In the third meeting of the brand new year between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks, the latter proceeded to put the former in its place. In the prior game for the Sharks, they absolutely demolished the Calgary Flames, which I didn’t think they’d be able to duplicate in Staples Center, but I ended up being approximately 90% incorrect. For the Kings, they had come off a game against the Boston Bruins by giving up three goals with sloppy play, among other things. They inevitably came back to take that game into the shootout for the win and two points.
In last night’s game, the respective trends unfortunately continued. The Sharks picked off the Kings and the home team ran around and around and around. I wasn’t sure how much worse the game could have continued to get after the horrific showing in the first period, but continue it did. I will say they made an effort to get their legs moving after Wayne Simmonds knocked the one and only puck past Evgeni Nabokov. Sure the Kings added some pep but the slight uphill push of momentum was far too little against a dominant teal opponent.
Jonathan Quick looked slow and a bit off his game, but (let’s be honest here) the entire team was off on the beach somewhere working on their tans. And someone tell me this, why in the hell did Drew Doughty not take A SINGLE shot during the 4-on-3 at the beginning of the game?? I can’t understand it. You man the point for virtually an entire minute and you elect to pass every…. single….. time….
It hurts. So the Kings found themselves down three goals after the first, and, like a die-hard fan, I stuck with it. I quickly realized (around 5 minutes into the game) that the goals against were going to be inevitable, but did I think five goals were going to get past Quick? No, not really, but I also didn’t think the Kings were going to be running around the entire game doing almost nothing. Passes weren’t landing, possession was extremely minimal for any sustained amount of time, and the Sharks’ foot speed was also just a beat faster than any King out on the ice. I’m glad this is what I spent my Tuesday night doing, watch my team sit stagnant in 8th place.
The only players who captured a bit of my interest were Dustin Brown and Ryan Smyth. The rest of you, go sleep it off. Also, Rudy Kelly was completely, 100% right.