Waking up with the Kings: November 24

Virtually all beat writers keep a journal or a word document or some sort of scratchpad to collect thoughts and assorted notes that might be used in that night’s game story or saved for some project down the road. Through a good 45 minutes of game action Wednesday night, the #21/10H / LAK vs NYI / 11/23/16 / Budaj vs Halak page was mostly blank. There was some mental detritus scrawled on the page from early in the game: “0 SOG early NYI PP” and “They just play a certain way, even w/ players out?” were my first period notes, followed by a reminder of Peter Budaj’s close-range second period saves on Alan Quine and John Tavares. The third period section was mostly an empty page. I was sitting next to LAKI Associate Bo Hamby – New James, as he’s known as in some parts – and while we were commiserating about how Kings-Islanders wasn’t exactly going to be framed and put on display in the Louvre, we did acknowledge that there’s always something that happens over 60-plus minutes that will resonate and is worth writing about. And, as it turned out, we saw something that was completely new to us in the sport of hockey: four goals scored in the time it took the first goal to be announced over the PA. Did that happen in the 12-4 rout of Calgary in 1990? (Maybe in the stretch of four goals on five shots in 5:17?) I don’t believe it did.

The Kings out-chanced and out-attempted the Islanders, but credit the visitors for doing what they needed to do to etch out a solid road game (for the first 57 minutes, at least). Darryl Sutter noted afterwards that the Kings at times had some challenges in getting past a wall of Islanders skaters to enter the attacking zone; there were several times during the game that I noticed four players on New York’s blue line. While the zone entries weren’t always fluid, Los Angeles is still a team capable of playing a dump-and-retrieve game, and the go-ahead goal was exactly that. The puck was sent deep, Trevor Lewis gets in on the forecheck and makes a hit along the boards that stuns both Casey Cizikas and Thomas Hickey, allowing the puck to be rimmed back to Derek Forbort. Forbort has been effective recently in putting those hard, low, deflectable shots towards the net, and both Lewis and King got their sticks on that one, redirecting the puck past Halak for the game-winner. As much as Darryl doesn’t like goals against off clean faceoff wins, I’d imagine he likes to the same degree those “keeping it simple” goals brought about by an effective forecheck and getting bodies to the front of the net. That’s a play the team practices virtually every day at Toyota Sports Center.

Dwight King isn’t a primary scorer on this team, but on top of his not-particularly-sexy grinding game, he’s contributed an elevated share of the offense that he might be expected to provide. Pro-rated numbers appear rosier following a two-goal game (and with a 103.7 PDO), but he now has been credited with four goals, eight points and a plus-seven rating through 21 games played. When you add the deflection goal he should have been credited for off a defenseman’s point shot earlier in the season – if you’ve read the comments section, you know the goal I’m referencing – that’s a career-high 35-point pace, which isn’t bad for one of the team’s more dependable defensive, mucking-it-up forwards. King, along with Trevor Lewis, was visible deep in the attacking zone and as one of Anze Kopitar’s effective wingers-slash-plumbers and was rewarded for getting to the front of the net, as he has done for much of his Los Angeles tenure. Funny how 12 hours after my Twitter mentions contained a lot of whining about who was playing alongside Kopitar, Sutter referenced “Kinger and Lewie and Cliffy and Jordy” as key difference-makers in the game. On Friday: Darryl 1, Twitter Eggs 0.

Happy Thanksgiving, Insiders! Here’s to spending today, if you are so lucky, enveloped by the comfort of friends and family. If you are so inclined, please keep Craig Cunningham – one of the really good guys in hockey and immensely liked by those who know him – in your thoughts and prayers. Keep fighting, Craig.