Kings Up To Old (and not regrettable) Tricks

By Emily Redenbach
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Updated: December 29, 2016

It’s just not the Kings season this season. Against a struggling Vancouver Canucks, it wasn’t a good start for the Kings, clearly showing the Christmas break was still on their minds (and bodies). 54 seconds in Jake Muzzin took a high sticking penalty, and onto the kill they went. A streak of 9 straight games and 26 kills ended as the kill wasn’t successful as one might have hoped. Not sure what Drew Doughty was doing as Derek Forbert hustled in the corner, attacking his man, but with the man advantage Loui Eriksson was wide open by the side of the net and Doughty backed off, allowing him room to shoot and score. 6:15 in Nic Dowd followed suit and headed to the box; the kill was only successful thanks to the post. It wasn’t just the power plays the Canucks had that gave them the advantage – the Kings were sluggish and had no offensive pressure. Dowd was lucky he ended up in the penalty box at 11:17 rather than a penalty shot assessed, as he attempted to stop a clear-cut breakaway from Jayson Megna and failed. By the time it was the Kings turn for the power play, they had 4 minutes remaining and were behind in shots 12-5. They way they were playing it was going to take more than just a power play to get some momentum and chemistry going, but it was finally some offensive zone time. Not useful zone time – a lot of passing and only one attempt at shooting – but they weren’t on their heels so it was something new. The Canucks didn’t get another shot off for the remainder of the period, keeping the score 1-0 by its close.

The score didn’t stay that way for long. 23 seconds in it was 2-0 and only a few shifts later would have been 3-0 if not for an offsides call that negated the goal. The first happened when two Canucks were allowed so close to Budaj they could have kissed with only Doughty, who good as he is, can’t stop two players at once in a situation like that. Stecher’s shot was early redirected into the net by Henrik Sedin. (Sedin’s first goal in 10 games is typical of the Kings – they tend to boost the players on struggling teams when they play them. Not the Kings most endearing trait.) The second goal/not a goal was a straight shot from the point that blasted by Budaj easily, but even with the offsides call things were not looking up for the Kings. A Muzzin draw penalty couldn’t do much to make things better – there were chances but there was no real quality to them. Trevor Lewis and Nick Shore were the first two to get consecutive shots on Miller without a Canuck takeover following, Lewis’s chance point blank and the best the Kings had to offer so far. With 11 shots to the Canucks 2 15 minutes into the second, the score should not have been 2-0, yet the blender of lines wasn’t getting any chemistry for the Kings. A last minute shot from the Canucks when a Budaj clear ended up on the stick of a Canuck almost had them ending the period down 3-0 (again) but he made it back just in time for the save.

The third period was much like the second, in that the Kings had all the shots and none of the goals. (Familiar, isn’t it?) Half way through they were up to 28 shots, holding the Canucks to only 2. All the zone time, none of the results. The Canucks were playing smart hockey – shutting down Carter, holding him to no shots whatsoever, and as of late when Carter hasn’t scored, the Kings haven’t had a prayer. When he was finally able to get a little space he got the puck to Tanner Pearson in front of net who somehow managed to shoot it past Miller while skating away from him, and the Kings were finally on the board! But with the goal coming at 16:43, the Kings only had 3 minutes to make up the difference, and if 35 shots weren’t going to get the job done throughout the game, a few more with an empty net certainly wouldn’t either. When Jeff Carter is making 22.1% of the entire team’s shots it isn’t difficult to shut down the team, and when Kopitar is looking like he should be paid to stay off the ice not $10 million a year, it’s not a recipe for success. It’s not surprising to see the Kings outshoot their opponant and still lose, but they (and by they I mean everyone other than Carter) need to take better shots if they’re going to survive this season.

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