Without the brilliant 37-save performance from goaltender Darcy Kuemper, the Los Angeles Kings could have very well been blown out by a San Jose Sharks team that continuously poured it on for 40 minutes straight. If all three stars could be given to one player, this would have been the game to do just that, as Kuemper quite literally dragged the rest of his team to a 4-3 win, stopping 14 of 15 high-danger chances, as well as finishing with 2.07 goals saved above expected.
“Just got to thank Darce, really. He played unbelievable tonight. That’s our worst game of the season by far,” said Drew Doughty when asked about the team’s ability to pull out a win.
It was quite the opposite performance on the other side of the rink as well, and if Yaroslav Askarov provided the Sharks with at least one big save, then the Kings wouldn’t have picked up their fifth win of the season, or have ended their five-game road trip with a record of 4-0-1.
“In the end, we’ll take all the points,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “That was a tough trip, lots of travel, lots of tight games with the overtime games, which were well documented.”
Kings Get Outplayed in Every Area but the Scoreboard
Throughout a road trip that was far from perfect, the Kings managed to pick up at least a point in every outing. Impressive, but not as impressive as picking up two points against the Sharks in a game in which they spent a majority of it puck watching, blowing coverage, turning the puck over, and taking penalties. One mistake led to another, and it was a constant cycle where nothing was clicking, making it easy for the Sharks to pick them apart.
“It just felt like we were cheating for too many pucks,” Doughty said. “We’d have 50/50 pucks and we’d have guys blowing the zone on a 50/50 puck. Then, all of a sudden, we’d have long shifts in our zone. You get tired, they get to change and then you’re basically screwed. We just weren’t connected tonight.”
A young, fast, and energized Sharks group made a veteran-heavy Kings lineup look two steps behind all night. For the last 40 minutes of play, the Kings never looked slower. Could most of that be attributed to the fact that they were exhausted playing their third game in four nights after being on the road for nine days straight? Probably.
“Clearly we had no legs, but then we compounded the issue by turning the puck over and over and over again,” Hiller said. “Sometimes when the legs aren’t there, the brain’s not there, and the hands aren’t there, and I don’t think any of those three were working in unison tonight for us, but we’ll take it.”
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Despite only registering 14 shots on net and spending virtually zero extended periods of time in the offensive zone, the Kings were as opportunistic as they could be. It was mind-boggling how they managed to be in that position in the first place, but they did have a three-goal lead at one point in time. The Sharks would put together a string of dominating shifts just for the Kings to go down the ice once in a while and silence an SAP Center that was riddled with empty seats. They managed just four shots on Askarov in the second period, two of which found the back of the net.
After Corey Perry opened the scoring in the first, extending his point streak to four games, Jeff Mallot and Doughty (who tied Rob Blake for the most goals as a Kings defenseman with 161) tucked the next two goals with two perfectly placed shots into the top right corner. Even though it felt like it was only a matter of time before the Sharks blew this one open, the Kings’ shooting percentage prevailed (at least for the first half of the second period). Eventually, the Sharks’ lopsided possession time and creation of high-danger chances started to transfer to the scoreboard, and the Kings were unable to hold on to their three-goal lead.
“Oh yeah, that should never happen,” Doughty said. “We’re one of the better defensive teams. I don’t know if the stats show it this year, but I know we are, and we should never be giving up a three-goal lead. Unfortunately, we did, but we stayed with it and won the game.”
That’s the important part. They won the game, thanks to Brandt Clarke, who gave the Kings the go-ahead goal with a beautiful shot coming down the wing on the right-hand side with just over six minutes left to play in regulation. Clarke, who has been a workhorse in multiple ways so far throughout the early season, came through in the biggest way possible, managing to give the Kings a lead in a third period that saw them generate nothing.
“I just saw the far side kind of open. They were all kind of swarming the near side for Juice (Kempe), and I was just trying to get his attention to see me, and he made a good play,” Clarke said. “(The) D man kinda was closing, so I knew I had to get a shot off, and I hit my spot, so I was happy.”
If you were to look at Moneypuck.com’s “Deserve To Win O-Meter,” you would see that the Sharks would have won 90.6% percent of the time after 1,000 game simulations. Fortunately for the Kings, that doesn’t hold any weight, and after picking up nine of a possible 10 points on their road trip, they are looking forward to being back in Los Angeles to kick off a four-game homestand in which they will search for their first win of the season at Crypto.com Arena.
“They’re done, they’re fried,” Hiller said. They need a rest, we need a rest. We’re just going to tuck that one away and look forward to Detroit.”
