NHL Playoffs 2013: Chicago Blackhawks Have Los Angeles Kings Figured Out
By Josh Hill
Coming into their series against the Los Angeles Kings, we weren’t sure which Chicago Blackhawks team we’d see. Would it be the team that dominated everything that stood in it’s way during the regular season or would we get the team that nearly fell apart against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Blackhawks got a game under their belts in Game 1 against the Kings, but they did so much more in Game 2 as they not only beat Los Angeles but they figured them out.
Jonathan Quick is the best netminder in the NHL and it takes a special team to drop four goals on him and force the Kings to take him out of the game. Jonathan Quick simply does not get taken out of games, he takes you out of games but the Blackhawks rattled him so badly in Game 2 that he allowed the most playoff goals in his career since 2011.
Blackhawks fans were worried coming into the series, as a netminder like Quick drags you to the depths of the murky waters he patrols and drowns you. But Chicago has more than just Quick figured out, they have the entire Kings strategy unscrambled — not that it was an impossible code that required an Enigma machine.
What the Kings are built around is elite netminding. Quick carried this team to the Stanley Cup last season and he was a Conn Smythe Trophy winner because of it. But Los Angeles has a weakness on offense and it all came down to making sure that offense was smothered early in games. As we’ve seen in the cases of the St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks, racing past the Kings offense is easier said than done but the Blackhawks have landed solid body shots in their first two games and it’s a mental blow that the Kings will now need to get past.
The power of Quick between the pipes has been shattered, as while the Blackhawks may have been nervous or even fearful of Quick before the start of the series, they’ve exposed him as a mere mortal and that’s the most dangerous aspect of what the Kings have to put up with against Chicago the rest of this series.
Everything is headed back to Los Angeles and the Kings failed to lose at home during their last series against the San Jose Sharks. That’s a trend that needs to continue and it will be only then that we will truly know if the Blackhawks have the Kings completely figured out. So far it’s looking that way and something needs to drastically change for the Kings if they want to avoid an embarrassing exit from the postseason at the hands of the Blackhawks.