LOS ANGELES – In the third period of their Game 4 loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Los Angeles Kings may have figured out a way to apply pressure on their opponent.
On the Kings’ two third period goals scored on the Sharks, LA got to San Jose’s interior and put traffic in front of San Jose netminder Martin Jones. It was arguably the most sustained net-front presence the Kings had gotten this series and provided some clues as to how to beat the Sharks in Game 5 and stave off elimination.
San Jose leads the Kings 3-1 in their series
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“We’re going to see how we got those pucks by him and that was with traffic and shots to the net,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We’ve been trying to do that all series and haven’t been too successful with it until the third period of the last game. We know that is the way to score on him. He’s a good goalie and we haven’t got to him yet and it’s about time we got to him.”
With the exception of LA’s Game 3, 2-1 win they haven’t played a complete game against the Sharks. They lost the first two games at home and then in Game 4 the Sharks scored three power play goals on four opportunities.
“We have to find something in this room and that’s just what it is,” forward Anze Kopitar said. “It’s not a secret we haven’t played our best hockey. Facing elimination you have to do that. You have to play desperate and have to play with a lot of emotion and at the same time not cross the line and play 5-on-5.”
The Kings’ will mostly need to rely on their survivalist instinct. Los Angeles is 7-0 when facing elimination since they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2013 Western Conference Final. This includes four straight opportunities for the Sharks in 2014 when they held a 3-0 series lead on LA. The Kings have been in this type of situation before and at least know how to manage it.
“We put everything on the line and really you should do that every single game, especially in the playoffs, but we obviously haven’t,” Doughty said. “We know everything’s on the line tonight, we have to leave it all out there. We know we have to make this a seven-game series. It starts with the first game and that’s tonight.”
It was hard to tell the Kings were facing elimination in their locker room Friday morning. The group was loose, chatting with each other with players sharing a laugh. Prince’s “Let’s go Crazy” was playing over the team’s speakers, a likely homage to the artist who had died a day earlier.
But this is just an image the Kings portray before they get into the their ‘elimination game’ mode, which is far more serious.
“In the mornings and stuff, everyone knows we don’t say much about it but it will definitely be addressed before the game,” Doughty said. “The coaches will address it, the leaders will address it. Everyone knows the situation we’re in. It’s a must-win game. Our backs are against the wall and you’re going to have to see the best from every single player on our team in order to win tonight.”
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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