Kings at Avalanche: Make It Rain

Yes, it’s true! Everyone in Southern California is excited about the rain. Last night saw this southwestern desert get a reprieve from drought and the LA Kings goal woes. Six goals in a game. I nearly ran outside to give my best Gene Kelly.

The Avalanche were an interesting team to face right after returning. They’re not the toughest competition, but they’ve been a little trickier for the Kings this season. The first game between these two teams went 0-0 until an unfortunate deflection off a Kings player gave the Avalanche the winning goal. The second game between these teams was also pretty evenly matched, eventually decided in a shootout.

This time, Robyn Regehr got it going.

He loved scoring the game-winner before the Olympic break so much that he decided to grab another goal. His wrist shot from the point made it 1-0, and I assume everybody at home fell over laughing just like me at this Robyn Regehr hot stick era we’re existing in right now.

 
Please note the child in Kings gear who comes up to give Regehr some shoulder — that’s Jonathan Quick?!?!

A little kid is proud of his gramps.

The real champion of this play, of course, is Anze Kopitar. He did some great work down low to generate an opportunity not long before that. Justin Williams and Tyler Toffoli give him support, Kopitar muscles his way back around, gets the puck, and then passes to a wide open, silent but apparently deadly Regehr.

Regehr returned to form after that. He let someone steal the puck from him and then cross-checked Nathan MacKinnon in the crease to take a penalty for no reason. The Kings then got sloppy, allowing two goals on defensive breakdowns before the end of the first. One of them was partially thanks to recent gold medalist Drew Doughty. Way to be a powerhouse for Canada and crap yourself for the Kings, Doughty! Jeez. It was a somewhat uncharacteristic but egregious mistake.

 
In the second period, Dustin Brown had an early breakaway opportunity. He didn’t score but was eventually able to recover the puck and pass it right to Jarret Stoll, who did. Tied 2-2.

 
Then, more defensive foolery and more goals against. Regehr was involved. Willie Mitchell was involved. 4-2.

Luckily that master center Kopitar kept hustling. More hard work behind the net paid off when he popped a quick backhand past goaltender J.S. Giguere.

 
Even more miraculous than that, Mike Richards managed to play the puck without falling down or turning it over, took a shot toward the net, and Jeff Carter tipped it right on in. Tied! Again!

 
Can you believe it? Four Kings goals. Christmas came super late! Like, it’s almost March.

Kopitar got it done one more time in the third period. Instead of wasting another power play, Toffoli, Carter, and Kopitar came together and made one count, giving the Kings the lead again for the first time since the first period.

They’re still the Kings, however. They couldn’t just dominate all the way through final buzzer. Martin Jones, despite allowing four goals, had to come up really big a few times to prevent another tying goal from the Avalanche.

Beautiful, Jones! Just beautiful.

The team managed to hang on until the end, and Williams secured the win with an empty-netter.

 
Doughty’s long saucer pass to Williams behind the play was pretty nifty. I guess he can stick around.

It wasn’t all fun and scoring chances. Even without counting the bogus slashing call against Jeff Carter, the Kings still took four penalties. Including the penalty to Carter, the penalty kill was essentially dead on arrival. The Kings capitalized quite a bit at even strength, but their special teams didn’t seem to benefit from any time off in February.

The result is an offensive onslaught that somehow still felt like watching the Kings fight their way to a win. As usual, this team doesn’t let anything happen easily.

In the end, the real winners are the powers that be at NBC Sports Network. They aired a game between two teams who aren’t rivals and who’ve delivered low-scoring matchups in their two previous meetings for the “Wednesday Night Rivalry” and got a 10-goal game out of it.

Who would’ve thought?