The Los Angeles Kings may have dropped their third in a row Thursday night and fell to 2-5-0 on the season, but they set a world record during the first intermission.
The Kings’ game presentation department used 642 lasers as part of the Guinness Book of World Records “Largest Laser Show” at STAPLES Center. So, yeah, they were shutout, but they made history.
For the record, the first-period goals by Casey Mittelstadt and Conor Sheary did not, in fact, count toward the final laser total.
With Thursday being the 20th anniversary of the opening of the arena, which featured a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concert back in 1999, the Kings wanted to do something special, so they went and shattered the previous record of 342, per the team.
Buffalo fattened its lead to 3-0 just a few minutes into the second period, and were able to sit on that edge, even as the Kings fired a lot of biscuits at Hutton. The 33-year-old goalie generated a 47-save shutout on Thursday, giving him a two-game shutout streak after he stopped all 25 shots against the Stars on Oct. 14.
Hutton’s now 5-0-0 on the season, and only allowed seven goals so far.
There are some Sabres who are inevitably going to cool down. That’s not meant to be an insult; instead, it’s pretty much unavoidable because they’re playing at such a high level. Hutton is up there with the hottest skaters on that team.
It honestly might be a little on-the-nose for Pastrnak to have such a great “National Pasta Day” by scoring two goals and one assist for Boston on Thursday.
Then again, it’s really just another day for Pastrnak.
After a quiet start to 2019-20 where he didn’t score any points in two games, Pastrnak’s been boiling lately, with 13 points in his last five contests, and seven points over his last two games.
The only thing that went a little stale for the 23-year-old was that the Bruins couldn’t win, as the Lightning ended up winning via a shootout.
Normally, tiebreakers would go to players who are on different teams, but while there were plenty of other strong performances on Thursday, Mittelstadt and Pastrnak were the top scorers with three points.
Like Pastrnak, Mittelstadt managed two goals and one assist. You could definitely make a case that Mittelstadt deserves the second star, as one of his goals ended up being the game-winner for Buffalo.
Either way, it was quite the way for Mittelstadt to make the most of his modest ice time of 12:19 on Thursday. The sophomore has been a feast-or-famine scorer so far in 2019-20, collecting two assists to start the season, going six games without a point, and then managing three points on Thursday.
Darcy Kuemper is the first goalie in Coyotes/original version of the Jets history to allow two or fewer goals over 12 consecutive starts, according to NHL PR.
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• Jordan Binnington is going old school with his new mask, which is a tribute to Curtis Joseph. [Blues]
• Max Pacioretty is feeling more comfortable in his second season with the Golden Knights and it’s showing on the ice. [NHL.com]
• The Devils have put assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald in an assistant coach role on John Hynes’ staff on a temporary basis. [Devils]
The Hurricanes headed into 2019-20 as the Hurricanes analytics darlings, a team that hogged the puck with considerable greed for the vulcanized rubber. Before them, the Kings were in a similar boat as a team that would often horde the Corsi and Fenwick, even while not always dominating the standings in the same way.
Maybe Tuesday was fitting, then, for how these two teams are moving in different directions. When Jonathan Quick isn’t in the net facing an existential crisis and Jack Campbell is looking like a first-rounder about a decade late, the Kings are proving to be a tougher-than-expected out.
That was the case against Carolina, as Los Angeles managed a 31-23 shots on goal advantage against a Hurricanes team that recently kept the dangerous Lightning without a SOG during a full period.
Despite that edge, the Kings couldn’t beat Mrazek, who pitched a 31-save shutout.
Mrazek’s off to a 4-0-0 start despite being mostly mediocre before Tuesday, and in a way, that’s scarier for the Hurricanes’ opponents. If they can win most nights just by denying possession to opponents, but occasionally get a gem from Mrazek, how scary can Carolina become?
Yes, Morgan “Typo” Rielly plays for a fast-paced, talented team like the Maple Leafs. He certainly gets to baste his stats in secondary helpers, and generally get access to opportunities that a comparable defenseman might not on a more tortoise-speed-like team would not.
Still, it’s hard not to shake your head in awe at Rielly’s 72 points from last season. That’s the sort of year that could make forwards unaffordable for their current team.
While his production has been streaky – Rielly failed to score in his previous three games before Tuesday – the talented blueliner had himself a night, collecting an assist on all four of the Maple Leafs’ goals in a 4-2 win against the Wild. That boosts him to nine points – all assists – in seven games so far this season, giving Rielly more fuel for a Norris argument — or at least a really big raise once his $5M cap hit expires after 2021-22.
The only thing that keeps him from being Tuesday’s top star is that all four of his assists were (wait for it) secondary ones.
The Canucks had some nice contestants in their 5-1 win against the Red Wings, including Brock Boeser (three assists) and J.T. Miller (two goals).
