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The Nashville Predators played an almost perfect road game in Los Angeles as they beat the Kings 4-3 on Saturday night.
Despite the fact that the Kings outshot the Predators 22-11 in the final two period and had an abundance of zone time in the offensive zone, Nashville was able to quell the LA storm and take advantages of mistakes to get the win.
Austin Watson scored two goals, including the game winner for Nashville, while Roman Josi and Scott Hartnell also chipped in with a goal each.
Adrian Kempe, Trevor Lewis, and Tyler Toffoli scored the goals for the Kings but they couldn’t get that tying goal late in the game to give them a chance to win.
“I just think we took too many penalties,… said Lewis after the game. “We killed the five-on-three that was a full two minutes and those guys did a great job out there. Then [Nashville] king of get one at the end when guys are tired.…
“We’ve just got to learn from that and stay a little more disciplined.…
The five-on-three that Lewis spoke of was something of a tone setter for the night. While skating across Jonathan Quick’s crease, Drew Doughty got slightly tangled up with Pontus Aberg was called for interference. Mr. Doughty felt the call was questionable at best and he let the official know what he thought.
Doughty must have said the magic words because he was tagged with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to be put in the penalty box for four minutes.
Immediately after play resumed, Dustin Brown tripped up Kevin Fiala along the boards to go down two men for the full two minutes.
As Lewis said, the Kings were able to kill off the five-on-three, but Roman Josi scored on a wicked point shot during the second half of Doughty’s penalty to take the 1-0 lead.
“I think [Doughty] was just amped up,… explained John Stevens. “I think he knew with [Muzzin] out of the lineup we were going to need him to step up like he always does. He was frustrated with the call initially and I think in his mind he didn’t say anything. I think he reacted to a noise being made going into the box.…
“The only thing I said [to the official] was just let me take care of it and maybe give him a warning, but they made the call from there.…
From then on, any time the Kings started to get momentum, the Predators found a way to take it away.
Early in the second period, Kempe stole the puck from P.K. Subban and managed to beat Pekka Rinne to tie the game. However, later in the frame, Hartnell and Watson scored back to back goal within five minutes of each other take a 3-1 lead.
At the start of the third, Lewis took advantage of a long lasting Kings pressure in the offensive zone and rifled a shot past Rinne to come within a goal. The Predators then came right back with Watson deflecting Ryan Ellis’ shot to reclaim the two goal lead almost a minute later.
Toffoli managed to get another one for the Kings on the power play in order to give them a chance to tie the game later on, but the Predators were able to hunker down and shut the door to take the one goal win.
“It was one of those ones where it was kind of the same as in Calgary,… said Tanner Pearson. “We battled back, but we dug too much of a hole to dig ourselves out of.…
To top it off, the Kings suffered a scary moment early in the game when Quick collided with a pair of players in his crease and came up grabbing his leg. Expecting the worst, the Kings training staff came out to look at him, but luckily the pain Quick was in had to do with a puck hitting him in an unprotected part of his leg rather than any muscle injury. Quick stayed in the game.
The Kings now go into their CBA mandated five day break after losing two in a row. Considering where they were last year at this point it is considered to be a success and Stephens wants his team to focus on the positives when they come back.
“Probably the most exciting thing about this group is they have a way to stick around in hockey games,… said Stephens. “They have this innate ability to try and win games, and I though the guys played hard tonight.…
“We’ve gotten half way through the year, and there should be a really deep understanding of how we want to play and the things that are important to us to play. We’re going to constantly go over details, but I think there should be a really deep understanding of how we want to play, what makes us successful, and the fact that every guy in that locker room is important.…