Hurricanes Can’t Beat Jedi Quick and Kings
- Updated: December 10, 2017
I miss Justin Williams. I know realistically with the salary cap we can’t have him back and he’s happy to close out his career with the team he started with, the Carolina Hurricanes, but I still miss him. It was Star Wars night at Staples Center, appropriate since we have the Jedi Master on our team. Jonathan Quick once again pulled out all the stops for his themed evening, looking as elite as ever.
(Photo credit to Augie Loya)
The Kings began in fine form, looking fresh and ready to shoot. Adrian Kempe had the most impressive chance, skating with such speed through the neutral zone and dangling the puck in between a Hurricane’s legs but tried to get a little too fancy and lost it moments later before he could shoot. Quick was Quick, keeping any Hurricanes chances from getting anywhere near the back of the net. There was a only a little hesitation as Stevens had changed up the lines, getting the chemistry just right. Shore was up with Iafallo and Brown, Kopitar was with Toffoli and Pearson, which worked out magnificently. Brown took a penalty with 2:38 remaining but there were more Kings shorthanded chances than the Hurricanes did with the man advantage. In fact I counted three. None converted, but it was a nice change to see the Kings close a period strong even despite being a man down.
(Photo credit to Augie Loya)
The second was feistier. The Hurricanes had all the shots on goal for the first 5 minutes and the Kings were feeling it. Muzzin took a puck to the face early in and checked his beard for blood as he ended his shift. Tyler Toffoli, who didn’t need any time to gel with his linemate Anze Kopitar, took a nasty hit center ice, took a few seconds down, shook it off and stood up to make himself open. He scored on that shot, fed from Kopitar in the right slot. The best revenge. The pair also combined for the Kings second goal, 2:49 later and 9:16 into the period. this time Toffoli took the shot streaking down the right and Kopitar tipped it in, to rapturous applause. The momentum continued in the Kings direction, garnered from the two goals and Quick doing the Jedi thing at his end to keep it at 2-0. They caught up and began outshooting Carolina, most if not all good chances they were going to wish later they’d capitalized on. Drew Doughty stepped up his game, stopping breakaways without getting the almost obligatory hooking penalty and dominating play whenever he was on the ice.
(Photo credit to Augie Loya)
Lots of big hits began the third, several from MacDermid because that’s what he does. Derek Forbert took the first penalty of the period; that wasn’t the one to worry about. After Toffoli and Pearson had a beautiful 2-on-1 that Pearson couldn’t capitalize on (despite Toffoli’s stunning puckhandling around the Hurricane’s defense and slick pass), Mitchell got the penalty that they broke through on. With 6:57 remaining it was just enough time left to get nervous. For good reason it appeared; with about 3 minutes remaining there was a delayed penalty the Hurricanes pulled Darling for, and after about 40 seconds of letting them dominate without being able to get control of the puck to actually start the penalty, they tied the game. (After several missed calls on the Hurricanes that Quick in particular took offense to, with good reason, it was quite disappointing.) So it was to be another overtime. Possibly the worst overtime I’ve ever seen the Kings play that they still actually managed to win on. For at least (and this is not an exaggeration) 2:50 they couldn’t get a shift change. The Hurricanes did, several times as they hemmed Kopitar, Doughty and Toffoli in their defensive zone for what seemed like an eternity. When they finally did it was such a relief it still took time to get any kind of cycle going; Brown had a good chance but got hemmed into the boards (with that much ice I couldn’t help but wonder why he chose that path but still.)
(Photo credit to Augie Loya)
Finally, just when it looked like a shootout was inevitable Pearson slapped his own rebound back into the net, saving us even more heart attacks. There had been enough. Fittingly, Quick got an assist on the goal – he earned more than his Jedi master status this game. The Kings eighth win in a row is the longest active win streak in the NHL.
*Video provided by Robert Lee Barton Jr.
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