Roy is a touch less quick on his skates than the other three, but all can stick with McDavid on the rush. They’re not Big Bobbly Clobbers, but are more along the lines of Marc-Edouard Vlasic, circa 2017, or Josh Morrissey, or Cale Makar on defence, all agile, all smart, all able to stick with McDavid and keep him to the outside, even as he shifts into his highest gear. ![]() On one three-on-two rush in the second period in Game Two, for example, McDavid was leading the rush and about to do some damage when Arvidsson charged back and knocked the puck off his stick.Īs for the d-men, they’re generally of the type that give McDavid the most trouble. The Kings most often put out the line of Phillip Danault, Viktor Arvidsson and Trevor Moore against McDavid. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Instead, they’re playing strong team defence which sees McDavid often skating into a thicket of players as he attempts to get close to the L.A. They’re not hooking, holding and bashing him at every turn, as that would be a dangerous tactic given the might of the Oilers power play. The Kings aren’t doing anything special against McDavid. Two things prevented McDavid from scoring more at even strength in those two games: first, some excellent defence from smart, crafty and agile Kings defenders, in particular the top two d-man pairings of Drew Doughty and Mikey Anderson, Matt Roy and Vladislav Gavrikov second, some atrocious puck luck. I wondered if the Kings were up to something special against McDavid, or if there were signs his game wasn’t quite right. Just to satisfy myself on this matter, I rewatched and reviewed all his shifts from the first two games. In other words, his scoring chance count at even strength is down by more than two thirds compared to the regular season.Ĭompare that to Draisaitl, who has three goals and two assists in five games, with 11 major contributions to Grade A shots at even strength. ![]() Worse, he has failed to create much on the attack there either, making major contributions to just four Grade A shots in the two games, an average of just 1.15 major contributions to Grade A shots per 15 minutes of ES ice time, this after averaging 3.61 per 15 ES in the regular season. ![]() Activate your Online Access Now Article content If you are a Home delivery print subscriber, unlimited online access is included in your subscription.
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