LOS ANGELES – Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar playing well is not good enough for the Los Angeles Kings to beat the Vegas Golden Knights. They need to be exceptional, and so far they haven’t been.
What’s become obvious through the teams’ first three Stanley Cup playoff games – all one-goal wins for Vegas – is that the Kings can’t match the Knights’ speed and depth. Vegas is just better at the bottom half of the lineup, both up front and on defence.
But the Knights don’t have a defenceman like Doughty – few teams in the National Hockey League do. And Vegas, despite possessing several excellent offensive forwards, have no one as good as Kopitar, who should be a Hart Trophy finalist this season.
These guys need to make a difference for the Kings to turn this into a series with a win in Game 4 Tuesday night at the Staples Center.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself and I feel like I always do make a difference,” Doughty said after the morning skate. “Every time I’m out there, my job is to shut down the other team’s best line.
“To be honest, that Karlsson line has had absolutely nothing against us this series, absolutely nothing. That’s due to Kopie’s line and me and my D partner just shutting them down, playing really well against them. I put a lot of pressure on myself to help us win, but it’s a team effort and everyone needs to pick up their game in order for us to win. But I definitely want to lead the charge.”
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The William Karlsson–Jonathan Marchessault–Reilly Smith first line for Vegas has generated just one goal in the series, but it won Game 3 on Sunday when Doughty and Jake Muzzin, L.A.’s other star defenceman, were on the ice.
And the Knights’ top trio has been dominant territorially, controlling 65 per cent of even-strength shot attempts when they’re on the ice. Doughty leads the Kings with a 54.3 shots-for percentage, but Kopitar is a dismal 40.9.
Generally, the game is being played in Los Angeles’ half of the rink when all the best players are on the ice.
Doughty called Karlsson’s winning goal “unlucky” because the Kings had won a defensive-zone faceoff but Smith blew past L.A. winger Tobias Rieder to beat Muzzin to the puck on the end boards. Smith centred to Karlsson, who had skated directly to the front of the net from the far-side hashmarks.
“There’s no way Smith sees Karlsson coming from there,” Doughty said. “He’s kind of just throwing it to the net and he made a good play. Three different things couldn’t have happened there. Whether Muzz stays with Karlsson or I stay at the net front … there’s a lot of things that could have happened differently. It was kind of a play that doesn’t happen very often.
“I played pretty good last game. I actually thought I played really well last game. Didn’t really have any mistakes or anything like that, and I created a lot of offence, which we didn’t, obviously, capitalize on. I thought I played pretty well, but there’s always room to improve, so I’m looking to do that.”
But so are Marchessault, Smith and Karlsson.
“I agree, I think they’ve done a good job against us,” Marchessault said. “Playoffs definitely gets tighter and we’re not playing against a bad defenceman here. We’re playing against Drew Doughty and Muzzin. The other night we still got that big third goal and we were able to win. I’m pretty happy about that.”
“I think Drew has been a factor every time he has dressed for us this year,” Kings’ coach John Stevens said. “I think he’s had an outstanding year. I thought he came back after sitting out there [suspended for Game 2] and really tried to make a difference for us. He has the ability to defend the top players. He has the ability to really transport the puck up the ice in a hurry. And he’s first over the boards in every situation. So he’s an important guy on our team and I think he’s had a tremendous year.”
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But is he having a tremendous series?
“I think he’s been good,” Stevens said. “I think Drew’s been what we think Drew should be.”
Doughty is pointless in his two games and Muzzin struggled Sunday in his playoff debut after missing the previous three weeks with an undisclosed injury.
After Kopitar, the important trio of Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson do not have a point despite combining for 29 shots.
Among Los Angeles’ stars, only goalie Jonathan Quick has had his A-game. That’s not enough.
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