This game may have been played on Oct. 30 on the calendar, but it certainly looked like a game out of midseason for the Los Angeles Kings who came out flat to start the game and were chasing nearly from puck drop.
he Kings have not scored in 120 minutes of game time. Based on their history, that’s not a record but it’s certainly not a crowning achievement. To add a cherry on top of the craptastic sundae that has been their weekend, Andy Andreoff left the game with an upper body injury. Now, it’s early and there’s still plenty of time in the season and the Kings have a few prospects they can call up if need be. However, one can’t help but think back to the 2014-2015 season when they missed out on the playoffs by two points. Two measly, stinkin’ points.
Dustin Brown took an early penalty in the first period for holding and Jonathan Toews decided now was as good a time as ever to get the monkey off his back for his first goal of the season. Derek Forbort immediately followed that up with a double minor for high sticking, though fortunately he did not have to make the skate of shame.
Artem Anisimov put the final nail in the coffin of this game mid-way through the second period when a horrendous shift left him all alone by the net for an easy goal. If you thought the shift leading to Jaden Schwartz‘s goal last night was bad, this was worse. It was a comedy of errors where literally everything went wrong.
The Kings took another penalty or two and managed to kill those off. They finally got a power play of their own and the Blackhawks‘ suddenly improved penalty kill sprang to life. You’re welcome, Chicago. The shot attempts weren’t even kind to the Kings, where they normally rule.
CHI 22-18 ES Corsi, 9-3 Scoring chances, 2-1 High-danger in 2nd. CHI 37-28 Corsi, 14-7 chances, 4-3 high-danger for gm
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 31, 2016
On to the third period.
Things did not get any better. In fact, Devin Setoguchi, who has been struggling the last few games, took a holding penalty early on. A short time later on their own power play (where the only threat was a Drew Doughty shot that clanked off the crossbar), Nic Dowd took a holding penalty. It was an incredibly dumb, weak, somewhat borderline penalty that didn’t actually prevent the guy he held from interacting with the play at hand, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
Darryl Sutter pulled the goalie with about a minute to go and Marian Hossa scored in the empty net.
We’ll have updates on the mounting injuries as they become available.
Puck caroms off referee to Hossa, who scores into empty net. Hossa points to the ref for the deflection. 3-0.
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) October 31, 2016
The LA Kings offense tonight pic.twitter.com/IYCUIoPZ76
— Lauren Belfoy (@Lauren_Belfoy) October 31, 2016