Kings Effort Too Little Too Late

I did not expect to win this game. Colorado is good this season, thanks largely to their top line of MacKinnon-Rantanen-Landeskog, who are literally the top line in the league. MacKinnon has 31 points, Rantanen 34 and Landeskog 23, for a combined 88 points. In comparison, the Kings have 42 goals in their entire season. Seriously. Their biggest contributor has 14 points. So when the Kings didn’t immediately give up a goal to them, I was pleased. There wasn’t even a shot of goal for the first 3:30. There were 5 hits, and soon after that 3 more for the Avs – so the tone was set early in. Hit hard, and hit a lot. The puck was actually in the Kings offensive zone more than I’d expected, and the two biggest proponents of that were Dion Phaneuf (congratulations on 1000 games!) and Kyle Clifford. I know, right? But when Clifford took a penalty 9:57 in I knew the onslaught was beginning. Sure enough, they were up in shots 9-2 when a play was under review for a potential goal. No definitive puck crossing the line, which is when I figured the Kings would immediately give them another chance. Oh, that one didn’t go? Have this one instead. Yeah, I hate being right sometimes. Kamanev tipped in Soddeberg’s shot and there we were down 1-0. The Avs didn’t let up, and the Kings didn’t fight back, for a good 5 minutes. They just hung back and let Colorado dance circles around them. So when Clifford scored – I was confused? So was Varlamov; he didn’t quite clean up the puck, left it in his crease, and Clifford took advantage, skating on quickly and literally shoving it past Varley’s leg and into the net. It wouldn’t be a Kings game if they didn’t *immediately* do something stupid though. And when I say immediately, I mean Kovalchuk took a penalty that MacKinnon scored on as Clifford’s goal was being announced. The Avs are really good at power play’s and MacKinnon is just stupidly good at hockey, so why did we think that combination was a thing we should let happen often? Stay. Out. Of. The. Box. It took 8 seconds of that power play, 50 seconds total since Clifford goal to fall back, a position the Kings stayed in for the last 4 minutes of the period, despite a few last-second efforts.

The second period saw the Kings get stomped on just about as badly as I’d expected to go in. We started with Peterson having to make a big save 32 seconds in followed by a power play I have actually run out of original words to describe. Pathetic is the one that keeps coming to the top. Because when you can’t even gain the zone there’s no way you’re going to be able to do anything. Also? When you do, not taking any shots is also an effective way to not score. The Kings keep finding more and more ways not to score, and they’re getting frustrated with it. (Not to mention the fans.) MacKinnon continued to be an incredible player to watch – hey Kings want to take some lessons from his line? Zadarov went back to the box pretty quickly giving the Kong’s a chance to be better – but they didn’t take it. After a while does it stop being frustrating and disappointing, and become just expected? Oh, a power play these next two minutes won’t have good hockey in them. Sure enough. No good hockey then another Avs goal that just sailed right past Peterson. Right past. Like he wasn’t even there. We then noticed that Adrien Kempe wasn’t on the bench – he suffered a lower-body injury and wouldn’t return to the game. I can’t even summon emotion at another injury at this point. It is what it is. Yet *another* power play the Kings didn’t score on became an odd sequence in which the Kings should have gotten a 5-on-3 15 seconds in but Kopitar was called for embellishment. Have they ever seen Kopitar play? He’s literally won the trophy for being the most decent player on the ice. Several times (just nominated last season for the Lady Byng but really? Kopitar? Embellishment?) As soon as MacKinnon exited the box (oh did you expect more from the power play? Why?) he had the breakaway, which gained Muzzin a penalty for tripping to stop the inevitable goal. But a Colorado power play just means an inevitable goal – they were 6 for 6 in their last few contests, 3 for 3 against the Kings so far. Involved with the goal? MacKinnon and Rantanen. Obviously.

Then came the third period – we really have to sit through 20 more minutes of this? Well, Peterson didn’t. He lasted 2:47 more, by which point he’d given up 2 more goals, to bring the Avalanche total to 6. I say Peterson gave them up – he didn’t have the greatest defense in front of him and he is in his, what, fourth NHL game? This is the team that won the Jennings Trophy last year, who now have given up at least 4 goals in 5 of their last 21 games. Their offense just isn’t good enough to have their defensive play that badly. They can be good enough when the defense is keeping the goals against down. It’s a 3-2 league no more, however, and the Kings have somehow adjusted to the wrong side of that. With 11:29 remaining Budaj was no longer flawless, and OH MY GOSH WE STILL HAVE OVER HALF OF THIS PERIOD LEFT? Just put us out of our misery already. When Doughty was called for the King’s fourth penalty, we were taking bets on how long it would take for the Avalanche to make it 8-1. So what a shock it was to instead kill the penalty, and have Doughty control the puck out of the box long enough to get Luff his second goal in as many games? Hey we like that kid, welcome to the NHL. 2:07 later he was back at it, with a stunning give-and-go between himself and Wagner, who picked up his first NHL point as the primary assist on Luff’s goal, this time with the puck finding the back of the net of Wagner’s stick. What a night for him! First NHL point than first NHL goal. Of course, it was too little too late for the Kings, as Wagner’s goal came with less than five minutes remaining. I mean, at least they did try?