Waking up with the Kings: January 29

Forget the details that last night’s game was a tense game, an exciting game, a back-and-forth game. It was a game the Los Angeles Kings really, really needed to win – and they did, erasing three one-goal deficits and rallying from a third period hole to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3. We’re not yet in the part of the season where games are “must-win” games – last night’s game was number 48 in an 82-part series, to borrow a bit used by Seth Rorabaugh – but after a one win-in-eight-game stretch that left the club limping into the All-Star break and with a challenging five-game road trip looming, Los Angeles badly needed to claim two points, and they did so by winning only their sixth of 24 one-goal games this season. It was a mostly very strong 60-minute performance, even if it didn’t quite match-up against the team’s top performances of the year (which doesn’t matter at all) in wins over San Jose on December 27 and Vancouver on November 8 and January 1. The Kings experienced penalty trouble in the first period, disrupting what was a fine exhibition of five-on-five play by the club, and didn’t get off to the best 10-minute start in the third period as Chicago claimed a one-goal lead. But, again, that matters little; the Blackhawks, despite sitting in a position in which they would not have home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs (they didn’t have home ice last year in the first round, either), are at this point the best team in the NHL, and their league-best plus-40 goal differential entering last night’s game is a reflection of their potency. Again: it was an important win last night.

The Kings received an enormous boost from the King-Carter-Toffoli line, which combined for six points and a plus-six rating while clearly outplaying the Saad-Toews-Hossa line in their head-to-head match-ups. Carter’s game was among his best regular season efforts etched out in a King uniform, and had Corey Crawford not moved well laterally to deny his shorthanded forehand-backhand breakaway attempt late in the second period, he very well could have potted three. (It’s lost a bit in the Kings win, but credit Niklas Hjalmarsson for a crease clear away from a net-bound Anze Kopitar and Crawford’s stop on Carter late in the second to preserve a two-two game, thus allowing Andrew Shaw to take an early third period lead).

There were some unheralded moments that also helped preserve the win for Los Angeles, which banked on a pair of big goals that hadn’t necessarily been there for the club in third periods leading up to the All-Star Break. Robyn Regehr’s pinch to neutralize Brandon Saad allowed Tyler Toffoli to retrieve the puck on an effective forecheck, sending it down low to Jeff Carter, who quickly moved it to King, whose no-look feed allowed Toffoli to finish off the play with a wicked snipe. I was surprised to hear complaints after the game that Crawford was interfered with. Let’s refer to our good friend, NHL Rule 69.1: Interference on the Goaltender.

Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

Here’s the replay. Carter was outside of the goal crease when any contact with Crawford may have occurred (it’s difficult to discern the level of contact made between Carter and Crawford, and whether there was any contact at all), so stipulation (1) does not apply. Looking at stipulation (2), there’s no legitimate argument that can be made that any hypothetical Carter contact was “intentional or deliberate.” Claims of goaltender interference are off-base; this play was much closer to the grey area of goaltender interference than last night’s play. Credit to Carter for creating a screen – and for Dustin Brown for providing a screen (if not necessarily a deflection) on Jake Muzzin’s game-winner.