Game Preview – Kings vs Coyotes, Game 2 , Sutter’s Plan

More of the same please. Have you noticed how our game remains the same? You can interchange the teams. Vancouver, St. Louis or Phoenix, but through out each round the Kings have stuck with the Plan. Sutter’s Plan. I’m going to call if that from here on out. He has been brutally honest with the players since he came here to coach. He tells them they suck if they do and only gives slight praise. This is Sutter’s Plan. You tell the team they are good, not great, but must get better. You say this over and over as they advance through the rounds. Eventually we are in the Western Conference Final and the Kings think they are good, but need to be better. Read or listen to every interview they have with the players. They all talk about doing more, bringing more to the rink, trying harder. Ok, Sutter, so far so good. You have this team competing like they never have before and they are staying like that.  The Kings came into the playoffs playing a rough, tough and highly competitive hockey game. And have not stopped.

The Coyotes need to change tonight. They took stupid penalties and were really only lucky to get the 2 goals they did. But we won’t see that this game. Coach Tippett was furious with his team and told everyone who would listen how bad they played. In reality, they did not play a bad game at all. They are a very good team and a hard team to play against. Tippett has a plan too and its to bring out the most in his team tonight. We are in for a very hard game. Our hope would be to stay disciplined and try to get under their skin like we have been doing to the previous teams. Again, more of the same from us. Play hard and tough and do not get mad. Keep the Coyotes out of our zone and shell their goalie. We can do this.

The Kings are playing in sync with each other like never before. They are watching out for each other and covering when needed. When the fluke goal from the red line went in goal on Quick, Kopitar said it right:

“I think we just felt we had to get a couple for Quickie. He has bailed us out all season, and a few times in the playoffs too. I don’t think anybody was concerned or worried about it. We just looked at each other and said, `Maybe we should win this one for him.’’

The Kings are 6-0 on the road in this postseason, and have won eight consecutive road games including last season. The NHL record for most consecutive road playoff wins is nine by the New York Islanders in 1982 and 1983. The Kings will go for their 7th straight win tonight. Those numbers are amazing! Here are a few impressive stats for you:

• Kings have killed 24 straight power plays.
• In 10 playoff games the Kings have  allowed only three power-play goals.
• Quick has allowed two or fewer goals in nine of 10 games in these playoffs.
• The Kings won 40 of 70 faceoffs (57 percent).

So let’s have more of the same please. More of Kopitar’s strength. More scary beast looks from Mitchell. I’ll also take a few good hits given by Brown and Lewis. Tonight will be the hardest game against the Coyotes. They will play their best game and bring out their best plays. Its all laid out on the table to win or lose.

Let’s stick with the plan. Sutter’s Plan.

LA Kings

# 23 Brown– # 11 Kopitar – # 14 Williams

# 25 Penner– # 10 Richards – # 77 Jeff Carter

# 74 King – # 28 Stoll – # 22 Lewis

# 15 Richardson – # 24 Fraser – # 71 Nolan

# 7 Scuderi – # 8 Doughty

# 33 Mitchell – # 26 Voynov

# 27 Martinez –# 2 Greene

# 32 Quick #

45 Bernier

Phoenix Coyotes

#13 Ray Whitney – #11 Martin Hanzal – #17 Radim Vrbata
#89 Mikkel Boedker – #50 Antoine Vermette – #19 Shane Doan
#14 Taylor Pyatt – #15 Boyd Gordon – #43 Marc-Antoine Pouliot
#24 Kyle Chipchura – #22 Daymond Langkow – #8 Gilbert Brule

#23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson – #32 Michal Rozsival
#3 Keith Yandle – #6 David Schlemko
#16 Rostislav Klesla – #53 Derek Morris

#41 Mike Smith
#1 Jason LaBarbera

Go Kings Go!