The Bus is Coming for Everyone in Mexico City

[Erik Summers 451]

The Bus is Coming for Everyone in Mexico City

 

The first two semi-final games have been ugly for the Kings and it's hard to know who to blame; not because they've played well and lost, rather, they have sucked at literally every position and its time to throw everyone under the bus!

 

The Offense

Thirty three shots. That is how many Mexico City has taken in a hundred and twenty minutes of play in this series. In game two, Cartel forwards put together only seven shots between them. The scoring chances so far have been absolutely abysmal. Jimmy Spyro isn't the greatest goalie that ever lived (yet at least), but the Kings are trying hard to make him look like it. Strangely, there isn't even a specific phase of the game that you can point to as being particularly terrible. Of the three goals scored, one came at even strength, one came on the power play and one even came shorthanded.

 

The Defense

You would think, after trashing the offense, that I would praise the defense since they have kept Mississauga to just thirty three shots themselves. However, Mississauga lacks the offensive weapons that Mexico City has, so this shot differential should lean heavily in the Kings favor. On top of that, Cartel defenseman have spent fourteen minutes in the penalty box so far this series. They are going to have to really get themselves under control if they want a chance to move forward. This is especially important for Oskar Langesson. He has established himself as a physical player, but in this series, he has already crossed the line three times. Despite scoring shorthanded, that isn't a the way this team wants to have to score goals. The other major criticism of the defense is that shot-blocking has fallen off a cliff. After being a league leader in shot blocking this season, Erik Summers has only one block this series, and his teammates haven't filled the role in his slump.

 

The Goalie

Mexico City made an important late-season move to acquire Stone Wolski when it became apparent that Fomba was not going to be ready to make a playoff push. However, after a fairly successful start to his time with the Cartel, this is the worst Wolski has looked. Stone gave up three goals on just twelve shots in game two. That is a SV% of .750. As I said before, Spyro is a respectable goalie, but when you make him look like a hockey god by comparison, you know you have done something very wrong.

 

High Notes

The shorthanded goal was a huge moment for the Cartel. It really looked like they were ready to make a statement and move past the loss in game one. Hopefully, they can bring that type of fire in game three and maintain it for the rest of the series. The penalty kill has been fantastic in general. The Kings have had to kill eleven power plays already and so far, they are perfect. Jaxon Walker has still played extremely well. Despite the other forwards being mostly invisible, he has put up three points in the series and is the only Kings player with positive +/- at this point.

[Cxsquared 455]