Kings End Road Trip In need Of Consistency

The hockey Gods, if you believe in such things, have been angered, and they’re taking it out on the LA Kings. As if the injury count wasn’t high enough (and really when Jonathan Quick is one of those on that list, anything on top of that is cause for tears), Anze Kopitar hasn’t skated with the team for the last two games and boy could the Kings have used some offense against the Colorado Avalanche. (Let’s face it some goaltending couldn’t have hurt.)

The Kings took the first 3 shots, so of course they also took the first penalty, 1:38 into the first period. (Thanks Trevor Lewis, less high sticking please.) The Avalanche power play, which has been quite good in recent times, was stifled by the Kings defense, unable to get off any shots. They were also unable to count to 5, as with 13 seconds remaining in the Kings penalty the Avs were called for too many men on the ice, a penalty we’ve seen called much more this season. The Kings also didn’t get a shot off on their power play, but seemed to have a better set up at least. (Not much of a reason to celebrate – the Kings power play is averaging 9.8% this season going into the first unsuccessful attempt this game.) The Avalanche didn’t have to wait too long to get their next chance on the man advantage – 8:06 in Devin Setoguchi was called for hooking. It actually began well for the Kings, with Nick Shore having two back to back shorthanded chances (he almost backhanded his own rebound in) but then couldn’t clear the zone for an extended shift, a shift that was extended for the penalty killers long after the penalty was killed and icing would give them no relief. Another power play would however 10:56 into the period; it seemed the two teams had something against playing 5-on-5 hockey. Not that either team has a strong power play; there wasn’t an abundance of strong plays from either team in the first period. Case and point: Derek Forbert was the next in the parade to the penalty box, joined by another friend Kevin Gravel giving the Kings 40 seconds of 5-on-3 after a delay of game was called. Drew Doughty saved that penalty with a smart play to Carter, recognizing he himself wasn’t in the best position to clear, then later Doughty and Forbert showed some nice chemistry to keep the Avalanche also scoreless in the first. In total 10:55 minutes of the period was played with special teams.

The Avalanche opened up the scoring 1:10 into the second period, with a stoppable goal wrapped around Peter Budaj will want back. He couldn’t get across the net fast enough when all he needed was to slide his foot across the goal line. 18 seconds later the Avalanche made it 2-0 with a dump in deflection it appeared Budaj didn’t see. (It was around this time in 2014 that Quick went down with his first major injury. If one didn’t realize it at the time, it’s becoming increasingly apparent just how much goaltending depth the Kings had back then, and no longer do. If Kings fans were looking for this to be a similar situation, they’ll be disappointed.) The Kings didn’t bounce back quickly. They struggled to get any offense, and certainly nothing that ruffled Seymon Varlomov’s feathers. The Avalanche seemed to be a cohesive 5 man unit no matter who was on the ice while the Kings couldn’t set up anything. Tyson Barrie was called for hooking with 1:53 remaining in the second period (the only penalty of the period, in stark relief to the first) which gave the Kings their first breath of fresh air. The Dustin Brown–Nic Dowd pairing, who have been very solid for several games now, combined for the Kings first power play goal in 15 chances (the second in 34 chances.) Dowd, who has shown some impressive hockey sense, made a nice play to get around several Avalanche players, snuck the puck to Brown at the front of the net who flipped it past Varlomov.

The Kings momentum continued in the third, where they found themselves once again on the power play thanks to some high sticking, drawn by Forbert. In true Kings fashion, the power play was lackluster, but they did hold to Avalanche to no shots in 8 minutes of play. About halfway through the period Cody McCloud and Gravel tried to shake things up with a scuffle behind Budaj leading to coincidental roughing minors. While 4-on-4 tends to favor the team trailing, it didn’t seem to help the Kings who fell to 3-1 with 8:28 remaining. Sutter called for a coaches challenge, as he felt Jerome Iginla interfered with Budaj, however Toronto disagreed and the goal stood. (Many felt this wasn’t the correct call, as Iginla did indeed scrape Budaj’s head.) Minutes later it appeared Setoguchi had scored but the backhanded shot behind Varlomov ringed off the post instead. It was the Kings closest chance to get back in the game, closely followed by their second closest chance from Doughty, a shot right by Varlomov that had Toffoli been able to touch would have been redirected back in the net. The empty netter came with 1:37 remaining, as if the Kings needed an more proof this game wasn’t going to end well. They ended their 5 game road trip 1-3-1. To say the Kings were inconsistent is an understatement – their winning game was 7-0 and every other game struggled in almost every aspect only scoring 5 goals in those 4 games. They return home Thursday to play Edmonton.

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