Chicago Blackhawks at Los Angeles Kings – LAK wins 5-2, LAK leads series 3-1
Los Angeles took a 2-1 series lead in to Game 4 and a large part of that had been the play of their second line of Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, and Tanner Pearson. That trio had seven of Los Angeles’ 11 goals through the first three game of the series and were frequently hemming the pair of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook in their own zone (along with Chicago’s third defensive pairing). Of course, that rate of scoring shouldn’t be expected to sustain itself for too much longer and this team would eventually need their top line to start producing. Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik had 14 goals between them through the Kings first 14 games of these playoffs and zero so far in the series against Chicago. While the play of Jonathan Toews and his line mates was a big reason for this, the top duo for Los Angeles would need to eventually factor in to this series to really have a chance at eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Chicago would also have to start getting production but not from Toews, rather from the guys that had helped carry this team to a championship last year. Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Bryan Bickell had one goal between them through the first three games of this series (Sharp) and had 35 in 23 games in their Cup run last year. Toews is one of the top players in the league but he can carry this team only so far. There’s a bit of bad luck here for them – that quartet had one goal on 32 shots through the first three games yet all shot over 10 percent for the season – but this team wasn’t going to win a lot of hockey games with these four guys consistently not scoring.
It started out as a mess for Chicago. Not only did the ‘Hawks give up two power play goals to Los Angeles in the first period (now five for the Kings through 10 periods of hockey), but Gaborik was able to get on the board for Chicago. If he and Kopitar really started rolling and picking up the scoring slack, it would be the mountain that much higher to climb for Chicago. Making matters worse, Chicago generated five shots on goal at even strength, a testament to how disjointed the offense of the Blackhawks appeared at times. Hossa had a good first period but most of his teammates were ghosts on the ice through 20 minutes.
Chicago never really got back in this game, failing to sustain much offensive pressure until they were down 4-0 in the second period. The game-winning goal came in the first period for the Kings and it was pretty much cruise control after that. The Carter line didn’t dominate but Pearson did add an empty netter. The Chicago penalty kill is now 58.3-percent after the first four games and was a big reason for the 3-1 series deficit. Though just two goals from their top four wingers through four games now isn’t helping.
One interesting note is that with the series going back to Chicago whether or not Toews would line up with Kopitar more often. In Chicago, they were head-to-head at even strength for about two-thirds of Toews’ ice time. In Los Angeles, it was about half. It seemed like there was a conscious effort by Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter to get Kopitar away from Toews. If Carter and the kids start slowing down, Chicago will need to keep the Kopitar line off the scoreboard as well to get back in this series.
