Day 16 of the 18 day road trip ended on a high note. The odds were against the Kings having this result considering Columbus’ mastery over the Kings this year. The win also allowed Crawford’s overall win totals to equal Hitchcock’s numbers. Funny thing is that if anyone took bets on how ugly this trip would be before it began merely on a win-loss ratio, the only thing that would have been in dispute would be how ugly is too ugly... yikes!
The same prognosticators would be just as wrong if they tried to guess the win-loss ratio of a Crosby-less Penguins. Some in jest now say “Sidney who” when speaking of Pittsburgh due to the stand-out play of Malkin. The Kings can definitely attest to that from personal experience when the Penguins doubled up against them in Saturday’s loss. As the saying goes, that is why teams play the games. How things look on paper and how reality unfolds is what makes life so interesting.
There are several things that changed the Kings’ fortune of late. For instance, between January 13 and February 8, 2008, Los Angeles tied Minnesota for only allowing three power play goals. That also had the Kings improving to the 26th best penalty killing team in the league as of February 8, 2008.. In fairness, most might find this statistic nothing to brag about. Those doubting people would think otherwise if they knew that at one time the Kings had the 29th best penalty kill – though putting the word ‘best’ for this statistic seems like a bit of an oxymoron.
Statistics most definitely changed between the Penguins loss and the Blue Jackets win. Two games later, the very same Kings took a backwards step by giving up a generous four power play goals against between the Pittsburgh and Columbus games... ouch! That resulted in Los Angeles ending the weekend as the 28th league worst on the penalty kill. *ugh*
For Sunday’s game, the lines looked like this more often than not:
Cammalleri – Kopitar – Brown
Frolov – O’Sullivan – Armstrong
Calder – Handzus – Giuliano
Ivanans – Moulson – Boyle
In fairness, Ivanans had a meager six shifts for the entire game so at any given moment, Brown, O’Sullivan or Kopitar took a turn on the Manchester line of Boyle and Moulson.
In Sunday’s game, Columbus’ Malhotra and Peca shared face-off responsibilities and served their team well. Armstrong dominated for the Kings with an 86% win percentage and Handzus/Boyle drew to a 50% draw. Kopitar and O’Sullivan lost far more than they won in the circle with win % of 23% and 20% respectively. In a request from prior blogs, the Kings’ face-off efforts still need practice. There are going to be games that the Kings just may lose by the team’s inability to rarely dominate in this part of their game.
Like most fans, I will take the win Sunday. Nonetheless, I am more than a little bit concerned that the team’s penalty kill took such a large hit this weekend. Los Angeles sometimes disappeared on the ice Saturday but recovered nicely for large spans of time Sunday. Saturday, the team played tired and looked a step slower than their opponents.
The physical game of the Kings also looked mortal compared to their opponents this weekend. The Penguins had 21 hits compared to the paltry 12 of Los Angeles. Sunday proved to be even less strong by the visitors with a meager 8 hits with four going to Brown personally and 18 hits for Columbus. I am prepared to be less critical considering the fact that this is near the end of a long road trip. The Kings have now proved they can not only win on the road, but win against the league's better opponents who in theory should dominate and win against the Kings. (The Red Wings and the Rangers come to mind.)
In fairness, the Kings' game rebounded nicely between Saturday and Sunday. Los Angeles rarely dominated and at best showed a slight pulse against the Penguins until the third period where Armstrong and Boyle scored – both of those markers were too little too late.
What I liked about Sunday’s game is that the Kings dominated the second and overtime periods by a wide margin. The first period against Columbus felt like a chess match where Los Angeles scored early. The Blue Jackets matched and this routine repeated itself in the middle period. O’Sullivan nearly won the game for the Kings in the second but that effort proved unsuccessful when the goal got waived off when Toronto’s War Room felt O’Sullivan’s effort was the result of a “distinct kicking motion”.
When O’Sullivan was interviewed post game, he explained that he not only had no intent to kick (intent is irrelevant for this rule), but that he didn’t even know where the puck was, much less was he aware of a ‘distinct’ kick from him. Go figure...
It turned out not to matter when both teams went scoreless in the third. Despite the Kings’ best efforts in overtime; the game required a shoot-out to decide the affair. In a nice bit of serendipity, the skills competition took four rounds and O’Sullivan’s goal cinched the win. O’Sullivan post-game explained how he approaches the shoot-out:
“I look at the goalie and what he’s doing to determine what I do.”
He continued with the following game takes:
“(This was a) big win for our team. The shoot-out has been good for us all year. (This has been a) good trip for us. Our goal is to take this one game at a time. (Things are) going pretty good, good for team bonding. We’re continuing to get better since Christmas. Others wrote us off. (We will) stick to what we have been doing, being patient. We just wanted a good effort; to continue what we’ve been doing.”
Apology Time:
It is time for this blogger to give credit where credit is due. The last thing or person I wanted to see back in a Kings’ uniform no doubt would be Cloutier. With the waiver exchange of Cloutier for Aubin, I held my breath near to the point of turning blue knowing that Cloutier would be between the pipes on Sunday. I suspect others joined me with that trepidation of having #39 play goal.
Admit it. Cloutier earned that win and the night’s Second Star of the game. He just did. The Jackets tested him more than once and he proved up to the task. The first power play goal had Cloutier completely screened. The second goal against was essentially with a two man advantage since it came one second after the two man advantage expired, essentially too little time for Modry to exit the box and help the cause.
It is a large stretch to believe anyone will trade for Cloutier between now and the deadline,
if ever. That being said, Cloutier’s play against Columbus left me feeling far more comfortable than I generally feel when Aubin is in net. One game does not a career resurrection make. It is a very nice first step.
Carla Muller Carla.hockeygal@att.net
CarlaMuller
Kings Break Blue Jackets’ Win Streak over Los Angeles 
