Dominated Again
February 19, 2008
LOS ANGELES — For whatever reason, the Phoenix Coyotes bring out the worst in the Los Angeles Kings, and that happened once again on Monday night in the Coyotes’ easy 4-0 blowout victory over the Kings in front of an announced crowd of 16,617 fans at Staples Center.
The win is the Coyotes’ sixth straight over the Kings and their twelfth victory in their last sixteen meetings (12-4-0).
That, in a word, is dominance, and dominate is exactly what the Coyotes did from the opening face-off on Monday night. To make matters worse, the Kings, for all intents and purposes, just sat back and watched.
Indeed, the Coyotes could not have had it much easier, as the Kings were a step slow and did not play a physical game until well into the third period when it was too little, too late.
Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovonovski opened the scoring on the power play at 3:45 of the first period on a point shot that beat Kings goalie Jason LaBarbera between his legs pads—a shot that he should have been able to stop.
Phoenix winger Radim Vrbata gave the Coyotes a 2-0 lead when Kings right wing Dustin Brown coughed up the puck at the Kings’ blue line, giving Vrbata a breakaway goal at the 5:06 mark.
The Kings’ poor play continued in the second period, when defenseman Kevin Dallman was beaten one-on-one by…get this…Coyotes forward Daniel Carcillo, who will never be known for his offensive skill.
Carcillo easily made Dallman look silly and then backhanded past a rather shocked LaBarbera at the 4:16 mark.
To add insult to injury, Coyotes center Daniel Winnick scored an easy goal on a tap-in in front of the Kings’ net at the 12:40 mark when he was left all alone by the Kings’ “defense,” a term that certainly was a misnomer for the Kings on this night.
So…after two periods, the game was already over. But they have to play all three periods, and the Kings outshot the Coyotes in the third, 17-5. But many of the Kings’ shots came from bad angles and as he did in the first two periods, Coyotes goaltender Mikael Tellqvist saw virtually all of them all the way as the Kings almost never had anyone in front of the Phoenix net.
In short, the Kings simply did not show up.
“We didn’t start very well,” said Kings head coach Marc Crawford. “We took the penalty early in the game and they scored pretty quickly on that. It seemed to not be our night from that point on…”
To read the full story, click: Dominated Again
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