Kings face elimination from the Sharks. Again.

Pivotal game four didn’t quite cover the fever of this game going in. And how much the Kings needed a win; claiming 2014 at some point wasn’t going to fly. Neither was a team who can’t kill a penalty, especially if the team gets called for penalties a lot against a team who has a killer power play. The narrative of 2016 could easily be decided by this game. And for the Kings, that wasn’t good.

Considering how the last couple of games had gone Kings fans were cheering simply that Jonathan Quick didn’t let the first Sharks shot in. They did get the first couple of shots but then the Kings activated their game and got the next 7. It was a great stretch for them; lots of momentum generated by good cycles down low, big hits, lots of sustained zone time and pressure on Martin Jones. He stayed cool despite the barrage and simply waited for his team to break the Kings momentum. Which they did with three consecutive shifts and three scary looking plays on Quick. Luke Schenn broke up a particularly dangerous 2-on-1 and credit Quick for some great saves (if not slightly terrifying ones). The Kings weren’t falling down though, and followed up by almost scoring on Jones, who couldn’t find the puck in the crease. That was short-lived, as the Sharks took control for the last 7 minutes or so. A ‘good’ ping showed they were getting close, and the Kings couldn’t seem to get the puck out or a stoppage. Up in shots 7-2 to start, by 17:40 the shots were tied and in the last 2:20 the Sharks pulled out 3 more shots to the Kings 0. It wasn’t an ideal way to end a period, with some good looks from the team in teal, but none got past Quick.

The second period wasn’t the ideal way to play either, with the Sharks easily taking the game away with them. Some early scuffles after the whistle saw Jeff Carter in the penalty box, though he wasn’t the only one who deserved to be there. The Kings penalty kill, that had been so strong in game 3, faltered when Brent Burn’s slap shot went clean past Quick. The Kings had a chance almost immediately to get it back with a power play of their own, which could have been aided had a slash on Carter’s stick been called during that, but alas no 5 on 3 and they couldn’t get it done on the regular power play. Ward was called seconds later for high sticking and again, the Kings saw some good looks but none got passed Jones. (There were fewer shorthanded chances from the Sharks, so an improvement.) A delayed penalty on Rob Scuderi would prove to be the turning point, when again the Kings failed to kill the penalty. Anze Kopitar and Tanner Pearson could have had a 2 on 0 breakaway but somehow Kopitar over-skated and lost the puck, and even if he hadn’t Pearson fell over, allowing the Sharks to have a clean entry and set up their second goal easily. A third penalty for the Kings, this time to Schenn, proved not to be the fatal blow, despite Quick losing his stick and the inability to clear tiring the penalty killers.

The fatal blow came 1:40 into the third, when another Kings penalty cost them another goal. Quick didn’t even stand a chance. Things looked to get slightly more interesting when the Kings stopped Jones from getting a shutout with a contested goal from Luke Schenn at 2:49; the Sharks called for goaltender interference on Trevor Lewis, but it was determined it was a Brent Burns pushing Lewis into Jones and the goal stood. And was later credited to Lewis, who officially got the tip in. Unbelievably the next Kings goal came again from Luke Schenn, at 6:44, another blast from the point. It seemed the Kings weren’t the team to lay down and die. And Schenn wasn’t going to leave the ice. (Well, Drew Doughty can’t play all of the minutes. Just most of them.) The Kings managed to generate some offense through the next 12 minutes, but couldn’t do anything with it. Dustin Brown was tripped by Jones but none of the officials saw it; nothing to be done the Kings had 2:33 to close out the game after the last media timeout. They pulled Quick with about a minute and a half to go but spent the first 30 seconds in the Kings zone without their goalie trying to play keep away. With 18.3 seconds remaining and one face-off left, the Kings called their timeout. To no avail; they couldn’t rally past Jones and fell in the series 3-1. They return to Staples Center for Game 5 Friday evening, where they must win to starve off elimination. True, they’ve done it before, but this team isn’t that of 2014 and the Sharks are capitalizing where the Kings aren’t. They Kings are making the same mistakes they’ve been making all series. Stay tuned to see if they can pull off another miraculous comeback!

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