Exhausted LA Kings Don’t Leave Buffalo Empty-Handed, Lose 2-1 in OT

By Jeff Duarte
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Updated: December 13, 2015

One year ago, I wrote my first article for CaliSports News titled “The Current Conundrum of the Los Angeles Kings.” It was written right after the Kings had gone to Buffalo, NY and got shut out 1-0. A year later, the Kings returned to Buffalo for their third game of their second eastern road swing (and a day after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins, as covered by my colleague and CaliSports recapping Queen Emily Redenbach) and this time my wife and I were there in person to cover the game (and support the Kings of course, GO KINGS GO!!!) at the First Niagara Center. The result in that the LA Kings lost to the lowly Sabres again was the same, but unlike last year, the Kings still left the City of Buffalo with a point after being outplayed and showing extreme sluggishness and exhaustion, losing this game 2-1 in overtime (their first 3 on 3 overtime loss ever but hey, a points a point!)

Things started off with the (already known) announcement that Jhonas Enroth was getting the start tonight in net against his former Sabres team and I gushed over the recently called up Michael Mersch as soon as he appeared. (Let the … As my colleague, the wonderfully talented Lori Hultin likes to call this modern Mersch era, #MerschMadness begin!) There was also a quick (not Jonathan, though he was looking cool on the bench, with his baseball cap on low and shouting encouragements to his fellow teammates whenever possible) ceremony for NHL linesman Steve Miller (not the Space Cowboy) who was officiating in his 1000th career game. (In the picture below, I love how Captain Dustin Brown is next to Miller during his ceremony while Sabres Captain Brian Gionta is stuck at the far end. Gotta love how Hollywood instinctively knows where to be in a photo opp!)

The game starts and immediately the Kings looked like they didn’t want to be there and the young and upcoming Sabres, led by rookie phenom Jack Eichel, former Colorado Avalanche Ryan O’Reilly and Jonathan Quick‘s brother in law Matt Moulson, took full advantage. The Kings didn’t even get their first shot on net until the 4:47 point when Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik created a 2 on 1 rush and “Kopi” set up “Gabbo” with the sweet feed for the first shot and GOAL of the game!

My wife and I cheered like cRaZy and to the Sabres’ fans that were around us credit, they took it in stride (unlike in Detroit, where we would have already received death threats). Things were looking upward for the exhausted Kings but the positives wouldn’t last long as the Kings then failed to register another shot for another 10 minutes. In that “shot less” meantime, the Sabres attacked with wave after wave. The first penalty of the game was called after Jordan Nolan (who’s father Ted, twice coached the Buffalo Sabres) went after Buffalo’s Mike Weber. I criticize Nolan on a regular basis but this time what he did was admirable as Weber had just CRUSHED the Kings’ “fourth” line center Jordan Weal and Nolan was sticking up for his teammate.

Still it was a penalty, and that led to a unique (or more like a WHAAAAATTT???) type of goal for the Sabres, when Jamie McGinn received a bouncing and deflected puck right on his stick and he scored by shooting the puck between his legs while his back was turned to the unsuspecting Enroth, after just 12 seconds into the power-play at 7:19. (Sigh. In Detroit, the (annoying) popular song from Journey “Don’t Stop Believing” would’ve started playing while every Red Wings fan around me would start singing at the top of their lungs right in our faces. The Sabre fans just cheered and sat back down without incident. Classy I thought). The first period ended with Buffalo outshooting the Kings 12-3. Things weren’t much better for LA in the second period as the Sabres continued their attack.

Luckily for LA, Enroth was more that up for the challenge as he kept the Kings in the game with his solid play. Things got more interesting (and controversial) with 11 or so seconds to go in the second period, when Buffalo defenseman Jake McCabe scored a rifle into the net after being set-up by Eichel. The arena exploded with celebration but after getting the nod from Kings’ coach Darryl Sutter, Drew Doughty (without a leadership letter on his jersey by the way), approached the referee and issued a “COACHE’S CHALLENGE!”

