Kings Lose To Avalanche At Staples Center
By Jon Gillette
Coming off a gritty win against the Vancouver Canucks, the Pacific Division leading Los Angeles Kings (19-14-6) took on the Colorado Avalanche (21-18-1) on Monday night at Staples Center. After an obvious goal by Justin Williams in the first period was waived off, Dustin Brown opened the scoring in the second period with a nice backhander. Back to the goal that was waived off. Something’s got to change here. The stick of Justin Williams was not above the crossbar, the ref is at ice level and immediately waived it off – there’s the first thing that’s wrong with the nullification. The second thing that’s wrong – the goal (or non-goal) was reviewed by the “War Room” in Toronto. After about 3 nanoseconds, the ref was off the phone and the call on the ice was confirmed. Fox Sports West had a few angles that clearly showed that the goal should have counted. What views do they have access to in Toronto? Did they even look at this goal? When it’s the Kings, do they even bother? It seems these calls never go the way of the Kings…
Ryan O’Reilly scored for the Avalanche, with about 5 minutes to go in the third, after a poor clearing attempt by the Kings. The Williams non-goal looked even bigger at that point and, of course, the game went to overtime where the Kings found themselves with a 4 on 3 power play to finish off the game. The diagram that Jamie Kompon drew up worked perfectly… so we went to a shootout where Quick has been awesome. Jarret Stoll shot first for the Kings – and missed. Anze Kopitar shot second – and missed. Brown shot third – and missed. I’m no genius but, when you don’t score in the shootout, you don’t win. Final score, 2-1 Avalanche.
Coming into the game, the Kings were 4-0-2 under new coach Darryl Sutter. I’ll be honest, I was on the list of skeptics when Kings GM Dean Lombardi chose Sutter to replace Terry Murray but I have been since been proven wrong. Let’s hope this move keeps paying dividends.
Jonathan Quick, who was deservedly recently named the NHL’s number 3 star of the week, came into the game riding a 5-0-1 streak in the last 6 games and continued to play like a Vezina contender.
Slava Voynov was scratched after getting banged up in the physical Vancouver game.
Andrei Loktionov had an impressive game – positioning, passing, backchecking. His game is really coming together. I still think he could use a little time with the Manchester Monarchs. That’s just my opinion though, I could be wrong…
Earlier in the day, the New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers in this year’s Winter Classic. I gotta say, after all the hype and expectations set leading up to the game, this is one that continues to deliver. I love this tradition! I completely understand that it’s typically going to be an East Coast thing due to TV ratings. Unless they started the game at noon on the West Coast, there’s just no way it would draw an audience. Also, being in the east, there’s always the mystery of the elements.
What do you think? Would the Winter Classic work on the West Coast? If so, who would you choose to play? Discuss Below…