Waking up with the Kings: November 11

Montreal is an interesting team. (They’re also probably a very good team, given that they’ve won 12 of 14 games for the first time in their 99-year history, and employ a 9-0-0 netminder who is the best goalie in the world at the moment.) But looking at that team, I don’t see a ton of difference between their four lines. Their first line may have a touch more skill in Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov, and their “third line” may have more finishing ability than a typical third line in Max Pacioretty, but one-through-four, they all more or less play the same way. Torrey Mitchell leads a very strong north-south fourth line that moves up and down the ice extremely well and accounted for the game-winner Thursday night on a faceoff in the Kings’ defensive zone in which Mitchell beat Jeff Carter clean off the draw, and Andrei Markov’s point shot was tipped home by Daniel Carr (Insert Darryl-Sutter-Arthur-Clenched-Fist-Meme.jpg).

The Canadiens are also a fast team, and their backchecking gave the Kings fits and forced a higher percentage of dump-ins than they’d usually be comfortable with. Los Angeles has more speed than they’re given credit for, but Thursday’s game wasn’t really a reflection of that. There was little pace to the attack, and it’s hard to go back this season and find a first period as rough as the one they endured at the Bell Centre. Especially in the first 20 minutes, there wasn’t much zone time, and when the team did get something going, Carey Price was still there as the backstop. Nick Shore probably had the best opportunity off a Kyle Clifford net-drive, and while it at first seemed like his attempt from the low slot resembled a world class pad save, Shore’s shot was more or less sent directly into the goalie. For the much of the first 40 minutes, there were sticks, bodies and Youppi! getting in the way of the Kings’ attack as the Canadiens closed quickly and made life relatively easy for their goalie. Falling behind 3-0 I sn’t a recipe to win any game, but against Price, that’s more or less a death knell. The Muzzin-Martinez pairing had an off-night, and a little bit of frustration showed when Jake Muzzin shot [noted pest] Brendan Gallagher’s glove away from him in the second period with a nice little snapshot.

The good: Well, there wasn’t a ton of good. Rogie Vachon was honored before the game! Between Chicago’s ceremony to honor Marian Hossa and Montreal’s recognition of the to-be Hall of Famer, we’ve been fortunate to witness to some Original Six pageantry this season. It was also very surreal to walk out of Rogie’s press conference during the first intermission and, en route to the FOX Sports West set, hear, “Hi, Rogie, congratulations. I’m Ben Stiller.” Shea Weber logged only two shot attempts during the game, and the Kings were on him like cheese on macaroni during Montreal’s early power play. A – how do I say this – pow-er-play goal? Tyler Toffoli’s third period tally was the first scored by the top unit since his own goal less than two minutes into the season. Kevin Gravel, who plays with a good pace, skates well and has a sneakily hard shot, logged 17 and a half minutes in all situations and totaled six shot attempts. Anze Kopitar was dominant at the faceoff dot. Really, I’m not sure how much we learned about the Kings in this game. Beset by injury and on the road in one of the toughest buildings to play in the league, they dropped a game by multiple goals to a team that’s now 12-1-1. Park and ride, Ottawa’s up next.