The ref’s huddled up and made the call to Toronto. Sensing fear, the Buffalo crowd started to get restless and after a long delay, the referee made the announcement that the original call on the ice (a good goal) has been reversed due to Moulson being offside on the play, and the goal is changed to a NO goal. Buffalo did not like this at all (and went from being classy and non aggressive fans, to turning against us and letting us know how they truly felt about the Los Angeles Kings. Oh it was on now!)

With the review call in their favor, the LA Kings finally woke up and turned on the jets (not Winnipeg) and started playing their cycling game in the third period. The Sabres again to their credit, played some excellent defense and tried to keep LA to the outside perimeter while creating heavy traffic in front of their own net so the Kings’ didn’t have a clear shot. The Kings came close to taking the lead a few times but Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark denied them at every chance, including a jaw dropping save off of Tyler Toffoli after he was set up with a brilliant pass from the dazzling Doughty. (While this third period was taking place, We had to listen to a few disgruntled Sabre fans whine about how the “COACHE’S CHALLENGE” was the worst thing to ever happen to hockey. Apparently, these reviews never go their way due to some illuminati conspiracy against every sports team in Buffalo from ever winning a championship. As a Buffalo Bills fan (don’t judge me) and a long time King’s fan (or as Shawnze Kopitar put it in her excellent “The 10 types of hockey fans” article for TheRoyalHalf.com, a “I hear ya bro lifer”, “raven” with a bit of “mel”, recovering “fatalist” Kings’ fan, I can understand their bleak view on sports life but with that said, there is NO conspiracy against the city of Buffalo. So cheer up everyone! Which of course is easy for me to say since my LA Kings went on to win the Stanley Cup twice in 3 seasons while the Buffalo Sabres (or like my Buffalo Bills with the Superbowl) have none. Oh well, wot kin u dew???)

(I was able to sneak in and take this picture like a ninja!)

The third period ended with the Gaborik coming close to the winning the game and we were off to “3 ON 3 OVERTIME!” (Since this was my first time witnessing this in person, my anxiety was through the roof!) The Kings had full control of the overtime period but were very sloppy in controlling the puck. Still they came close to winning again when Kopitar broke free on a breakaway but was stopped by Ullmark.

(Excuse the blurry photo of “Kopi’s” breakaway. I think even the camera was nervous!)

The sloppiness play of the Kings’ came back to bite them on the butts when Buffalo created a turnover and the rushing Ryan O’Reilly deeked out the falling and out reaching Alec Martinez to score a visually stunning (and WHAAAAATTTT PART 2 kind of) goal while falling on his back to win the game for Buffalo at 3:19. (After celebrating the game winning goal, many Sabre fans then decided to make it very clear to my wife and I who the better team was. While exiting the arena, one drunken Sabres fan came right up to us and said while slurring, “The LA Kings play more like a bunch of Queens!” My wife answered without delay, “2 Cups!” while I name dropped, “Brett Hull.” That resulted in the drunken fan to become (Joe Thornton) sad and walk away mumbling, “But his toe was in the crease.” We had a few more incidents but left the First Niagara Center and the city of Buffalo safely and easier then what we have experienced before from a Red Wings game in Detroit).

Even though the LA Kings lost (which they deserved to considering that Buffalo completely out played them), unlike last year they did leave with an extra point and on a road trip and on a road trip that is always a plus, (remember it was also in Buffalo 2 years ago in 2013, when Quick tore his groin muscle and was out for 2 months. A game I wasn’t at by the way so this is definitely a better result). Even if the Kings are now 1-11-3 in their last 15 games in Buffalo, NY, they did reach 40 points and are 10 points clear of the second place Arizona (CRY)otes for tops of the Pacific Divsion. As reported by my colleague, good friend and life long mortal enemy Ryan Cowley of MakeWayForTheKings.net, this is the fourth time in Kings’ history that they were able to reach the 40 point mark before their 30th game of the season!

The LA Kings continue their eastern road swing against the Ottawa Senators on Monday at 7 pm est, (4 pm pst).

Okay we’re out of here. GO KINGS GO!!!

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!