The Throne Room

Zus Leads Kings to Monster Comeback, 9th Straight Win

When the first period ended at Staples Center yesterday, the score was Detroit 3, Los Angeles 0. It seemed as though the Kings’ 8 game win streak was about to come crashing to a halt at the hands of the Red Wings. However, this is a different Kings team than in years’ past. Maybe as recently as last season, the Kings might fold their tents facing such a deficit (of course, against anybody but Dallas, right?), but the Kings settled down, started playing their game and by the time the second period was over, the scoreboard read Red Wings 3, Kings 3.

Kings were badly outplayed in the 3rd period, with few quality shifts in the Detroit zone, but they made them count. Michal Handzus collected his own rebound and tucked it in past a sprawling Jimmy Howard for his second goal of the game and what would turn out to be the game winner.

It’s impossible to understate what a critical cog Handzus is in the Kings’ machine. He wins face-offs, and plays a ton of minutes shadowing the opposing teams’ top center, has great puck possession skills (which is why Terry Murray should keep he and Alexander Frolov on the same line permanently), and makes a perfect screen/deflector in front of the net. 6 of his 15 goals are game winners. Handzus will likely end up one of 4 or 5 Kings with 20+ goals in 2009-10. If he was the Kings’ most improved player last season, he’s even better this year.

The streak of 9 consecutive wins is a new franchise best. Jon Quick continues to lead the NHL in wins with 34, and is now one win short of tying the Kings all-time season high for wins by a goaltender, set by Mario Lessard in 1980-81. It seems as though that mark could well fall before the Olympic break.

The Kings will carry their winning streak into Anaheim on Monday. Expect Honda Center to be 2/3 Kings fans. The Ducks have won 9 straight at home, but the Kings own the Ducks this season - having won all three games between the two clubs this season, and having won the last 5 games. Jon Quick is 5-0-0 all time vs. Anaheim.

After Anaheim the Kings face the lowly Oilers and the surprising Colorado Avalanche at home before the Olympic break. It will be important for the Kings to keep focus and continue to play their game. If they do, winning out to the Olympic break (which would give them 12 straight) is a real possibility.

Kings take on Anaheim at the puddle on Monday night, installment number 4 of this year’s Freeway Faceoff. Kings only need to earn one more point in the final three games to clinch the season series. I suspect they’ll do much better than that.

Go Kings!

-JS

8 Straight: Duck Hunting

8 Straight wins ties a franchise record. 8 Straight victories for Jonathan Quick establish a new franchise record and give the NHL lead in wins with 33. 2 more goals (and 4 more points) for Anze Kopitar. Jack Johnson’s first career 4 point night. The Kings also improved to 12-4-1 against Pacific Division opponents. Oh yeah, and it all came against the hated Anaheim Ducks.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s pretty obvious by now that the Kings OWN Anaheim this season. 3 games so far (and 3 wins)have shown them to be a superior hockey team. The Ducks are on the outside of the playoff bubble looking in, and all the sudden Honda Center is mostly empty except for road fans most game nights. Not that anybody is really surprised at that.

The Kings weathered a bit of a storm in the first 13 minutes of the game, but after that dominated all but a five minute stretch in the third period. That five minute stretch saw Anaheim score 3 times to rally from a 4-1 deficit - although two of those tallies were the result of Randy Jones blunders. I wonder if this will convince Terry Murray that it’s time to insert Davis Drewiske  or play Peter Harrold on defense against Detroit on Saturday. Randy Jones has been mostly nerve-wracking in his own zone, while being pretty good in the offensive zone. To give you an idea of Jones’ ineptitude inside his own blueline: Jack Johnson was -1 tonight despite scoring 4 points. His defense partner is, you guessed it: Randy Jones.

Kings now lead the 2009-10 Freeway Face-Off 6 points to none. If the Kings gain a mere point in any of their last 3 meetings, they will win this years’ prize. The worst they can do is tie, and in that event, the team with the better overall record wins it, meaning the Kings have all but clinched this years Freeway series.

