Kings at Jets: Can’t Knock the Hustle

Not only have the Kings won six consecutive games, but they picked up their sixth win in one of their strongest performances of the season.

The game against the Winnipeg Jets started fast, with momentum at both ends of the ice. No one scored for either team during the first period, but there were a number of positives from the Kings, including newcomer Marian Gaborik getting a shot on goal in his first shift and the Kings generating quality chances on their first power play of the game.

In the second, the Kings got another power play opportunity when Evander Kane got a little carried away retaliating to a check from Drew Doughty. Though they didn’t score, they had another promising effort, generating a few close scoring chances. They followed that up with a solid penalty kill a few minutes later.

It started to look like the Kings might’ve gotten themselves into one of their infamous bad luck head-to-heads just over halfway into the period. They were outshooting and outworking the Jets, but a lazy defensive play from Drew Doughty allowed Olli Jokinen to receive a quick pass from Evander Kane and beat Jonathan Quick.

Then, 48 seconds later, the Kings actually experienced being the team to get a quick one back for a change. Captain Dustin Brown got a stick on Jarret Stoll’s cross-ice pass and trickled the puck through goaltender Ondrej Pavalec’s pads.

 
Just the tip, buddy.

Nice try on sweeping the puck out of there, Keaton Ellerby, but that’s a good goal.

(Man, remember Keaton Ellerby? Yeah, he’s still in Winnipeg!)

Things kept rolling in the Kings’ favor when Mike Richards picked off a pass and executed one of his hard slap shots. The puck rifled past Pavalec to put the Kings up 2-1.

 
Richards later told LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen that his goal was essentially blind luck:

I don’t know, we were passing the whole time and it didn’t seem to work. So I decided to close my eyes and rip it.

It figures that Richards’ shots would start paying off when he decided to quit trying so hard and just see (or, uh, not see) what happened. Close your eyes… more? What? What’s going on? Whatever, it’s good.

Instead of succumbing to score effects, the Kings played even better during the third. They’re known for winning or losing one-goal games. This time they didn’t just aim to protect the puck and limit the opposition’s chances, the actively pushed to widen the lead.

Hard work paid off during their fourth power play. Defenseman Alec Maritnez tried a cute little spin move to maintain possession and keep the puck in the offensive zone, walked in, and scored on a clean shot. It pinged off the post and into the net. 3-1.

 
Despite the Jets trying to come on late to regain some ground, the Kings held them off and won, outshooting Winnipeg 20 to five in the final frame. They outshot the Jets 42-18 overall.

The weirdest fact is that Slava Voynov and Robyn Regehr led the Kings in possession.

Corsi for at 89 percent? Robyn Regehr! Really!

Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick grabbed his 20th win of the season and has now won versus all 29 other teams in the NHL during his career. He’s also three wins away from becoming the Kings goaltender with the most wins in franchise history.

If the Kings continue playing as well as they did in this game, they could stay hot through their next games against Edmonton and Calgary. What a way to come back from a nasty slump.