Kings Bounce Back with 4-0 Win

It appears the Kings took a four-game losing streak to heart. The sloppy play, dismal scoring opportunities, awful puck management and disappointing individual performances from some of their top players were gone. In their place was a team who had clean breakouts, genuine scoring chances, and solid defense.

In the first three minutes, the only thing registered on the scoresheet were five LA Kings hits. Stevens had put the lines in a blender a little, putting Pearson down with Lewis and Shore (I’d been asking for better linemates for Trevor Lewis in my head so clearly Stevens is psychic and gifted Lewis with Tanner Pearson) but that meant Andy Andreoff was up with Tyler Toffoli and Kempe, a decision I’m still scratching my head over. It didn’t yield a lot of results; the Kings only had 2 shots on goal in the first 17 minutes of the game. And this is playing a team who gives up the highest amount of shots in the league. Meanwhile, Darcy Keumper was getting a bit of a workout down his end, giving up bigger rebounds than I was comfortable with but nonetheless proving solid when needed. The King’s breakthrough came on a delayed penalty – sending out Toffoli as the extra attacker with the Kopitar line proved genius. The cross-net pass from Drew Doughty was a thing of beauty and Toffoli knew just what to do with it. As soon as it was on his stick he sneakily tossed it past James Reimer on the Kings second shot of the game. Nic Dowd followed up with a penalty, which only served to bring the shot differential to a crazy level and keep the King’s PK stats high at 90%. Keumper weathered the Panthers storm at the end of the period with some Quick-exque Cirque du Soleil moves keeping the possibility of a Kings win alive.

The second period saw a strong Kings performance with nothing new to show on the scoreboard. Pearson and Alec Martinez had a beautiful breakaway chance they couldn’t quite nail the timing on. Dowd spent another two minutes in the penalty box, and he did not look thrilled. Lewis once again showed why the little things help by giving Nick Shore a shorthanded chance; the whole PK was classic Kings defensive hockey. 15:04 in Pearson and Vincent Trocheck roughed each other up a little and got coincidental minors (I know, not a very Pearson like the thing to do but Trocheck wouldn’t stop slashing and hacking at him. I’d get fed up too.) The Panthers had the advantage on the 4-on-4 but Jake Muzzin was very disruptive and stopped a couple of good plays from brewing, while Keumper stopped an absolute blast to keep the Kings up 1-0 by the end of the period.

Finally, the Kings realized that no one was really comfortable with a one-goal lead and remembered that they were the team with the best goal differential in the third period to begin the season. Johnny Brodzinski opened up the scoring in the third with his first NHL goal and Jokinen got his second assist in as many games. His shot came after he decked around several defenders and backhanded it top shelf. The third period was the Kings of the beginning of the season who you knew could pull anything off. They had no trouble gaining the zone and generated some great plays from it. Andreoff got on the scoreboard for the first time since April. April 2016. Yes he had a stunning shot all alone thanks to Toffoli and Kempe and the stick handling was pretty impressive but if he could do that all the time then why does he only have 11 goals in 132 career games? (In case you were wondering why I’m not an Andreoff fan, he has 16 points and 195 PIM. While Kyle Clifford has similar stats in comparison, he’s just so much better in that role.) With 4 minutes remaining in a move reminiscent of when Patrick Roy coached the Colorado Avalanche, the Panthers pulled their goalie. It backfired. It took a while – the Kings couldn’t hit the empty net to save their life – but Lewis deserved his goal for waiting patiently until he had a shot clear of defensemen trying to play goalie. It was his 5th goal of the season. Keumper earned his 8th shutout of his career and the Kings get to remain on top of the Pacific Division.