Blues at Kings: A Not So Foreign Affair

A low (non) scoring game between the Kings and the Blues? You don’t say.

The Kings were outshot something like 104 – 12, but despite that jarring disparity, it never felt quite that bad. It never felt quite that great, either. They didn’t seem egregiously outplayed until spurts of the third period when they got pretty hemmed in their zone, and even then, it was never a cause for panic. It was just one of those games for Jonathan Quick and his glove hand. It wasn’t going in.

As is often the case in a zero-zero game, there were not a surplus of events of note. But there were a few:

1) Jarret Stoll penalty alert, 22 seconds into the game. All is right in the world.

2) Steve Ott was ornery. He also doesn’t like you looking at him like that.

3) Jonathan Quick one-leg wrestled Blues player Alex Steen to the ice, because honestly, it’s been too long. Opposing goaltender Brian Elliot even came out to the red line like he wanted to fight, which was adorable.

 
4) It turns out Drew Doughty would also be good at volleyball. And probably everything.

DREW DOUGHTY WITH THE HEAVE! pic.twitter.com/N6cLl1LH5g

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) October 17, 2014

5) Also, this:

From this angle, it just looks like Williams and Kopitar are framing the brilliance.

Basically, it was a Blues-Kings game. No goals, lots’o scrums, Kings win. Rinse and repeat.

One thing of real note was that Quick tied Rogie Vachon’s franchise shutout record with the 32nd shutout of his career. He was 20 seconds away from back-to-back shutouts and breaking that record, but who’s counting? He looked great and has had a nice bounce back from the all around disaster that was opening night.

A 3-game winning streak does have a nice ring to it, but the Kings have still scored a grand total of ZERO GOALS against playoff teams this season. So there’s that.

But this isn’t the time for petty concerns and pessimism, because Jeff Carter scored the only shootout goal to win the game for the Kings, and they’re now tied for first in the division in standings points. Coming for your regular season banner now, too, San Jose.