Kings Lose 2 -1 and Goaltender Quick in Anything But A Doozy
- Updated: October 13, 2016
They do this on purpose. Set up the first game of the season to be a doozy. The San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings, a lot of history: the Kings’ unbelievable comeback from a 3 – 0 playoff series deficit in 2014, bragging rights in the Western Division and the golden state, last year’s first-round playoff match-up where the Sharks captured it four games to one. And the fact, heck, they just don’t like each other.
At the SAP Center in San Jose Wednesday night, though a couple scuffles broke out – notably one with Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick after he took exception to the Sharks Joe Pavelski poking around his nether-region after a whistle – things ran basically clean.
The big news of the game, besides the 2-1 Kings loss, was the loss of Quick after a lower body injury during the last shift of the first period. According to LA Kings Insider, Jon Rosen, the team GM Dean Lombardi said the injury “could be awhile.” An MRI is scheduled for today, Thursday.
Even with the goalie change, with the last two periods covered by backup Jeff Zatkoff, the Kings played the Sharks close, with a solid defense against a spirited Sharks’ offense. Outshot 31 to 22, the Kings’ offense lacked efficiency and opportunity, prompting oft-cryptic coach Darryl Sutter to comment to NBCSN’s Brian Boucher, “The passing is off.”
The first period actually did start strong for the Kings as they played sharp and quick with a bounce to their skate. After a tripping penalty by Sharks’ Logan Couture, the Kings took advantage with a goal from Tyler Toffoli at 1:22. Picking up a puck spit out from the corner by Anze Kopitar, sniper Toffolli came in from the side and zipped a wrist shot short-side top shelf against goaltender Martin Jones.
Picking up the pace, the Sharks rebounded with a power-play goal from Courture at 14:05 of the first. With Kyle Clifford out on an interference penalty, Courture took a pass from Joe Thornton and Pavelski and then, while Patrick Marleau screened Quick, he roofed one off the upper back bar.
With Quick out for the final two periods, it appeared the steam was taken out of the team. Not so for the Sharks which kept buzzing along and outskating the Kings, which had minimal scoring opportunities.
The tiebreaker and back-breaker came at 3:20 of the third. Courture fought to get the puck free so Joonas Donskoi could come in alone against Drew Doughty who backed off the puck handler. Attempting to cross the puck across the crease, Donskoi’s pass was deflected by Doughty onto the stick of Brent Burns who put a shot home top shelf.
Even after pulling Zatkoff in the final minute of play, giving the Kings a 6 on 5 skating advantage, the team could not muster a shot on goal. Game over. Not really the “doozy” perhaps promised for an opening season game, but coach Sutter will take the pluses.
Said Sutter, through the LA Kings Insider website, “I thought we played really well. I thought we played, for the most part, the type of game we wanted. We probably made a couple mistakes on boards. They’re a big, heavy team in the O-zone. We handled it pretty well.”
Said Courture, on NBCSN, “We realized what last year was. We were close; we didn’t win. We realized how hard it was to get there. We know it’s a long season so we wanted to start well.”
The Kings first home game of the season will be against the Philadelphia Flyers – in a reunion home opening game from 50 years ago – at 7:30 p.m., Friday, October 14 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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