Sutter concerned with penalties, not penalty kill

Nobody seemed to know exactly what to make of last night’s game, and rightfully so. There was almost nothing normal about it, certainly not from the Kings’ perspective when it came to special teams. The Kings went 4-for-7 on the power play and 3-for-6 on the penalty kill. Usually, their games don’t include a total of seven goals, period, never mind seven power-play goals. It’s tough to say which was more bizarre, the fact that the Kings scored four power-play goals for the first time since 2009 or that they allowed three power-play goals for only the second time this season. It was backwards night at Staples Center. Darryl Sutter was quick to shrug at the special-teams festival…

SUTTER: “It was a power-play game. Seven power-play goals. If everybody had killed their penalties, just over half of the game would have been power plays. I don’t think either team would have predicted that. Not a big deal.’’

The Kings entered last night’s game tied for third in the NHL in penalty-kill percentage, and had allowed only one power-play goal in their previous seven games combined. So, Sutter was less concerned about the penalty-kill anomaly and more concerned about the penalties that led to the kills.

SUTTER: “There is a little bit of ebb and flow in penalty killing. It’s not like we’re going to lose confidence on it. The only thing that bothers me with last night is, we took some bad penalties. Both teams did, at the end of the day. You can talk about refereeing all you want, but that’s what you got, right? Both teams took some penalties that, I’ll guarantee you, the coaching staffs from both teams won’t be very happy about. You think about the major penalty — you could say it was a minor penalty — and you think about the goaltender taking a dumb penalty. That’s the crucial one. (Otherwise) it’s 3-1 going into the third. Big difference. That, to me, is more the concern. It’s taxing on your penalty killers. That’s the way the game was, though. The referee would put his arm up, the momentum would change. Then they would score, he would put his arm up and somebody else would score.’’