Defense Takes Holiday on Ice

DENVER —  Both teams set club records for defense, ranking among the best in the NHL. Their goaltenders posted career-low goals-against averages.

And yet, whenever the Kings and Colorado Avalanche played this season, their defensive statistics suffered, as was the case again Thursday night in the Avalanche’s 4-3 victory in Game 1 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.

The Kings posted a franchise-low 2.29 goals-against average during the regular season, but in five games against the Avalanche they have given up fewer than four goals only once. And this is an Avalanche team that set club records for fewest goals in a season (212) and number of times shut out (10).

The Avalanche, meanwhile, gave up a league-low 169 goals and led the league with a franchise-record 2.04 goals-against average. But the Kings scored six goals in one game against Colorado and averaged 3.75 in the last four.

“It would still be difficult to convince the players that there’s a lot of open ice out there because they’re taking a lot of punishment physically,” King Coach Andy Murray said Friday, asked about the trend after the Kings practiced in the Pepsi Center in preparation for Game 2 today. “It’s been demanding that way.

“Both teams play a pressure forechecking game. We don’t sit back. There have been some turnovers created because of that. There have been mistakes made. But I think it’s still certainly the emphasis to be good defensively.”

The numbers say defense has not been emphasized enough.

Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy, whose 1.94 goals-against average led the NHL and was the best of his brilliant career, must cringe at his 3.21 average against the Kings. Against the rest of the NHL, it was 1.85.

On the other hand, Felix Potvin has been worse against the Avalanche. His goals-against average, 2.25 against everybody else, is 3.43 against Colorado.

“It’s a combination of the way both teams play,” Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley said of the inflated numbers. “We play two different styles and that creates openings on both sides. But perhaps the biggest [factor] is that both teams have gifted hockey players, which makes for very exciting games.”

Exciting, no question, but uncharacteristic for teams that ranked among the league leaders not only in goals-against average but also in penalty killing.

In Game 1, the Kings had an early goal disallowed on a questionable call. Then they rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits, scoring three goals in about 121/2 minutes before defenseman Greg de Vries scored on a rebound with 5:34 to play, giving the Avalanche the victory with his first goal in 67 playoff games.

“I think both teams looking back would like to have a couple of goals back and play a little bit tighter defensively,” King defenseman Mattias Norstrom said. “But we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, being down 2-0, and we had to open it up to get back into the game. And once that style of hockey started being played, it was a little bit back and forth.

“Sometimes it’s hard in the middle of the game, with all the emotion, especially in Game 1, to all of a sudden start to be more conservative. It was a kind of game where it was go, go, go, back and forth. Probably pretty entertaining hockey.”

Not unlike the previous four games between the teams, which resulted in a regular-season series split, the Kings outscoring the Avalanche, 14-13.

Last season, in a seven-game Western Conference semifinal series won by the Avalanche, the Kings scored only six goals in the last six games but still won two, 1-0 victories by Potvin in Games 5 and 6, the second in overtime.

Perhaps form will prevail again as this series develops.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” Murray said. “I know they’re going to be hotly contested games and they’re going to be physical. Both teams have a lot of pride. I think it’s tough to say.

“I’d think probably they would be lower-scoring based on the playoffs last year. But it’s really hard to say. I think both coaches go in with the idea, ‘Let’s make sure we’re solid defensively.’ But if we can win, 8-7, we’ll take it.”