Ducks vs Kings RECAP: Penalties and Minimal Effort Apparently Not Enough
With 26 games in the books, the Anaheim Ducks continued their journey through the COVID-shortened season against the Los Angeles Kings. While their cross-town rivals were assumed to be bottom feeders, the Kings are still very much in the race for a playoff spot. However, in Anaheim, the Ducks enter tonight with the fourth-worst win percentage in the league and continue their “win-now” season. General Manager Bob Murray has recently addressed that he was wrong about how competitive the team would be and with the trade deadline looming, changes might be on the horizon.
The only changes to the lineup were Vinni Lettieri and Josh Mahura stepping in for the injured Troy Terry and Josh Manson. For the Kings, Cal Peterson ended up on the COVID protocol list earlier in the day, so their goalie tandem consisted of Troy Grosenick and Matthew Villalta.
FIRST PERIOD
A few minutes in to start the game, Max Comtois would get the first penalty of the game for hooking the hands of Dustin Brown. The Kings entered tonight with the 7th-best power play and the Ducks would soon see why. Less than a minute in, Drew Doughty sent a point shot toward the net but it was intercepted by Jani Hakanpaa and slapped toward the boards to clear the front. Unfortunately for Hakanpaa, it goes right to Adrian Kempe’s stick and he sends a one-timer right into the open net. Great hand-eye coordination by Kempe. The Kings take the early 1-0 lead.
The Ducks’ first high-danger chance came as Isac Lundestrom received a blind pass from Sam Steele from behind the net. Lundestrom got the shot off instantly, but it was right into the body of Grosenick. Great pass, great shot, but nothing to show for it.
On the same play, Kempe was sent to the box for slashing, sending the Ducks to the power play. Immediately off the face-off, Lettieri sent a one-timer off the post from the face-off dot. Soon after, Comtois rang another shot off the post. No goals for Anaheim on the power play. Drink.
Naturally, with all the momentum from the man-advantage, the Ducks took another penalty as Kevin Shattenkirk would be sent off for hooking against Andreas Athanasiou. Anaheim struggled to clear the puck throughout this penalty and didn’t seem to mind having Dustin Brown sitting in front of John Gibson, but luckily they came out of it unscathed with only one semi-high-danger chance against.
The special teams period continued as Blake Lizotte was sent off for slashing Max Jones, sending the Ducks to another power play. Trevor Zegras showed why he’s so good on the power play. He managed to freeze defenders and whipped a quick pass to Jakob Silfverberg for another shot from the middle right on the net. Good possession overall for this man-advantage, but with little to no movement, the Ducks weren’t able to capitalize.
The period ended with the Kings still up 1-0. The Ducks behind with 8 shots on goal to the Kings’ 13 shots. 8 shots on goal with two power plays just doesn’t cut it.
SECOND PERIOD
Less than a minute into the second frame, Anze Kopitar got sprung for a breakaway, but Gibson stood tall and made the sprawling save. Immediately off the face-off, the Kings got a shot point-blank but Gibson fought that off again. Gibson did his best to keep his team in this game up to this point.
Jacob Larsson took another penalty for the Ducks as he was sent off for tripping. The Ducks seemed fully content with playing a special teams game and not getting anything going at 5 on 5. On a poor change by the Ducks, Olli Maatta got in behind the defense and Cam Fowler had to take a penalty, giving the Kings even more time with the man-advantage. After nearly a flawless penalty kill, the defense got caught sleeping and Kopitar got a power-play goal on a seam pass from Drew Doughty. Kings increased their lead, 2-0.
Immediately after, Anaheim finally got on the board on a broken play. Nicolas Deslauriers received a pass for a 2 on 1 with Steele. Deslauriers took the shot and the rebound went right to Steele and off his body into the net. The Ducks cut the lead in half, 2-1.
