It is amazing how stifling this team is at every level. A lot of it, obviously, is keyed by Los Angeles' top line. Anze Kopitar is one of the best players in the world, and pairing Corsi God Justin Williams and natural goal-scorer Marian Gaborik on his wings just makes a world of sense. They are doubly destructive when they have Drew Doughty working things from the back end.
This group connected on the game-tying and game-winning goals in their series opener against the Anaheim Ducks, stealing a win they maybe didn't deserve. Game was a heavyweight fight, and Anaheim — surprisingly, one could argue — did more than hang in there against a probably superior Los Angeles club. The shot-attempt numbers were alarmingly even.
There are no moral victories in the playoffs, but when you can control the Los Angeles possession machine like this, you have to be somewhat satisfied.
This is where those points kind of tie together. The primary reason Anaheim disrupted the flow in Game 1: some serious hard-matching against Los Angeles' top line, throwing their best trio of forwards against Kopitar, et al.
Now, I am not entirely sure why Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau went with Ben Lovejoy/Cam Fowler over the better pairing of Francois Beauchemin/Hampus Lindholm, but you would imagine that his goal was to create softer minutes for a pair of guys who can really move the puck and generate attack time. The third option — Bryan Allen/Mark Fistric — just isn't realistic, unless you are in the business of point-shaving.
The fascinating thing here is how much time Getzlaf and Kopitar went head-to-head. In lieu of using a checking line, Boudreau sent out his finest hockey players to slow the Kopitar machine. They performed admirably, with Kopitar posting a minus-8.4 Relative Corsi percentage. This, to state the obvious, is extremely difficult to do.
Despite not winning the game, this kind of deployment is something Boudreau should repeat in Game 2 on Monday night. He has to trust that his botto -nine can hang with Los Angeles' and then some, and have confidence in his highest-paid forwards to get the job done against the best of the best.
They did in Game 1, and Bruce Boudreau should not be deterred by one loss.
Travis Yost is a Sporting News contributor. Follow him on Twitter: @TravisHeHateMe.
