Kings vs Sabres: How To Win By 4 In A 2-0 Game

You guys, Rob Scuderi is a King again. Sure, he hasn’t played so well for the Penguins or the Blackhawks but with the Kings against the Sabres it was like he’d never left. “He slid right in,” Daryl Sutter said. “He can play on our team.” And he played well tonight; so did Jhonas Enroth who got the call (most likely to rest Jonathan Quick before the big suburbs game coming on the second night of this back to back.)

Newly acquired Los Angeles Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi waves as the fans applaud him to welcome him back to Los Angeles, during the first period of the Kings’ NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

The first period was not the Kings finest hour. They were so sloppy I even noticed Anze Kopitar making bad turnovers. And Tyler Toffoli. In fact Kopitar took the first penalty of the game at 5:58 (though this was more indicative of the refereeing than it was of Kopitar.) The Kings killed the penalty easily, and moments later Toffoli looked to make up for earlier by getting a series of quick shots off. Unfortunately nothing materialized. The first goal of the evening came on a delayed penalty; Zach Bogosian boarded Dustin Brown and in the seconds after the Kings peppered the net until Kopitar batted it in. It wasn’t to be however, when the referee decided that he had literally batted it in and waved off the goal for playing the puck with a high stick. So they played with a man advantage and got quite a few looks as the first period drew to a close, but any momentum was lost when the second period reset.

It took 4:40 of the second period to score again, and this time it counted! Tanner Pearson, with his first of the evening, redirected a sweet Alec Martinez shot in past Sabres goalie Robin Lehner, the secondary assist going to who else? Rob Scuderi. Another power play came for the Kings at 9:28, giving the Kings momentum they carried through until 15:12, where the Kings scored their third of the evening and the second to be waved off. Dustin Brown, who looked displeased to say the least, went to the penalty box for tripping instead of to the bench to celebrate his goal. Minutes after killing that penalty (and hearing a loud Go Kings Go from a now very upset crowd) Dwight King made his way to the box too; the penalty split between the second and third period this time helping the Kings kill it easily. (In fact Trevor Lewis, who was very underrated tonight, along with Kopitar almost tried for a shorthanded goal.)

The third period was a test. It could have easily turned into a game where the Kings penalties (not necessarily their fault) and waved off goals would come back to haunt them; instead the continued to battle, played solid defense and kept grinding until it paid off. Pearson scored his second of the evening with 6:02 remaining, finding the rebound on a Jake Muzzin shot. With 1:41 remaining the Sabres pulled their goalie but to no avail, thanks in large part to Lewis who made some great plays against the boards and cleared the puck at least three times. Stick tap to Enroth who stepped up against his former team in a well deserved shutout.

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