Kings at Blackhawks: This Time, It’s a Shutout.

Well, this game was both better than and exactly what I expected it to be.

The Blackhawks speed was definitely a problem for the Kings the last time they met, so this time around, the Kings tried to account for that by just mashing the Hawks against the boards. Within the first 4 minutes of the game, the Kings had tallied 8 hits, and that physicality persisted throughout.

#LAKings hitting everything in sight … except the back of the net.

— Elliott Teaford (@ElliottTeaford) December 31, 2013

So sad and so true.

As great as being physical is, scoring goals is kind of important for winning games. Brandon Saad takes this to heart, and off of a pass from Bryan Bickell, gets one past Martin Jones. With the “Kings don’t let people score in the first period” thing all well and done, I braced myself for an onslaught, but in contrast to their last meeting, the Kings were much much better defensively and allowed nothing else in the first.

Yeah, get out of our zone Hawks.

The start of the second period saw the Kings down one, but their first period play was nothing to sneeze at. “At least the Kings aren’t down 3!” – every Kings fan full of forced optimism after the first. But the Kings aren’t the Kings without taking a bunch of minor penalties, so after a penaltiless first period, they make up for lost time by getting 2 overlapping minors early in the 2nd. Coooooool.

The PK showed up in full force and were able to kill that dumbness, so that’s one fire put out. Near the end of the period, Dustin Brown gets hooked by Brent Seabrook during a scoring opportunity and is thusly awarded a penalty shot. Luckily, penalty shots happen so swiftly that I didn’t even have time to really drum up hope that he would make it.

Though I hate that I was right.

“They’re only down 1! They can totally come back! SHUT OUT SHUT OUT SHUT OUT.” – me, frantically, before the third period puck drop. Spoiler alert: this didn’t work. The Kings were outshot in the third and weren’t to capitalize on a damn thing.

Martin Jones got the full Los Angeles Kings goalie experience in that he made a couple of fantastic saves in the third period to keep the team in the game, give them a chance to score, but to no avail.

Will no one score a goal for Martin Jones?

He’s working so hard for y’all!

Jake Muzzin, of all people, had some fantastic shifts for the Kings in the end. Fast and physical, he completely demolishes Jonathan Toews, and then just mosies on to take a shot on Raanta.

Who do you think you are, Drew Doughty?

We give Muzzin a lot of grief around here, but this version of him is great. Keep it up Muzzin! A loss is still a loss though, and with this shutout, Raanta’s first, the Kings are on their longest losing streak at 3. Really not a great start to this road trip to say the least, but the Kings have one more game to try to eek out a win so that the year doesn’t end on a loser note.