[Amazin69]

Total faceplant by the Kings last night…leading 1-0 after 2 (Alex LaFerriere finally gets #16 after an 18-game drought), they attack to start the 3rd, drawing a penalty on John Tavares…

…and then Auston Matthews smacked the puck off of Kopitar's stick as he tried to enter the zone on the power play, chased it down for a short-handed breakaway, got stoned by Kuemper, the puck got knocked into the air, Matthews knocked it down, passed it back and forth, and eventually scored the goal.

Jim Hiller challenged, since it sure looked as though the puck was face-high when Matthews knocked it down (which would be high-sticking) but Toronto (NHL HQ, I mean) apparently isn't so good at tracking pucks in the air, and declined to over-rule the on-ice refs. 1-1

This cost LA a power play, so the remainder of the Tavares penalty was now 4-on-4. Which became 4-on-3 when we took another penalty, then 5-on-3 when Tavares got out of the box, but we killed all that off. However, later on, Vladislav Gavrikov and William Nylander cross-checked each other and apparently we don't do offsetting minors any more, so it was back to 4-on-4.

Which became 4-on-3 when Kuemper was charged with tripping a Leaf who was going through the crease, and then Drew Doughty showed that he had NOT been listening to Steve Valliquette, because after Toronto took three shots in a row, he went down to block a fourth, which basically made it a 4-on-2, and Morgan Rielly fed Tavares for the go-ahead goal. And then when the Kings pulled the goalie, Marner got the puck off of Kopitar's stick (bad game for the captain!) and fed Tavares for the ENG.

To make matters worse, both VGK (at Nashville) and Edmonton (v. Calgary) pulled out late wins. The Oilers (without McDavid, Ekholm and their #1 goalie) trailed 2-1 late, but Draisaitl (in his first game back) tied it with 3:12 left in regulation and then scored the winner in OT. You couldn't have sat for just ONE more game, Leon?

So the Kings, who seemed to be on their way to leading the Oil by 4 points with a game in hand, are suddenly tied, and we'll be spending that game tonight against the Sharks. Which should be a win…but we've bombed out against them in 2 of 3 times this season, including a December game where we totally fell apart in the 3rd, going from tied 2-2 to a 7-2 loss. So…who knows?

Grrr.