Vegas It Is

It’s like the Kings wanted to play Vegas in the first round. Because this was not the performance to end a season on. It started 6:41 in. Okay play up until then but a pretty weak goal from Nick Shore‘s brother got the Stars on the board. It was appropriate I suppose, considering how many times the Kings did that this season. Final regular season game why not? But then… Oh but then everything went to hell. Jamie Benn got a hat trick in 5:17. Yeah… (Fun fact: the NHL record is 21 seconds set in 1952 by Bill Mosienko of the Blackhawks.) Two wrist shots and a tip in between 8:40 and 13:57. There were no hats streaming onto the ice for him. There was just dead silence. How did the team who won the Jennings trophy let in 4 goals on 8 shots in 7 minutes? What the hell was happening? And they weren’t even on penalty kills. They were just bad goals. Jedi Quick had his force disrupted by someone, clearly. It was a mercy when the buzzer ended the period, and I did not expect Quick back for the second. (Though speaking of that Jennings Trophy, Quick can house that at his place for another year. The Kings let in 203 goals this season, not even close to Nashville at 211 and Boston at 212. The last time he did that? 2014. I enjoyed the other hardware he picked up that year.)

Quick was back in for the second. Go figure. Thankfully after such an abysmal first period the Kings decided to show up for the second. (Mostly.) 3:42 in Alec Martinez scored his first, a lovely snapshot from Jeff Carter’s pass and there was a little life showing. A power play followed but that seemed to sap the life back out of the game (oh Kings, your power play is sad.) But at the end of an almost consecutive power play, Martinez found the back of the net a second time and calls for a second hat trick in the game rang out. How cool would that be! Sorry to get your hopes up, it didn’t happen. Actually, nothing else really happened in the second period. The Kings outshot Dallas 18-2 but only left the period with 2 goals to show for it. As the third period saw much of the same, the Kings were doubling their shot 30-15 but still only had half of the goals. Drew Doughty (who’s time on ice average 26:50 was the highest in the NHL) took the Kings only penalty of the game but considering his maneuver to get the puck out (and just accidentally over the glass) saved a goal I was okay with it. By killing the penalty the Kings ended the season with the best PK % of the season at 85, followed closely by San Jose with 84.8%. They were gifted another power play with 2:52 remaining but like the rest of the period (and game) they just couldn’t get anything going. I do hope it isn’t a portent for the playoffs, and instead them resting themselves before headed off to the desert.