn't stop the Avs' offense, which responded with a nine-goal outburst in Game 1, including four in the final period to run away with the game.
This game highlighted two things about the Kings' first-round series against Colorado. Number one, LA was really doing a good job at limiting the best offensive team in Hockey from exploding, holding them to just four goals in the first two games, whereas Minnesota struggled to do that despite being red-hot on offense.
The Avs didn't even score on the power play against the Kings until game four of that series, as they went 1/11 in the series, but tonight against Minnesota, they already converted on the power play.
The second thing was that if LA had played like how they were on defense and brought that level to their offense, they might've won a couple of games, or even the series, after watching Minnesota score with ease against Colorado.
Throughout the series, the blame fell on LA's offensive struggles, which recorded only one multi-goal game in the four-game series. And that is the reality that we're now staring at, because if the Kings had at least been solid on offense, they could've done some interesting things in that first-round series.
It is just one game; both teams will make adjustments to limit the offense on both sides. What we saw from that game was that LA deserves more credit for how they played on defense, but their poor play on offense can't be ignored.
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