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Talked about this briefly last night. King scored 56 seconds into the 2nd from Carter and Teddy Purcell which held up until just under 4 minutes to play when Zack Smith tied the game for the Sens from Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Erik Karlsson. Seemed destined for overtime but with 7 seconds to play in the 3rd Mark Stone tipped in a rebound assisted by Pageau and Karlsson. Craig Anderson stopped 32 of 33 shots while Budaj came into the game to start the 3rd period and allowed 2 goals on 13 shots in the 3rd period. Zatkoff started and stopped all 18 shots he faced before leaving with injury. I believe this is the first game all year that the Kings did not outshoot their opponent, for what that's worth.
Both teams are off until Sunday: Senators play the Minnesota Wild in Ottawa, and the Kings head to Winnipeg to face the Jets and #2 pick Patrick Laine. Faceoff will be around 2:08 on Sunday afternoon.
And of course Budaj comes in for the 3rd & he gives up the 2 goals. Who's playing in goal for the Ontario Reign (AHL team)?? I don't think any of them could be any worse than Budaj is.
I don't think Budaj is that bad. He's been doing OK so far, certainly better than Zatkoff did in the first few games. Budaj was at least playing well enough to hold off on looking for an outside goalie. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
Pearson from Purcell and Lewis put the Kings on the board first 5:38 into the game. Jets tied it at 14:04 of the first on a power-play goal from Adam Lowry assisted by Nic Petan and Toby Enstrom, and took the lead at 17:55 also on the same power play from Marko Dano from Enstrom and Lowry. No scoring in the 2nd, and the only goal of the 3rd was the game-tying goal from Tom Gilbert assisted by Jordan Nolan. No scoring in OT; first shooters from both teams missed, King scored the first goal of the shootout, Patrick Laine than tied it up, Dowd missed the net completely on the Kings next attempt, and Mark Scheifele put the puck past Budaj on the Jets next attempt for the winner. Each goalie stopped 27 of 29 shots with Connor Hellebuyck stopping 1 of 2 shots in the shootout (Dowd missed the net) picking up the win and Budaj getting the loss stopping 1 of 3 in the shootout.
Both teams return to the ice Tuesday. Jets host the Blackhawks, while the Kings will conclude this roadtrip with a stop in Denver against the Avalanche with a puck drop scheduled for about 9:08.
Pearson from Purcell and Lewis put the Kings on the board first 5:38 into the game. Jets tied it at 14:04 of the first on a power-play goal from Adam Lowry assisted by Nic Petan and Toby Enstrom, and took the lead at 17:55 also on the same power play from Marko Dano from Enstrom and Lowry. No scoring in the 2nd, and the only goal of the 3rd was the game-tying goal from Tom Gilbert assisted by Jordan Nolan. No scoring in OT; first shooters from both teams missed, King scored the first goal of the shootout, Patrick Laine than tied it up, Dowd missed the net completely on the Kings next attempt, and Mark Scheifele put the puck past Budaj on the Jets next attempt for the winner. Each goalie stopped 27 of 29 shots with Connor Hellebuyck stopping 1 of 2 shots in the shootout (Dowd missed the net) picking up the win and Budaj getting the loss stopping 1 of 3 in the shootout.
Both teams return to the ice Tuesday. Jets host the Blackhawks, while the Kings will conclude this roadtrip with a stop in Denver against the Avalanche with a puck drop scheduled for about 9:08.
Lowry was the first star with 1 point and 1 assist; Budaj second star with 27 saves, Enstrom 3rd star with 2 assists.
Patrick Wiercioch put the Avs on the board 1:10 into the 2nd assisted by Carl Soderberg. 22 seconds later Rene Bourque from Mikko Rantanen and Wiercioch made it 2-0, while Brown from Dowd and Setoguchi on the power play 31 seconds before the intermission made it 2-1. Blake Comeau from Jarome Iginla at 11:32 made it 3-1 and Gabriel Landeskog from Andreas Martinsen and Erik Johnson into the empty net at 18:29 finished the scoring. Semyon Varlamov stopped 32 of 33 shots while Budaj stopped 26 of 29. Comeau was the first star with 1 goal, Varlamov with 32 saves was the second star, and Wiercioch with 2 points was the 3rd star.
