Kings at Rangers: Must Love Scrivens

The LA Kings have officially scored two goals against Henrik Lundqvist this season! The first time, it was a disaster for the team, but last night one was enough. Why?

BEN SCRIVENS IS WHY.

In his three starts since filling in for injured Jonathan Quick, Scrivens has been phenomenal. His goaltending style stresses me out as someone who’s used to watching Quick and hollering “stay in net!!!” constantly. Scrivens loves to come out of the net and play at the top of his crease, but it works for him. He made 37 saves on the way to his second shutout in a row and his third of the season, making him a league leader in three categories.

The Kings didn’t make the shutout versus the Rangers an easy one either. In the first period, the Kings were outshot 11 to 6, testing Scrivens’ game early. In the second period, Tyler Toffoli gave everybody a little reprieve by scoring a goal that deflected past Lundqvist off a Rangers defender.

Yo, Tyler Toffoli now has 8 points in 7 games. He’s tenth in rookie goal scoring, ahead of both Seth Jones and Nathan MacKinnon. It’s a damn shame he didn’t make the roster out of training camp this year, because he’s slaying everybody while on Mike Richards’ line, maintaining the second line right wing position’s reputation as the winner spot while Jeff Carter’s out. Is there anything Toffoli can’t do?

 
To congratulate Toffoli and show Scrivens their appreciation, the Kings then took three consecutive penalties in that same middle period. They were all dumb. Willie Mitchell was called for interference, the bench was called for having too many men on the ice, and then the refs completed the penalty natural hat trick by letting a Ranger knock the puck over the glass and sending Trevor Lewis to the box for it. Party foul.

The overlap in the penalties created two separate 5-on-3 kill situations for the Kings, but the team weathered the storm, and Scrivens went super saiyan to keep the score 1-0.

Since Scrivens wasn’t doing the Rangers a solid by dropping his stick and scoring on himself, they had to come up with a different scoring strategy. They decided that if you can’t beat him, cheat! Dominic Moore couldn’t get a stick on the puck to bang it past Scrivens, so he kicked it into the goal and threw his hands in the air to make everyone think he’d tied the game with less than three minutes left in regulation.

Soccer.

Luckily Doughty and Lewis were in prime positions to catch this tomfoolery and tattled to the refs immediately. Rangers players and fans were rejoicing loudly, but Doughty let them know right away that they weren’t getting away with it.

That finger wag is my life now. That finger wag haunted the Rangers through to the end of the game, securing Scrivens and the Kings another shutout in the New York area and ending their roadtrip with 7 of 8 possible points.

Three straight wins must have helped the Kings move up in the Pacific Division standings.

Well, at least the Rangers now have a 10-10-0 record and are probably struggling in their own division.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Let’s start a petition to include LA in the Metropolitan division, please.