Kings Fly Out of 2019 With A Win

Happy New Year Kings fans, and what a way to close out 2019. If you were wondering ‘are the Kings actually good now, even though the standings don’t think so?’ then a 4 goal opening frame should win you over. (And for the record yes, the Kings are a much better team than they were last season, they just dug themselves a pretty big hole in October/November with their road record so climbing back out is gonna take work.)

In the last home game against St Louis, the Kings let in 4 goals in the opening period. So this was a refreshing flip of that script, watching them stack up their own goals. Quick was excellent, though sometimes his spectacular saves came because he was already down too early and they looked more impressive than they perhaps needed to be. (And that would come back to bite him later.) The first goal came 5:31 from Kyle Clifford, a silky smooth goal I wouldn’t have expected to come from Clifford, but he’s never not playing his hardest so well deserved. You could tell things were going to go the Kings way from that goal – defense was seriously lacking on the Flyers side, because really Clifford shouldn’t have been able to get anywhere near Elliot let alone get of a shot that clear. But it was up to the Kings to capitalize, and they did. Less than 90 seconds after Clifford’s goal came Iafallo’s tip of Anze Kopitar’s shot on the power play – why yes Kings fans, the Kings scored on the power play! (In fact, they scored on all three power play chances they had. And Iafallo has 6 points in his last 5 games.) They had excellent puck movement, deceptive passes, clean passes – just incredible to watch. Then again, less than 90 seconds later, a second power play goal came from Tyler Toffoli. (To be perfectly honestly it should have been easier for him, Elliot was well out of position and he had a practically empty net to shoot into and it still took him two tries. But still, he did make it so yay!) By this point in the game we weren’t even 9 minutes into the first period, and the Kings had 3 goals on 9 shots. Totally sustainable right?

It wasn’t, obviously, and the first negative thing I can say about the game came 16:23 into the first when Kopitar took one of two penalties. I’m not happy with how many times I’ve had to write “Kopitar took a penalty” this season. This is a Lady Byng Trophy winner, and the Captain, supposed to be setting an example. He shouldn’t be taking 2 out of 3 Kings penalties. It worked out just fine for the Kings though, thanks to Adrien Kempe’s shorthanded goal – in fact Kempe was all over the ice this game. (This was Kempe’s second shorthanded goal of the season.) Lizotte was all over the ice too, who was the one who stripped the puck from the Flyers and started the 2-on-1. So after 1 even strength goal, 2 power play goals and 1 shorthanded goal, it was no surprise when Elliot was replaced for the second period. The Flyers all looked tighter, but not enough to show up the Kings. In fact the Kings continued to have a working forecheck, keeping the Flyers from getting many chances at Quick, and certainly no good ones. For at least half the period the Kings were in sync, playing sigh a high calibre game it was hard to believe this is the same team that couldn’t play hockey to save their lives at the beginning on the season. Yet it was too good to last, because as things progressed Quick was called up on to look good. He was up to the task, more than up to it, so it was disappointing that the “goal” that broke the shutout was possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. While MacDermid was being checked into the Flyers bench, Justin Braun was trying to pass away from any Kings players, not even to anyone as there was a change going on, but it somehow ricocheted off a Kings skate and into the goal. There was a long stretch where the referees chatted to Toronto to see if it was even a legitimate goal, and there was much grumbling when it was deemed to be. (Seriously it’s hard to describe just how ridiculous this play was.) It was odd after some questionable non calls that Wagner was called for roughing on a fairly benign play. But with Carter’s shorthanded breakaway and Wagner’s breakaway bid as he left the box the Kings didn’t let the Flyers get any more momentum from said awful goal. (Wagner though is going to have to start finishing those plays; he has the speed and never does anything with it.) Some more feistiness ensued, finally resulting in a boarding call abasing the Flyers with 24 seconds remaining in the second.

1:31 into the third we were treated to the Kings third power play goal, and Martin Frk’s third goal in as many games since he’s been with the big club. Special teams was the difference this evening, and for once the Kings were on top of that game. But Frk went down awkwardly into the boards and looked discombobulated a few plays later, and similarly, things started to come off the rails for the team. Kopitar took another penalty, that the Flyers scored on when, as I mentioned earlier, Quick went down too early and the puck flew in over his head. “Quite frankly,” coach McLellan said (and I agree), “I think that Quickie worked too hard tonight, after we got up 4-0, I think he had more work than he should’ve. That’s just a coach being a little bit picky, but it’s something I believe and we can clean that up as well.” Uh, no, it wasn’t just a coach being picky. The game should never have gotten as close as it did. Because the Kings started resting on their lead in the third – scoring 5 goals made them cocky. But instead of playing with the momentum they just stopped playing. The Flyers completely took over and with 2:52 to go, they got their third goal. Which was just enough time to pull their goalie and try to tie it up. It was uncomfortable how close they almost came. The Kings did manage to close it out, however, with a lot of positives to take into the new year. “I thought yesterday’s practice showed up in today’s game,” McLellan said, “and that’s a real good sign for our team. They’re picking things up and putting them into play the following day and I look forward to a couple more practices this week.”