Up next: Detroit, who the Kings beat to start their perfect road trip two weeks ago. In 3 meetings with the Red Wings this season, the Kings have dominated two of them, but trail the series 2-1 on account of Jimmy Howard making 51 saves and stealing a win in the Wings’ last visit to Staples Center. Kings will be looking to set a new franchise record with 9 straight victories. Detroit is getting healthy again, so it will be a big test for the Kings despite the Wings’ recent struggles.

Kings and Red Wings, 1PM Saturday at Staples.

GO KINGS!

Why Passing on Kovalchuk Was the Right Move

In the past several days, the situation surrounding (by the time you read this he’ll be forrmer) Thrashers’ winger Ilya Kovalchuk has gotten heated. Elliot Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada said earlier today that he felt the Kings were out of the Kovalchuk race due to asking price. Atlanta GM Don Waddell was rumored to be looking for 2-3 roster players, plus a prospect or high draft pick. When you further consider that Waddell was unwilling to allow teams to negotiate a potential contract extension, that asking price seems more than a little steep. Then, today TSN reported that Kovalchuk turned down a 12 year, $101 Million contract offer to remain in Atlanta.

Based on what it would’ve cost to land the sniper in Los Angeles, and on top of that, what it would cost to keep him there, it’s clear to me that Dean Lombardi made the right decision by taking a pass on Kovalchuk. My reasoning is as follows:

1. The Kings are a playoff team right now, as it stands. To give up 2-3 roster players and a first round pick would be to risk putting a chink in the armor of what has been a successful team this season.

2. Kovalchuk is one of the most talented offensive players in the league, but in Terry Murray’s system, everyone is expected to assume some defensive responsibility. I’m not convinced that Kovalchuk would do just that, and I’m not convinced his new teammates would like the idea of one player getting a free pass from backchecking (which makes his trade to New Jersey even more baffling).

3. With the contract offer Kovalchuk rejected from Atlanta, he’s heading to Russia to play in the KHL next season. If 12 years/$101 million isn’t enough, the only place your’e going to get more than that is good ol’ Mother Russia. This may explain in part Don Waddell’s refusal to allow other GM’s to negotiate a contract. While it’s been speculated for some time, any reliable word that Kovalchuk has the intention of playing overseas for 2010-2011 would’ve effectively neutered his trade value drastically.

When you look at what New Jersey has reportedly given up for Kovalchuk: defenseman Johnny Oduya, forward Niclas Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier and a 1st round pick in the 2010 draft - all for a player who’s bolting for Russia come July.

Dean Lombardi has kept intact a red-hot team, and still has the assets and cap space to pursue other options via trade between now and the March 3rd Deadline. TSN’s Bob McKenzie already reported that the Kings and Carolina had reached a deal for Ray Whitney to the point where Dean Lombardi was allowed to speak with Whitney’s agent, J.P. Barry about a potential contract extension. When the Whitney/Barry team demanded a 3 year extension in order for Whitney to waive his No Trade Clause for LA, Lombardi killed the deal. Another Smart move - Whitney as a rental or even for one season would be a nice addition, but not for 3 years as a soon-to-be 37 year old. I don’t believe Lombardi is done shopping, and I have little doubt that he will make a small number of quality additions to the Kings’ roster without sacrificing current roster talent.

Kings and Ducks play the third installment of the Freeway Face-Off tonight at 7:30.

Go Kings!

-JS

Marty Who?

The Kings, for much of Sunday afternoon’s meeting with the New Jersey Devils, looked like a tired team that had been in a game beyond regulation just 22 hours prior. Nevertheless, the Kings roared back from a two goal deficit in the last 21 minutes of the game to win 3-2.

A big reason the Kings will leave New Jersey having completed a perfect road trip tonight: Two soft goals allowed by Martin Brodeur. The first Kings’ goal, a pass from Parse to Handzus from behind the net saw Handzus with almost no net to shoot at, but Brodeur instead of patiently holding his ground (as he normally does) decided to move, creating a hole that the puck slipped right through. Wayne Simmonds tying goal with under two minutes remaining in regulation as simply a puck thrown at the net. Brodeur failed to hug the post and it had eyes for the net.

The exclamation point for the night was Drew Doughty’s blast from the point. With Ryan Smyth stationed in his customary place, right in front of Brodeur, as well as seemingly half of New Jersey’s roster, Brodeur never saw the shot and never had a chance.

