x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Kings Ding Wings: These Things Sting

Posted on by J.J. FromKansas

Wings out west trying to make up for losing to the Kings in Detroit and trying to wipe the stink off that 8-2 drubbing the Rangers handed us Thursday.

Kings in reverse retros.

First Period

Nine seconds in.  Nine. Fucking. Seconds. 1-0 Kings.

Detroit’s follow up to this is to get pinned in their zone while the Kings barely miss several more scoring opportunities until Austin Czarnik drives an exit and a couple chances from Jonatan Berggren earns a power play against Alex Edler.

The top unit now featuring Sundqvist and Hronek in place of Raymond and Seider have some trouble getting all set, but once they do, Dominik Kubalik takes a feed from Hronek and blasts it through Peterson to make it a 1-1 tie.

This one seems to calm the team down a bit as the play evens out somewhat from here.  Teams get physical but can’t get into the middle much.  Then out of the second TV timeout, the Wings lose the faceoff and Ben Chiarot takes a holding penalty to give LA their first power play chance.

Larkin and Copp chase the points around this PP while Määttä and Hronek play D for a minute before the Kings retake the lead on a bad combination broken net-front play where Fiala sneaks a puck through Nedeljkovic while Hronek cross-checks Kopitar into his own goalie.  2-1 Kings.

Detroit doesn’t get a shot on goal for the next five minutes, but they do draw a penalty as Adrian Kempe pops Robert Hägg in the face behind Detroit’s net so we go back to the power play.

They get one more SOG with the man advantage.

The Score: 2-1 Kings
The Shots: 9-4 Kings
Standout Observations: Austin Czarnik is a great energy forward and I’m going to be bummed when he comes back out of the lineup. I may change my mind before this game is over but based on this period, I would bench Hronek for Tuesday.

Second Period

Nothing doing on the minute of carryover power play for the Wings. Play continues until the 4:20 mark when Ben Chiarot goes to the box for boarding Blake Lizotte. LA to the power play.  Detroit kills this one, but before Chiarot can rejoin the play Sean Durzi makes it 3-1 Kings.

Detroit’s next shot on goal comes 11 minutes into the period as Adam Erne inexplicably gets a puck behind the defense.

13:36 in, Dylan Larkin goes to the box for sticking a leg out and tripping Viktor Arvidsson at the Kings’ blue line.  We get one save off a lost faceoff, but not two. Sean Durzi puts his second goal into the net with a heavily-screened shot from the middle at the very top of the zone.  4-1 Kings.

Detroit puts another shot on goal and maybe I’ll start sharing highlights of those just to have something worth celebrating.

Arvidsson returns the tripping favor 17 minutes in as he brings Rasmussen down. Detroit PP.

The next two minutes are spent looking like a squad of door-to-door shit salesemen with a whole mouth full of free samples.

The last minute of the period is the first of the entire twenty minute span the team looks remotely like a professional team.

The Score: 4-1 Kings
The Shots: 17-10 Kings (8-6 Kings)
Standout Observations: The ice was bad and everybody knew it was going to be bad, but the Wings still seemed unable to adjust to that.

Third Period

Wings draw a penalty on the first shift with Danault hooking Larkin.  This time the PP connects with Larkin taking a feed in the slot. 4-2 Kings.

Raymond almost got another as a shot from the high danger area drops out of Petersen’s glove and behind him only to have the puck cleared out of the crease by his defense.

Detroit slowly increases the pressure and has a real good sequence of chances around the ten minute mark with Czarnik and Rasmussen denying the Kings any space in their own zone.  Ned has to make his first stop of the period really count on a quality chance by Arvidsson with nine minutes to go.

Wings pull Ned with four to go.  Kubalik misses a gaping net with under three.

Hronek makes it a one-goal game with 2:01 to go as a battle behind the net goes the Wings’ way and then passing around the top sets up the center shot lane same as Durzi got on his second goal. 4-3 Kings.

Wings get a couple more good chances to tie it up. Larkin especially with a one-man zone entry deke-and-dangle that Petersen ultimately stops with the glove.

Time runs out.

The Score: 4-3 Kings
The Shots: 21-21 (11-4 Detroit)
Standout Observations: They should make the entire game out of that third period.

Conclusion

The ice was shitty and the in-arena main camera operator sucked at tracking the play.

Berggren looked pretty good on the wing with Larkin and Raymond (although it’s notable that according to Natural Stat Trick, the duo did better at 5-on-5 with Suter than with Berggren).

I do think I changed my mind about benching Hronek, but I want to see far fewer of those periods from him and honestly from the rest of the top four. Chiarot and Seider have not been playing like a top pair and I still dread watching Robert Hägg come over the boards.

See you late on Tuesday for the Ducks game.

Winging It In Motown Logo
If you enjoyed this article please consider supporting Winging It In Motown by subscribing here, or purchasing our merchandise here.

Looking for an easy way to support Winging It In Motown? Use our Affiliate Link when shopping hockey merch.

Talking Points