Kings Loss to Vancouver Makes Playoff Hopes Slimmer

No matter how many times I see it, I will never understand how the Kings don’t just dominate non-contenders and instead play down to them, forgetting how to play good hockey. Because that’s exactly how the Kings came out to play tonight; they didn’t. It was Ben Bishop‘s Staples Center debut, but it was likely one he’d want to forget. The rest of his team didn’t help, losing practically every faceoff (14 of 19 to be exact in the first) to end up chasing the puck and playing on their heels. (It sounds small but they lost every one for almost 5 minutes and were at one point 9%. 9. That’s ridiculous and will set bad habits – how can you truly set up a play if you’re spending half your time just trying to forecheck?) Dustin Brown had a few nice chances but whiffed on one and couldn’t make the others count. He then collided with Trevor Lewis behind the Canucks net and if we weren’t shaking our heads already, we were now. There was one shift I counted – one – in which there was actual Kings pressure – and then they lost the next faceoff and spent the next few chasing the Canucks around the rink. Speaking of playing on their heels, the Kngs let in their first goal of the evening 11:37 in, when Bishop overplayed the initial stop and Baertschi pounded in the rebound. A Kings power play was exactly how I expected it to be – disappointing. 57 seconds in Jerome Iginla occupied the penalty how too, but the resulting 4-on-4 became 4-on-3 after 27 seconds when Michael Chaput high sticked Jake Muzzin. Of course that went nowhere for the Kings and they in fact let in their second goal of the evening as Henrik Sedin came out of he box, gaining throne and banking the puck of Drew Doughty‘s stick and past Bishop.

The second period was just as bad. The Canucks scored just as many goals and Bishop was less than pleased. 1:04 into the period Iginla boarded Luca Sbisa so badly he needed assistance to get back up. Adrian Kempe has a spectacular breakaway shorthanded that could have turned the tide of the game before it got out of hand; Jeff Carter‘s breakaway moments after the penalty expired could have too. Instead the Canucks crowded the Kings net 6:38 in and watched as McNabb hit Bishop in the head, causing him to duck and the Canucks to score. (Please Daryl please, I beg of you, bench him next game.) The Canucks had 3 goals on 8 shots. The Kings had 0 off 18. (As Twitter pointed out the actually scored twice, only Doughty and Kempe scored the Canucks 2nd and 3rd goal respectively.) 6 minutes later Derek Forbert lost his man Goldobin who scored point-blank on Bishop, who in a Quick like move almost snapped his stick in displeasure. Luck finally when the Kings way with a power play that Kopitar was able to capitalize on with a nifty wrister, but at 16:40 it couldn’t do much as far as momentum. At least the team wasn’t completely dead, and in a surprising turn won 16 of the 20 face-offs in that period.

The third period was slightly more interesting, but it took 12:03 for anything real to happen. The Kings had 4 power plays in the third period,at 1:41, 4:50, 11:54 and 15:30, Trevor Lewis scoring during the third. Win a face-off, score a goal. It seemed to finally revitalize the Kings, but it was too little too late. They were generating shots a plenty, but no grade-A chances were getting through. Pearson actually broke his stick shooting one of them. With the final power play dying down the Kings chose to send Bishop to the bench for the extra attacker, which perhaps would have worked better if Andy Andreoff hadn’t gotten himself sent to the penalty box for the last 1:33 of the period. Alec Martinez managed to score a technically shorthanded goal with Bishop pulled again by going to the front of the net, but the remaining 1:21 (still shorthanded) wasn’t enough to mount a comeback. Not shocking considering the Kings really only played 10 minutes of a 60 minute game. In those 10 minutes they scored 3 goals; imagine what would have happened had they shown up the whole time. While the Kings remain in the final wild card spot, the Blues have 2 games in hand on them now and 1 point. They would have to only lose in overtime once and outright the second time for the Kings to keep their spot. With 17 games remaining for the Kings, the road to the playoffs will be a rough ride.