Quick Gives Kings A Win In Smashville

When Anze Kopitar didn’t return to the Kings bench for the second period of the St Louis game it was unclear what had happened. He is now listed as day-to-day (lower-body injury) but would sit out this game, as would Jordan Nolan (just banged up) and rookie Kevin Gravel (healthy scratch.) Just like when Jonathan Quick went down this road trip having a star player out of the lineup would be a challenge, one the Kings hoped to rise to in a better fashion than they did without Quick. Michael Mersch got the call up from Manchester (gotta love the irony of moving your AHL team from the East to be closer to the team only to call two players up on a predominantly East Coast road trip.)

It was obvious the Kings were missing their star forward. For the first six minutes Smashville took control of the game, limiting the Kings to 0 shots on goal to their 5. A penalty on Kyle Clifford (a result of James Neal and Brayden McNabb getting in a scuffle, yeah I can’t explain that either) didn’t help the Kings get any shots, but it was a solid kill and the Preds only got 1. Finally with a little less than half the game played Jamie McBain got the first shot for the Kings, but it was hardly a grade-A scoring chance. Just when it looked like the Kings might have a break – Smashville took 3 icings in a row that could have allowed Daryl Sutter to pick a strong line against a tired Preds lineup – Andy Andreoff decided to take a useless roughing penalty center ice instead. The Kings again played a solid kill, again only allowing 1 SOG.

Turns out the Kings didn’t need a lot of shots, because the next one Jake Muzzin took counted. It was textbook. Nick Shore won the face-off, got the puck to Muzzin, who found his spot and blasted the puck from the blue line through traffic to the back of the net. Only moments later the Kings were back to playing like amateurs, taking a ‘too many men on the ice’ penalty. It was inevitable that too many penalties would take it’s toll, and it did. With 26 seconds remaining Quick was looking to block a shot to his right, the puck found it’s way to Ryan Ellis on his left and Quick couldn’t scramble his way back over in time (not for lack of trying, Quick was the only reason Smashville didn’t run away with this period. As it was the Preds finished with 12 SOG to the Kings 4.)

The Predators didn’t ease up in the second, peppering Quick with shots from the opening face-off. The Kings finally seemed to take control of the game, evening up the shot totals relatively through the next 8 minutes, until a flurry at the Kings net that ended in another penalty. Brayden McNabb was called for deliberate delay of game, knocking the post off the net. (This was perhaps the first penalty the Kings didn’t actually deserve.) Alec Martinez made a huge block as the penalty was ending to keep the game tied, and Drew Doughty continued his Norris Trophy campaign with a clever block himself. Muzzin wanting to get into it too stopped a clear breakaway right before the Preds player could get his shot off. Then Mersch took out Barret Jackman completely on accident (clean hit that took out Jackman’s arm as his elbow took the brunt of the boards) that resulted in a Kings power play when Anthony Bitetto retaliated. Seeing how little practice they’ve had this game the resulting power play was lackluster to say the least. Yet by the end of the period the SOG had significantly evened out, that is until Dustin Brown took an offensive zone penalty with 1:07 remaining (technically, the time was 43 seconds; it took that long for the Kings to touch up.)

The Kings killed the penalty easily and at 5:59 the Kings went back on the power play. (I was shocked too. The Kings had a call go their way.) It was a much better man advantage and generated some good looks on goal; unfortunately none of them got pas Pekka Rhine. As the period progressed it was clear who the player of the game was: Jonathan Quick. The game could easily have been 9-1 against but he stayed sharp and Jedi-like, making some spectacular saves to keep the Kings hopes alive. Luke Schenn, Doughty, Martinez and Muzzin also stood up when needed; it was a solid defensive night for the boys. With 4:59 remaining the Kings really had to show their muster; Milan Lucic took an offensive zone penalty. Any promises John Stevens gave to Doughty about only having a 27 or 28 minute night were long gone by this point. (Doughty’s ice time in the last three games were 31:29, 35:16 in OT, and tonight he ended with 32:09. He’s played 98:54 of a possible 182:58 minutes.)

The Kings finally squeezed their way into OT, which Smashville again dominated for the first minute. Tanner Pearson didn’t need much time with it to make it count though; he stripped the Preds of the puck before they could get a shot off; he and Jeff Carter passed it back and forth (with Doughty keeping Smashville busy elsewhere) until he found his space on the ice and wristed it past Rhinne for his second OT goal this road trip. The Kings won 3 of 7 games this Grammy’s road trip, 2 in OT and the other 9-2 against Boston. I’d been joking that the Kings used up all of their goals in that game; it wasn’t far off. In the last 4 games they’ve been held to 0 goals, 1 shorthanded (miss you Kopi!), 1 power play and tonight the 1 in regulation and 1 in OT. Sure, they lost Quick for 3 games, Marian Gaborik for the foreseeable future, and Kopitar for essentially the last 2 games, but to keep a lead that in the last month has dwindled from 12 points to 2 the Kings will keep having to come up with ways to win.