Kings Paid the Price

Are we even shocked any more when the Kings lose? With 16 games left in the season and only 56 points (which somehow isn’t the worst in the league – that’s Ottawa with 52 – and is tied with Detroit, but is however 5 points out of the next Western team and 14 points from the 2nd wild card) the Kings still haven’t statistically been eliminated? Yeah, I know… Weird…Not weird? The first goal for the Canadiens took less than 5 minutes to flutter in over Quick’s head. He was likely screened but still should have been able to stop it if he had just been a little bit bigger – you’ve seen how some goalies somehow manage to make themselves so big in net there doesn’t seem to be any space to shoot at? That was not Quick at that moment. Otherwise, it was a fairly event free first – something I suppose we should be thankful for? It was a tight defensive period – only 10 shots for the Canadiens and only 6 for the Kings – so shots weren’t getting through a whole lot at either end.

Come the second period that was even more true – Kings ‘jumped ahead’ with the first 4 and that in and of itself took 10 minutes. 10 minutes of them giving us hope that with being only one goal down and not giving the Canadiens an inch tying it up was only a matter of time. Ironic. Only 7 seconds after recognizing the Canadiens literally hadn’t gotten a shot all period – Jordan Weal ex-King took one and scored. I mean… if that isn’t the most LA Kings thing ever I don’t know what is. Jeff Carter on the breakaway unable to even move on Price? That too. Remember when certain Kings used to be able to pick their shots with such accuracy you were more shocked when they didn’t score than when they did? I miss those times. The whole team had no finish; the youngsters were great at getting the puck down there, but couldn’t do anything when they did. Oh, Toffoli where has his shot gone?? Ugh… The first penalty of the game – both teams were surprisingly disciplined in that respect all game – came with 4:05 left in the second, so at least something was switching up. The defense did their jobs well (though Phaneuf is so questionable lately it hurts.) Unfortunately for the Kings so was Price down the other end; if he wasn’t playing us he’d be just beautiful to watch, instead of painful. His stop on Leipsic on his doorstep was particularly ridiculous – normal people just can’t move like that that fast!

Any hope of a comeback was shot 41 seconds into the third. We’d wanted to see Shae Webber’s slapshot all game? Well, we did. Quick didn’t. 3-0 wasn’t even surprising given the play this season. I suppose we could have gotten some when Leipsic’s breakaway drew a penalty – it was a pretty spectacular breakaway that proved maybe the Kings did have some life in them yet, and the resulting power play saw the first unit with chances for a good 90 seconds before the Canadiens could clear. But Price was just too good. And the Kings were so used to being bad that even when they did something impressive – like a pass Kopitar managed to sneak in-between about four skate blades and two sticks – they didn’t expect it and couldn’t control the puck. Luff – who’d been benched by Desjardins for a good portion of the first period and a lot of the second too – proved why he shouldn’t be, with his snapshot at 11:03 being the first (and only) one to beat Price. Then with 5:31 remaining Toffoli drew a penalty and – I should have known better – I had hope maybe the Kings could pull this off? Yeah, that was dashed quickly when it took over a minute to even enter their zone and the puck was immediately sent down the other end. I mean WOW that power play was terrible. Pulling Quick only served to frustrate me – there was a good 30 seconds between 1:11 remaining and 46 seconds remaining where the Kings peppered Price with Grade A chances and rebounds and WHY CAN’T YOU PLAY LIKE THAT THE OTHER 59 MINUTES? The story of the season – flashes of what the team should be interspaced too sparsely between lackluster play. Price did manage to earn a franchise record by tying Jacques Plante for most wins, so congratulations to him – he did have some impressive play. But sadly for the Kings – they didn’t force that much of it.