It was 1-0. Through 40 minutes, it was a tightly contested chess match of a game as would be expected between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. My prayers for Martin Jones to have the worst night of his career went unanswered as he was simply sensational when called upon and oh boy was he ever called upon in a big way while the Sharks were down a man.
At 5v5, he probably could’ve taken a nap or two most of the game. I ended up missing half the game but based on what I saw, it was Not. Good. from LA. Granted, the Sharks are owed a lot of bounces this season. They’ve had some horribly rotten luck at 5v5 and oh, hey, there’s Lady Luck there and she’s on San Jose’s side last night, that’s weird. Here are some charts. Discuss.
The Kings couldn’t sit on their early lead and were ultimately outmatched by their second most hated rival. The second goal, by the way, was the result of a bad line change and a purposely angled skate blade.
There was quite a bit of bad luck for the Kings who simply couldn’t beat Martin Jones (whose save percentage, by the way, is going to come way down. There’s no way he sustains a .933 sv% but naturally he had a great game at Staples Center because his team needed him to come up with a monster game because they are having such a hard time scoring goals).
Jones save on Toffoli + Kings 4v4 chances: https://t.co/f7BMt18lGR#LAKings #GoKingsGo #SJSharks #SJSvsLAK pic.twitter.com/CJXW8fWXjd
— Eric (@Kingsgifs) November 13, 2017
But it’s not all bad news.
Fox Sports West showed this graphic after Dustin Brown had scored on the power play early in the first period before the Sharks shut them down. What a difference a year makes.