Waking up with the Kings: April 23

The Kings played a quality playoff game on Tuesday, one that obviously represented their best performance in the series and that in retrospect and by virtue of replays and what the underlying stats indicate, was an evenly played game, and one that perhaps may have even slightly favored the home side by virtue of the pressure applied in overtime. But because of Los Angeles’ dreadful two games to open the series, there was absolutely no wiggle room or margin for error. The Kings found themselves in a situation in which a game decided by bounces, deflections and some grease around the net could produce calamitous consequences, and that’s exactly what happened. It isn’t poor luck or bad bounces that led the Kings to their current predicament – and boy, were there unfortunate bounces in Game 3 – it was their performance in Games 1 and 2.

Jonathan Quick has taken some heat in this series, and his .852 save percentage through three games is an anomalous eyesore. But while he was hung out to dry in the first two games of the series – and also let in one or two that he’d like back – it’s hard to place Tuesday’s goals on him. In another representation of San Jose being rewarded for getting bodies to the net, the Sharks again put Kings defensemen in dangerous situations in which deflections and flukish bounces were bound to occur. Apart from Brent Burns’ bizarre power play knuckleball that opened the scoring, the following three goals were covered in grease. Matt Nieto scored an equalizer on an impressive deflection as Quick and Robyn Regehr became entangled. Tomas Hertl chipped a loose puck on a second or third follow-up opportunity following an extended scrum, and Patrick Marleau scored on another rainbow-type shot as his backhand towards the net dinged Slava Voynov’s stick and fluttered past Quick. If anything, this shows the versatility of San Jose’s ability to score; following a pair of games in which odd-man rushes and speed in transition produced a bevy of quality scoring opportunities, the Sharks benefited from some opportune bounces and ugly goals that won’t make highlight reels but count all the same.

There’s the right type of mental fortitude in the Kings’ room in that their Game 4 performance shouldn’t be a concern at all. The challenge will be to keep their highly skilled opponents off the scoreboard, something that they haven’t yet been able to do for more than 26:01 of continuous play in the series. With scoring depth that can match up against any NHL team, quality production from top players, unsung performances developing from Matt Nieto and the role players who have made an impact in the series, and the team’s generally high standard of discipline, Los Angeles is up against the highest quality opponent they’ve faced in a playoff series since the Colorado teams they opposed in consecutive years in 2001 and 2002. But from an intangible and character analysis of what lies within the walls inside the Kings’ room at Staples Center, and the team’s park-and-ride mentality, this would be the right group of players to attack such a deficit. Obviously the statistics are overwhelmingly out of their favor, and they’re facing a relentless, quality opponent, but I don’t foresee the action and cadence in Game 4 veering sharply from what we saw in Game 3.