LOS ANGELES — After a skid where they lost ten out of twelve games, the Los Angeles Kings were painfully close to seeing their epitaph written in terms of their playoff hopes, and it is only the third week of January.
Indeed, with the Western Conference race so tight, the Kings dug themselves a very large, deep hole with a brutal February schedule ahead of them—they will play ten straight games on the road.
The Kings knew that to help climb out of that hole, they needed to win their last three games at Staples Center heading into the National Hockey League’s All-Star break, which begins on Janaury 27.
To their credit, the Kings got themselves together and did exactly that, capping the three games with a 3-2 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks in front of an announced sellout crowd of 18,118 fans on January 26.
With tight checking and plenty of hard, heavy play along the boards and in the corners, the game had a bit of a playoff feel to it.
With the win, the Kings are 11th in the Western Conference standings, but are just one point out of seventh place, four points out of sixth, and five points out of fourth place.
NOTES
- Jonathan Quick is 5-0 in shootouts this season (stopping 20 of 23 shots good for a .870 save percentage). Quick is now 17-7 all-time in shootouts (stopping 64 of 88 shots, good for a .727 save percentage).
- Jarret Stoll is 3/4 in shootouts this season (7/17 life time). It was Stoll’s second game-deciding shootout goal this season, tying him for second in the NHL.
- Stoll also has nine points in the last eleven games (six goals, three assists).
- The win was the Kings’ fourth this season when trailing after two periods.
- The Kings have allowed 13 goals in the last seven games, an average of 1.86 per game.
- The Kings have now allowed fewer than thirty shots eight of the last nine games, and 17 of the last twenty.
- The Kings have won more than fifty percent of the face-offs in seven straight games.
- Michal Handzus won nine of ten face-offs tonight (53/80 in the last five games, 66.3 percent and 34/46 the last three games, 73.9 percent.
- Ryan Smyth has 13 points in the last 15 games (eight goals, five assists).
Raw audio interviews
(Edited to remove extraneous material and dead air)
Alexei Ponikarovsky (2:20)
Jonathan Quick (2:46)
Jack Johnson (1:19)
Terry Murray (8:33)
Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube
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