LA Kings lose Again. Make the World Go Away

The Kings opposing goaltender is named Elvis and nothing else about the game matters. Well, it was also Tyler Toffoli’s 500th NHL game. And Dustin Brown, Trevor Lewis and Derek Forbert were back on the ice (I’m excited about two of those three). But the Elvis goalie.

He let in a goal 1:26 into the game, so maybe not as legendary as the rock star, but it worked for the Kings! Puck movement and patience paid off as Alex Iafallo rebounded Sean Walker’s shot underneath Elvis’s not quite closed pads, so of course almost immediately after they took a too many men penalty. It was a fine enough penalty kill, and after the Kings kept racking up the shots. It was a wild, crazy paced period with not much to show for it. They were playing better than Saturday’s game against Nashville, for sure, but the puck seemed to be bouncing all over the place and with 16 shots on goal you’d think more than that first one would go in. Especially considering there was a lot of traffic in front of the net (you can tell Brown is back!) Quick for his part made some, ah, interesting looking saves as the puck slid out of his control too a few times; they looked scary but ultimately they were effective.

If anyone else had the feeling the Kings were going to pay for none of those other shots going in, they, like Jesse (@KingsMenPodcast) and I, would have been right. Once again the Kings proved they couldn’t play a second period. Amadio and Prokhorkin fell over themselves, quite literally. There was nothing else around and they just slipped. The ice must have been slick because they weren’t the only ones. Everyone was sliding all over the place and it didn’t make for effective puck handling. Or puck blocking, as two players you’ve probably never heard of before – including one with his first goal of the season, because of course – scored 6:53 and then again at 10:40. The first blind sighted Quick, a rocket through traffic sailing past him up high. The second he got a piece of but just not enough. It wasn’t for lack of trying that the Kings couldn’t tie it, which was something I guess.

By the third, however, trying wasn’t going to cut it. Lizotte-Kempe-Wagner had a 3-on-1 they couldn’t convert, yet not 5 minutes into the period the Jackets did convert their third goal of the evening. It was becoming eerily similar to Saturday’s game against the Predators, so I started waiting for the inevitable fourth goal that would put the Kings out of reach. It took a while – 11:15 to be exact – for the Kings to instead get their second goal, a blast from Walker through traffic that beat Elvis clean. 3-2 gave the Kings life, going full steam ahead. But it was clear the refs weren’t going to call anything. I’m not Wagner’s biggest fan but even I thought he should have gotten a penalty shot on his breakaway. Several more missed tripping calls and the Kings were realizing they were going to have to do it on their own. They pulled Quick with a couple of minutes to go, generated a lot of chances, but ultimately an empty  net goal came with exactly a minute to go. Another 2 points left on the table the Kings really can’t afford right now. But who wants to go to the playoffs anyway, right?