Thursday: Oilers 2 @ Kings 4
Derek Forbort put the Kings on the board 5:09 into the first assisted by Clifford & Shore, and they added a 2nd goal in the period at 7:42 from Toffoli assisted by Carter & Martinez. Darnell Nurse from Leon Draisaitl made it 2-1, and Oscar Klefbom from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle at 8:32 tied it up, while the Kings retook the lead on the short handed goal at 9:06 from Carter assisted by Toffoli. The only goal of the 3rd was at 13:15 from Setoguchi assisted by Forbort and Dowd. Budaj stopped 28 of 30 shots while Jonas Gustavsson only recorded 21 saves on 25 shots. I believe this was the first game all season the Kings got outshot by their opponent. Carter first star, Forbort second star, Toffoli 3rd star each had 2 points on 1 goal & 1 assist.
Saturday: Devils 2 @ Kings 4.
John Moore from Reid Broucher and Devante Smith-Pelley at 3:38 was the only goal of the first period. Martinez from Dowd & Setoguchi at 4:58 of the 2nd tied the score and Pearson unassisted at 18:20 put the Kings in front for good and up 2-1 after the 2nd. Carter from Toffoli and Doughty 45 seconds into the 3rd made it 3-1, Nick Lappin from P.A. Paranteau and Beau Bennett at 17:28 cut to 1, and Muzzin from King with 28 seconds to play into the empty net iced the game. Budaj stopped 21 of 23 shots, while Corey Schneider stopped 24 of 27. Carter first star, Doughty 2nd star, Pearson 3rd star each recorded 1 point
Sunday: Kings 3 @ Ducks 2.
Kings got on the board with all 3 goals in the 2nd period. Doughty from Carter at 2:15, Carter from Pearson & Toffoli on the power play at 12:21, and Carter from Doughty and Martinez on the power play at 13:35. The Ducks would respond with 2 goals of their own in the 3rd. First from Antoine Vermette from Hampus Lindholm at 3:34 and the second from Rickard Rackell from Jakob Silfverberg and Lindholm on the power play at 8:36. Budaj stopped 28 of 30 and made some key stops in the 3rd as the Ducks outshot the Kings in the 3rd period 17-3 while John Gibson stopped 26 of 29 shots. Carter was the first star with 3 points, Vermette was the 2nd star with a goal, Doughty picked up the 3rd star with a goal and an assist.
Both teams will play the East worst Islanders at home in their next game. Ducks will play them Tuesday, while the Kings get them on the 2nd leg of the back-to-back Thanksgiving Eve with faceoff from Staples around 10:38.
Martinez from Muzzin & Kopi in the first at 15:34 and Anders Lee from Travis Hamonic and Alan Quine in the 3rd at 4:27 tied it at 1. With 3 minutes to play, we were still tied at 1 and this game looked destined for extra time and than this happened: Between 2:53 and 2:09 the Kings scored 3 goals, the first time I ever remember 3 goals being scored before the first goal was announced, and 3 goals in 44 seconds prevented the extra time. King from Lewis & Forbort was the first goal at 17:07, King from Lewis & Doughty was the second goal at 17:32, and Muzzin unassisted into an empty net at 17:51 was the 3rd goal, and Lee from Jason Chimera and Adam Pelach at 18:08 was the final tally in a busy final 2:53. Jaroslav Halak stopped 24 of 27 shots while Budaj stopped 22 of 24. Budaj was the first star, Martinez was the second star with 1 goal, Nick Leddy of the Isles was the 3rd star, no points, but got the 3rd most minutes on ice of any Islander skater. Really weird 3 star selections.
