Quick Back for Kings Earns Freeway Faceoff Win

OH my God, oh my God you guys. Jonathan Quick is back. This is not a drill people, this is not some click bait Twitter scam designed to give Kings fans false hope. This. Is. Real. The legend returned to guard the goalposts and face his ex counterpart in net for only the second time since Jonathan Bernier left the Kings in 2013. It was an important 4 point game the Kings needed to win, and while Quick wouldn’t provide the much-needed offense the Kings have been lacking this season, he would provide a morale boost and some energy to a usually dreary afternoon performance. Does anything else really matter?

Yes, yes it’s does. Like goals. Which the Kings still seemed to be unable to produce. For the first 4 minutes the didn’t have a shot on goal. They didn’t have any hits and they hadn’t won a faceoff. Yet they had an energy I’ve yet to see them bring to an afternoon game and an energy that was certainly lacking last week when they played the Ducks. Sure, Jake Muzzin was making mistakes on the blue line again, and Quick was almost fumbling with stick handling, so Kings as normal, but they has a je ne sais que to their play that gave me hope. Quick made his first save on a wraparound chance. Kevin Gravel, inspired by his first NHL goal, was taking some nice shots. The Kings even had an early power play, in which all happy feelings I had about them setting up actual plays and exploring that whole ‘net front presence’ thing, left the building. The power play was exactly as disappointing as it has been in games past, and proved that while having your star goaltender back will do wonders for morale, it can’t actually get anyone else to execute an effective power play. Quick was back to his old tricks, doing the splits, coming excessively out of his crease, looking fine. So Brayden McNabb helped him show off his skills on a penalty kill, thanks McNabb (sigh.) It had a few dangerous moments but nothing Quick couldn’t handle. In fact it was a Tyler Toffoli mishandle in the neutral zone with 3:07 remaining that led to the Ducks first goal, a Cogliano redirect of a Kesler shot set up by an annoyingly good Jacob Silverberg play. Not Quick’s fault there, but Dwight King going to the penalty box immediately after didn’t help. It was a stellar penalty kill, however, in which the Ducks didn’t even get a blocked shot off let alone a shot on goal.

The second period began with a few scrambles by Bernier’s net, but of course another Kings penalty (congratulations Adrien Kempe, you’re now officially an NHL-er) was also forthcoming, and that more than anything, set the tone of the period. The Ducks outhit, outshot and generally outplayed the Kings for most of the second. That, and fighting. McNabb and Kesler tried to start things when McNabb took offense to Nick Richie’s cross check; instead Richie ended up in the penalty box and I started to think taking penalties was actually the Ducks strategy, because the Kings certainly weren’t doing anything with them. At 8:06 the major fight broke out, in which every single player on the ice (except, alas, the two Jonathan’s) ended up in a pile and McNabb and Nate Thompson in actual fisticuffs to the side. They both got the five for fighting, Corey Perry interference against Kopitar and Dwight King high-sticking against Thompson. At 15:24 Jeff Carter got part one of his Gordie Howe hat trick when he got into a fight with Kesler. Yes, you read that correctly. Carter. In a fight. Well, ‘fight.’ He went down after one right hook from Kesler, though to his credit the fight started when he elbowed Kesler in the face on the play a few seconds earlier. Perhaps, Carter, stick to what you’re good at. Which is scoring. Which you can’t do when you’re in the box for 5 minutes. The novelty of having Quick back was slowly starting to fade as the Kings offensive woes continued. The Ducks had held them scoreless for 11 periods, and it was starting to sting. (14 giveaways in a game wasn’t helping them.)

FINALLY. Finally, the third period yielded goals. Tyler Toffoli goals, even better! The first came 3:37 in, a redirect from Tanner Pearson’s stellar shot. (The second assist on that goal was the well deserved star of every game Drew Doughty. It was a delight to see big names back on the scoresheet.) The Kings had the first 6 shots on goal in the third and they were making them count. They weren’t content to lie down, as perhaps they’d done in past games, but instead the energy they’d been playing with Quick at their backs was paying off. At 7:48 Toffoli got his second, thanks to another Jeff Carter beauty. His takeaway and subsequent breakaway had Kesler desperate – he slid down on the ice looking to break up Carter’s pass to Toffoli. Did that deter him? Nope! He passed underneath Kesler’s sliding body to Toffoli who wristed it up past Bernier and the crowd went wild! A lead! Against the Ducks! From That 70’s Line! Ah, beautiful. Even more beautiful? 17 seconds later the lead was one goal bigger. Gravel took a fast, hard snapshot that Dustin Brown redirected in sneakily past Bernier (Net. Front. Presence. People.) 3-1, but with 12 minutes to go the Kings work was not done. Pearson took a hooking penalty with 7:37 remaining; thankfully the Kings penalty kill was still their strongest suit. It wasn’t their strongest kill of the evening, there was more sustained zone time than I was comfortable with, but Quick was up to the task. We needn’t be concerned that he was rushed back – he looked strong, he looked confident, and he looked as acrobatic as ever. A particularly extended glove save came right before a Perry slashing penalty, that gave the Kings the time they needed to keep the Ducks at bay. Sure, they didn’t do much on it, but it did prevent the Ducks from also doing anything. They pulled Bernier, but they didn’t get the result they were looking for. Instead Jeff Carter got the goal he needed to complete his first Gordie Howe hat trick (thanks to Kopitar for being such a team player, who passed to Carter instead of electing to shoot himself, which would have had the same result.) It was Carter’s 30th goal of the season – congratulations Jeff! And congratulations LA Kings – that’s how to play hockey.