Waking up with the Kings: January 20

The Kings held one of their least memorable promotional nights ever on Monday – Status Quo Night – as they again were unable to hold a third period lead, again lost a one goal game after 60 minutes to a team that eats up overtime points like candy, and again will find itself questioning how it was unable to capitalize on a prime opportunity to collect two points in a game with significant playoff race implications. Los Angeles, again, engineered a 60-minute effort that should have been good enough for two points. Their pace in moving the puck up ice was excellent. Their physicality, their shot blocking, their defensive zone coverage, for the most part, was very good, despite Calgary’s advances in the third period and overtime. Jonathan Quick was tracking pucks through traffic as well as he had all season, and his first period stop on Kris Russell’s wrister from the blue line was one of the less heralded but very important stops he made in a second consecutive quality performance. As much as Kings fans are fearing the worst following a 1-2-4 homestand, there are good trends materializing. The way the team has moved the puck, and given the supreme possession stats the team has maintained over the last month and a half, should the goaltending continue to round into form after a challenging mid-season stretch, this team is going to string together wins.

At yesterday’s morning skate, Dwight King rotated through drills with Andy Andreoff, suggesting that he might not play against the Flames. Whether King was dealing with any minor ding, or whether there was a message being sent to the hulking winger, it wasn’t entirely clear. But as warm-ups last night ensued, and it was clear that King was going to be in the lineup again – reprising Saturday’s even strength grouping that included Nick Shore and Jeff Carter – I tried as best I could to pay particular attention to those three players when they took the ice together. They didn’t spend ample time in alignment, thanks to the surplus of minor penalties between both teams, but I thought the chemistry forming between the trio represented a step forward from the Anaheim game. King, though there was an odd hiccup here and there, was very good. His first period netfront deflection on a Los Angeles power play trickled just wide of Joni Ortio and reinforced that he’s among the most capable forwards at generating traffic and creating tips and deflections. He won a good share of his contested pucks, including a 50-50 third period footrace that was followed by a pass to Shore in open space. Shore chipped a puck to the front of the net that was the hockey equivalent of burying a golf ball from the sand trap. It was in such a spot that only a net-driving Jeff Carter could get a stick on it – which he did, redirecting the puck on net as Ortio directed the puck wide. It was a terrific hockey play that wouldn’t have materialized had King not won a race to a puck and made up for Shore’s late second period penalty in which the Flames generated some good looks at the net.

Speaking of good looks at the net, there weren’t too many of them. Both goaltenders were excellent in stopping both teams’ B-type chances. Scoring chances favored the Kings, though again, it was mostly a collection of B-types coming off screens, traffic, tips and deflections, and both Brandon Bollig and Sean Monahan generated A-looks for the visitors. Against a goalie who wasn’t as on his game as Ortio – he’s now 4-0-0 after four road wins – the Kings would’ve played with the lead for a lot longer than they ultimately did.