Mercy! Kings Need Help

When NBCSN finally brought the broadcast over to the Kings/Canucks (I’m not bitter about East Coast bias, you are) the puck was already bu the Canucks goalie and we’d missed a Doughty hit on Pearson. A few minutes later Walker got sent to the box and the game really began. Of course, it would be the Kings that gave Hughes (no, not that one) his first NHL goal, the Canucks their first power-play goal of the year, a Pearson assist for the kill and would you believe it Branden Sutter makes it 2-0 Canucks 42 seconds later, beating Quick up high glove side. I’m not going to blame all the King’s defensive problems on Quick but he hasn’t been the Jedi we needed for quite some time now and it’s showing on the scoreboard that the Kings haven’t figured out how to compensate for that yet. Amadio tried his best to rectify two quick mistakes a shift later but the Canucks goalie Markstrom was up to the task, and the score remained a sad, lonely 2-0. It didn’t help that they couldn’t get a shot on goal to save their lives; I know in the stretch of a season you’re going to get a bit of a rollercoaster, but in the opening two games the Kings had a gusto that was comforting. This was not the case in Vancouver. Brown drew a penalty that gave the Kings a fairly promising power play; they started with a much better structure than we’ve seen previously, but the second unit didn’t have the same chemistry and the game didn’t look remotely dangerous. Perhaps it was the road trip, perhaps it was the back-to-back, but for whatever reason, the Kings just didn’t settle into the game for most of the first period. Thanks to Dustin Brown, Amadio and Kovalchuk did get their shot totals up to a more even count, but when the period ended the score was still 2-0.

The second period didn’t get any better. As three, maybe four Kings watch, the Canucks stickhandled their way around each one of them putting the puck in the back of the net like they were playing against a pub team. Indeed the Kings couldn’t stop turning over the puck, couldn’t control the neutral zone to save their lives, and just lacked chemistry in general.  6:24 in the post was the only reason the game wasn’t 4-0 and a complete disaster – thank you post! It wasn’t until Carl Grundstrom connected a perfect pass to Tyler Toffoli that the Kings saw some light, almost halfway through the period. Toffoli looked back in his rookie form where he could actually finish a breakaway, getting the Kings on the board. Speaking of boards, a weird pass from the Kings that connected with a board instead of a player while the Canucks were on a delayed penalty and the Kings had an empty net almost saw another Canucks goal, which would have been just the Kings’ luck. As it was, they had trouble generating any more luck on the power play. Or on the ice at all, really. An unlucky deflection off Kovalchuk’s skate led to the Canucks’ next goal if you could even call it that. And with 5 more minutes to go, even another Kings power play – including 5-on-3 for 43 seconds – went nowhere. The best chance they had was a Kovalchuk blast hitting the post and then some more nothing. The Kings even ended the period on a penalty kill. Sheesh.

And began the third with Martinez heading down the tunnel for evaluation after he blocked a puck with the back of his head. You know that song “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy? Yeah, this game was the opposite of that. He returned to the ice after only a few minutes, but the Kings were so out of sync it didn’t matter. A goal from Walker (which to be fair was stunning, perfectly placed over Markstrom’s left shoulder, quality top-shelf shot there) was essentially annulled a shift later when it became 5-2 thanks to Hughes and Tanev. How they both had that much space to make the play should have been unacceptable but you’ve been following along so far, so it also shouldn’t come as a surprise. Miller got his 4th point of the night with exactly 10 minutes gone in the third with a pass to Eller, and we were crying for mercy. Unlike the Kings opener, when Quick also allowed 6 goals, this game wasn’t fun. It didn’t leave you thinking there was hope for the season. The Kings weren’t competing like the were only two games ago, hell last game, and the discrepancy between the two teams was glaringly evident. Even more so when it became 7-2. Then 8-2 later when a scrum by the net continued then had to be recalled as Toronto realized the puck had actually crossed the goal line. This from a team that is only one season and three games removed from winning the Jennings Trophy. 17 goals in the first 3 games isn’t a statistic you find in a contending team, nor is one who keeps their goaltender much longer. (Unless they leave him unprotected for Seattle.) The Kings were just screaming mercy, as 13 Canucks players – over half their roster – made the scoresheet. My God just let it end.