Welcome back and Happy Holidays readers! After a mandatory two-day Christmas break in the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings broke their 14-game streak of getting two goals in a game. The final score for the game was a King’s 4-3 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Phoenix Coyotes had a short trip over to Los Angeles at about 358 miles, just a quick 43 minute flight. The home ice proved to be beneficial for the Kings as they now lead with a 5-0-1 record against Phoenix for the season.
Jonathan Quick got the start in goal for the Los Angeles Kings, while goalie and former King Jason LaBarbera got the start for Phoenix. However, LaBarbera didn’t stay in goal the entire game. After the Kings got their third goal scored by defensemen Willie Mitchell, (a goal that visibly upset LaBarbera), he was replaced with Phoenix goalie Curtis McElhinney.
McElhinney however did not keep the goals from coming as was seen in the third period when Kings received their fourth and final game winning goal from Captain Dustin Brown. Not only was this goal the game winner for the Kings, but it was Brown’s 150th goal of his NHL career. This is quite an impressive milestone to reach and especially exciting on a game winning night. Assistant Captain Anze Kopitar was the #1 star of the game with two assists.
My family and I went down to watch the LA Kings game at Redondo Beach Cafe, which offers Greek specialties, Canadian items, comfort foods and healthy choices. This cafe has a “homey” feeling and has quite the array of sports memorabilia including a lot of Kings signed jerseys and pictures, Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup champions’ banner along with autographed jerseys and pictures. They have jerseys ranging from Veterans such as Rogie Vachon and Daryl Evans to the young superstar Alexander Ovechkin.
Menu items also focus on hockey legends. They have Foxy’s Chicken Noodle Soup with a subtitle “Fit for a King”, named for Jim Fox. Lucky Luc’s Original is a 1/4 lb all beef hot dog with onions, relish, and mustard on a toasted bun named after NHL great Luc Robitaille. Daryl’s Miracle Smoothies are made with whey protein powder and banana, named after Kings legend Daryl Evans and the Five Goal Turnbull is a delicious dessert consisting of a warm brownie topped with two scoops of ice cream, whip cream, hot fudge, and Oreo crumbs named after Ian Turnbull.
Canadian favorites include three different types of Poutine, Montreal smoked meat, and Canadian beer.
It’s always a great place to watch the Kings play and if you’re interested in any other hockey team or sports team going playing, the owners will change one of the t.v. screens to accommodate your needs. They had three different games going on when we first arrived. Dallas Stars were taking on the St. Louis Blues, Team USA was beating Denmark in the IIHF World Junior Championships, and the Chicago Blackhawks were playing the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It was the last home game for the Kings before going to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on Wednesday and then off to Winnipeg to play the Jets on Thursday. The Kings’ dads were at the game in L.A. and will be traveling with the team to Chicago tomorrow.
Here is more to the re-cap of the Los Angeles Kings game against the Phoenix Coyotes on Monday, December 26, 2011.
At 4.09 into the first period, the Kings scored thanks to #7 Rob Scuderi with the assist from #8 Drew Doughty. About a minute or two later, Phoenix came back to tie it with a goal from #37 Raffi Torres, who had his fifth goal of the season, unassisted. L.A. Kings’ coach Sutter looked
on from behind the bench a bit worried and biting his nails. Kings got a pretty lame penalty a bit later, but luckily they ended up killing it. At 15:48, Kings Center Brad Richardson scored with assists from #26 Slava Voynov and #11 Anze Kopitar. At a time when it’s hard for the kings to score two goals in the game, they had two goals in by the end of the first period.
Coyote Left Winger Raffi Torres got his second goal of the game to once again tie it up at about 13 minutes in to the 2nd period. The second Period ended with Raffi in the box, (the only Phoenix scorer for the night) and the Kings on a Power Play.Los Angeles started off third period with a power play. They didn’t capitalize on this opportunity but about a minute later Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell put the Kings ahead of the Coyotes 3 to 2. Los Angeles Captain Dustin Brown scored and puts Kings up 4-2 at 7:06 with an assist from Jack Johnson. Phoenix goalie Labarbera left the game after that goal. Coyotes’ Daymond Langkow scored less than a minute later to make it a one goal game. Kings got
aggressive when defenseman Jack Johnson had a shot off the post and then a few seconds later Richardson hit one off the post too. The last minute of play, the coyotes pulled their goalie to try to tie it up, but were unsuccessful in this attempt. The Kings won in regulation which is something that hasn’t been happening too often lately, even with all the shots that hit the goal posts.
So Happy Holidays Kings Fans! Now let’s celebrate these two points and look forward to when the Kings take on the Blackhawks at 5:30 PM on Wednesday night in Chicago.