The L.A. Kings and the N.Y. Islanders met this afternoon in Long Island for their one and only matchup of the season, where they suffered a 2-1 loss in overtime. There is only one stop left for the Kings on this six-game road trip and up to this point they have only managed to record 3 out of a possible 10 points. After losing to the Blues, Hurricanes, and Panthers, the Kings decided to make a big change prior to today’s game and brought in Dwight King and Jordan Nolan from the Manchester Monarchs. For the time being, Jarret Stoll is out with an injury and Dustin Penner was scratched in order to make room for these guys on the Mike Richards line. While no points were recorded by this line, they spent a ton of time in the offensive zone and had several chances that just barely missed the net. The Kings desperately need a winger that can help out Richards and I couldn’t have been more impressed with the both of them. Most specifically, Jordan Nolan, who played in his first ever NHL game, blew me away. He battled hard for every puck and was mere inches away from scoring on at least three separate occasions. This guy is awesome! I hope he sticks around for a bit and can chip in a few goals here and there.
Unfortunately, the answer to this “scoring problem” that I am so damn sick of talking about has yet to be found. The Kings started off really strong in the first, then tailed off and gave up a goal (scored by Michael Grabner), but then regained momentum in the last 5 minutes or so of the period. This carried over into the second, as Andrei Loktionov tied it up with his first goal of the season (finally) from Dustin Brown and Rob Scuderi. We also saw a new look on the PP with Richards back on the blueline and even Dwight King getting some ice time. One of the things I appreciate most about Darryl Sutter is that he is not afraid to make big changes when things aren’t going right. Even in the last game against the Panthers, his decision to pull Jonathan Quick after giving up two goals seemed a bit strange, especially since the goals weren’t necessarily his fault. However, I think it makes sense to switch it up when things aren’t going the way you want, even though this strategy hasn’t yielded any notable results yet.
No goals were scored in the third, thus leading to a very short and anti-climactic overtime where the Islanders’ Mark Streit backhanded the puck into the net and led his team to victory. I honestly feel bad for Jonathan Quick. He’s really the only reason the Kings got a point today, in fact, he’s really the only reason that the Kings still have a shot at the playoffs. However, the sad reality is that he can’t carry this team on his own. GOALS NEED TO BE SCORED or else there’s no way the Kings would make it out of the first round, let alone make the playoffs to begin with. There are only 11 home games left in the regular season, meaning that the Kings still have a significant amount of time to spend on the road. They need to figure out a way to get some points or else their season will be over come April 7th…and I don’t know the hell I’m going to handle that. So for now, I’ll stay positive and hope they can come out with a win against Dallas tomorrow and turn things around.
Game time is 3pm PST and then they will be home to face off against the Coyotes on Thursday.