Goals Fly Past Kings; Another Loss Hurts Deep

Fly away hopes of a semi-decent season. With Jonathan Quick out of the lineup indefinitely, Jack Campbell has some big shoes to fill. So, of course, the rest of the Kings welcomed him to the starting goalie position by letting the Flyers give him a *lot* of practice. Their first shot on goal was 13 seconds in. 4 seconds later there was another. And so on for a fairly excruciating first period. Without Campbell, it would have been a slaughter. Despite having 3 power plays, the Kings only had 7 shots on goal to the Flyers 13 (and no power plays). The first power play came 1:49 in and despite the presence of Dustin Brown went nowhere. (Hint Kings: Brown is effective when the puck is anywhere near the net. When you dump and chase on a power play the other team will send the puck 3 zones before you can set up any kind of play. So, stop that.) Meanwhile, Campbell was doing his best Cirque du Soleil performer impression, all but actually standing on his head to give his teammates a chance. The Flyers shots were piling up and the Kings couldn’t even get out of the neutral zone successfully. Kovalchuk even gave the puck to a Flyer, was saved by Doughty for about 5 seconds before he was surrounded by Flyers like flies to sugar. A few shifts later ex-King Folin drew no love from his former teammates as he attempted to flatten Kovalchuk behind the play, attracting the ire of several Kings and a two-minute penalty. 24 seconds later a second Flyer joined him for some 5-on-3 action. You’d think that much time would lead to a goal, right? You’d be wrong. The Kings power play, which was horrifying before, is now downright abysmal. Of all the elements of their game that needs help, that has to top the list. Then how to bail out your goaltender once he’s made the first save. And the second. And the third. After almost a whole period of Campbell being outstanding, Kovalchuk fails to clear and the Flyers capitalize, 2:25 remaining in the first. It should have been worse. It was about to get worse.

The second frame makes my head hurt. To begin the Kings couldn’t buy a goal. They finally found a way to generate some good chances, but couldn’t get any through. Or any traction after the first flurry, as a penalty kill reared its ugly head. Credit to Kopitar, that man has serious skills. He managed to make a shorthanded bid despite being swarmed by four Flyers. And on the power play, he did everything but stand on his head to get the Kong’s a tying goal. After three grade-A chances in a row, Jeff Carter finally buried the rebound with some very fancy stick handling, practically dancing around the front of the net and maneuvering silkily around Elliot. 10:04 in and things were looking up. 49 seconds later it all crashed and burned. Wayne Simmonds took advantage of a vulnerable Campbell; once again boys help our a goalie and clear some rebounds. Even worse was the next call. The puck slipped across the line thanks to a distinct kicking motion. But because it grazed a Kings stick on the way that wasn’t Campbell’s it was ruled a good goal. I have so, so many issues with that, but as it turned out to be a moot point I guess I’m going to have to let it go. It almost wasn’t – Kovalchuk and Carter brought it to be within 1 with 1:19 remaining in the second, Kovulchuck seeming to clean up his own shot after Carter tipped his rebound back to him, and we left it with hope.

Hope that was again crushed. 2:35 into the third we had a power play, one so dismal I wondered if we could perhaps get a 3-minute power play since the Kings seemed to spend over a minute trying to get anything set up. Despite the fact that the Flyers are 30th in the league on the PK, the Kings still couldn’t get anything going. 5-on-5 they were more aggressive. Mostly it proved interesting; Kopitar and Brown twice in as many shifts brought a quality play from the neutral zone only to have Jake Muzzin fumble it. And twice in a few minutes they were so aggressive the puck ended up behind everyone, giving the Flyers breakaways with Kings defense nowhere to be found. Campbell came up big twice, but the third time not so much. Giroux went top shelf, but don’t make the mistake of think Campbell didn’t bail the Kings out in a big way most of the game. His defense wasn’t helping out at all, the neutral zone seemed to be another Flyers zone, and again Stevens did that bold but ultimately stupid move of pulling the goalie with 3-4 minutes remaining. Another hint: if you can’t power play with 5-on-4 (and hello you had significant time of 3-on-5 there!) don’t think it will be any better 6-on-5 and an empty net wide open for the other team to score into easily. 3:11 left and we’d lost all hope. 37 goals against in 8 games. (I had to count that twice to make sure that was accurate.) Strap yourselves in Kings fans; this is going to be a very, very long season.