The Keys to the Perfect Kings Win
- Updated: December 29, 2015
Last night was a night that blew my mind. The Los Angeles Kings faced the Vancouver Canucks in Vancouver and made the night legen(wait for it…) DARY! Last night’s win was a team effort and more than one player shined in last night’s glory. We see a hat trick from Tyler Toffoli #73, 4 assists from Anze Kopitar #11, Derek Forbort #7 scored his first NHL goal, and Jonathan Quick #32 recorded his 40th career shutout facing 27 shots on goal. Even with those amazing milestones, there was even more to this game.
Jeff Carter was not on the roster tonight. There are 2 more games on this 4 game road trip before the Los Angeles Kings return home to face the Philadelphia Flyers on January 2nd. Jeff Carter’s returned has not been announced yet, but if he is not back against Edmonton he will play against Calgary.
Let’s start with Quick. Jonathan Quick had a stellar night. Facing 27 shots on goal, 4 penalties, and a brief 5 on 3 make his shutout even more impressive. Jonathan Quick had many shots that were average shots, but during the last 2 penalties of the game we see Quick explode with athleticism. He made two saves that required him to go into a full split. Another impressive save was a deflection that moved the puck in the complete opposite direction Quick had seen. Jonathan Quick recorded his 40th shutout which ties him with the most shutouts by an American born goalie. How soon will this record be broken? Hopefully soon!
Last night had a few line changes that made the top line excel. Most lines were changed because of this. 17-11-73 / 70-21-12 / 22-15-23 / 49-19-71. The big changes were Tyler Toffoli being put on the first line is a big change. Since the acquisition of Marian Gaborik, there have only been a few times that he hasn’t been on a line with Kopitar. Now usually I wouldn’t want Kopitar playing without Gaborik, but last night Tyler Toffoli showed that he could be a more consistent player by playing with Kopitar. Kopitar had a part of every single one of Tyler’s goals and also contributed to McNabb’s goal. The blue line starters against the Canucks had 4 of the 5 goals and all of them were team efforts. Drew Doughty had an assist in the final goal of the game and without Doughty having the mentality of getting Tyler the goal, that goal would not have happened. Tyler got his hat trick goal because of Drew Doughty, and it shows that these players have chemistry. Doughty’s pass was delivered perfectly for the deflection to be sent directly into the back of the goal.
The defensive core for the Kings has improved from last year. The Jake Muzzin. Oh boy has that kid improved his game so much from last year. During winter last year, Muzzin began making more mistakes due to having more ice time. He was tired, we were down a key defender and hadn’t adjusted to Slava Voynov being gone. At the end of the year, we had also lost Robyn Regehr. But now the Kings have filled in the gaps they need to. Brayden Mcnabb and Jamie McBain have adjusted to being on the team, Christian Ehrhoff has been taking up time, and Derek Forbort has been receiving valuable minutes to learn and grow as an NHL player. Our defensive core has been growing in depth and chemistry, and it has definitely been showing in games and on the leaderboards.
Last night was one of those games where everything had fallen into place for the Kings. Each player contributed and the Kings walked away with a confidence booster.
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