To be frank, Brodeur was soundly outplayed by the Kings’ Jon Quick tonight, who made a handful of dazzling saves, including a glove save on Dainus Zubrus after it looked like Quick was down and out that left the entire New Jersey bench stunned. While Quick would probably like to have Travis Zajac’s second period goal back, he was otherwise the reason the Kings were in the game. Conversely, it could be said that Brodeur was the reason the Devils lost a game they mostly dominated.

The Kings return home to Staples having won all 5 games on this road trip, 6 in a row overall and 7 straight on the road. Their next opponent: The New York Rangers, currently mired in a slump. Again, this will tell a lot about the makeup of this Kings team. Will they allow themselves to take the struggling Rangers for granted, or will they take care of business.

Kings remain firmly entrenched in the 5th spot in the West, as it doesn’t appear Phoenix will blow a two goal lead to Dallas in the third period.

Kings and Rangers from Los Angeles Tuesday. See you at Staples.

Go Kings!

-JS

Quick Nets 30th Win as Kings Stay Perfect on Road Trip

Jon Quick got his 30th win in front of his hometown crowd tonight, the Kings’ overcame some bad bounces and mistakes and beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a shootout. The win makes the Kings a perfect 4 for 4 on this road trip, having won 5 straight overall.

Kings took the first lead of the night on a beautiful Dustin Brown redirection of Anze Kopitar’s shot/pass in the high slot. Kings appeared to take a 2-0 lead later when Wayne Simmonds deflected in a shot from Randy Jones, but it was determined that Simmonds tipped the puck with a high stick. It was very close, and the call could’ve gone either way. In the end, it boiled down to the fact that you couldn’t see the net relative to Simmonds in the shot, making it impossible to find conclusive evidence to overturn Don VanMassenhoven’s on-ice call. Based on what I could see, it looked pretty close and I actually think Simmer’s stick was just below the crossbar, but I get why VanMassenhoven made the call that he did.

The second period began a wave of King penalties that caught up with them. Boston defenseman Mark Stuart threw a clean check on Anze Kopitar and Wayne Simmonds, like any good teammate should, stepped in and dropped gloves with Stuart. Brandon Segal was called for delay of game for clearing the puck over the glass. Ryan Smyth was called for interference and Scott Parse was called for a trip that frankly looked like one hell of an embellishment by Marc Savard. The Bruins were able to even the score on a fortuitous bounce off a linesman that went right to Savard, who fed Marco Sturm wide open in front of the Kings’ net. Sturm outwaited a sliding Kings’ defender and beat Quick low to the stick side to tie the game.

Boston took the lead early in the 3rd period on a power play that carried over from the end of period 2. Alexander Frolov (who by the way, sure isn’t playing like he’s in a contract year) decided to take a break from backchecking and allow veteran Mark Recchi to get straight to the net, where he redirected a beautiful pass from David Krejci to make it 2-1 Boston.

But the Kings would tie the game at 4:29 with another power play goal, this time a well placed wrist shot by Anze Kopitar with Michal Handzus camped out in front of Thomas. All four goals in regulation came on the power play.

The Kings had a great final shift of regulation, and missed a chance to put the game away before the extra frame arrived, but were unable to finish. In overtime, the chances went Boston’s way, but the Bruins couldn’t finish either. Enter the shootout.

After Boston’s Zdeno Chara fanned on a slapshot, Anze Kopitar made a beautiful move, going forehand to backhand and tapping the puck in around Thomas with one hand on the stick. You can see video highlight’s here, courtesy of YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rshSbmmKS58.

Boston’s Michael Ryder tied the shootout in the top half of it’s 3rd frame with a beautiful wrist shot that evaded Quick. After Handzus failed to score, Marc Savard and Ryan Smyth traded goals to keep the score even after 4 frames. Patrice Bergeron and Oscar Moller both failed to score in the 5th frame, and Quick foiled Recchi, setting up Jaret Stoll’s laser beam wrist shot to win the shootout for the Kings.

