Kings Win Streak Continues

The Kings undefeated in regulation streak continued Sunday night when a win over the Islanders put them at the top of the Pacific Division. (Yes it’s only 5 games in but the stat was too fun not to share.) Everything in the first period seemed kind of slow. (I’d add that the exception to that was Adrian Kempe, who doesn’t know what the word slow means.) Not a huge amount of chances at either end, not even when the Kings got a power play 9:24 in. (Seriously nothing of interstellar happened before that.) Adam Pelech boarded Nick Shore (I mean there are times when I’ve wanted to do that too) but the resulting power play lacked any chemistry. Even Anze Kopitar made a bad fumble on the blue line instead of shooting. Jake Muzzin thought hockey was a spectator sport as he watched a pass come to him and just continue on out of the zone down to Darcy Kuemper. Thankfully there was one highlight – a Kopitar goal! Even he didn’t seem to expect that his shot would actually go in; it wasn’t a fast shot, it wasn’t particularly skilled in its placement, but Dustin Brown doing what he’s been doing best this season, was parked at the net screening the goalie Halak. So 12:44 in the Kings were up 1-0 but didn’t do much in the remaining 7 minutes to extend that lead.

One day the Kings are going to play a full 60 minutes of hockey and it’s going to be great. Not at this game, however, as the second-period slump kicked in fast. They had no offensive zone time to speak of. Keumper looked a little tentative, not covering when he perhaps should have. After a solid two minutes of zone time in which no King had a chance to leave the ice and I was starting to wonder if I’d missed a penalty call as the play started, the Islanders capitalized on a tired team and tied the game.

Thankfully it seemed to wake the Kings up and a little more than 2 minutes later Muzzin redeemed himself on the power play with a stunning wrister than snapped past Halak to give the Kings the lead once again. Trevor Lewis followed up with some fancy stickhandling that his linemates (yes I’m looking at you again Andy Andreoff and Nick Shore) couldn’t capitalize on, and Jeff Carter found some nice chances of his own before he was called for slashing. A penalty kill that reminded us that the Kings are a defensive first team kept the Kings in the game, ending the second period with 1:23 remaining in a too many men power play.

The Kings didn’t do too much with the remaining power play time as the third began. Keumper started to cause concern as his habit of leaving a large portion of the net open almost resulted in a goal, saved only by Frolin playing goalie. Adrien Kempe also tried to prevent the goal but ended up in the box for slashing instead. All was not lost; in fact, the penalty kill was so spectacular it resulted in the most stunning shorthanded goal I’ve ever seen. Kopitar, well worth his $10 million contract, saw a chance with 6 seconds remaining to not clear the puck but take it himself, powering into the offensive zone with Drew Doughty streaking down his left wing in position to take the pass. Kopitar’s pass slid through an Islanders’ legs and straight onto Doughty’s stick them into the back of the net, the second shorthanded goal of his career.

The chemistry and hockey sense displayed from both was absolutely stunning. The 3-1 lead lasted almost 10 minutes, not quite enough to close out the game convincingly. With 5:37 remaining Cizikas cashed in on a scramble at the net, giving the Kings just enough time to wreck our nerves. They kept up enough pressure to keep Halak in the net for most of that time, allowing only 47 seconds of tension with the extra attacker. Some Doughty defense kept the Kings in the lead as the clock wound down, giving the Kings a 4-0-1 record, the best record through 5 games for the franchise. Brown, Muzzin, and Kopitar all extended their points streak to 4 games, Doughty is at 3.

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