Your highly esteemed recapper watched this game feeling not so hot so this recap, unlike the second period, will be short and sweet.
In brief, here’s what happened:
Period 1
It was pretty back and forth until Anze Kopitar took a slashing penalty in the offensive zone and the penalty kill went to work, resulting in a Jakob Chychrun goal.
Period 2
The second period was much more “careful” and a bit more boring at first. Then, things got a little feisty.
The two teams showed their displeasure of each other! Shocker! Austin Wagner picked up a four-minute minor for roughing Nick Cousins at the 14-minute mark. Fortunately, the penalty kill managed to do its job, though not without a few harry moments.
Period 3
At first it was like
because Dustin Brown scored 17 seconds into the period. Then it was like
Then, inside the final five minutes, it was like
because the game was thisclose to being tied but thankfully Derek Forbort managed to swipe the puck out of the blue paint and thus, out of harm’s way before any foul could be done.
Analysis
The Los Angeles Kings went into the break winners of three and came out looking to make it four in a row. Spoiler alert: victory achieved! It was a close and feisty game, but the ever-hot Dustin Brown got the upper hand on Darcy Kuemper (who was irritatingly great, of course) for the Kings’ only goal that they scored. But they won, you may say. The tying goal, credited to Fuzzy Muzzy Jake Muzzin was actually scored by Niklas Hjalmarsson on accident. Muzzin’s shot was going wide but Cousins made the very curious decision to try and deflect the puck (???), which hit Hjalmarsson somewhere in the face and went into the net.
Quite a cheeky goal there, Jake 😉@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/5SLSI29jmJ
— FOX Sports West (@FoxSportsWest) December 28, 2018
Neither team really showed any rust from the brief holiday break but both teams played rather aggressively, trying to be the one to jump out to an early lead. Thanks to special teams, the Coyotes grabbed the first lead but Jonathan Quick held his ground. Mostly. There was a moment in the second period when Arizona had a goal wiped off the board because Cousins kind of gently bumped into Quick, who was apparently not able to get back into position in time. I don’t know, but if he’d stop wandering around in the middle of a game, that’d be so amazing.
And then Brown got the team’s game winner.
Well that didn’t take long!!@DustinBrown23, you dog 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/EcWwkyRYcq
— FOX Sports West (@FoxSportsWest) December 28, 2018
Though they’re still in last place, they’re only one point back of the Coyotes and there are 11 teams within four points of the 31st spot. There’s still a chance; there’s still hope yet, friends!