Couple things that stand out to me: Kopitar has 16 points in his last 13 games, many of those without Ryan Smyth on his line. Interesting fact for those pundits whop think Kopi’s success early in the season was owed to having Captain Canada on his line. Brad Richardson and Wayne Simmonds are proving to be quite complimentary as linemates for Kopitar.

Jon Quick now has 30 wins in 49 starts this season, giving him a winning percentage of 61.2, and he has started 49 of the team’s 54 games - a staggering 90.7%. If you use those numbers as a guide, Quick should start 25 of the last 28 and win 15 or 16 games. This of course, could all change if the team suffers key injuries, or could change for the better if the Kings are able to improve significantly at the March 3rd trade deadline. Quick should finish the season with 45-46 wins - and depending on the team’s overall performance, could have a realistic shot at the all-time record for wins in a single season - 48.

Quick will start in goal again Sunday as the Kings wrap up their road trip in New Jersey. The game will pit Quick against Canadian Olympic goaltender Martin Brodeur. Quick has played exceptionally well against other Olympic goalies since he was named to the US team on January 1st. It’s a chance for the Kings to win their 6th straight overall and 7th straight on the road. The game won’t be televised locally, so you’re restricted to radio, or the Devils’ feed on Center Ice.

Go Kings!

-JS

Avoiding the Letdown Game

I said after last Saturday’s win in Detroit that the Kings had to be careful to avoid the classic letdown game. With it’s next two games against teams currently headed nowhere fast, it’s always a possibility that after beating Detroit the Kings would expect two points just for showing up in Toronto and Columbus. After staving off slippery slope #1 in Toronto Tuesday night, the Kings pummeled Columbus 4-1 on Thursday to improve to 3-0 on the current road trip.

The game saw Anze Kopitar get his 100th and 101st goals in a King uniform as well as an outstanding performance by Jon Quick, who for all intents and purposes deserved a shutout. Two Sean O’Donnell mistakes, starting with a turnover in the defensive zone and culminating with O’Donnell putting the puck in his own net after Antoine Vermette’s shot glanced off the mask of Quick, put an end to the shutout bid. I said in many places last night that O’Donnell should buy Quick a new Rolex and a steak dinner for singlehandedly blowing the shutout for him.

Given his recent performance, I would be inclined to sit O’Donnell for a couple of games. He appears to be getting tired and the number of mistakes he’s making on the ice appears to be improving. Perhaps some rest would do him good. One problem with that - Jack Johnson left last night’s game in the second period with an upper body (arm) injury. Johnson was reported by Rich Hammond as skating in practice today, but his status is unknown until tomorrow’s morning skate. Either Randy Jones, or Davis Drewiske who has been cleared to play could take Johnson’s place in the lineup.

Next, it’s on to Boston and a shot at a season sweep of the Bruins. Boston hasn’t been playing good hockey lately, but they may get playmaker Marc Savard back from injury in time for tomorrow’s game, likely another matchup of U.S. Olympic teammates in goal, Jon Quick and Tim Thomas. After that it’s an afternoon tilt in New Jersey against the Devils. While I’d take neither game for granted, the Kings have won their last two games against Boston, and won handily last season at the Prudential Center against the Devils. A strong finish to this road trip would help put the Kings in solid playoff position going into the Olympic break in just over two weeks.

Go Kings!

-JS

Continuing Winning Ways on the Road in Toronto

If you looked at the score of tonights Kings-Leafs game, you might get the impression without having watched that it was a close game. Not really the case. The first period and change definitely had me thinking “crap, here comes the proverbial letdown game after a big win”, especially since it was just poor execution - by Jon Quick on the first Toronto goal and by Rob Scuderi - for flubbing a clearing attempt AND Anze Kopitar for missing a backcheck assignment on the second goal that allowed the Leafs to remain in the game. A friend of mine pointed out that Kings coach Terry Murray elected to sit Raitis Ivanans for most of the second half of the game. It definitely made a difference. Dustin Brown fed Jaret Stoll for a one timer that Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson had no prayer of stopping, and the Kings never looked back after that. Ryan Smyth added a goal on a bullet shot to give the Kings a 4-2 lead at second intermission.

