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Bad starts to periods hindered the Los Angeles Kings once again as they fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 last night.

Goals within the first minute of the first and third periods by Patric Hornqvist and Evgeni Malkin respectively ended up being the difference in the hockey game.

Hornqvist scored a second goal midway through the third period to put the game out of reach for the Penguins. Meanwhile, Adrian Kempe scored the lone goal for the Kings.

Despite the bad start, John Stevens thought his team had a decent first period outside of the first minute.

“The first one was tough, I mean those types of goals rarely go in very often and I thought we got off to a really good start,” explained Stevens after the game. “[We] started chasing the game against a really good hockey team and the funny thing about hockey is when you’re playing catch-up, it takes a lot more energy.”

“It’s early in the hockey game so you try not to let it change the outcome of the game, but for whatever reason in hockey, when you’re down the ice is a bit uphill.”

The goal in question was very similar to the goals the Jonathan Quick allowed against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night. It was an innocent looking play as Hornqvist went in one-on-three and just threw the puck on net from outside the faceoff circle that somehow beat Quick five-hole.

These are not the type of goals you expect from a Vezina candidate and an all-star.



In general one of the most standard rules of NHL hockey is that you don’t want to give up a goal at the start or the end of a period because those are the most deflating and they set the tone.

To top it off, the Kings couldn’t take advantage of a young inexperienced goalie who was making his first career start. Casey DeSmith got the start last night because Matt Murray is away from the Penguins due to the death of his father and backup Tristen Jarry started on Wednesday in their 5-3 loss to the Ducks.

DeSmith had only appeared in two other games and had a 0-1-0 record with a 3.00 GAA going into the game. While the Kings did test DeSmith throughout the game with 29 shots on net, only Kempe’s breakaway goal was able to beat him.

“I don’t think we executed well around the net,” said Stevens. “I thought there were a lot of loose pucks around the net, but I certainly thought we created quality shot attempts towards the net.”

With all that said, DeSmith is 12-5-2 with a 2.53 GAA in the American Hockey League this season. His stats puts him among the better AHL goalies this season and we’ve seen from Martin Jones performance in 2014 when Quick went down how an AHL goalie can help a team.

One other noteworthy thing from this game was that Dustin Brown escaped suspension but was fined $10,000 due to his crosscheck to Justin Schultz early in the third period. With Schultz playing the puck on his knees along the boards, Brown crosschecked him at the numbers. Brown was given a boarding penalty and a game misconduct for his actions.

dustin brown crosschecks schultz into the boards pic.twitter.com/JflasbsIR2

— ego (@EvgeniMaIkinEgo) January 19, 2018

Tonight is round four of the Freeway Faceoff with the Kings leading the series two games to one. This is a rather big game of the season as the Ducks are two points behind the Kings and a regulation win would tie them with the Kings, Colorado Avalanche, and Minnesota Wild for the final Wild Card spot in the West.

At a certain point you have to stop the bleeding if you’re a Kings fan. While the Kings are well within striking distance of the Flames, Sharks, and Avs (who are currently in those playoff spots). It comes a point where if there are too many teams in front of you, it doesn’t matter how close you are in points.

With the amount of three point games there are during the stretch drive, it can be impossible to gain ground. There will only be one more game against the Ducks this season, which isn’t until March 30. So that means if the Kings can win today, they will win the season series and take control of one of the tie breakers.

Also it means this is the only chance to take away points from the Ducks until that fourth last game of the season.

Anaheim is 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, which isn’t to say that they are a particularly hot team but have been playing well. They defeated the Penguins 5-3 on Wednesday night and want to continue that momentum. As well, as mentioned last week, the Ducks are finally healthy with Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler back in the lineup after missing much of the season so we can expect them to make a push.

LA will have their hands full tonight and hopefully their heads will be in the game. They cannot get frustrated playing against the Ducks like they did at the end of the Penguins game. The Ducks have just as good as a penalty kill as the Kings do and even though they haven’t shown it this season, are dangerous on the power play.

It may be another cliché, but it may be a good idea to try to forget about the five game losing streak and take it one game at a time.

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