Kings vs Oilers: That 70’s Line strikes twice

It was Jeff Carter bobblehead night at Staples Center! So whatever else happened the Kings had that going for them. And they had Jeff Carter going for them too, along with Drew Doughty and as always Jonathan “Jedi” Quick.

The Kings have had a tendency in the past to play down to opponents who perhaps don’t have the level of skill that recent Stanley Cup champions have. The Oilers were sitting last in the division to the Kings first going into the game, so of course the Kings too 7:48 to even register a shot on goal. It didn’t help that Jake Muzzin took a tripping penalty 39 seconds into the game, putting the a Kings on the defensive very early in. Of course they killed the penalty relatively easily thanks to Quick and Doughty who appeared never to leave the ice all period. Carter had a shorthanded breakaway but tried to get too cute with Tyler Toffoli and didn’t end up taking the shot. When the Kings did finally get at power play at 10:40 it wasn’t stellar, but Doughty did make a sweet move shooting the puck through the legs of an Oiler. Down the other end of the ice Brayden McNabb found himself darn lucky his lapse in defense didn’t lead to a goal (have I mentioned lately Quick is a Jedi?) Not to worry that some of our defensemen weren’t up to the task; Anze Kopitar was playing like the Selke Trophy candidate he deserves to be. And Quick was quite literally bending over backwards to make saves.

The Kings were out hitting the Oilers by double (Luke Schenn in particular took pleasure in hitting them into tomorrow) but it wasn’t enough to get anything past their defense. (Which wasn’t great; the Kings just weren’t taking amazing or clever shots.) And the neutral zone was anyone’s territory, with both teams forgetting that getting in on the forecheck is a good thing. Milan Lucic has some nice if not powerful looks at the net but in a game that the Kings should have been winning easily they were sloppy with their coverage and gave up the first goal with 1:05 remaining in the second period. The puck snick underneath Quick’s legs with incredible speed and suddenly the Oilers had the lead. The final faceoff of the 2nd happened by the Oilers net with 3.02 seconds remaining so Daryl Sutter tried pulling Quick for an extra attacker but it proved fruitless.

The third began with an almost fight from McNabb who took offense (rightly) when the Oilers continued to shoot after a whistle was blown dead. The equalizer came from (who else!) Jeff Carter and the augmented That 70’s Line. It wasn’t the prettiest goal (but Jeff Carter is arguably the prettiest King and the point counted so who cares right?) It came after a lot of attacks at the net and finally after forcing Talbot to slide on his ass one of Carter’s shots made it in. It turned the tide of the game towards the Kings, who finally got some good sustained zone time and put heavy pressure on the Oilers. Their grinding paid off again in the form of That 70’s Line again. It was Carter’s shot that Dwight King’s net front presence deflected in.

The Kings managed to hold onto their lead in the way they’ve been doing all season: they are league leading with 7 games won despite going into the 3rd behind. They are 2nd in the NHL for wins when allowing the 1st goal, having won 14 of those games. The Oilers pulled their goalie twice in the last two minutes but couldn’t get too many shots off, and none that got by Quick; he’s GAA in the last 3 games is 0.99; he has a 0.964 SV% in those games. In Quick we trust.

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