Waking up with the Kings: December 16

Several abbreviated thoughts on Los Angeles’ 4-1 win over Detroit on Thursday night:

-The theme of Thursday’s game was Big Goals. This wasn’t a game that the Kings would’ve wanted to play from behind in, and 21 seconds in, Dwight King used some nice boards play to work the puck to the left point, where Derek Forbort wristed it through a tunnel of sticks towards the upper far corner of the net, beating Jimmy Howard and establishing an early lead. The Red Wings answered back midway through the period – that was a beautiful backhanded saucer pass from Luke Glendening to Mike Green – but L.A. was in pretty good control even during the wide expanse of the game that was tied. As is generally the norm, their structure and shot suppression was at a high level, and that set up another big goal with 16 seconds left in the second period as Nic Dowd roofed his own rebound of a Dustin Brown centering feed past Jimmy Howard for the game-winner. As Detroit pressured past the midway point of the third, Tyler Toffoli used a burst of speed to play a loose puck and create a contested, angled break towards Howard, eventually pushing the puck past the goalie’s extended left pad for an important insurance goal with a powerful move.

-There were several important firsts in Thursday’s game. Jeff Zatkoff won his first game as a King in which he played the full 60 minutes. Los Angeles was badly in need of a strong goaltending performance, and while Zatkoff referenced himself as a “spectator” on a night in which he wasn’t as busy as Howard, he still made several important stops and was airtight during a mid-third period Red Wings push. Nic Dowd, inserted into the lineup after a two-game foray upstairs, recorded four shots on goal and scored the game-winner on a Road McFlurry Minute goal. Dowd, who wasn’t on the ice for any goals against after taking minus-one ratings in five of his previous seven games, was an effective player and made a strong case to remain in the lineup.

-Not firsts, but strong performances: Drew Doughty played a calm, low-risk game and finished with an assist and a plus-two rating. His 25:59 of ice time shouldn’t overtax him on a night in which he’ll face an array of high-end forwards; Sidney Crosby (21 goals in 24 games!), Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel all average a point per game. Dustin Brown also bid adieu to the Joe with an effective performance and played a key role in the game-winner.

-It’s apropos of nothing, but a chaos theory press box topic over the last few games and a fun conversation starter (that has probably been discussed in the commenting section here): What happens if Dwight King didn’t score a game-tying goal in Buffalo late in regulation on the night Jonathan Quick was injured in overtime three years ago? If King doesn’t score, L.A. likely loses in regulation, Quick wouldn’t have been injured that night, Ben Scrivens might not have emerged during that six-week stretch, the Kings probably wouldn’t have been able to trade him to Edmonton for a third round draft pick and then exchanged that third round pick with Columbus as part of the package that brought Marian Gaborik (and his 14 postseason goals) to Los Angeles. The Kings’ defense, structure, leadership, coaching, intangibles, etc, etc, etc, were all elite in that Stanley Cup season, and in a push for offense and skill, they probably would’ve still found a way to acquire Gaborik, who had been their target for much of the second half of the season before the trading deadline. Matt Moulson and Thomas Vanek were also several of the higher profile goal scorers who were also exchanged at the same time – the Kings were not interested in Vanek, based on my conversations with Dean Lombardi at the time – but it’s still very interesting to think how the trajectory of that season would’ve been affected had that one game in Buffalo not gone to overtime. (In all honesty, and I haven’t spoken with hockey operations about this – I’m just spitballing – had the Kings not acquired that third round draft pick from Edmonton, they likely would have would have sent their (ultimately) late second round pick to Columbus as part of the package for Gaborik. All this means is that had King not scored that goal, Alex Lintuniemi, who was selected with the last pick of the second round in 2014, would not have been a part of the organization. But it’s still fun to ‘what-if.’)