Peterson > Crosby, Kings > Pittsburgh

I took it as a sign of the times that Peterson got the start against the Penguins – if he’s the future he needs to know how to handle winners like that. And the newer, younger lineup needs to know how to do that too. Which is basically what happened. Literally a minute in the Kings had a power play in which Lizotte, Frk, Vilardi, Walker and Amadio got the only ice time. They never needed a second unit because after about a minute of keeping the puck in and a lot of puck movement (some more effective than others), Walker slapped a clean shot from almost the blue line straight past Ruhwudel for the Kings first goal. It was credited as a tip in by Lizotte but it also got Vilardi another point and showed some good signs for the Kings future. They wouldn’t be the Kings, however, if they didn’t follow up with a penalty kill of their own (and I was just saying such nice things about you Amadio). While the kill itself was very effective, the Kings did start hanging back a little, allowing Pittsburgh to set the pace and playing too much defense. They needed a better forecheck, which they finally figured out, and had some pretty good looks on goal. Their structure was paying off, when they stuck too it, and again, all signs pointed to promising things for the youngsters. (The veterans weren’t making their best case yet.) A shorthanded breakaway from Pittsburgh with 5 minutes remaining would turn the tide; Peterson made a huge stop but from then on the Penguins took over the period. It looked bleak at 18:24 when Crosby “scored” after quite a bit of pressure and too many chances in a row to get past Peterson. But video review proves that while the puck may have past Peterson, it didn’t actually pass the goal line. It skidded all the way along it, but not over. The Kings would definitely need to regroup over the intermission, but the danger passed. For now.

I guess the Kings got confused by playing well in the second period because they stopped playing in the third. It was all defense all the time. The first chance they might have had at offense was stopped by textbook interference on Brown that wasn’t called (that’s cool, that’s cool) but even Brown wasn’t up to his usual standards. Kopitar was basically useless, and 6:42 in Doughty doing nothing led to a Pittsburgh goal from Rust. With plenty of time to blow the game and declining play from the Kings, it was mostly Peterson that kept the Penguins from tying it up. “He’s very calm, cool, collected in the crease,” Todd McLellan said. “There’s not a lot of garbage laying around. The guys feel confident with him in there, and I just think he’s going to get better as he gets stronger and he goes through the league once or twice and recognizes teams’ tendencies and just gets a good feel for it. It’s all part of the process we’re going through and we’re doing it at every position. He did a really good job tonight and he’ll get some tough starts down the stretch. We hope he’ll continue to give us these nights.” There was a last minute rush the Kings managed to mostly keep in check – it took Pittsburgh a full minute after they were clearly trying to pull their goalie to be able to do so – but it was a tense last minute of play. Final score remained 2-1 – feels good to beat Pittsburgh!