Deslauriers would get another golden chance right in front of the Kings’ net and while he didn’t score, he was able to draw Anaheim’s third power play of the game as Lizotte was sent off for slashing. Zegras got tired of people not moving around on the power play so he started to move around. No goals to show for it, but even the kid knows what a big problem is. No scoring chances for this power play yet again.
With under three minutes to go, Max Jones lost possession of the puck at the defensive blue line, giving the Kings a great opportunity. Trevor Moore drove in and sent a blind pass back to the slot right to Kempe who got his second goal of the game and fifth over the last two games. The Kings added to their lead, 3-1.
Soon after, a terrible pass from Ben Hutton got intercepted by Athanasiou, and off he went. Athanasiou had Gibson beat 5-hole but the puck somehow went off the inside of the pad and just wide of the net. The Ducks caught a break and got out of the period with only a 2-goal deficit.
THIRD PERIOD
Early in the third period, a loose puck gets to the neutral zone and picked up by Athanasiou. As he sped down the wing, he passed to a charging Jeff Carter. Carter got a shot off but Gibson made a big save on the initial shot while Athanasiou roofed the rebound. The Kings came out flying and made the Ducks pay. 4-1 Kings.
The penalties continued as Steele was tripped up entering the offensive zone by Athanasiou. This would be the fourth power play for the Ducks and to this point, they still have not asked the referees if they could decline the man-advantage. As usual, Anaheim was not able to get anything going as most of their shots did not have any traffic in front. No goal for the Ducks yet again.
This game really started to open up. Off a turnover in the neutral zone, Anaheim gifted Kempe a chance to get another hat trick. Kempe charged in 2-on-0, went to the backhand, and was stifled by Gibson. Huge save by the Ducks’ goalie and kept his team in the game. By this time, I am sick of hearing Kempe’s name. Immediately after, Athanasiou was sent on a breakaway with a little pressure from behind but wasn’t able to get a dangerous shot off. Ducks hockey.
In a weird sequence of events, the Ducks gift the Kings another goal, courtesy of Hakanpaa. After a turnover at the blue line, Alex Iafallo sent a pass toward the slot from behind the net and Hakanpaa slaps the puck into his own goal behind Gibson. Great finish by Hakanpaa, but unfortunately in the wrong net. The Kings increased their lead to 5-1. With 5 minutes to go, the comeback is slowly becoming unlikely.
Kempe got another shot at the hat trick and that’s about all that happened the rest of the period. The Ducks dropped this one 5-1 to the Los Angeles Kings. They were outshot, out-chanced, and thoroughly outplayed. Sadly it could have been worse.
QUICK OBSERVATIONS
The exciting thing about this season’s schedule was the series-type layout, giving us an opportunity to see how teams change their approach and adjust strategies after the first game and going into the second. Head Coach Dallas Eakins hasn’t shown much in that department as the Kings continued to flood the neutral zone with a 1-3-1 strategy. We saw that a lot in the first game and I would have hoped that Eakins would adjust. But he did not. Does it matter? Not this season. Should it worry us? Maybe!
The ice time for Trevor Zegras continues to confuse people. Sometimes, he will play less than 10 minutes, other games, he’s easily in the 15+ minute range. For a game that had tons of penalties, he was able to get 16 minutes of ice time. That can’t be an excuse anymore.
What was once a top-10 penalty kill unit in the NHL has now taken a nose-dive. They were 15th in the league entering tonight’s game and after giving up two more goals tonight, that will continue to drop.
Troy Grosenick stepped in for his first start in over six years. He faced 33 shots and yet he was not challenged at all in this game. Yes, a couple of posts saved him to some extent, but the Ducks continue to make mediocre goalies look like all-stars. This was a missed opportunity to get a win and a 3-game win streak started.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“John Gibson looks just about ready to snap.” - Brian Hayword
UP NEXT
The Anaheim Ducks get back on the ice against the San Jose Sharks in Honda Center at 7:00 PM. We’ll see you then. Maybe.