Waking up with the Kings: March 15

The Los Angeles Kings’ tenuous grasp on a 1-0 lead through two periods on Saturday night ultimately came undone when two Nashville Predators goals within 66 seconds – the second coming off a Jake Muzzin own goal – shifted an otherwise mostly even game into the visitors’ favor. There wasn’t a surplus of high quality looks off rushes or in dangerous scoring areas for either team, though Jonathan Quick was excellent in following up his double pad stack save from the first period with a collection of other quality stops, many of which were on bouncing and deflected pucks pinballing around the crease. As the Kings have improved their standing in the Western Conference over the past month, Quick has been there for them every step of the way. But the challenge of recording a second goal on Saturday night – Andy Andreoff was so close in his attempt to channel his inner Jeff Carter – proved to be a load bearing tenet of a game in which both Quick and Pekka Rinne posted strong performances and the two teams’ effective checking and ability to keep the puck out of high quality areas and towards the perimeter kept the score low in a game between two top-six defensive clubs.

It’s funny, I had been noticing Muzzin quite a bit before the own goal, and I was prepared to write a WUWTK bit about how aspects of his game appeared to be coming together during the Kings’ emergence – he entered last night with one goal, seven points and a plus-two rating in the 11 games prior – after it had hit a lull in the midpoint of the season. While his play outside of the costly deflection was fine, it does at this point seem to be a “Well, apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?” discussion topic. It’s tough to pick on Muzzin for the one play; there were plenty of mistakes made by players on both teams that weren’t as spotlighted, and last night’s decisive play came on a read that had to be made in a fraction of a second. While it would have been better if Muzzin had let the puck harmlessly skid past him, the Kings defenseman was turning at the time while covering Calle Jarnkrok and had his back to the play, and wouldn’t have been able to get a perfectly accurate gauge on where exactly on the ice the forward he was trying to cover was. He appeared to attempt to deflect the puck towards the corner of the ice, but it ramped up his stick blade, off the crossbar and in the net for one of the more untimely and improbable deflections of the season.

Between April 4, 2009 and March 15, 2014, Los Angeles was 126-1-11 when leading after two periods. In the most recent 37 regular season games in which the Kings took a lead into the third period, they’re 28-6-3. It’s not a cause for concern, though it’s worth mentioning only one game after their protection habits were hailed following a 4-0 road win over Vancouver in which Los Angeles used standout puck possession and a third period Anze Kopitar dagger to supplement its hold on the game. Really, with Quick, the team’s traditionally strong penalty killing and ability to wear down its opponents and play its preferred style over 60 minutes, the Kings should be amongst the best teams in the league in protecting a lead. But the Nashville Predators are a very good team, and on Saturday night a 66-second stretch shifted an evenly played game into the visitors’ favor.