The Kings played good, smart defensive zone hockey in the third period - with Quick making his best saves of the game - until the last two minutes, where for a rare second time in one game, Scuderi and Doughty failed to clear the puck and allowed Hagman time and space to score his second goal. Kings left no doubt as to the game’s outcome though, when Alexander Frolov scored an empty netter on a give and go with Doughty. DD had a goal and an assist on the night, Dustin Brown had 3 points, and Stoll had a goal and an assist, final score Kings 5, Toronto 3. But again, if you watched the game, it wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

Kings certainly didn’t play their best game tonight, mistakes led to goals and despite the fact that Nikolai Kulemin’s shot deflected off Peter Harrold’s stick, you have to believe that Jon Quick would love to have that first Leaf goal back. Two points is two points, and all are important this time of year, but these aren’t exactly the Chicago Blackhawks the Kings were playing tonight either. Toronto has a few promising pieces but is having a long season. We Kings fans know the feeling.

Up next, the slippery slopes continue. Columbus has been less than stellar this season, and their goals against is a conference-high 182 on the season. Regardless, the Kings must prepare for this game as if they’re playing Chicago, Detroit or the like. It’s another game that has potential for the classic letdown. The Kings avoided that in Toronto tonight, let’s hope they can avoid it Thursday in Columbus.

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On the minds of many Kings fans right now is one captain in Atlanta: Ilya Kovalchuk. While Atlanta GM Don Waddell is claiming that he isn’t discussing trading the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent winger, several sources have said there have been discussions and that the Kings have been in the center of things.

My thoughts are as follows: Kovalchuk is a game breaker, a superstar of a magnitude the Kings haven’t had since Gretzky. There are a lot of conditions to a potential trade. I have a hard time believing that Dean Lombardi will give up key guys for a mere rental. In fact, I am inclined to think the deal doesn’t even happen unless Kovalchuk at least agrees in principle to a contract extension in LA. The Kings have the best available mixture of talent and prospects to get the deal done, they key will be not to overpay.

There’s one name that’s popped up in trade rumors that I would not under any circumstances deal: Wayne Simmonds. Simmer is a heart and soul guy, and most nights the hardest worker on the team. He’s looking to pot 20 goals this season and he’s a catalyst on the ice who is good at both ends of the rink, and will only get better.

Speculation abounds as to what it will take to get Kovalchuk, and Lombardi does have a tough decision to make. He’s looking at a team that’s likely in the playoffs anyway - so you have to carefully consider that what you would sent to Atlanta doesn’t leave any glaring holes in the roster. With the organization’s depth at defense, one would imagine that either/or Thomas Hickey and Colten Teubert could go, and there’s the ever present talk of trading Jack Johnson. If a deal for Kovalchuk gets done, it’s hard to imagine Alexander Frolov not being part of it. Perhaps Frolov + Moller + Johnson + pick(s) conditional on an extension being signed? It’s mere speculation on my end. Word is that Atlanta is looking for current NHL talent, but trading Kovalchuk doesn’t put them in position to do anything but rebuild, which makes me believe prospects will be involved. At any rate, I do believe there is a better than average chance that Ilya Kovalchuk will be wearing a Kings’ uniform by the trade deadline, it’s just a matter of for whom. Then again, who knows, maybe Chicago steps up to the plate and makes their cap situation even worse.

Go Kings!

-JS

Digging Deep

I think one has to be encouraged by what we’ve seen from the Los Angeles Kings the last two games. The Kings have battled some adversity and managed to maintain an even keel, not wavering from their game plan. It’s resulted in victories over two very tough opponents - first Buffalo on Thursday night, and last night the Detroit Red Wings - a team the Kings hadn’t beaten in their last six tries.

Adversity mounted early on as Detroit took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Valterri Filppula seemingly skated through a handful of Kings and took advantage of Jon Quick committing to the butterfly block a bit too early to put the Red Wings on the board first, and Todd Bertuzzi tipped a Brian Rafalski shot from the top of the circle on a 5 on 3 power play to extend the lead to two.

