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Kings winning streak comes to a swift, abrupt end in shutout loss

Posted on by Dominic Rongavilla

Some Tidbits Going into the Game

  • Jeff Carter will officially have spent the majority of his career in a Los Angeles Kings uniform after his first shift:/

  • The Kings came in with a chance to make it four in a row against an Arizona Coyotes team that had won three of their last four.
  • The Arizona Coyotes were looking to reverse the Kings attempt to reverse the Taylor Swift banner curse:/

  • Division rivalry games always have a boost in excitement, but backups are in goal.  Enter Jack Campbell for Los Angeles, and Antti Raanta for Arizona.  Kings won’t be facing former teammate, Darcy Kuemper, so they likely won’t be going to Suplex City:/

Then They Dropped the Puck

The Arizona Coyotes started out on a blistering pace.  The speed of the desert dogs gave the Kings problems.  Arizona’s speed generated the majority of the scoring chances in the first period.  They ended the period outshooting the Kings 13-6.  The speed led to the Coyotes taking an early 1-0 lead when Arizona’s Conor Garland buried the puck into the net off a no-look feed from Christian Dvorak:

As the first period went on, the Kings appeared to get their skates under them, generating some pushback, mostly by the third and fourth lines (Adrian Kempe-Blake Lizotte-Austin Wagner and Kyle Clifford-Nikolia Prokhorkin-Matt Luff).

During their 3-game winning streak over the Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings and Vegas Golden Knights, the Los Angeles Kings had not given up a power play goal.  On the other hand, the Coyotes had been slumping on their power play.  Unfortunately for the Kings, Arizona cashed in on two of their first three man advantages.

The Coyotes scored their first power play goal later in the first period, credited to Derek Stepan, from Christian Dvorak and Phil Kessel:

Arizona scored their second power play goal midway through the second period, as Garland found Jakob Chychrun in space:

Those power play goals gave the Coyotes a 3-0 lead.  Per LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen:

When the third period finally came around, Los Angeles made a push to make the game closer.  When the game finally ended, the Kings had ultimately outshot Arizona 30 to 27.  With Coyotes backup goalie Antti Raanta earning the shutout, and the team in front of him blocking 25 shot attempts by the LA Kings, Arizona demonstrated why they came into the game allowing the second fewest goals in the NHL.

Talking Points