Lewis’ Return Boosts Kings Standings

Don’t look now but for the first time in seven consecutive games, the LA Kings scored the first goal. I know, it confused me too. It took a while – for the first half of the period chances were pretty even. Trevor Lewis was back and in fine form, on a line with Amadio and Adrien Kempe, and oh yes TREVOR LEWIS IS BACK. He came so close to a goal on his first shift, which lasted over a minute in the offensive zone and was a great exhibition of how the Kings have four dangerous rolling lines. Ah, so beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, Jonathan Quick and Jeff Carter were both on their games tonight, Carter getting some stunning front door chances and Quick stopping some more from the Capitals. It was, of course, Carter who broke through, 15:25 Minutes into the first, beginning the play with a great forecheck to keep the puck in their offensive zone. He doled it to Tanner Pearson who got it to Alec Martinez at the point, then Carter, who had made his way to the front of the net, jammed it past a confused looking Grubauer, who accidentally pushed it over the line himself with his glove as he looked behind. Quick followed up with some inhuman Jedi saved and kept the Kings lead to close out the first period.

The Kings kept the Caps out of shooting range for almost 6 minutes to begin the third, so of course 5:52 in they scored on their first shot on goal. It was inevitable; Pearson began the sloppy play by failing to clear and after five, six chances where no other asking did either TJ Oshie broke through, shooting high while Quick sprawled on the ice. The whole period was concerning in their defensive zone – a one-goal lead (or tied game for the 3:40 that was true) was nowhere near convincing enough for the quality of play down by Quick. And while he was stellar as always, there were too many squirming moments and too many where he didn’t know where the puck was for my liking. Of course, Lewis would be the hero, rebounding the rebound of his own shot to give the Kings the lead again – credit to Carter you forecheck in the neutral zone got him the puck. But that’s what we love about Lewis – he will never give up on a play and he was rewarded. Big time. Meanwhile, Jake Muzzin almost killed Tom Wilson when his shot ended up deflected into his mask, and Martinez took the first penalty of the game 14:42 into the period. The Kings killed it cleanly and efficiently, thanks primarily to Dustin Brown who had a great game.

As the third began I realized just how much time 20 minutes can take off your life. It was just enough time to give me scary flashbacks of the Chicago game. Kyle Clifford made his mark 5:58 in after Wilson, who clearly wasn’t that hard off after Muzzin’s puck, took a questionable open-ice hit to Thompson (who’d been having a great game himself, making a difference on the penalty kill among other things). Clifford started the fight in response, getting an extra two minutes for it but staying classy and not hitting his already hurt face. Thompson kept up his contributions on the penalty kill with a shorthanded bid, and it would have been a great PK except it ended with another penalty when Mitchell tried to save a goal. (It turned out he didn’t need to, the net got knocked off the mooring. But c’est la vie.) For a game that had no penalties for a long time, there were 5 in quick succession; the Kings ended up on the power play after Mitchell’s penalty, but it wasn’t one for the books. They didn’t give up a goal, but they didn’t do much better than that. They actually had more chances in the twenty seconds once it ended than they did for the two minutes before. Things stayed close, too close for comfort. Especially by the time, it got to an empty net situation. Thankfully Clifford got the icing on the cake for this game, sealing the deal with an empty net goal and alleviating our stress. For the moment at least. The Kings are one point behind Dallas, one point ahead of Colorado and one point behind the Ducks with one game in hand on them. They’re two points behind the Sharks and with 15 games to go, every point is important. The playoff push is getting down to the wire!

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