The Ugly Side of Kings Revealed in 4-1 Loss to Montreal
- Updated: November 11, 2016
Now I really have to Google which one is Dr. Jekyll and which one is Mr. Hyde. One I know is all mean and violent; the other is calm and collected. One is positive, and one is negative. One takes three games in a row, including two shutouts and one win against the Stanley Cup champs Pittsburgh Penguins, and the other plays like the Kings did tonight. Will the real Los Angeles Kings please reveal yourself?
In a rather dreary showing by the Kings, the Montreal Canadians defeated the LA team 4-1, Thursday, at the Bell Centre.
To be fair, the Kings did have its chances, notably in the second period, but the team could not get past that very thick and apparently tall goal line of Carey Price, who stopped 23 of 24 shots, including one incident in which Anze Kopitar’s shot skidded directly across that stingy line.
The Kings actually outshot Montreal 24-23 though one may wonder why it didn’t seem that way. Was it because of the energy level of the Kings compared to the Habs? Nah. Was it due to the number of chances for each? No, the Kings had those, frustratingly. Was it because fans are missing announcer Bob Miller on this road trip? Not really. Or was it because of the final score? Hmmmm.
Kings goaltender Peter Budaj, in his 11th straight start stopped 20 of 22 shots and had his shutout streak snapped at 140:57, after a goal by Paul Byron midway through the first period. At the end of the second, the Canadians had three goals to show and the Kings, well, they’ll have some potent material for nightmares as they recollect Kopitar’s shot sliding across that goal line.
Such would be the symbol of a game that never got on track for the Kings. The brightest spot came at 11:57 of the third, with the Kings on a power play. From the side of the net, Jeff Carter slid a pass towards the front where the puck banked off Kopitar’s skate over to Tyler Toffoli on the right side. With quick hands, Toffoli went from backhand to forehand and fired it over Price’s glove.
To secure the win, Montreal (with an impressive 12-1-1 record and 9-0 at home) scored one more goal on the empty net at 18:11.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter, speaking to the LA Kings Insider, noted how the opponents limited the Kings’ offensive attack. “I think they got us from behind quite a bit turning pucks over. Some of our faster players weren’t on their game tonight,” Sutter said. “We’re on a tough road trip. We try to take every game into the next. You’re not really doing anything other than that. I just think you need to be able to go deep on your bench, and we just couldn’t do that tonight.”
Said Dustin Brown through the LA Insider: “You just take our third period really and try to roll with it, but I think every game you’ve got to hit the reset button and get ready because it’s a different team and a new game.”
Los Angeles (7-7-0) will next play the Ottawa Senators on Friday, November 11 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario.
Will it be a positive or a negative result? Will it be a loss or a win? Which team will show up for the Kings? We’ll have to tune in, since unfortunately that you can’t Google.
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, all the time!
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