What else can I say about Jonathan Quick? I mean, dude’s a machine. He manages to make himself the main focus of every story I write. Quick got his 100th career-win yesterday against the Phoenix Coyotes, which just so happened to be a shutout (his second in a row). He is the fastest goaltender in Kings history to get to 100 wins. Way to go Quick!
The beginning of the first period was a little slow until Kevin Westgarth and Paul Bissonnette dropped the gloves. Despite my unwavering love for the Kings, I have to admit I was pleased with the amount of TV time that Bissonnette got. I mean, after all, he is probably my favorite 4th liner. Don’t pretend like you don’t follow his outrageous insights via twitter, he didn’t get to 150,000+ followers by being an exceptional hockey player…(but if for some no good reason you don’t, I suggest you do it NOW @BizNasty2point0). Ok, but enough about BizNasty because I could talk about that guy for days. After the fight, the Kings picked up the momentum and started to dominate the rest of the game.
With 16 seconds left in the first period, Coyotes’ Daymond Langkow goes to the box for hooking. On the power play, Anze Kopitar makes a nice pass to Mike Richards who puts it in the net just one second after the buzzer. Ugh, too late. That’s all right though because at the start of the 2nd period, the power play continues, and with assists from Kopitar and Richards, Dustin Brown slaps one past goalie Mike Smith (or if you’re Bob Miller, you’re calling him Mike Brown for half of the game). Dustin Brown has really stepped it up in the last couple of games. He has picked up some points and started to be more aggressive, which is an essential part of his game play.
One thing worth talking about is the importance of a good pass. I don’t mean to sound all hockey coach right now, because quite frankly, I couldn’t coach a hockey team for the life of me, but someone (and I can’t remember who) put it perfectly last night during the broadcast. “There is a reason why an assist is the same amount of points as a goal,” he said. Since the start of this season, I have seen some incredible goals from the Kings, but most notably, I have seen some insane passes that left me thinking, “Are you @#$%ing kidding me? How did you just make that work?” Needless to say, most of those passes lead to goals, thus highlighting why it is so important to have those magic hands like Kopitar, Williams, Richards, or in last night’s case, WESTGARTH…yeah I said it, Kevin Westgarth. Bet you didn’t think Westy would get on the board after only playing three games, but he made it happen! What patience on that cross-ice pass to Kyle Clifford, who just came flying through center to slap it home. What a beauty. I’m pretty sure no one was more excited than the 4th liners themselves…there was some serious celebrating going on there. See for yourself.
Kyle Clifford Goal vs. Coyotes 10/20/11
The power play looked good as the Kings were 1/3, but considering Richards’ discounted goal one second too late, I’m extra pleased with the looks of it. Defensively, the team is still solid and killed three penalties. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is our team without Doughty. His replacement Slava Voynov has been really good, but you just can’t really compare the two. God, I love this team. Have I made that clear yet?
The Kings will be home at Staples Center tomorrow Saturday, October 22nd to play the Dallas Stars, who have had a surprisingly great start to the year at 5-1-0. Tune in to Fox Sports West at 7:30pm to watch it all unfold.