Niesy’s post via reader Andrew L. the other day on Voynov’s awesome forechecking skillz reminded me of another great moment in recent forechecking history for the Kings. This time during the second round series against the Western Conference’s Central Division champs the St. Louis Blues. Surely you all remember the Kings series with the Blues, right? It lasted, what, a week? Ah, what a great week.
This moment comes at the end of Game Four, the Kings up three games to none, and leading 2-1 in regulation with time running out. When, all of a sudden, Darryl Sutter throws his third line onto the ice to protect the lead. His third line! What an idiot, AMIRITE?!?! No, my friends, not an idiot.
A special thanks to our friend Fred Murtz for the upload.
Dustin Penner – of all people – gets the party started. Then, Jarrett Stoll, Trevor Lewis, and Dwight King do much of the dirty work for the better part of thirty seconds, running the clock to under a minute and setting up the Brown empty netter.
Let us remember forever the exasperated “and look who Darryl Sutter’s got on the ice: King, Lewis, he’s got his grinders out there!” of that dip Brian Hayward. Sutter had the third line out there, in a one-goal game, with one minute to go, on the verge of a sweep, in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they dominated. All en route to being the first, and only, number eight seed to knock out a one and two seed. Oh, and the first second round victory in the playoffs since 1993.
The main theme throughout the playoffs was the Kings impressive forecheck, something not seen much during the regular season. As we all know, this team was different in the playoffs, and the two forechecking sequences we’ve highlighted definitely stand out during the Kings playoff run. This, especially, was an example of Sutter’s penchant for rolling four lines no matter the situation. It worked here, that’s for sure.
More special stuff after the jump.
On a personal note – you don’t care – but this moment was especially awesome for me. Like many of you, the Kings are my favorite hockey team, and, like very few of you, I grew up in Kansas City. I don’t like St. Louis sports teams. Call it a cross-state rivalry, call it radical sports fandom, call it jealousy of numerous sports championships, call it whatever. Additionally, many times over the past few years I have braved the confines of Scottrade Center to attend Kings–Blues games, and every time the Kings have lost. Every freakin’ time.
Well, this year, with Trevor Lewis’s defensive competence, and the Kopitar save in the third period, and then Dustin Brown seeing the open net and picking that ish up…warm and fuzziness, man. Positive vibes.
Here is how we’ll all best remember this moment, in gif image form, specially created for our loyal friend soccersucks, who wanted a gif of Brown patting Kopi on the back. Don’t say we didn’t do anything for ya.
Have a favorite photo, video, or audio clip to enshrine in the Hall of Awesome? Email NiesyJFTC at gmail.com.