NHL Saturday night Match Analysis: Los Angeles Kings vs. Detroit Red Wings 2-8
Interim Los Angeles coach, John Stevens, was standing behind the bench and did not have anything to be happy about as the Kings lost another matchup, this time to the Detroit Red Wings, 8-2, on Saturday night, December 17, 2011, at the sold-out Joe Louis
Arena in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
The Kings are certainly suffering as they stand at number 11 in the Western Conference, tied with the Calgary Flames with 32 points and on the edge of being bumped down even further as Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche only stand behind with a one point
differential, making their upcoming games highly crucial.
Los Angeles is hoping for rejuvenation when Darryl Sutter will officially join the team as their new head coach after firing Terry Murray earlier this month due to a disappointing performance.
Sutter, the former head coach of the Calgary Flames and recently resigning as their general manager, carries a well known reputation as being one of the best at what he does. It can be seen when he led the Flames to the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals which they
nearly won but lost in a close game-seven loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Darryl Sutter had been out of the season for the past season but is now looking to get back at coaching and take the Kings somewhere this season.
Currently, the Kings have lost six of their past eight matchups and continuing at this rate could certainly prove to be damaging to them later on in the season when teams will be forced to compete for position in the postseason.
Detroit kicked off the match by scoring three straight early on to take a commanding 3-0 lead with Drew Miller and Cory Emmerton potting two quick goals only 15 seconds apart while Niklas Kronwall picked up his seventh of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League
(NHL) regular season on a diversion shot as Daniel Cleary missed on his attempt but opened an opportunity for Kronwall.
Detroit’s third straight frustrated coach Stevens who was forced to eject their goalie, Jonathan Quick, out of the net after he failed to block three of seven attempts on his net in the first eight minutes of game play, replacing his with backup goalie,
Jonathan Bernier, who had an equally disappointing performance by letting five of 20 shots go through him in the remaining match.
Davis Drewiske finally put Los Angeles on the scoreboard with his second at the 17:15 mark to attempt breaking the Detroit scoring spree but it did not affect Cory Emmerton who added his second and last of the night a little over a minute later to put Detroit
at 4-1 entering the second period.
Jaret Stoll added LA’s second and last of the night 11:03 into the second after which followed a wild Detroit shooting streak which started with Henrik Zetterberg 1:03 after Stoll’s third of the season and led to Pavel Datsyuk with 22 seconds remaining,
Drew Miller for another nearly midway through the third and ended with Brad Stuart a little over halfway on a late power play opportunity.
"I think it's huge to get the contribution from everyone. There's going to be nights where our big guys aren't scoring all the time," Miller said. "You count on your third- and fourth-line guys to chip in and come up big for the team. It's good to see Emmer
get two goals. It's a little kudos for the third and fourth lines."
Detroit hopes for another win when they inaugurate their three-game Canadian road trip against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday while the Kings play Toronto Maple Leafs the same day, most likely with Darryl Sutter behind the bench.
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