The Los Angeles Kings start on the wrong foot in their first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado handled business in a 2-1 victory over Los Angeles, taking a 1-0 series lead on Sunday.
The Avalanche were by far the better team in this contest, creating the most dangerous chances and dominating puck possession. Despite Colorado imposing their will on this game for most of the outing, the Kings weren’t completely out of it.
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It was an awakening opening stretch of the first period, with the Avs suffocating the Kings offensively, and it seemed like Los Angeles had no answer, nor any sort of pressure.
It’s worth mentioning that the Kings weathered the storm, remained patient, and slowly got more and more comfortable in the contest. But the truth is that they just couldn’t break down the star-studded Avalanche.
A large part of the reason the Kings were ineffective for most of this game was the team’s inability to survive Colorado’s quick pressure, and they couldn’t orchestrate many clean breakouts.
Late Push Not Enough As Kings Fall To Avalanche In Game 1
Late Push Not Enough As Kings Fall To Avalanche In Game 1 The Kings did enough defensively to hang around, but a lack of offensive support and Colorado’s scoring down the stretch proved to be the difference in a tight Game 1 loss.
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For instance, Colorado’s second goal by Logan O’Connor was a result of Los Angeles getting hemmed in the defensive zone because the defense couldn’t make a clean breakout pass to relieve the pressure.
Another note to add to this Kings’ loss in Game 1: they couldn’t capitalize on their chances. As coach D.J. Smith put it, they “need to be meaner offensively.”
Defenseman Drew Doughty had a grand opportunity to open the scoring in this game, missing a wide-open net.
In the rare two-minute intervals that the Kings see the offensive zone, against a top-dog like the Avalanche, there’s almost no room for error in terms of not taking advantage of opportunities. And that’s exactly what happened in this contest for Los Angeles.
But the result of this game shouldn’t deflect from the effort the Kings put in this contest. They kept it to a one-goal game and had a respectable showing defensively. The longer the Kings can keep it tied or close, the more likely they are to creep in a goal or two, which they did in the late stages with a power-play marker from Artemi Panarin.
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In the end, the Kings will have to take these positives and improve on what went wrong quickly because the playoffs are a blur.
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