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Kings @ Oilers – Perimeter Possession

After a couple of bad shifts but controlling most of the run of play against Calgary, the Los Angeles Kings followed that game up by completely taking the night off.

[Box Score]

It took nearly 50 minutes for the Kings to actually start playing but that’s when it finally happened. Their first real Grade A chance came from Dwight King with 11:09 left in the game. Not the first period, but the game. But let me back up.

From puck drop, the Edmonton Oilers were all over the Kings like white on rice. The Kings took an early penalty and had just finished killing it off when Matt Hendricks one-timed a feed past Jonathan Quick, who was playing the second night in a row because, Sutter.

1-0 Edmonton.

Two power plays, even a brief 30 second 5-on-3 went nowhere in the first period. Dustin Brown is still doing work and he drew a penalty, but he’s still in a severe scoring drought.

LA finished the period with 21 shot attempts for and allowed only 16 attempts against.

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In the middle of the second period, the Oilers fucked up a 3-on-1 but got it back 20 seconds later and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored anyway. Tyler Toffoli attempted to show leadership skills and stuff to (probably) get more ice time, but ended up taking a penalty for slashing while simultaneously drawing one against Nail Yakupov. LA had barely threatened anything offensively through 40 minutes, though they had a bunch of the shot attempts (21 to Edmonton’s 19) and the Oilers were deservedly in the lead.

The first half of the third period looked much of the same as the second period. Then all of a sudden, Dwight King had the Kings’ best Grade A chance of the night. With 11:09 remaining IN THE GAME. About a minute later, Drew Doughty’s shot apparently went in under the cross bar, hit the camera and went out, which I guess only the war room in Toronto noticed. That broke the ice and allowed the Kings to continue to play in Edmonton’s zone for almost the rest of the entire night.

Anze Kopitar decided to cap off his bad night by taking a penalty with just over 5 minutes to go, but thankfully it didn’t hurt the Kings and Toffoli even drew a penalty while he was killing Kopitar’s penalty. On the ensuing power play, Jake Muzzin decided to one-up his defense partner and after missing a wide open net, Muzzin buried a sharp angle shot with 2:25 left in the game.

The Kings almost gave up a last minute goal but Quick kept them in it.

In overtime, Edmonton had 8 shot attempts to LA’s 2 but they didn’t really threaten until the last minute and a half or so but again, Quick shut the door.

Since OT solved nothing, it was on to the shootout.

Round 1: Jeff Carter – stopped; Derek Roy missed
Round 2: Kopitar – missed; Jordan Eberle – stopped
Round 3: Toffoli – post (BAD POST!); Hendricks – missed
Round 4: Williams – missed; Perron – backhand, in

Most of LA’s possession was on the outside. They looked tired and disinterested through the first 40 minutes and if Sutter said anything to inspire them, well it sure didn’t feel like it. The Kings picked up the point they had earned in Calgary while playing pretty terribly through most of tonight’s game.

They would do well to remember that they’re the defending Stanley Cup Champions when go to Vancouver, who has been red hot of late. Ryan Miller stoned the San Jose Sharks, allowing only one goal on 32 shots. Let’s see if the Kings boost their road record on Thursday.

Talking Points