Welcome to breaking down breakdowns. This is going to be a series of X and O style articles we will do throughout the season of breakdowns committed by both the Kings and their opponents. The goal is to better understand what happens on goals, but also praise the Kings for well executed plays.
Unfortunately this first edition won't be of the latter category.
The Kings lost an ugly one last night. Real ugly. In general the team played sloppy and out of sync. The 5-1 scoreline was no injustice. They took far too many penalties, and allowed the San Jose Sharks a lot of time and space in the zone.
The Sharks are not, in fact, a fast team. I know the NBC between period broadcast team would have you believe that, but they are not a fast team. They are pretty much the same style of team the Kings are. A cycle team and a high pressure forecheck team. What was happening to the Kings in the defensive zone last night was a product of space. That space was provided to the Sharks by the Kings forward and defensive groups, and also created by some great rotations by the Sharks forwards. Give good players time and space and they will execute against you. Some players only need the space. There was plenty of it out there last night.
There are teams out there that play the offensive zone possession game like chess. They cycle the puck, rotate personnel, and continue to do so until a breakdown happens and they attempt to expose it. These breakdowns can be a miscommunication on a rotation, a player getting caught flat footed, or someone losing sight of their man. Not every cycle ends in breakdown, and sometimes teams take low risk shots or just throw pucks on net if they do not see an opening. Not every breakdown leads to a goal, not every goal is product of a breakdown. We have a great example of one from last night though.
First off, the Kings often play a hybrid low-zone collapse if they can get their defense set up ideally.
Here is a great look at what that often looks like thanks to
Blueseatblogs.com
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This defensive set up is one of the better set ups against a cycle game, but it is incredibly dependent upon patience, discipline and physicality. Offenses will try to continue to cycle and wear you down. Sometimes though, like in the case of the Kings, the physical nature and defensive acumen of their forwards and defenseman can squash out cycling before it even starts. You see a lot of teams do one and done offensive plays against the Kings because they can not get set up on the cycle.
The Sharks did not have that problem.
Let's get to the breakdown in question and go through what makes it a poor play on the part of the Kings, but also a good systematic play on part of the part of the Sharks.
This was a goal off the stick of Brent Burns for 3-1 in the second period. While it was not a goal of consequence, it did put the game pretty far out of reach with the way the Kings were playing. The original play could have been avoided, however, a poor exchange between Gaborik and Muzzin led to a failed zone clearing. The Sharks then took over.
There is a lot to look at here, and lot of ugliness. This is probably a shift that Muzzin will not want to remember for several reasons.
First off, Muzzin gets caught in no man's land, with pretty much no one to cover. In a perfect world, Muzzin's man is actually Pavelski, who is holding the puck. Why is he in front of the net then? Because Pavelski got away from him and he simply got caught on the wrong side of the play. Commence the ugly.
Kopitar instinctually picks up Pavelski because you cannot have him skating free within the zone. This shift in coverage creates a domino effect.
What the sharks normally would do is play the puck back behind the net for a cycle, but Pavelski astutely senses what is happening and carries out to a higher scoring area. Notice that his head is up the whole play.
What happens next is that three Kings players all converge on the same group of Sharks forwards.
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Usually this would be a two man job in a perfect low-zone collapse. However, since the D got caught on the wrong side, you have a forward playings as the D1, and a defender playing as the F3. Uh oh.
Here is an example from last season of a very similar set-up between the Kings and the Wings.
The spacing defensively between this Sharks play and the Wings play is like night and day.
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You have everyone where they are supposed to be, and everyone in a familiar spot defensively.
This set up is ideal, because if you look at the play, everyone has excellent gap control and anticipation of the next move.
Let the blue lines represent the area of which each player covers in this next image.
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With a good stick or a simple step right, left, or forward, each player covers a significant threat.
Dustin Brown covers the left point. Gaborik is covering the half wall and right point. Kopitar covering a turn to the center. D1 is covering the cycle, D2 covering the front of the net. Well executed.
Here is another still from the same game, but with the Kings fourth line. No annotations, this time, you can see for yourself how the spacing is pretty good for the most part.
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It is not the exact same set up as the current breakdown or last image due to there being no front net presence, but the idea is that the Kings cover pretty much every gap within a step or stick.
Back to our breakdown.
(Incoming crappy phone photo for a different angle!)
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What do good players do with space? They exploit it.
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It is 64 feet from blueline to goal, and Burns, who has a cannon of a shot, was able to close that gap by a solid 15-20 feet before dropping a bomb on Jonathan Quick. A Quick that was screened no less.
League wide success rate shows that, surprisingly, the closer you get to the net the higher chance of success you have! Go figure.
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In a simple set of plays, the Kings were exposed by poor communication between the forwards on assignment, a misplay by Jake Muzzin, and a good heads up play by Joe Pavelski.
Little details like that led to a devastating goal for the Sharks in a big win.
Next time you see a similar play develop, watch how the Kings space themselves to control the zone and dictate plays. It may mean the difference between a prime scoring chance or a puck that is shot harmlessly wide. While it is easy to pick on one player here or there (Jake Muzzin has taken a beating on social media already....), the game happens at exceptional speed with world class players. It took two seconds for Muzzin to lose his assignment and the play to snowball from there. These breakdowns are not indicative of the quality of the player overall unless they are repeated consistently. Often they are also part of bigger breakdowns that happen later or earlier in the shift. Muzzin is a fine defender who makes many great plays. On this one, however, he was out to dry.
We will be breaking down different plays through the year, so keep an eye out after Kings games and on twitter during the games.
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