Kings Best Divisional Rivals!
- Updated: February 8, 2018
The Kings beat a divisional rival! They also scored the first goal! Early in the first period! Stop the presses! I only half kid, but even the most die-hard Kings fan has to admit lately those things have been few and far between. Thankfully the first period against the Oilers was everything you’d want from a team looking to make a playoff push. They scored 1:10 into the contest, from Kyle Clifford of all players. I realize that he’d been out of the lineup for an injury earlier in but it was still surprising to find this was his only second goal of the season. He was tied up by Trevor Lewis who had a two-point evening, and helped set the tone – the Kings were going to control the puck. (Note: this only applies to the first and parts of the third period.) At 7:43 a questionable play in which I was sure the Kings were going to go on the penalty kill for tripping was actually called against Edmonton for slashing. Not sure how that happened, but I’ll take a power play over a penalty kill any day (though that’s not entirely true, often I find myself more comfortable when the Kings are shorthanded compared to a sometimes ineffective power play.) It wasn’t the most effective tonight, as halfway through the first period the shots on goal were only 3-1 Kings. The play appeared much more lopsided than that: the Kings controlled the neutral zone, they had fantastic movement, effective zone entries… It was all coming up Kings. With 3:56 remaining Christian Folin defended himself against Jujhar Khaira, throwing gloves and getting a few punches in but ultimately losing the fight. Khaira got the two extra for roughing so the Kings went on the power play again. Lewis, Tyler Toffoli, Alex Iafallo – how none of these players managed to score a second Kings goal this period is beyond me; their chances were stunning.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The came back in the second with the same flare as the first, scoring 58 seconds into the period. As Doughty controlled the neutral zone, his pass to Adrian Kempe once in the Oilers zone found Kempe open and ready to snap it easily past Cam Talbot. Alas, it was all downhill from there. The Kings didn’t register another shot on goal until 14:35 and were outshot 15-5 in the period. They took three penalties within close proximity (3:02, 5:30 and 11:40) and allowed the Oilers to tie up the game. Of course, Connor McDavid was instrumental in both goals, getting an assist on the first power-play goal and scoring the second 10:20 in with an unbelievable shot I doubt even a magician could have kept out. Of course the assist came from Cammalleri, who the Kings had for a short span this season before trading him to Edmonton. In fact the best part of the second period for the Kings was a Will Ferrell sighting on the jumbotron. Nothing happening on the ice was pretty. It was sloppy, confusing and a little sad.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The third period was much more even; while the Kings had the majority of chances the Oilers had the more spectacular ones. Keumper was up to the challenge in a fairly spectacular way himself. Doughty found himself in the defensive zone without a stick and still managed to be more impressive than half the defensemen in the league. His play verses McDavid kept the Kings in it, and he is clearly not an easy player to defend against. After three chances to pick up a rebound right in front of the net that somehow no one did, it started looking like the Kings were slightly being outplayed. Thankfully they were gifted a power play at 13:03 they managed to capitalize on, thanks to a wrister from Paul LaDue and a screen that almost got the play waved off for goaltender interference. A challenge was denied, and that essentially sealed the Oilers fate. They still had 5:27 to play but the Kings were boosted from the call and were relentless. They ended up with two empty net goals, the first from Iafallo who has a beautiful shot I’d like to bottle, and the second from Anze Kopitar, who has 17 points in the last 14 games. The Kings have now 12th consecutive home wins against the Oilers franchise, the longest against any team in the NHL.
(photo credit to cbc.ca)
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