Kings stymied by Luongo in BC

After a disappointing debut for Andrei Loktionov, who dislocated his shoulder after being called up to replace normal second line center Jarret Stoll, the Kings went deeper into the organization, signing Brayden Schenn to a one-game tryout.  With Schenn already in town to play an exhibition against a Russian team, Dean Lombardi made the unorthodox move to give this past year’s 5th overall pick a preview of the highest level in the game.  Speaking of the ’09 draft, let us take a moment to revisit the Brian Burke emotional aneurysm upon hearing that his erstwhile SoCal GM rival had scooped his attempts to double up on the Schenn family pipeline…

And with the fifth selection in the 2009 draft…

The Kings, coming off of a scrappy, if not exhilarating victory 24 hours earlier in Edmonton, were certainly a question mark last night.  Already depleted on the roster, the back-to-back Western Canada showdowns would tax their gas tanks as well.  Surprisingly, the first five minutes had more flow than the entire Edmonton game, though there weren’t many scoring opportunities generated.  The Canucks went up 1-0 after an icing call pinned the Kings deep.  Anze Kopitar lost the ensuing draw to Henrik Sedin and Alexander Burrows streaked from the right boards directly to the far post, where Daniel Sedin found him for an easy tap-in.  Drew Doughty was draped all over Burrows but didn’t see the pass coming and was unable to lift Burrows’ stick.

Schenn played a conservative game early on.  He did well to break up a developing 2-on-1, deflecting a saucer pass on a diligent backcheck and then following up with a big hit on Christian Ehrhoff.  Skating between Dustin Brown and Alexander Frolov, Schenn looked to have a keen sense of supporting his defensemen and trying to provide an outlet while they battled along the boards to regroup in the Kings’ zone.

Quick robbed Ryan Kesler with Scott Parse in the box for an offensive zone hook that would have earned him a demotion to the AHL were there not already so many injuries to the forwards.  Parse picked up a breakaway right out of the box but was forced onto his backhand and stuffed by Luongo.

The Kings generated a little bit of energy on the power play in the last couple minutes of the first but didn’t sustain the momentum, and in fact, the Canucks had the best scoring chance shorthanded following a failed breakout.  Alexander Frolov took a hooking call--also in the offensive zone--with about thirty seconds to go in the period.  Terry Murray must have quietly probably popped a blood vessel or two to see his team go down again after taking another cheap penalty in the Vancouver zone.

The second period started much like the first: good flow, but mostly uneventful until Teddy Purcell broke in alone after a takeaway at the Vancouver blue line and made a quality deke to his backhand before being absolutely devastated by Roberto Luongo’s outstretched glove.  The puck probably crossed the line, but squarely in Luongo’s webbing, and the ruling on the ice was no goal.  This was one of those reviews that could have gone either way but there was certainly no indisputable evidence that the puck was completely over--whatever call was made on the ice was going to stand up, and I think the crew got it right.  Following the short review, the rest of the period’s rhythm was chopped to oblivion by a series of penalties.  The Kings continued to take offensive zone minors and Vancouver repeatedly returned the favor, giving an inordinate amount of time to the special teams units for both squads.  Watching the game, even though the Kings were down one with Quick putting in a solid performance in goal, I just didn’t feel like they were really threatening Luongo--this could also have been acute tryptophan haze--and then out of nowhere, Wayne Simmonds got the Kings on the board in the last minute of the period, roofing from a sharp angle after the Canucks failed to clear.  With the game knotted 1-1 at the second break, I’d become significantly more hopeful that the Kings would at least steal a point on the road.

At this point most of you know how the third period went--Vancouver went up a goal on another faceoff win.  Henrik Sedin controlled cleanly against Schenn and buried the rebound of Alex Edler’s point shot.  Tanner Glass poked in a loose puck during a crease scramble a bit later, and Kyle Wellwood added an empty-netter that sent the fans at GM place into a frenzy.

