Stanley Cup finals: LA Kings snatch another win from New York Rangers

Before this series began, there was talk of history. Primarily, that it had been 20 years since the New York Rangers had been in the Stanley Cup final – and the last time they were, they (led by captain Mark Messier), won the thing. Whether the Rangers have thought much on that is unknown.

But more recent history was no doubt on their minds Saturday night, as they once again took a two-goal lead over the LA Kings early, only to watch their lead slip away, and have to settle things once again in overtime. And, as it was Wednesday night, the Kings came out on top, beating the Rangers 5-4 to take a 2-0 series lead, heading back to New York for Game 3 Monday night.

As it had Wednesday night in Game 1, the Rangers got off to a good start. Ryan McDonagh capitalized on a good Rangers fore-check, taking the pass from Dominc Moore near the top of the circle and firing one through traffic past Jonathan Quick (who never saw it) for a 1-0 lead.

Eight minutes later, just before the end of the period, Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello jumped on a turnover by Kings defenceman Matt Green, then hung around the side of the net and banged in a rebound off yet another McDonagh shot from the point.

And, just like Wednesday night, the two-goal lead didn’t last. The Kings responded early in the second, when Jarret Stoll wristed one past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Finally, the familiar script was broken when just under seven minutes later, the Rangers scored – this time on the power play. McDonagh was again part of it again, passing it up the boards to Chris Kreider, who in turn fed it along to Derek Stepan. From there, Stepan laid it up nicely for none other than Martin St Louis, who fired it behind Quick from his familiar spot at the face-off circle.

LA responded yet again. With Zuccarello in the box for tripping, the Kings Willie Mitchell slapped one by Henrik Lundqvist.

But only 11 seconds later, Zuccarello returned to the ice and assisted Derick Brassard’s sixth of the playoffs. Fighting off the memories of Game 1, the Rangers still held their two-goal lead going into the third period. It wasn’t enough. Less than two minutes into the third frame, Dwight King closed the gap by one, making it 4-3 New York. There was some controversy, as it clearly looked as though he’d interfered with Lundqvist, but no call was made on the play, and the game went on.

Less than six minutes later, this happened:

The clock wound down, and the Rangers found themselves back in sudden-death overtime against the Kings in a game they should have won. Just over a half-hour later, 10 minutes into the second overtime period, as the team trainers were reportedly bringing out pizza in anticipation that the players may have to carbo-load for the long haul, the Kings scored again and ended it. This time, it came care of another clutch LA player, the captain Dustin Brown, who redirected a Willie Mitchell shot from the point past Lundqvist.

Los Angeles is a curious case. As CBC’s Elliotte Friedman pointed out on Twitter after the game was over, the Kings haven’t led the Rangers for a single second during either of the two first contests, and yet leads the series 2-0. It’s an impressive stat – or a damn lucky one. That is, until you consider Friedman’s follow-up tweet:

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 8, 2014

LA never had a lead against CHI in Game 7, either

I’m not sure what the odds are of that kind of thing happening, but I imagine they are small. Very small – as in total anomaly small. And yet, perhaps we could have expected it. For those analytics lovers, there’s the evidence via Extra Skater that the Kings Fenwick score (shot attempts) was better throughout the entirety of the game, perhaps suggesting that the true abnormality of Saturday night’s game was that the Rangers led for so much of it.

So, is there anything the Rangers can do about this Kings team? Could they be better on the power play? They went 20% on the man advantage Saturday night versus the Kings’ 25%. But the Rangers matched the Kings in other areas. The Rangers hit the Kings 51 times and were hit 50. New York won 54 face-offs; LA won 56. They were equal at 20 blocked shots apiece. The Rangers even bettered the Kings at times. LA gave up the puck a whopping 33 times over the course of the four-and-a-half periods; New York had only 15 giveaways.

After Game 1, the Rangers didn’t seem too worried. There was plenty to be happy with in their performance, they said, and lots to build on for Game 2. And there was reason to believe they were genuine in their assessment – after all, they nearly stole Game 1 on the road. Now, though? There was still a lot to be happy with – speed, turnovers, goaltending – and as above, they matched the Kings in many aspects of the game, but none of it was good enough.

To paraphrase Stephen Colbert, the Kings are at this point nothing more than giant, marauding, godless hockey machines. Approach at your own risk. Good luck, New York.