Edler gets the edge via his one-goal, two-assist night. For one thing, his goal was a game-winner. For another, Boeser piled up three secondary assists, while Edler had one primary and two secondary. Edler also fired three SOG, delivered three hits, and blocked four shots in an consummate 25 minutes of ice time on Tuesday night.
Highlight of the Night
The move Viktor Arvidsson made to set up Calle Jarnkrok‘s goal was really something else, and a reminder that Arvidsson is more than just a very nice (and remarkably underpaid) sniper.
Via NHL PR, Reilly’s four assists – all in the second period – match the franchise record for most in a single period, tying Rick Vaive, who managed the feat in 1984. Sportsnet notes that Brock Boeser’s three assists in the second period is the most since Henrik Sedin managed as many Feb. 18, 2012.
The Hurricanes’ 6-1-0 record marks the best start in franchise history, according to NHL PR.
One more from NHL PR: Filip Forsberg extended his season-opening point streak to six games, sharing the Predators’ franchise record held by Marek Zidlicky.
Scores
TOR 4 – MIN 2
TBL 3 – MTL 1
ARI 4 – WPG 2
CGY 3 – PHI 1
NSH 5 – VGK 2
VAN 5 – DET 1
CAR 2 – LAK 0
The Los Angeles Kings have a lot of question marks right now, but the biggest one might involve starting goalie Jonathan Quick and whether or not they can get him back to playing a winning brand of hockey. It is something he has not done since the start of last season when his play suddenly fell off a cliff in what would turn out to be — by far — the worst season of his career.
Things have not gotten any better this season where he has given up 19 goals in his first three starts (all Kings losses).
It is expected that backup Jack Campbell will get the start on Tuesday night when the Kings host the Carolina Hurricanes. It would be noteworthy because this is not a back-to-back situation. It is a home game against a top team — and one that is very dangerous offensively — and is the exact type of situation that you would expect a team to play their starting goalie.
But given the way their starter has played, that almost seems like an impossible option if winning is the primary objective.
Coach Todd McLellan recently expressed confidence in Quick, and it would also be fair to point out that the Kings’ defensive play in front of their goalies has been lacking for more than a year now. These are not the possession dominating, defensively smothering Kings that were winning Stanley Cups between 2012 and 2014. They are an older, slower team that is lacking in talent all over the ice. And while Campbell was in net for the Kings’ only two wins this season, he hasn’t exactly posted great individual numbers either.
But the fact remains that 19 goals against in three games to start a season is an almost unprecedented run of futility. The only other goalies since 1979 that have started a season that poorly were Wendell Young, Eddie Mio, Tony Esposito, and Grant Fuhr. And while the latter two names are Hall of Famers, it is important to remember all four of those performances came in the 1980s at the height of the NHL’s goal-scoring peak.
The Kings would almost certainly like to write this off as a bad slump and the perfect storm of circumstances to result in the worst stretch of Quick’s otherwise solid (and at times spectacular) career. If it were just these three games it might be easier to do that. That, however, is not the case. This has been happening for more than a year, while the other goalies on his own team (Campbell and Cal Petersen) have outperformed him.
So what can the Kings do here?
In the short-term, they have to keep playing the goalie that gives them the best chance to win, and right now that is Campbell.
But big picture?
The Kings have an interesting situation unfolding in net with Campbell and Petersen both signed for two more years after this one, while Petersen’s contract starting next year is a one-way deal. And while that only impacts the salary he makes if he plays in the AHL, it is still notable to see his contract structured in such a way.
With the Kings seemingly trying to rebuild (or needing to rebuild) a trade is something that should be explored. The problem is the market would seem to be extremely limited given the makeup of Quick’s contract. He is still signed for three more seasons after this one at a salary cap hit of $5.8 million per season, a steep price for a soon-to-be 34-year-old goalie whose best days are almost certainly behind him. What contending team is going to be in a position to take that on? The catch with that is after this season he only has $8.5 million in actual salary (over three years) remaining on his contract. But is that enough to entice a team to take that on?
If that does not get anywhere, there is the buyout option over the summer. According to CapFriendly the Kings would be on the hook for salary cap hits of $3.3 million, $3.8 million, and $4.3 million over the next three years, before $1 million cap hits between 2023 and 2026. The Kings already have a few million in dead cap money going to Dion Phaneuf’s buyout through 2023. If they bought out Quick, they would have more than $6 million in salary cap space going to plays not on the roster over the next three years.
The third option: Simply hope. Hope that he is fully healthy (an issue at times last season) and can get back to playing at an acceptable level for a starter so they can either move him, or give themselves a chance to win. That, however, would require a dramatic turnaround from what we have seen from him over the past 12 months.
