Rask up to the Task of Taking on Kings

The overtime loss against the Bruins last week was a thoroughly entertaining game, where each team struggled to keep the other in check. Tonight’s game was not that. It was a tame first period, for a team as heavy hitting as Boston. The Kings opened up strong, getting good chances around Rask but unable to sneak one by the 6’3” goalie (who looks so much taller than that in net.) But after an unsuccessful power play – which had its moments but ultimately proved why the Kings are 28th in the league on that – the Bruins scored on their first shot, 5:31 into the period. That’s exactly the game we’ve come to expect from the Kings this season; keep all the action in the offensive zone then make one mistake that ends up on the other team’s scoresheet. It was Campbell in net, Quick coming down with an illness after the morning skate, who was beaten by DeBrusk on a beautiful backhand. Soon after newbie, Matt Roy made his penalty box debut; Haeglin and Kempe had fantastic chemistry shorthanded but again, couldn’t get by Rask. Campbell came up big again, but as regular play resumed it was clear, at least for the first period, that no King was going to make any spectacular plays worthy of a replay.

A slightly more interesting second period saw the Kings still unable to get in the lead but did force Rask to make some truly spectacular saves. (I know we’re Kings fans here but damn. It’s refreshing to see such good hockey. And also sexy.) It was all Bruins to start; a truly dangerous shift was followed by a penalty kill I was sure would spell disaster. Instead, Kopitar had a sick uncontested breakaway and Carter too almost scored. Almost being the operative word. Technically the shots were 6-1, but it didn’t look like it. It looked like Rask was up to the task, shutout bound; until a Kings power play halfway through where Kovalchuk slammed one past him thanks to *a lot* of puck movement and a Carter screen. (Yes Carter is back!) In a reversal of their penalty kill the Kings spent their next power play, however, trying to convince us it was a penalty kill. It didn’t help that Rask was making spectacular sexy saves on Iafallo, nor that moments after the coolest double pad save I’ve ever seen the Bruins scored down the other end. A power play that overlapped with the McFlurry minute failed to bring the equalizer nor McFlurrys to the crowd.

By the time the third period got going the Kings were getting smashed. Not score-wise, that was still 2-1, but literally. Hits from the Bruins, who were actually quite behind in that aspect until that point. It seemed they had found their game while the Kings were still struggling. They had some good chances but definitely needed to tie it up before Boston capitalized on one of theirs. Campbell was good but tested a little more than I was comfortable with. Speaking of smashing, Carter was down for a good 30 seconds about halfway through the game and had some very strong words for the ref who didn’t call anything as he finally managed to skate (slowly) back to the bench. Finally, with 4:23 remaining, the Kings tied it up with a goal from Iafallo. Kempe battled along the boards, connected on a nifty drop pass to Kovalchuk and Kempe cleaned up the rebound. Those three had an incredible game. With so little time left and a Kings power play with exactly four minutes remaining, it looked promising. Until the Kings registered exactly no shots on goal, let in a Bruins go-ahead goal with 1:13 left, and a second one with 36.4 seconds left, the second not even an empty net! Once again their inability to pull off 60 whole minutes cost them dearly. Oh, Kings, what are we going to do with you? The trade deadline is just over a week away…