The Los Angeles Kings gave us hockey fans yet another lackluster performance, one almost not even worth writing about! They faced-off with the Columbus Blue Jackets in Ohio earlier tonight.
It actually wasn't all bad at first, The Kings got on the board in the first period with a Power-play goal from Michael Cammalerri, his 15th of the season. Assisted by two potential all stars this season in Anze Kopitar and Captain Rob Blake. The Kings made it out of the 1st period with a 1-0 lead.
In the second period the Kings continued to do a good job of keeping the Blue Jackets off the board and staying out of the penalty box. Then with less than three minutes left in the 2nd period the Blue Jackets got a controversial goal to tie it 1-1. It appeared King's goalie Jason LaBarbera had the puck covered under his pad waiting for a whistle, when Blue Jacket's forward, Novotny hit LaBarbera's pad causing the puck to slide past him into the net. Was the ref slow on blowing his whistle? The Kings bench sure thought so, but anyhow the 2nd period ended in a 1-1 tie.
The Blue Jackets came out fast and put the puck on net early in the 3rd. Nicklas Zherdev of Columbus got a bounce and just 37 seconds into the 3rd period the Blue Jackets were in the lead for the first time in the game 2-1. In the final 19 minutes of the period the Kings managed to put 10 shots on Blue Jacket's backup goalie Fredrik Norrena. Norrena would stay strong and hang on to get the 2 points and win for the Blue Jackets.
The King's goalie Jason LaBarbera had another solid performance stopping 33 of 35 shots. The Kings did a good job of staying out of the penalty box only getting two the whole game. On the flip side of that, the Kings did an awful job of making the Jackets pay for their penalties. The Blue Jackets took 7 penalties, only 1 of which the Kings converted into a goal. The Kings went 0 for 4 in the 2nd period on the Power-play. When you are on the Power-play for 8 minutes, almost half of a period, you need to convert. Coaches always tell their team one key to winning is staying out of the box, this saying did not apply to Columbus tonight.
The Kings have given up the most goal against the in the NHL and sit dead last in the Western Conference and in the whole NHL! The Kings have now lost 6 straight games. No time to sit around and think about it as they will play the 2nd half back to back games against the Nashville Predators on Saturday in Nashville. The Nashville Predators sit at 14th place in the Western Conference after having a franchise record season last year. Will the Kings snap the losing streak? We shall find out in less than 24 hours!
Keywords: Los Angeles Kings Blue Jackets Columbus Zherdev Cammalerri Blake Kopitar NHL hockey
