Kings Set Fire To Flames

Welcome back to LA Kings ice Steve Duchesne, the latest legend to return for the Kings 50th celebration. We’ll be sure to make it an entertaining game for you. It didn’t start out looking like it’d be an exciting one – there were a lot of Kings chances (and most came from controlled zone entries! They listened to be about the dump and chase!) but in true LA Kings form nothing doing. Only a few chances in the Kings zone looked a little scary, and Budaj looked solid. It was a fast paced back and forth, with the puck preferring to head towards Brian Elliot. A Kings power play 14:31 looked to change things up, especially considering only 3 of the 4 Flames players had a stick, and the Kings were firing off shots like there’s no tomorrow, but none of them were that accurate. Teddy Purcell, who has had better shifts, finally mishandled the puck and those series of chances let up, only to be followed by 5-on-3 hockey for 19 seconds. (It should have been longer but the ref missed a Flame clearing the puck and waited to blow the whistle for a good 15 seconds.) Still, nothing doing, and it looked like it was going to be one of *those* games. Until new father Jeff Carter opened up the scoring at 19:01, with a beautiful top shelf snipe coming off of a sleek drop pass from Dwight King. Not content to leave the period only one goal up, the Nic Dowd–Dustin Brown–Devin Setoguchi line crashed the net for Setoguchi’s first goal as a King at 19:46.

The Kings then decided to forgo their typical second period slump and instead doubled their lead thanks to Kyle Clifford and again Setoguchi. We only had to wait 8:11 for Clifford’s, and that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Nick Shore. After some more sustained zone time than the Kings were really comfortable with over by Budaj, the puck snuck out to the neutral zone only to be coveted by a Flame, yet Shore, hustler that he is, managed to get in on the forecheck spectacularly and found himself and Clifford the only two players in Elliot’s line of sight. Completely unhindered by and Flames, Clifford went to the front of the net, got Shore’s pass and snuck the puck underneath Elliot’s legs (Clifford managed to fall down as he was doing it which only added to the appeal of the goal.) Not even a Jake Muzzin penalty half way between the two goals could belay the Kings momentum. The Brown-Dowd-Setoguchi line struck again, a similar goal to their first, dirty, where Brown took the shot and Setoguchi crashed the net to wrist the puck past Elliot’s right leg. Another power play goal would have been too much to ask, but it did keep the Kings in the power seat for the remainder of the period, outshooting the Flames 30-12 at this point.

Desperate to not leave completely empty handed, the Flames were stronger in the third than they had been, but doubling their shot total from the previous two periods didn’t help get any past Budaj, who was solid in net. Elliot would have liked more of a break, as a fifth goal literally snuck past him, despite even falling backwards in an attempt to stop it from crawling over the goal line. Trevor Lewis was credited with the goal, the shot coming from Drew Doughty. Brown found himself in the box 7:01 into the third, but we forgive him as he had two assists and was part of the strongest line on the ice. Doughty did too, but again we forgive as Alex Chiasson had ended up between Budaj and the net, which would have definitely stopped the shutout if not for Doughty’s hooking. Some solid Chris Sutter dance cam rounded out the evening and left some Kings fans wondering – where was this last week? More importantly, will this play continue next week on their road trip?

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