Sometimes you lose because you don’t play well, and sometimes you run into a hot goaltender. The Kings had both scenarios tonight. Bad news.
Time to Rank the Players:
Going down 3-0 simply doesn’t work, and a mixture of defensive lapses and Canadiens pressure did the trick in the first 30 minutes. By the time Phillip Danault added the third for Montreal, LA had accrued a whopping eight shots on goal, and the game was already half over. They (predictably) got the better of the chances from that point, though they still needed Peter Budaj to make some saves to keep them in it.
Budaj was all right, but Price was otherworldly. Kopitar and Dowd had excellent chances to halve the deficit when it was 2-0; those were about the only chances Price didn’t sniff out effortlessly. By the time Price (while on his back!) stuck his glove in the air to deflect a sure Kopitar goal away, it was clear that even Montreal’s propensity for high-sticking penalties wouldn’t save the Kings. Toffoli’s PPG did at least prevent the shutout, but after an empty netter, LA was headed to Ottawa with their first loss in a week.
Recap comin’!