Kings Seek to End Trend of Scratching Back … But Losing

I wonder if the Los Angeles Kings ever get tired of playing the same game over and over again, like a rerun of a sitcom, a newscast or, in the case of the Kings, a horror movie. Let’s see; here is how it goes:

1. Kings fall behind and try to scratch back.

2. They end up one goal behind with 5 or 6 minutes to go in the game.

3. Then they push hard and pull the goalie.

4. They skate away into the locker room, with nothing but one big L to show.

There you go. You can go ahead and cut and paste this in the last few posts, including Saturday night in the Kings 4-2 loss against the NY Islanders at the Barclays Center in New York.

After another disappointing loss, the 22-20-4 Kings presently find themselves in 6th place in the Pacific Division with 48 points, 3 point out of playoff contention. The team next plays tonight, Monday, January 23 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

In Saturday’s match, both teams racked up 36 shots, but it was the Islander’s three power play goals that gave them the edge. Plus the whole rerun scenario the Kings keep playing out.

The scoring started early for New York on a fluky goal that went in on a flip shot by Jason Chimera that bounced off goalie Peter Budaj’s facemask and trickled behind him into the net. That’s an early start for that sickly feeling of having to come back in the game.

The second goal came in period two when Anders Lee chipped in a rebound from right in front of the net. I guess it’s time to start scratching back LA.

True to form, the Kings pushed back and did rebound in the third period, with two goals to tie the score: one on a backhand from super scorer Jeff Carter, his 24^th, another from Drew Doughty on a slow-motion slapshot trickler at 4:06.

But wait a minute. A tie game in the third? That isn’t according to script. Aren’t the Kings supposed to be down by one later on in the third? Yup. On another power play, Lee’s slap shot found its way past Peter Budaj’s right pad at 9:31. After a poorly timed penalty by Doughty late in the game, an empty net goal buried any last-minute chances, and the Kings left the stage dejected once again with their collective L.

Said Carter through LA Insider Jon Rosen, “I thought we had a really good start to the game. Did a lot of good things except put the puck in the net. That’s been an issue for us all year. You know, we get one or two in that first it could be a different game, right? I think we did a lot of good things but at the end of the day you’ve got to win games. I don’t know what happened tonight but we’ve got to get these next three games.

Said Trevor Lewis, “We’ve got to find ways to win these types of games.”

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