Kings are back on the ice Saturday at Staples against the Blackhawks with faceoff slated for about 10:38. Isles continue their California road trip with the final stop in San Jose Friday afternoon.
Patrick Kane scored 11:21 into the first assisted by Artemi Panarin and Duncan Keith, the first shot on goal the Hawks had in the game, and Martinez had the tier 57 seconds into the second from Carter & Muzzin, scoreless 3rd forced overtime where Carter had the winner from Toffoli & Doughty 66 seconds into the overtime. Budaj stopped 18 of 19 shots while Scott Darling started between the pipes for the Blackhawks and stopped 27 of 29. Martinez first start with 1 goal, Budaj 2nd star with 18 saves, and Darling the 3rd star with 27 saves.
The circus has ended at the United Center, the Blackhawks can finally head home after a 7 game road trip and play their first home game since November 13 as the Panthers come in. The Kings are off until Wednesday when the Sharks come into LA for a puck drop at Staples for around 10:43 as it will be on NBCSN and will likely start late as the early game will run late.
Never though I would say this, but it might be time to play Zatkoff for at least a game or two.
Not because I think he's any good, just that Budaj seems to be regressing to the mean. He's starting to remind me of when Scott Clemmensen had a hot streak for the Devils while Brodeur was injured for a few months back in 08-09. He started to level off in the last couple weeks. It seems DS is not a huge fan of Zatkoff. He was abysmal in his first few starts this season, but so was Budaj before finding a groove about 5 starts into the season. Budaj wasn't so good against the Sharks, then he started the second game of a back to back the next night and gave up 2 quick ones. Zatkoff came in and played fairly well and they won, then Budaj comes right back in next game.
He wasn't very good in a game where Carey Price also allowed 4 goals and he got abused to his glove side in the shootout.
Scrivens was really on fire 3 years ago, then started to drop down by quite a bit towards the end, before Quick returned.
I'm still going to say they are mediocre at best without Quick in the net. I'd rather have Zatkoff play as well.....not because he is better than Budaj, but because he is younger, and Quick is getting up there in age (though goalies have a longer shelf life) so we'd have to start at least looking at drafting/developing some goalies for the future instead of kicking the can down the road until Quick retires at which point they are really screwed! Zatkoff may not be that answer, but I know for a fact Budaj is definitely NOT that answer, so might as well give Zatkoff some more starts than 1 in 25 games to see if we can keep him around & develop him into even a decent backup of Quick. He isn't going to develop sitting on the bench watching Budaj give up 2 goals a game. Either play him once every 4 or 5 games, or send him back to the Ontario Reign, so he can play every game, and develop there, and re-evaluate on Zatkoff in the summer.
I'm still going to say they are mediocre at best without Quick in the net. I'd rather have Zatkoff play as well.....not because he is better than Budaj, but because he is younger, and Quick is getting up there in age (though goalies have a longer shelf life) so we'd have to start at least looking at drafting/developing some goalies for the future instead of kicking the can down the road until Quick retires at which point they are really screwed! Zatkoff may not be that answer, but I know for a fact Budaj is definitely NOT that answer, so might as well give Zatkoff some more starts than 1 in 25 games to see if we can keep him around & develop him into even a decent backup of Quick. He isn't going to develop sitting on the bench watching Budaj give up 2 goals a game. Either play him once every 4 or 5 games, or send him back to the Ontario Reign, so he can play every game, and develop there, and re-evaluate on Zatkoff in the summer.
They can't send Zatkoff to Ontario without putting him on waivers. I think there's a decent chance that a team with a goalie injury would claim him on waivers if he were available for free on the waiver wire.
I'd like to see if he's worth it as a backup though, because Budaj is 34 and has been out of the league for over 2 years before this. This looks like a last go around for him. Maybe he'll earn an NHL contract from somewhere next year, if he finishes out his time strong before Quick comes back. I also wouldn't mind seeing Quick start about 5 less games per season next year and going forward. Need a reliable backup for that.
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