But the Kings, instead of folding their tents, stepped up their game in response. Anze Kopitar scored his 20th goal of the season early in the second period - Jimmy Howard stopped his original shot but failed to get a handle on the rebound. Wayne SImmonds chipped the rebound over and behind Howard and Kopitar batted it out of the air into the net. The goal validated the Kings’ efforts and despite some pressure by Detroit, you kind of got the feeling that the Kings were going to get the equalizer sooner than later. That equalizer didn’t come in the second period, but Jon Quick did make a key stop on Detroit’s Derek Meech who broke in alone coming out of the penalty box.

The Kings continued to work hard and tied the game on a great play in the 3rd period. Kopitar curled in the left corner of the Detroit zone and lost an edge, falling to the ice, but managed to keep the play alive by dishing it to Simmonds, who found the trailer, Peter Harrold moving in unmolested. Harrold’s shot beat Howard to the stick side to tie the game at 2.

Kopitar got his third point of the night on the Kings’ third straight goal, a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play in which Kopitar found Scott Parse, who dished it to the front of the net, right to the stick of the waiting Brad Richardson, who buried it past Howard.

The Kings played very solid defensive hockey in the final 7:58 of the third period, and Jon Quick made several key stops to preserve the victory. The win vaults the Kings into a tie for 6th in the Western Conference and gives them a 3 point cushion over Detroit.

The rest of the Kings road trip, is a bit of a slippery slope. It’s easy to look at games in Toronto and Columbus, two of the league’s worst teams this season, and assume that four points are in the bag. However, the Kings have a penchant for the poorly played, letdown loss after a big win, and no Kings fan would be suprised to see a less than stellar effort and loss of points. What I can hope, is that the Kings will continue to work hard, play the game that’s gotten them four points in their last two games, and if that’s the case it’s reasonable to expect the Kings could return home to Staples on Feb 2nd having won at least 3 of 5 on this road trip.

Who knows, maybe there will be some guy named Ilya Kovalchuk on the Kings roster by then too. More of my thoughts on that in the next couple of days.

Kings in Toronto Tuesday night - no local TV feed, so if you have Center Ice, you’ll have to put up with “Holy Mackinaw!” about 50,000 times.

Go Kings!

-JS

Kings Overcome Officiating Incompetence for Shootout Win

It’s happened a little too often lately in the NHL, let alone to the Kings: An excellent game, very well played by both teams involved has it’s outcome decided by incompetent officiating. It happened to the Kings back on January 11th against San Jose, it happened to Boston at home tonight against Columbus, when a phantom high stick call against Milan Lucic gave Columbus a 4 minute power play in which they scored the game winning goal. And, it almost happened to the Kings tonight against Buffalo. Fortunately this time, the Kings would not allow themselves to be beaten by the officials.

The Kings played a very strong game and if one is to be honest, were the better team by a decent margin tonight. Buffalo, a very good team with an outstanding record against the Western Conference this season, took advantage of some favorable bounces - both by the puck and the guys in stripes.

Kings took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Drew Doughty’s point blast was redirected by Brad Richardson. The deflection was as perfect as they come, and exactly the type of play you need to beat a guy like Miller, who has been the NHL’s best goalie this season to date.

The Sabres got on the board in the first minute of the second period when Clarke MacArthur’s pass went off the stick of Sean O’Donnell past Jon Quick. The play wasn’t the worst of ideas by O’Donnell, but the puck took a bad bounce off the shaft of his stick and the game was tied. At that point, the officiating got very dicey. With Buffalo on the power play, Tomas Vanek was battling for position with Drew Doughty in front of the King net. Vanek cross checked Doughty from behind and sent him to the ice, leaving the Sabre forward all alone in front of Quick. Tim Connoly fed the puck from the right corner right on to Vanek’s stick and it was 2-1 Buffalo. The officials missed, or rather, decided not to call an obvious interference penalty against Vanek for a takedown that WWE mogul Vince McMahon would’ve been proud of. I’m all for “letting them play” but that non-call was just plain incompetent.

The zebras struck yet again when Oscar Moller appeared to have tipped the puck past Miller to tie the game at two. The play was reviewed and the NHL’s “War Room” in Toronto made the determination that Moller intentionally directed the puck in with his glove. The replay does clearly show contact between puck and glove, however it’s pretty clear that Moller is attempting to contact the puck with the shaft of his stick. What the replay officials were thinking at that point is just baffling. The goal was disallowed, zebras 2, Kings 1.

