Kings blow Leafs 3 game streak
- Updated: January 8, 2016
There was certainly a lot going on in LA Kings Land Thursday night. The day before general manager and all around hockey wizard Dean Lombardi traded Jordan Weal and a third round draft pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for Luke Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier, with the Flyers retaining half of their salary. They both flew to LA Thursday morning and were available to the media before the game against the Maple Leafs, but since they miss morning practice and had yet to even meet their teammates by 5pm, no one expected them to suit up for the 7:30pm game. But when has Darryl Sutter done what people expect? They both drew into the lineup, as did Jeff Carter, his first game back since hurting his hand six games ago. Shore, Andreoff and McBain were the Kings scratches.
There wasn’t a lot of scoring, only three goals by the game’s end, but there was a lot of everything else. The Kings had the majority of the play in the first period, outshooting the Leafs 16-6 (at one point the SOG was 13-2.) Marian Gaborik earned his place on the roster with some stunning play in the Kings zone; Carter dumped the puck and while everyone else was on a line change he singlehandedly kept the puck from four Leafs players and kept the play alive in the Leafs zone. It was beautiful to watch. Unfortunately for the Kings Leafs goalie James Reimer was too; he was single handedly keeping the Leafs in the game, pulling some standing on his head Jedi knight Quick like moves that frustrated the Kings to no end. Milan Lucic was strong along the boards, flattening any Leafs player who dared come near him. (Tough hit of the game was rightfully his in the first period behind Quick’s net; that Leaf went down hard.)
Then came what could have been a game changer for either team. At 19:26 Roman Polak came after Tyler Toffoli, who ended up in an awkward position when Polak boarded him by the right circle and ended up head first into the boards. He didn’t look well. It took Toffoli a few minutes to be able to stand and from all angles the hit looked severe. The refs agreed; Polak got a 5 minute major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. Toffoli headed back to the locker room for analysis, and Lucic headed to the box – he took offense to Polak’s force against his teammate and retaliated with some roughing of his own. The two minute minor was well worth seeing him stick up for Toffoli. One of the refs ended up needing his own medical attention within the last 30 seconds of the period, when Jake Muzzin’s stick accidentally caught his face and he hit his head on the ice on the way down.
It turned out the huge Polak on Toffoli hit didn’t hurt either team. Toffoli was back for the second period and the Leafs easily held their own through the 4 on 4 and killed the remaining 3 minutes just as easily. Dwight King set up both Marian Gaborik and Trevor Lewis on successive breakaways but couldn’t finish. Then came an odd series of penalties which benefited neither team when all was said and done. At 17:09 Schenn got his first penalty as a King, a rather soft boarding call behind Quick. 24 seconds later Dustin Brown drew a penalty; Brad Boyes went to the box for high sticking. Leo Komarov should have gone next; clear interference against Drew Doughty (he literally held him down to the ice) but all the ref saw was Doughty’s retaliation – he landed a few punches and kept Komarov down on the ice for good measure. Doughty got 2 minutes for roughing at 18:41.
So going into the third the Kings had to kill off 41 seconds of the Doughty penalty. They played so well coming out of the gate I’d almost forgotten they were even on the penalty kill. Finally the poor defense in front of Reimer paid the price and Jake Muzzin scored. He flung the puck past a Mensch-Screened goalie and Lecavalier picked up his first (primary) assist as a King! Welcome to the club. Mike Babcock used his coaches challenge on the goal, believing that Mersch wast screening so much as interfering, but the rule on the ice stood; Kings goal! Not to be outdone, Jeff Carter had the next one a little over 5 minutes later. Gaborik on Reimer’s right side elected to pass to Carter on Reimer’s left and the goalie couldn’t make it back across the crease in time.
Turns out the Kings would need the extra goal. Not two minutes later the Leafs would score, a power play goal from Peter Holland. They didn’t let up. With 3:05 remaining they pulled Reimer for the extra attacker and it was on. The Kings held on thanks to (of course) Jonathan Quick, who’d been stellar all evening. Schenn was on the ice for the final shift and helped with his own game saving block. Welcome to the team also Schenn. Doughty, who has played with Schenn on Team Canada, had high praise for the defenseman. Lecavalier, who won the Cup in 2004, asserted in his final season he’d like to go out on top, winning another one. Here’s to that, Lecavalier.
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