Kings vs Yotes: Boxing Day Penalty Extravaganza

Boxing Day is traditionally the day after Christmas, named thus centuries ago when ‘masters’ would give a Christmas Box to their servants, employees or customers the day after. The Kings and Coyotes seemed to want to take it a little more literally during their matchup December 26th. That 70’s Line began the game in the ice but within 15 seconds Carter was off. He took a second shift but by 3:34 he walking back to the locker room. It wasn’t a good sign for the Kings, who would be out shooting the Yotes 6-3 when Milian Lucic would retaliate on a hit from Connor Murphy and end up in the penalty box for cross checking. The play ended up near Jonathan Quick who seemingly wanted to get in on the post-whistle scuffles by his net, helping an already overturned Coyote to his rightful place on his face on the ice.

The penalty kill didn’t go quite the Kings way, when Oliver Ekman-Larsson fired one over a screened Quick’s right shoulder, and they had to endure that awful howling the Coyotes apparently play whenever one of their players score. Also the Coyotes taking a 1-0 lead. And then almost immediately another penalty. And some more scuffles; Tyler Toffoli took a shorthanded shot after the whistle blew which apparently now is worthy of an unsportsmanlike conduct. Thankfully Ekman-Larsson took offense to it too and a roughing penalty for his retaliation on Toffoli, leaving the Kings with 1:03 remaining of what could have been a 5-on-3 being just a regular old penalty. But this wouldn’t be a Kings Coyotes game without another Kings penalty to close out the first period – Lucic obliged again, this time for high sticking at 18:28. In Quick we trust: he made three saves in a row to keep the Kings in the game, proving that the force is still strong with him. (And perhaps that his defense needed to sharpen up if they were going to be able to stay in the game the next two periods.)

The second began with 32 seconds of a Kings penalty kill, which they killed easily. It also began with the announcement that Jeff Carter would not return for the game (please let it only be this game!), out with an upper body injury. Forbert was the first to officially box, getting five for fighting along with his Coyote counterpart Kyle Chipchura who had chipped Marian Gaborik a few seconds earlier and wasn’t called. Andy Andreoff drew a hooking penalty a minute or so later and the Kings were on the power play! Unfortunately the best chance came for the Coyotes on the breakaway; thank you Drew Doughty for keeping up and taking away his angle, keeping the game at 1-0.  The Kings got their second power play opportunity thanks to Lucic, who drew four Coyotes to him. He couldn’t get his shot off right in front of the goalie but he did draw the penalty on Viktor Tikhonov (hooking at 12:37). It was a good looking power play; lots of chances and solid zone time, but no goal. Story of the second period really. It was exactly the kind of game you’d expect after three days off and the day after Christmas. Chippy and not at all pretty.

The tide didn’t turn truly until the third period. The Kings had 1:44 remaining of a power play. The first was all Kings penalties, the second was all Coyotes penalties, and the third was all Kings. Until it was all Coyotes again. The Kings converted that first power play, thanks to Doughty with an absolute blast 37 seconds in. Additional thanks to Martinez for his gorgeous pass to set it up. They didn’t manage to convert the second power play of the period, but it wasn’t long after it ended that Ekman-Larssson turned the puck over to Gaborik who made a lovely back and forth with Pearson that ended in a goal. Pearson snapped a pass back to Gaborik, who held on until Lewis was at the front of the net, then fed the puck back to Lewis who snapped it at a wide angle past their goalie. Not 2 minutes later the Kings were on the power play again. With literally one second to go, Dustin Brown converted the power play to give the Kings a 2 goal lead. He scoops the puck around a defenseman and past their goalie in a play we wish we’d see more often!

It turns out they’d need those two extra goals, because the tide was about to turn back the Coyotes way. McNabb drew the Domi penalty of high sticking at 11:50. Towards the end, Muzzin and Boyd Gordon ended up in a collision. Gordon was slow to get up, and Muzzin got a match penalty for a check to the head. 30 seconds of 4-on-4 then the Kings prepped for 4:30 of a major penalty. (This worked in the Kings favor in 2012, Stanley Cup final game 6. The Kings scored 3 goals and won the Cup that night.) But then… Alec Martinez shot the puck over the glass, an automatic 2 minute penalty. And with Muzzin unable to leave the box, that was a guaranteed 2 minutes or a goal then a continues 4-on-5 penalty. Either way, Quick was going to get a workout. Trevor Lewis managed to clear the puck to the neutral zone after a flurry of amazing Quick saves, but it wasn’t enough. The puck was redirected into the net less than 30 seconds after the last goal and the Yotes still had over 2 minutes of Muzzin’s penalty. Toffoli and Pearson had a nice bid at shorthanded but Pearson shanked the shot. 2:49 remaining in the game, 1:09 remaining in the penalty. Kings fans were biting their fingernails. The Kings managed to kill the rest of the penalty mainly due to Doughty, and we were going into overtime.

Doughty, Toffoli and Kopi were the only players the Kings needed in OT. Toffoli made the first bid; it didn’t go but the Kings maintained control of the puck and made their second bid count 36 seconds in. Kopi came down the left side, drawing the goaltender to him, then outskated the Yotes defense, came around to the right and shot into basically an empty net. Stunning. There’s a reason we need to pay him the money!

Update: Via hockey ops, Jeff Carter will not continue on the road trip.

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