Kings Suffer First Saturday Home Loss

It wasn’t even that interesting of a game. The first period was pretty much a snoozefest from start to finish. There wasn’t even a whistle for over 5 minutes. That’s not to say the Kings didn’t have some nice chances – Alex Iafallo in particular has a perfect chance from a cross crease pass you’d think Raanta wouldn’t have been able to reposition in time for.. and yet. The first real piece of action didn’t go the Kings way, which really wasn’t a reflection of their play up until this point. It may have been boring but at least it wasn’t disappointing. Until their penalty kill at 9:36 in which resulted in the Coyotes first goal. (The Yotes have a 14% closure rate on the power play for the rest of the league, and a 60% success rate against the Kings so far this season. So there’s that.) What the Kings couldn’t seem to do was take the easy chances. At one point Raanta was literally stuck behind the net while the puck skitted across the blue paint and yet NO ONE was there to sneak it in. Emptiest of nets. And yet nothing. So despite their 13 shots to 6 and really outplaying the Coyotes in every way, the scoreboard favored the visitors.

1:16 into the second, the Yotes took a penalty and things started to look up for the Kings. A pretty, pretty goal from Kopitar, dished from Doughty, soared past Raanta’s glove hand and gave the Kings huge momentum. 11-2 shots on goal followed, with some truly solid hockey from the Kings. But puck luck was not going their way. While the puck practically refused to go in for them, dancing along the crease in quite the precarious position, down the other end the post made the first save and a sprawling Quick couldn’t make the second. It was almost the exact same play that didn’t go for the Kings that did for the Yotes, despite the Kings getting better looks and utterly dominating play. Toffoli was the only one who stood out to me in the sense that he does need to look better than he’s been playing. He’s mediocre at best at this point, and it’s so disappointing. And while a shot differential favoring the Kings is pretty standard these days, 25-8 is even more lopsided than usual. Especially with the score being against them. They couldn’t capitalize on their power play with 4 minutes to go (which they really should have) and despite Ryan doing an excellent job of standing up at the blue line in the last minute it was a relief when the buzzer ended  the second.

The third brought some excitement, though not necessarily the good kind. Crouse, who had the Coyotes second goal, took a slide into the boards and was knocked unconscious instantly. Play stopped for a good few minutes while he was attended to on the ice, and finally was able to leave the ice, though he did require assistance and couldn’t hold his stick. Then in a slightly bizarre turn of events, Brown had a breakaway that could have tied the game, he was tripped and Doughty crosschecked to the back. Kopitar took such offense he shouldered someone into the boards and almost started a fight – yes you read that correctly, *Kopitar* was so offended he almost started a fight. Oesterle was the only one called (for hooking Brown) but unfortunately for the Kings, there were more shorthanded chances than for them. Quick was mostly excellent but it was Raanta who had the bulk of the work – 45 shots on goals before the last whistle blew. An empty net goal with 2:10 remaining should have been it, and indeed whatever few fans were in the stadium thought so. So many of them missed Prokhorkin’s second NHL goal, a quick wrister that shovelled the puck into the net, and made the last 95 seconds much more interesting, though ultimately disappointing.