King Carter Collects his 300th

By Emily Redenbach
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Updated: March 8, 2016

The LA Kings take three games every year to honor a Kings Legend; tonight the forum blue and gold was for Jimmy Carson, a King who played with the likes of Luc Robitaille before I was even born. He has records that still exist in the NHL to this day, including most goals scored as a teenager (92) and most games played in an NHL season (86). If tonight’s game is anything to go by we may be adding another legend to the ranks soon; Jeff Carter scored his 300th NHL goal tonight against the Vancouver Canucks.

For a team who so bitterly hated us less than 4 years ago for ‘taking their’ Stanley Cup this game seemed to lack any kind of passion. In fact the most interesting moment of the first period was a breakaway by the Canucks (after a bad line change and some misread signals in the neutral zone) that got maybe a zone and that was it. Vincent Lecavalier teamed up with Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson for a few front of net chances but neither team saw any sustained zone time or great set ups. Luke Schenn took an offensive zone penalty for hooking Emerson Etem at 12:47 (I could practically feel Darryl Sutter shake his head). Anze Kopitar had a near perfect chance to breathe some excitement into the game when he found himself with a perfect scoring chance; right in front of the net, beautiful pass straight to his stick, but he just couldn’t turn his body around fast enough to get the shot off.

Thankfully the second period had much more action. Unfortunately the first notable action was the Canucks scoring during some 4-on-4 play. Jake Muzzin and Alexandre Burrows took the coincidental minors, and it looked good for the Kings until a weirdly bouncing puck made it past Quick, in between his elbow and his knee. The Kings followed up by taking what seemed like 20 shots on goal in a town, but somehow couldn’t capitalize on any of them – and most looked like great chances. Brayden McNabb did his McSmash thing and ended up in the penalty box for interference; thankfully the a Kings penalty kill (which was tested more than it needed to be) was on top of it. Rob Scuderi reminded fans why we loved him with some stellar and subtle plays, saving the game more than once with his veteran moves.

Finally, the Kings broke through. A scuffle to the right of Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller led to a puck leaking through his legs; it looked like Anze Kopitar may have tipped it in but it turned out he didn’t need to. Drew Doughty put just enough force behind it for the puck to sneak past the goal line; Scuderi and Kopitar got the assists. It took less than 2 minutes for the Kings to get their next goal. With Burrows in the box again the Kings capitalized on their first power play chance with a goal from Kopitar. No really this time, it was Kopitar; few people can make a shot look that beautiful.

The Kings took a couple of penalties after that (Trevor Lewis for elbowing at 14:24 and McNabb for delay of game at 17:03), which they killed easily, despite at one point the puck landing on top of the net and bouncing away from Quick’s eye. (Compared to the previous game against the Ducks it was nice to see their defense on par with what we expect Kings defense to be like.) Of course the Canucks helped kill their second one; with 31 seconds remaining of McNabb’s (amateur hour) penalty the Canucks took the most amateur penalty out there – too many men on the ice. The Kings got some great looks – the best coming from Carter who unfortunately broke his stick on what would have been a gorgeous shot.

The Kings opened the third with some strong play, finally cumulating in an actual goal from Jeff Carter. In a move just like Kopitar’s earlier goal, Carter came streaking down the wing and timed his shot perfectly; a stunning shot also placed perfectly to beat Miller. 17 seconds later McSmash got into a fight down the other end of the ice that got him and his opponent Derek Dorsett 5 minutes each in the box, during which time Carter and Lecavalier scored. Lecavalier (at 12:18, 39 seconds after Carter’s first goal) was a one timer Miller probably could have had. Carter’s was opportunistic; at 12:49 Drew Doughty hooked Burrows and during his penalty the Canucks pulled Miller, giving them a 6 on 4. Quick came up big, so the Canucks kept Miller on the bench for the extra attacker trying to break down the Kings defenses. Instead, maybe a foot from the Canucks goal, a miscommunication left the puck on Carter’s stick, which he fed easily into the goal. There was still 3:57 to play but the game was over. Granted the opponent wasn’t the calibre of the Ducks but it was important for the Kings to get their big player back on the board.

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