- Wow...
- Le Los Angeles Times...
- Parle de Phil Danault..
- Comme d'un DIEU..
- Qui a enlevé tout le STRESS des épaules d'Anze Kopitar....
Early on here in the season, Anze Kopitar has trended right around his time on ice totals from the last two seasons, actually playing a few seconds more per game, on average, than he has over the past two seasons.
A big narrative heading into the season was how Phillip Danault’s involvement and integration might lower Kopitar’s ice time by a bit. Well, in terms of overall minutes, it has not, though in a couple of other ways Danault’s presence has changed Kopitar’s situational usage.
First, there’s the thought of where Kopitar starts his shifts. He’s currently averaging the highest percentage of shifts started in the offensive zone during his entire NHL career. At just under 60 percent, it’s a sizeable bump from the last two seasons, when he started more than 50 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone.
“His o-zone starts are [up], depending on the score,” McLellan said. “As the game gets narrower, and gets closer to the end, yeah we can start him in the d-zone, but I think his minutes are a little bit…I never want to say easy for Kopi, because he works so hard and carries so many people around, but it’s shared stress now with Phil. It’s not Kopi starting every period anymore, sometimes Phil has to establish the momentum a little bit. Sometimes Ras has to establish the momentum a little bit. It’s not always Kopi starting on the penalty kill, but he’s still going to get his penalty kill and power-play minutes.”
Secondly, is the topic of penalty killing, as McLellan mentioned. The Kings are, overall, killing fewer penalties early in the season, which is an obvious positive. There’s also more balance with the PK minutes. This season, five Kings forwards are averaging between 1:00 and 1:34, with Kopitar leading the way at 94 seconds per game. That’s down 30 seconds from last season, and the drop off between the team’s top two penalty killers, Kopitar and Alex Iafallo (1:57), to Adrian Kempe in third (1:19) was drastic.
Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, there’s the topic of shift length. When asked about the comparables between Kopitar and Danault, McLellan gave an interesting answer. When you look at individual shifts, the two are almost identical. Danault averages 25.2 shifts per game, Kopitar averages 25.1.
In terms of shift length, however, Kopitar averages 51 seconds per shift, while Danault averages 43 seconds. Kopitar’s shift length is the longest amongst Kings forwards, while Danault’s is closer to the shortest. An interesting designation.
“Shift length is a huge one,” McLellan said. “If you look at the number of shifts Phil plays, compared to the number that Kopi plays, there’s actually night’s he’s playing more. Kopi’s engine might run a little different, he’s used to playing longer shifts, Phil’s maybe run shorter, but in any case they’re pretty close and there’s nights when Phil is playing more shifts than Kopi.”