In an act of atonement for the Sabres first goal, Sean O’Donnell scored his second goal of the season with 55 seconds remaining in the second period on a blast over the shoulder of Miller, who had Michal Handzus perfectly stationed in front of him as a screen. Twice now in the last 4 games, the late goal in a period, which has often gone against the Kings this season, went the Kings’ way.

Sabres regained the lead again early in the 3rd period when Jason Pominville, driving to the net got tangled with Rob Scuderi and fell into Quick, preventing him from being able to square to the play. Sabres defenseman Craig Rivet flipped the puck past a sprawling Quick, off the crossbar and in. It was a play that I thought was at least borderline goaltender interference, but in real time it was truly difficult to tell whether or not he had been taken down by Scuderi. Replay shows Scuderi nary made contact with Pominville, but in this case it was close enough to allow for human error. Not the right call but if they were going to blow one, this one was at least close.

And yet the Kings roared back to tie the game yet again. Entering the Buffalo zone 3 on 2, Dustin Brown made a drop pass to Jaret Stoll, whose shot attempt deflected off a Sabre player and was tipped in by Ryan Smyth, who was unmolested at Miller’s right hand side. The officials again called for video review and you just had a feeling the way the game had been called that they were going to manufacture a reason to waive off the goal, as replay indicated it was an incidental deflection off Smyth’s skate. Thankfully, they got one right on the night and the game was tied.

Not to be understated was the play of both goaltenders. Jon Quick and Ryan Miller were both outstanding on the night, and with the score tied at 3 both made saves for their team that helped secure at least the single point getting out of regulation. Miller in particular saved the Sabre’s bacon in the overtime period on more than one occasion.

It seemed that beating Miller in the shootout would be a daunting task, but Anze Kopitar made it look easy, going to the backhand and roofing it past Miller. Drew Stafford scored on a snapshot for Buffalo to even the shootout at one. Jack Johnson was robbed by the flailing glove of Miller and Quick foiled Pominville’s shot attempt. Dustin Brown scored in his second straight shootout, choosing to deke the aggressive Miller, who had been coming far out of the net on the Kings’ shooters. Browns move was a success, as it banked off the right post and in. Jon Quick made a pad save on Tim Connolly that displayed Gumby-like flexibility to seal the win.

The victory vaulted the Kings into 7th in the West, a point ahead of both Detroit and Calgary.

Next, the Kings begin a 5 game road trip in Detroit. If the Kings play as well as they did last game against Detroit, you have to figure Jimmy Howard can’t possibly be that hot twice. With both teams battling for postseason position, you have to figure revenge will be on the Kings’ minds Saturday. The game is a big test - Detroit has years of experience winning games that lead to playoff berths. These Kings are just getting their feet wet. The Kings haven’t won a game against Detroit since the end of the 2007-2008 campaign. They’re long overdue.

Kings in Detroit, Saturday afternoon at 4 on the West coast.

Go Kings!

-JS

Brutal

So a big divisional matchup and a chance to help solidify a playoff spot ends up being one of the ugliest games the Kings have played all season.

Hopefully San Jose isn’t patting themselves too hard on the back for this one, because frankly, the Kings didn’t bother to show up.

I could go on a long rant about how inexcusable it is to play a game like this right now, but in short: Defensive zone mistakes, an AWFUL penalty kill and a couple of goals that Jon Quick would certainly like to have back.

So, instead of widening their lead over 9th seed Detroit, the Kings fail to collect a point and remain just a point ahead. The Buffalo Sabres come to town Thursday night, in another probably Matchup of US Olympic Team goalteders: Quick and Buffalo’s Ryan Miller. The Sabres are an excellent hockey team and Miller is a Vezina favorite and considered a frontrunner for the Hart Trophy as league MVP, but it’s worth noting that the Sabres did lose in Anaheim last night, albeit with backup Patrick Lalime in goal.

By the way, last night’s game aside, I can guarantee you there’s at least one team in the Western Conference that San Jose doesn’t want to see in the first round of the playoffs.

Go Kings.

-JS