The Kings got their goal in what was, from a Caps point of
view, an ugly series of events. It
started well enough when Jordan Nolan was sent off at the 16:01 mark for a
boarding penalty. It looked even better when
Marcus Johansson scooped up a loose puck along the right wing wall, circled
out, and with just one King defender back tried to feather a pass to Alex
Ovechkin on the left side. However, that
defender was Drew Doughty, and the premier defenseman laid out to get a stick
on the passing attempt. Doughty managed
to get the puck out of the defensive zone where Dustin Brown picked it up. Brown skated the puck inside the Caps’ blue
line but got no further. T.J. Oshie and
John Carlson worked to separate Brown from the puck, but with two Caps and one
King along the wall, there was space for Anze Kopitar to grab the loose puck
and skate in on goalie Philipp Grubauer.
Kopitar’s first shot attempt was stopped by Grubauer, but the rebound
came right back the Kopitar, who made good on his second attempt for the
shorthanded goal at 16:43.
It looked as if the Kings would be content thereafter to just milk the
one-goal lead for the duration of the contest, and when the game remained 1-0
deep into the second period, it looked as if they might be successful. But, with the clock ticking under a minute to
play in the period, the Kings could not move the puck up and out of the
defensive zone from along the wall. A
sliding puck was stopped at the blue line by Brooks Orpik, who sent it across
to Dmitry Orlov at the right point.
Orlov wound up to fire a slap shot, but it turned into a slap pass to
the slot where Andre Burakovsky was setting up.
Burakovsky redirected the puck past goalie Jonathan Quick, and with 49
seconds left in the second period the game was tied, 1-1.
The third period looked as if the teams would carry the tie
into extra time. Then the Caps hitched
up their pants and went to work in deep.
Evgeny Kuznetsov circled out from the right wing corner and tried to
stuff the puck past Quick, but he lost the puck off the blade of his
stick. Kevin Gravel batted the puck back
into the corner, but Burakovsky got to it before Jeff Carter. Kuznetsov reversed direction on Carter and
darted for the net. His stuff attempt
was turned aside by Quick, and it was Justin Williams jumping up to grab the
loose biscuit. Williams circled behind
the net and found Kuznetsov at the post to Quick’s right, and Kuznetsov snapped
a shot past Quick’s right pad from a severe angle to put the Caps up, 2-1, with
2:02 left in regulation.
The Kings challenged the call of a goal on the ice on the basis
of interference with Quick by Williams.
The call on the ice was left to stand, though, and it was then a case of
the Caps keeping the Kings off the scoreboard in the last two minutes. The Caps kept three Los Angeles shot attempts
from getting to Grubauer, and Jason Chimera potted an empty net goal with 8.6
seconds left for the final 3-1 margin.
Other stuff…
-- Brooks Orpik returned to the ice after missing 40 games
to injury. His assist on the Andre Burakovsky
goal was his first point since recording an assist on October 23rd
in a 7-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
-- Burakovsky’s goal was his eighth in his last ten
games. He has points in 12 of his last
14 games, over which he is 8-9-17, plus-8.
-- Jason Chimera recorded his third goal in four games on
what would be his only shot on goal for the game. He now has 16 goals on 115 shots for the
season, his 13.9 percent shooting being his best since he was 15.6 percent for
the Edmonton Oilers in his first full NHL season in 2002-2003.
-- It should hardly have been a surprise that the Kings won
the Corsi battle. They are, after all,
tops in the league in that department.
They unleashed 56 shot attempts
at 5-on-5 to 39 for the Caps (58.9 percent Corsi-for).
-- The 40 shots on goal allowed by the Caps was the most
allowed since the Pittsburgh Penguins recorded 45 shots on goal in a 4-1 Caps
win on December 14th. It was
the fourth time in the last five games that the Caps allowed 35 or more shots
on goal.
-- The Caps had 32 shots on goal of their own, almost a
third of them (10) from Alex Ovechkin.
-- No Capital won as more than 50 percent of their draws
taken, and it was Jeff Carter almost single-handedly doing the damage there for
the Kings. He won 13 of 16 draws against
the Caps.
-- Washington killed off all three Los Angeles power plays,
breaking a streak of three straight games in which they allowed a power play
goal. They failed on all five of their
own power play opportunities, breaking a three-game streak in which they
recorded a power play goal.
-- Tom Wilson had his first fight in 11 games when he went
with Luke Schenn in the second period.
It was just his fifth fight of the season in 55 games after recording 12
in 67 games last season.
-- Philipp Grubauer was the clear number one star of the
contest. He faced a season high 40
shots, and it was the most he faced in an NHL game since he faced 41 shots
against the Carolina Hurricanes in a 4-2 win on December 20, 2013. His 39 saves was one short of his career
high, set when he stopped 40 of 45 shots in a 5-2 loss to the New York
Islanders in his first NHL start on March 9, 2013. He has a .945 save percentage in his last
nine appearances.
In the end…
This might have been a Stanley Cup finals preview. If it was, it will be a tight series played
by two teams with different systems but similar approaches to the game. What was on display in this game was a
tend-to-business approach by both teams that features an utter lack of
memory. Bad things that happen are not
dwelled upon, and good things are not savored past the moment. Both teams just go to the next faceoff and
get back to work. For the Kings, that
now means heading to St. Louis to shake off this loss and face the Blues. For the Caps, it means heading to Brooklyn on
Thursday to take on the Islanders. Fans
of both teams might be looking a bit further ahead, though.
