LA Kings Lose Ugly Game To Ottawa 5-3
- Updated: December 15, 2015
The Los Angeles Kings were due for one of these games. Fitting that it happened on a day that was full of strange occurrences to former Kings’ players as well. To start things off, it was announced today that former LA Kings forward Jarret Stoll was placed on waivers by the New York Rangers. Then former Kings’ defenseman Rob Scuderi was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Chicago Blackhawks. Then the Kings announced that they placed injured forwards Kyle Clifford and Trevor Lewis on Injured Reserve and called up from the Ontario Reign … not two forwards to replace “Cliffy” and “Lewie” but 2 defensemen in Jeff Schultz and Nick Ebert! The plan (I guess) is for forward Jordan Weal to be a healthy scratch (poor guy) so the Kings can play with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen with Derek Forbort back in the line up, (Huh?) With all these extra defensemen, the Kings were surely to be solid on defens … OH LOOK THEY LOST TO OTTAWA 5-3!
The game started well enough for the Kings when Jonathan Quick robbed Zack Smith around the six minute mark and Jamie McBain rifled in a goal at 14:21. The Kings seemed looser and more in sync (not Justin Timberlake) with their cycling, crash and bang style of play then they did in the Buffalo game. The Kings even got back their possession control and were out-shooting the “Sens” when all hell broke loose in the second period. First it was at the 2:29 mark when Brayden McNabb went to pick up the puck after the Sens dumped it in the Kings’ defensive zone but he accidently tripped and passed the puck to Ottawa’s Mika Zibanejad, who passed it for the one timer to Mike Hoffman for the goal. Then shortly after, Kyle Turris blasted a one timer past Quick after a feed by reigning (2 time) Norris Trophy winner Eric Karlsson to take the 2-1 lead. Then Karlsson wanted in the “fun” too when he scored off of a McNabb deflection (and give away) at 6:03. If Drew Doughty wanted to show up Karlsson to prove who the better “all round” defenseman was in the NHL then he would have to wait another day as he was now at a minus 3 in this game. Things only got uglier when Hoffman scored again on a give and go with Curtis Lazar at 14:34 to make it 4-1 Ottawa.
The Kings finally caught a break when Patrick Wiercioch was called for tripping on Captain Dustin Brown. On the power-play, Senators goaltender Craig Anderson was the victim of a bad bounce when he went to play the puck behind the net after a Alec Martinez dump in but the puck bounced off of the boards and right onto Tyler Toffoli‘s stick for the power-play goal into the empty net at 17:47, (Quick also got an assist on the play).
The Kings made a game of it when Toffoli drove towards the net against heavy opposition and got the puck to Milan Lucic. Lucic worked along the boards before passing to Anze Kopitar who found a wide open Jake Muzzin. Muzzin then made no mistake with it as he wrist shot the puck for the goal at 10:00. The Kings looked like they were about to make a serious push to try and tie this game up but Ottawa drove the final nail into the metaphorical coffin when Zibanejad knocked the loose puck into the net after Quick stopped Bobby Ryan on a rush at 12:11 to finish the Kings off and win the game.
This turned out to be the Kings’ first regulation loss since November 22 in “THAT GAME” against the Carolina Hurricanes. If there’s any consolation after such an ugly loss, it is despite losing the game the LA Kings are still 10 points clear on top of the Pacific Division and second overall in the Western Conference.
The Kings continue their second eastern road swing next against the Atlantic Division leading Montreal Canadiens on (STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS PRE-SCREENING … ) Thursday at 7:30 pm est, 4:30 pm pst.
Okay I’m out of here and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALL!!!
(We may need it if Darryl Sutter decides to play Jeff Schultz and Nick Ebert as forwards! YIKES!)
GO KINGS GO!!!
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