San Jose Sharks vs. Los Angeles Kings Preview

Series: # 2 San Jose Sharks (48-25-9, 105 points) vs. # 7 Los Angeles Kings (46-30-6, 98 points)

Regular Season: Although the Sharks dominated the Pacific Division to the tune of a 14-5-5 record, the teams split the series 3-3 that season. San Jose Caught between six matches with wins 6-3 and 6-0 while the Kings biggest victory came on December 27 when they topped San Jose 4-0.


History: Although they shared a division since the early '90s, there really is not much of an intense rivalry between the Kings and Sharks. The two franchises have swapped out periods of prosperity and decline since San Jose was added to the league without the timing required for "high time" to make a strong competition. Thanks to the efforts to rebuild heated Dean Lombardi and the Kings organization to make a consistent heavy hitter, this series could be a first step towards newly formed, hatred intrastate.

The case of San Jose: Remember when they were all kinds of stupid explanations for the Sharks early season struggles circulate? These evaporated quickly rebounded when the percentages of San Jose in the second half. Antti Niemi understand the role of starters and channeling guardian elite certainly did not hurt things either. As was revealed during rounds started going into the net with more regularity, the Sharks are one of the strongest offensive clubs in the league. They have a pretty high end with Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley and some depth greater than the average for the potential future candidate Joe Pavelski Selke, the emergence Ryan Clowe Logan Couture and Calder candidate. This collection of players makes San Jose a very good club ES. This puts them on the edge is really terrifying to their PP, which has generated the most shots on goal in the league regular season and was not even close. Consequently, the Sharks boast the most comprehensive differential blow everyone in the NHL (+5.6 / game).

The case of Los Angeles: In direct contrast with the Sharks, the main force is the prevention and Kings shooting chance. Thank you to their overall depth decent defense strategy and the work-first guys like Michal Handzus, Wayne Simmonds and Drew Doughty Willie Mitchell, the Kings have allowed only 2,288 shots against this season, good for third best in NHL. Their death sentence has also been very effective with a success rate of 85.5% (4th overall). Combined with their ability to stay out of the box (266 times short-handed, 10th in NHL) Kings club just 40 goals this season against the PP, less than any other team. Add Jonathan Quick, who has a career best season in terms of goals against average (2.24) and percentage (.918) and you have the reason why the Kings to series still lackluster offensive numbers.

Statistical comparison:

5-on-5 GF / Ga: San Jose, 1.16; Los Angeles, 1.05

PP: San Jose, 23.5 (2nd) Los Angeles, 16.1% (21)

PK: San Jose 79.6% (24), Los Angeles, 85.5% (4)

Differential of goals / game: San Jose 0.43, 0.26 Los Angeles