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The Kings Defeated Calgary 2-1 in OT. No Joke! They Beat Calgary!

*(Featured photo credit to Gavin Young/Postmedia)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” or so Charles Dickens wrote in the opening of his classic novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. This season isn’t the best of seasons for the Kings, but it has had some great moments, such as being in a constant playoff spot during the first half of the season. It also isn’t the worst of times either, (see the great collapse of 2006, or the ‘Murphy’s Law’ season of 2014-15, or the dark ages between 1993 and 2000, or before the years 1981 & 1982, or…), but after a strong start to this season, the Kings’ have found themselves in a free fall and out of a playoff spot after losing 7 games out of the last 8, with most of these losses happening at home, and includes an embarrassing 6-2 drubbing by the lowly Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.  The Kings have now found themselves winning 2 out of the last 3 games, after defeating the painfully annoying Calgary Flames 2-1 in overtime, in their own barn. Calgary of course, has had the Kings’ number since the 2013-14 season, so it is positively refreshing to see the Kings be able to defeat one of their biggest divisional rivals in such an important game.

After news broke out that Kings’ goaltender Jonathan Quick was passing on this weekend’s All-Star Game due to an injury that apparently he has had for some time, and with defenseman Derek Forbort, superstar Jeff Carter (out since October), and now Nick Shore out with injuries, and with Christian Folin and Jake Muzzin both playing less than 100% due to the recent injuries they have suffered as well, things were not looking good for our Kings. (Let’s not forget the other reasons for the Kings’ poor results that includes an overall lack of focus and motivation by the team, (well, except for Trevor Lewis who is rocking it like Bruce Lee on skates this year), a lack of team scoring outside of the top line, (Anze Kopitar, sometimes Dustin Brown and <insert name here>), sloppy (lazy) defensive play, passing, defensive zone exits and offensive zone entries, consistently coughing up the first goal to the opposition including this game, just to name a few). The Kings were finally able to neutralize the Flames kamikaze-like waves of attack and achieve the much needed two points, (though Calgary still picked a point since the game went into OT). And it took an effort by the entire team to achieve this. Hopefully, this is a lesson learned by the Kings and the tide is now going to turn around with a more united and stronger effort, (you know, like in the FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON), for down the stretch and into the playoffs.

As previously mentioned, this game got off to another rough start as Calgary scored the first goal of the game by Sean Monahan at 14:03 with a fancy tic-tac-toe play with Micheal Ferland and Johnny Gaudreau, for his 22nd goal of the year, continuing his 10 game points streak. After that, Kings’ backup goaltender Darcy Kuemper slammed the door shut on the Flames, making 30 saves out of 31 shots to achieve a .968 save percentage for this game. The stand out moments from Kuemper for me was during the second period when he made some incredible saves from deflected shots. Anyone who has ever played goalie will tell you that a deflected shot is the hardest type of shot to save because of the split and unpredictable change of direction the puck takes after hitting someone or someone’s stick at such a racing speed. These saves were crucial in allowing the Kings to come back in this game, (and having the Flames hit the post in what could have been a sure goal doesn’t hurt either).

 

After getting outplayed in the first period by Calgary, (which is no surprise as the Kings are well (or infamously) known for being late starters, the Kings began to get their legs back and began to fight back. One funny moment, (to me at least), was when Drew Doughty noticed that his nemesis, the pest Matthew Tkachuk was skating beside him after play was stopped. After a brief exchange of words, Tkachuk lightly bumped Doughty, who then face-planted onto the ice as if he was cheaply shotted from behind by a raging Rhino, but the referee was there and saw the whole thing and no call was made for Tkachuk. And Doughty was lucky to not be penalized for the embellishment, (well he is a soccer fan! So am I, by the way, so no angry tweets or comments from passionate soccer fans, please and thank you).

