Saturday afternoon the Los Angeles Kings 2014-2015 season came to an end. The Kings went out in style with a 4-1 victory over Pacific Division and California rivals, the San Jose Sharks.
It was a great farewell game to end the season at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
San Jose opened the scoring early with a Brent Burns goal on the power-play from “Little Joe and Big Joe”, Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton.
At the time of the goal Kings defensemen Robyn Regehr was in the box for interfering with Logan Couture.
Halfway through the second period Tyler Toffoli scored his 23rd goal of the season from Jarret Stoll and Andy Andreoff. That gave Andreoff his 1st assist and 2nd point in 18 games on the season.
Toffoli crashed the net hard and swatted a backhand rebound past Sharks goaltender Alex Stalock.
After 40-minutes the game was tied 1-1.
The Kings took over the third period giving the fans at Staples Center a show to go home happy and end the season on an upswing.
Los Angeles Kings
Six-minutes into the third, with 1-second remaining on an L.A. power-play, Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty worked the puck over to Brayden McNabb. McNabb slapped a one-time shot from the top of the right circle over Stalock’s shoulder.
It was McNabb’s second goal of the season, while Doughty picked up his 39th assist of the season and Carter recorded his 34th.
3:24 later the Kings second-leading goal scorer Marian Gaborik picked up a drop-pass from Jake Muzzin, side-stepped a Shark defender and made a nasty deke to put the puck into the back of the net. It was Gaborik’s 27th goal of the season, and his 47th point in 69 games.
It’s good to know Gabby is locked up for the next few seasons.
Andreoff threw the puck into the Sharks empty goal, off a 2-on-1, with 44-seconds left in the game. The goal gives Andreoff 2 goals and 3 points on the season. Tyler Toffoli picked up the assist, setting Andreoff up on the 2-on-1.
Toffoli finished as the Kings 3rd leading point and goal-scorer on the season. Not bad for an invested cap-hit of $685,000.
The bad new? Toffoli’s contract is up.
Toffoli will be a restricted free-agent, but he’s going to cost the Kings a good chunk of change, and rightfully so. Toffoli has put in the work, he’s improved his game, and he is one of the players that will make up the future core of the Kings team.
Jonathan Quick finishes the season starting in 71 games and playing in 72. That’s the second most in his seven-year career.
Apr 11, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick (32) makes a save in the third period of the game against the San Jose Sharks at Staples Center. Kings won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Quick finishes with a 2.24 goals against average and a .918 save percentage. The numbers come on the heels of a large workload.
Quick faced the 6th most shots against this season, looking at 1896 pieces of rubber. Quick also finished 5th overall in the NHL with 1740 saves.
That’s a heavy workload for a young goaltender that played in a total of 75 games last year, including 26 playoff games that led to the Kings second Stanley Cup.
There are some tough decisions facing Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi and the team management.
This afternoon may serve as a farewell to a number of players who have served the L.A. Kings. We may have just seen the last game in a Kings jersey for: Robyn Regehr, Jarret Stoll, Matt Greene, and Justin Williams.
It’s painful to admit that a solid core of two-time champions may not be back next year.
Only time will tell.
For now, all we can say is:
Thank you L.A. Kings for your effort this season. Thank you for another great season of enjoyable hockey and entertainment. We’ll take our two Stanley Cups in four years and be happy.
#GoKingsGo!
Next: Kings Cap-Cash Is In The Offense, They Need To Earn It
Apr 11, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Kings center Tyler Toffoli (73) scores past San Jose Sharks goalie Alex Stalock (32) and defenseman Brent Burns (88) in the second period of the game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports