Kings Epic Meltdown Doesn’t Welcome Quick Back

Welcome back to Staples Center LA Kings, and please leave that road trip performance behind. The Kings were looking at a slightly different lineup than went on that disastrous performance; Rempal was called up from the AHL for his ability to score, something the Kings desperately needed, Anze Kopitar was sidelined with an illness (get well soon Kopitar! No really.) But most importantly, they welcomed back Jonathan Quick into the lineup, activated off IR this morning. Quick was 5-1-2 going into the game against the Islanders, with a 1.59 GAA and .935 save percentage. He didn’t have to make a save until almost 5 minutes in, and then promptly let a goal in literally 4 seconds later. So the King’s offensive zone prowess to start the game meant nothing and once again went looking for offense. Those first five minutes included a power play, which had a stellar first unit but a shockingly bad second unit and we were not left wondering how they could be the last team in the NHL to score a power-play goal, having gone 0 for 22 by this point. (Side note and not unrelated I miss Dustin Brown.) Many, many missed chances for the Kings followed. Kovalchuk set up Rempal for a one-timer, Wagner was right in front of the net as a mad scramble led to disappointment, but no matter how many extended o-zone shifts the Kings had, they couldn’t get by Lehner for some inexplicable reason. Finally finally FINALLY a power-play goal was produced, and the Kings were almost as shocked as we were. Drew Doughty was set up off the faceoff, and his shot was redirected by Tyler Toffoli 16 seconds in. Meanwhile, the Kings started catching up in hits after a slow start of getting pumped, and the period remained even in most every stat as the first drew to a close (though thank Quick for that, because immediately following the PPG Kempe was in the penalty box and it almost didn’t end so evenly.)

Kempe opened the second period in the box too, 1:50 in to be exact and with 8 seconds left in that the Islanders scored. Things didn’t improve when Thompson spent over a full minute in the defensive zone without a stick, which was actually impressive again on Quick’s part because they didn’t score. But Quick was called for tripping, a call I strongly disagreed with (as did pretty much everyone.) He reached out with his blocker to stop the puck from going into the net when an Andrew Ladd fell over it. If this was anyone else on the ice I’d say sure, tripping, but for a goalie, he was just doing his job. My complaints were not heard by the refs who insisted Iafallo sit for him for 2 minutes. It was a much better penalty kill than before; Toffoli scrambled (nice to see him put in a serious effort) to keep the puck out into the neutral zone, where Jeff Carter picked it up and almost scored on a shorthanded breakaway. Oh that he had. Instead, the Islanders scored again 12:07 in, leaving the period up 3-1 and leaving Kings fans slightly concerned.

About that whole ‘leaving a bad road trip performance behind?’ Yeah… A few minutes into the third the Kings had 1:26 of 5-on-3, and did manage to not embarrass themselves totally, with a goal from Carter, but that’s when the embarrassment stopped. In fact, it was so bad please accept this photo instead.

It started with a shorthanded goal less than a minute after it was only 3-2 and ended with Quick pulled and a final score of 7-2. Nobody wants to relive that.