As the Kings picked up momentum, the Flames weren’t going to go away that easily so they fought back, and the game started to get chippy and rough, but not only was Kuemper being difficult to beat, the entire team in front of him were doing their best to help him out as the Kings had 27 total shots blocked in the game, with Folin leading the back with 8. The Flames went 0-5 on the power-play. Brown was also doing his ‘thang’, showing some hustle and playing a strong backchecking game. Oh, and he did this to the Flames’ Captain Mark Giordano!

 

Also, former Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes (or CRYotes, am I right?), and now Flames goalie Mike Smith, (booooooooo!!!), got into a heated argument with Kyle Clifford. I assumed that it was over the series-winning goal Dustin Penner scored in OT against Smith back in the 2012 Western Conference Finals that propelled the Kings into their first Stanley Cup Final since 1993. Kuemper then skated out of his crease and I immediately thought we were going to see a …. GOALIE FIGHT!!! But it didn’t happen.

What did happen was early in the 3rd period, Mark Jankowski was called for tripping on Captain ‘Kopi’ and the Kings capitalized on their power-play opportunity when Jake Muzzin rifled a shot past Smith and into the net at 4:09 for his 5th goal of the season to tie things up 1-1. The assists went to Kopitar and Doughty, with kudos (not judo as my auto-correct tried to convince me. But to be fair, Folin did do what looked like a variation of a Judo throw to Tkachuk at one point in this game, which makes Folin an automatic hero to the entire NHL)…

 

… to Brown and Tyler Toffoli who did a stellar job in screening the easily frustrated Smith.

 

As the 3rd period was winding down, the Kings came oh so close to winning the game in the final minute when Smith robbed both Tanner Pearson and Adrian Kempe from point blank, (not Point Break, and by Point Break I mean the Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze classic, not the terrible remake). The period ended and the game went into overtime, giving the Kings and the Flames at least a point each. If there is one positive thing I can definitely say about our Kings this season, or for the last few seasons, is that they are one of the best teams, if not the BEST, when it comes to playing 3 on 3 overtime hockey, and they did NOT disappoint in this game. Not only did they dominate the extra period, they didn’t even allow Calgary to get one shot on net, even with the extra ice space! That is incredible!

Not feeling deterred for not getting the game winner at the end of the 3rd, Pearson (who has been heavily criticized for not contributing enough offensively, along with teammates Marian Gaborik, Toffoli and the entire bottom six (well, except for Lewis again, as his heart, soul and work ethic is molded from his heart that I can only assume is from the same DNA as Chuck Norris’), during this horrible losing streak, made amends by adding to Mike Smith’s large collection of painful memories of playing against the Kings by getting the game winner with 26.1 seconds to go before the shootout! It was Pearson’s 10th goal of the season and his 7th game-winning overtime goal of his career. Doughty and Brown received credit for the assists. No word if Smith charged towards the referee in protest, or to the commissioner Gary Bettman, or anyone that would listen that the goal shouldn’t have counted, like he did back in good ‘ole 2012! (Once a CRYote, always a CRYote. Well except for Brad Richardson. He obviously gets a pass).

 

 

The Kings are now 26-18 & 5, and just behind Calgary by a hair for third place in the Pacific Division, (and two points ahead of the equally annoying but surging Anaheim Ducks of the mighty but not really mighty city of Anaheim, you know since the Ducks don’t sell out their home games). The Kings next play the Dallas Stars on the road on Tuesday, January 30th after this NHL All-Star Game weekend in Tampa, Florida. As mentioned earlier, Quick will not be attending the festivities due to injury, (which may or may not get Quick suspended for the Dallas game as a penalty for passing on the ASG after being selected. The Kings would then have to prove to the NHL that Quick is indeed hurt so he doesn’t get suspended), but Kopitar and Doughty will be, so let’s cheer on our Los Angeles Kings’ representatives! (And wish Quick a very speedy recovery!)

Until then, I am JD Stylz and now I am out of here!

GO KINGS GO!!!

(photo courtesy of @GustlTweets. Thanks, Gustl!)

 

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