So the Kings fell to 14-10-2, losers of 3 of their last 4 games, pretty banged up physically, and looking forward to heading home only to have to deal with the Blackhawks, who were already outrageously good and now have some dude named Hassa or Hausa or Hosse or something like that.  I hear he’s pretty good.  Really really need Scuderi at least, or it could get ugly in a hurry.

As disappointing as the loss was, this was another opportunity for me to watch another team’s broadcast.  After the travesty of sports television that was the Oilers feed last night, I have to say, this Vancouver telecast was just as good as Edmonton’s was bad.  Announcers Jim Hughson and John Garrett were well-informed, balanced, witty, observant, and passionate.  The crowd was energetic from the start and savvy enough to reward Ryan Kesler with an ovation after a shift in which he blocked a shot with his ribcage, struggled to his feet, and went down to block another shot before finally getting to change.  For a crowd to deliver such pointed recognition for gritty defense indicates a level of audience sophistication that makes you chuckle that they have a GM who went into Michael Cammalleri’s arbitration case asking the Kings for six mil’ a year…  Also very cool were the individual Canuck player highlight reels that split segments during TV time-outs…very good idea, and very professionally done.

Even better than the main play-by-play and camera work, Vancouver had ready footage of Brayden Schenn with the Brandon Wheat Kings and their announcers not only did a great job of telling the story of his draft and call-up, but made a point of expressing that they felt it was unfair for Schenn to get the one-day deal over some of the guys that may have more seniority in the organization, particularly mentioning Oscar Möller and Marc-André Cliche.  How many NHL broadcasts do you watch in which the announcers are familiar with the opposing team’s minor league depth chart?

However, they failed to take into account that Loktionov’s injury happened on the night before Thanksgiving and Schenn was already in B.C. for a tournament.  It made infinitely more sense for Lombardi to make the unorthodox move of calling up Schenn than forcing Möller or Cliche to fly from Manchester to Vancouver (which is probably impossible without changing planes in Albany, Detroit, Regina, and Boise).  Manchester are scheduled to play back-to-back weekend nights in a home-and-home against the Springfield Falcons, the AHL Affiliate of the Phoenix Coyotes.   Furthermore, the Monarchs are already without Loktionov, their leading scorer and top center, so calling up another center would severely hinder their efforts without a chain reaction of promotions from Ontario, which just doesn’t make sense.  Skating Schenn was the best overall move for the organization.

Other notes:  Kings are 26th in the league in shots by defensemen.  It doesn’t take a math degree to figure out that that has a lot to do with having moved Kyle Quincey in the Ryan Smyth trade.  On the one hand, last year’s team generated a disproportionate amount of offense from point shots; on the other hand, balance is good.  We’ll see how the pairings evolve when Scuderi returns. Does Randy Jones keep a spot in the top-6 as an offensive-minded defenseman along with Drew Doughty and the curiously -12 Jack Johnson?  That leaves three spots for Matt Greene, Rob Scuderi, Davis Drewiske, and Sean O’Donnell, and OD’s the rock of that whole corps when it comes to keeping it simple and guiding the youth.  Up front, the wing shuffling following the Smyth injury doesn’t seem to have worked.  Frolov and Purcell have disappointed up at L1, but what’s worse, losing Stoll and being forced to change the second and third lines has screwed with their chemistry as well.   If Stoll returns soon, I’d be pretty happy to see the old Parse-Stoll-Brown and Frolov-Handzus-Simmonds units reunited, the Ivanans-Richardson-Purcell group left alone, and Peter Harrold given a go on Kopitar’s left wing.  Maybe that would mean an end to Brandon Segal’s second cup of tea with Mrs. McGill, but if there have to be changes, doesn’t it make the most sense to preserve as much chemistry as possible rather than shuffling the whole deck?  This is still a young, learning team, and changes need to be incremental.  We’ll see what they can do back at Staples--a confident performance against Chicago would do wonders for setting the tone for the rest of the fall.  It’s obviously too early to start identifying make-or-break or must-win games, but the dreaded “measuring stick” cliché certainly applies to the matchup with the ‘Hawks.