Have We Been Eliminated Yet?

Nashville has swept the Kings for the second season in a row, and no one watching the Kings this season was in any way surprised.

Oddly enough the first period actually looked even, according to almost all the statistics. I actually commented halfway through ‘are Nashville playing badly? It did the Kings actually come to play tonight?’ I expected a much higher differential considering the quality of teams coming in. So it was surprising to see the Kings actually competing. Not only that, they were outhitting them 8-1 by the end of the first, if the scoreboard was to be believed. That’s right – the Kings were laying the heavy on Smashville. The Predators didn’t even have a hit until the last 3 minutes. Toffoli looked good, in a way. He had so many chances I actually noticed him for the first time in a while. He was consistently getting the puck and looks at Rinne; however, he wasn’t doing anything with it when he got it. He’d shoot directly into Rinne’s chest, or into the stick of a Nashville defender. It had to have been frustrating for him; it certainly was to watch! The first power play went to Nashville but considering theirs is the worst in the league it actually did the Kings some good. They had shorthanded bids from Kopitar, Roy, and several others. So when Brown got hit in the face in the offensive zone, I dared to have hope. That was a mistake. In the most LA Kings move *ever* they proceeded to suck for 1:45, get 3 incredible chances in the dying seconds on the penalty, then *immediately* gave up a goal while everyone was stuck behind the wrong blue line. It was the ultimate facepalm moment. 17 seconds later the Kings got another power play and wished they could reject the opportunity. (A power play is when we have the extra player right? Just checking because it seemed the Kings weren’t clear on the concept.)

The second brought more of the same, though Toffoli was noticeably absent from his shifts until 6:15 in. It wasn’t a surprise considering his inability to finish in the first, and the speed of the rookies the Kings are trying out. Grunderstom coming in had 2 goals in 2 games, Wagner was bringing in some good numbers, and Roy got his first NHL point 2:54 into the second. It was Lewis that really created the play through – his pass across the crease to Wagner was perfect and Wagner tipped in his 10th of the season. The 21-year-old has played 50 games this season, so 10 actually isn’t bad. (Especially considering the Kings leaders are Kopitar, 19, played in 70 games; Brown, 17, played in 60 games; and Kovalchuk, 15, also in 60 games.) The Kings looked good, dare I say competitive for a while there. Wagner’s goal was early enough in the period that they had confidence against a good team, rather than consistently playing behind. They did leave Subban undefended for a long enough period of time that I was concerned, but mostly they looked sharp and in control. Until the Predators second goal, a good goal from them actually, a wrister from Smith at 15:32. And it was still doable. Sure the Preds had pulled ahead in a few of the stats, but the Kings weren’t down ant out just let. Less than two and a half minutes later however, it all collapsed. Martinez was stripped of the puck in the neutral zone, Sissons slapped it past Quick and that was for all intents and purposes that was the end of the game. Sure, they had 2 minutes left in the second and a whole third period to play, but they didn’t. Martinez did his best to even up his mistake, which quite a few shots at Rinne that never seemed to go anywhere, but he was the only one who really appeared to put in any effort. The whole third was a snooze fest that Nashville could have taken advantage of, but even they didn’t see the point. After all, they have playoffs coming up.