Kings Losing Streak Continues

Remember when the Kings started the season 6-0-1 and were the last team to lose in regulation? Wasn’t that a beautiful time? Keep remembering that Kings fans because the next stat is going to be disappointing, to say the least – they are 1-6-0 in their last 7 games. Whatever spark they had to begin with and whatever pep talk John Stevens gave them before every third period has clearly worn off, or at least settled. Do I think this losing streak is going to last? No. Does it concern me anyway? Yes. I was keenly aware that this team is full of rookies and they are without veterans like Jeff Carter, Kyle Clifford, and what the hell Marian Gaborik. He’s made of glass but when he’s good boy was he good.

Once again the Dustin Brown–Anze Kopitar-Iafallo line was the strongest thing the Kings sent out onto the ice. They didn’t have a lot of strong chances in the first but it seemed like what they did have came from that line. They were strong on the forecheck, Brown has gotten really good at that whole net-front presence thing, and Iafallo is proving to be picking up on a lot of good habits when it comes to sticking handling. Things are all good there. The Tyler Toffoli–Tanner Pearson-Adrien Kempe line also had its moments. But there wasn’t enough offense to contend with the Jets, it turned out. (Is the curse of the backup goalie a real thing? Because I swear the Kings have a curse of losing to backup goalies like nobodies business.) Iafallo drew the first penalty with a very skilled move, not only keeping the puck in the offensive zone but forcing an error from his opponent in the process. There was a lot of movement on the power play but not much shooting. In fact, the best chance they had was interrupted by Jake Muzzin’s stick breaking on the play. Pearson went in next for hooking and once again Jedi-Quick kept the game going for the Kings. (He can’t be human the way he moves, it’s incredible.) It looked like the first was going to close out evenly and everything would reset in the second until the Kings couldn’t get control of the puck in their own zone and it led to a goal. 8 seconds. They couldn’t have held on for 8 more seconds?! Considering the Jets going into the game were +11 and the Kings were -5 I suppose it could have been worse. (But my goodness Kings what is going on in first periods? Do they not get ready to play until they’ve already been out there for 20 minutes?)

The second opened with some concern about Kempe, who was hit hard and left the ice holding his shoulder. He didn’t reemerge for several shifts, but when he did everything seemed normal. Phew. Crisis averted. Now, for some offensive zone presence… Wait… Where was that again? Not so much of that happening in the second – the best look I noted came when Iafallo schooled some defensemen and got the puck up neutral ice to an open Doughty who had a good look but I’d hardly call it ‘offensive zone presence.’ The Kings had a better chance of it when Brown was pushed in front of the net and they ended up with a power play, but no such luck there either. A Kings penalty kill did no help to that effort, especially when Doughty got a little too cocky, keeping the puck in by Quick while the Jets were on a chance then failing to clear when they came back, instead of shooting it directly into a player who kept it alive. Brown went to the sin bin with 2.06 remaining but before Dave Joseph could finish announcing the McFlurry minute the Jets had scored again.

The Kings chances weren’t looking much better to begin the third. They didn’t have the chemistry or spark they needed to sustain much offense, and it took a power play to get anything going. It was Toffoli who finally broke through; he redirected an Oscar Fantenberg shot past Mason for the Kings only goal of the game. In the 6 games that they’ve lost this stretch 3 of them were 1 goal games. So much for that third-period rally. Goals aren’t rationed you know boys! The Kings had 2 basically consecutive power plays to tie the game up but no such luck. Toffoli’s goal came at 5:26 so with a good 14 more minutes they should have been able to rustle up at least one more, especially considering they ended the evening with 39 shots on goal. They were even getting outhit, 36-22 which is unusual for this team. But even with Quick pulled they couldn’t pull out any more magic and fell to the Jets for the first time in regulation in their franchise history at Staples Center. Dear hockey Gods: for Thanksgiving, I want to be thankful that this stretch of hockey is over.