No happy birthday for Jonathan Quick as Kings top Rangers 4-3: Takeaways
On the eve of his 40th birthday, Jonathan Quick started in goal for the New York Rangers against his former team, the Los Angeles Kings. However, the Rangers couldn’t quite deliver the present Quick wanted most, a victory, in a 4-3 loss to the Kings at Crytpo.com Arena on Tuesday.
Quick, who backstopped the Kings to Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014 (against the Rangers), stopped 23 of 27 shots Tuesday, but his winless streak extended to 12 games (0-10-2). He hasn’t picked up a win since Nov. 7.
The Rangers (21-24-6) never held a lead in this one, but they came awfully close to erasing a late two-goal deficit. J.T. Miller’s second goal of the game at 19:33 of the third period drew the Rangers to 4-3; and his offensive-zone face-off win in the closing seconds nearly set up a tying-goal, but the Rangers pushed a loose puck wide of the Kings net as the final buzzer sounded.
Will Cuylle scored the other goal for the Rangers, who lost consecutive nights in SoCal, after a 5-3 defeat in Anaheim against the Ducks on Monday.
Anton Forsberg replaced injured starter Darcy Kuemper late in the first period, and made 28 saves on 29 shots for the Kings, who had four different skaters score goals: Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala, Taylor Ward, and Andrei Kuzmenko.
It didn’t long for the Kings to jump out to an early lead. Backing the Rangers off with a speedy entry over the blue line, Kempe buried a give-and-go with defenseman Brandt Clarke past a sprawling Quick just 18 seconds into the game to put the visitors in a 1-0 hole.
The Kings nearly doubled their lead at 7:35, but Quinton Byfield shoveled a backhand shot wide of the net after blowing past Alexis Lafreniere and Carson Soucy for a breakaway opportunity. That missed chance proved costly when the Cuylle scored his 11th goal to tie the game less than a minute later.
The goal at 8:18 originally was credited to Scott Morrow, whose shot hit Kuemper’s pad and then the skate of a Kings defenseman before bouncing over the goal line. Apparently the original shot barely glanced off Cuylle, when he jumped up in the air to avoid being hit by the puck as he set up a screen in front. It would’ve been Morrow’s first goal with the Rangers since the rookie defenseman was acquired by New York last summer in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The tie score didn’t last long, though. A simply atrocious turnover by Vladislav Gavrikov in front of his own net after a Rangers defensive-zone face-off win led directly to Fiala’s team-leading 18th goal at 9:00 to put the Kings back up 2-1.
The gaffe was a stunning mistake by the steady veteran, and must’ve been even more painful for Gavrikov considering this was his first game back in L.A. playing against his former team since he signed a seven-year, $49 million contract with the Rangers on July 1.
To their credit, the Rangers answered back again, tying the game at 16:36 on Miller’s first goal of the night. The Rangers captain skated down the middle and buried a pretty pass from Mika Zibanejad, who extended his point streak to 10 games with the assist.
Kuemper left the game with 38.8 seconds remaining in the first period, after Jonny Brodzinski’s leg accidentally hit the goalie on the side of his head when the Rangers forward crashed the crease. As it turned out, it wasn’t to the Rangers benefit that Forsberg stepped in for the injured No. 1 goalie.
Forsberg made 16 saves in the second period, and the the Kings scored twice to extend their lead to 4-2. Ward popped a loose puck into the net at 4:23 after a strong O-zone shift by the Kings, and a fortuitous bounce off Braden Schneider’s skate that left the puck on the doorstep for the rugged L.A. forward to put away for his first goal of the season.
Kuzmenko made it 4-2 at 12:37, backhanding his 10th goal past Quick after the Rangers failed to clear the zone, and the goalie left a juicy rebound after a long shot by Fiala. In between scoring a pair of goals, the Kings also killed off consecutive penalties, including a 5-on-3 Rangers power play that lasted 1:36.
Midway through the third period, the Rangers successfully challenged Alex Laferriere’s goal which would’ve given the Kings a 5-2 lead. Video review confirmed that Corey Perry made contact with Quick’s pad before the shot sailed past the Rangers goalie.
But the Rangers couldn’t do anything with that break until the frantic final minute, when Miller scored his 13th goal on a desperation shot from the right-wing boards. But it was too little, too late, and the Rangers lost for the seventh time in their past eight games (0-6-1).
Key takeaways after Rangers’ 4-3 loss to Kings
Final farewell?
Not only did Quick want this one before turning the big 4-0 on Wednesday, and likely needed it for his sanity now that he’s two months and counting without a victory. But this very well could’ve been his final game in Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena. Given his age and declining play, especially of late, and the Rangers in a retool, there’s a good chance Quick retires at the end of the season.
The all-time winningest United States-born goalie in NHL history is heading to the Hall-of-Fame one day, largely due to his 16 terrific seasons with the Kings. Quick holds the Kings record with 370 wins, nearly 200 more than Rogie Vachon, who’s second on that list with 171. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs in 2012 and, of course, led the Kings to the only two Stanley Cup championships in franchise history.
He doesn’t share his emotions publicly, but this one had to be special for Quick, despite the result, which dropped him to 1-2-0 against his former team, including a pair of losses as the visiting goaltender in this arena.
Royal backup plan
The star of this game was a player who started the night on the bench, and didn’t get onto the ice until under a minute remained in the first period. Forsberg turned in an excellent performance with 16 saves in the second period and 12 more in the third, putting forth a near spotless relief performance after Kuemper exited with an injury.
Perhaps it benefitted Forsberg that he entered the game late in the opening period, didn’t face a shot, and then had the intermission to better prepare himself for the rest of the contest. But give credit where credit is due, the 33-year-old was terrific, especially in light of Kuemper’s uneven play before he got hurt.
Forsberg was L.A.’s best penalty killer when they held the Rangers off the scoreboard during that second-period 5-on-3. And in the third period, he made point-blank saves in separate sequences against Lafreniere, Morrow, and Lafreniere again.
Missed opportunity
The Rangers power play began the night ninth in the NHL, after producing a pair of goals Monday in Anaheim. But when given a massive opportunity to make a difference for the Rangers on Tuesday, their power play came up empty. That’s not to say the power play wasn’t good, it was. The Rangers recorded seven shots on goal during back-to-back power opportunities, when Laferreriere was penalized for roughing at 8:22 of the second period, and Joel Edmundson tripped Vincent Trocheck 25 seconds later.
Forsberg and the Kings frustrated the Rangers and their five-forward grouping time and again over that span of 2:25. Cuylle and Miller each was robbed by Forsberg on point-blank looks in tight.
It’s hard to blame the Rangers here. But it was a one-goal game at that point, and the Rangers came away empty, before falling further behind shortly thereafter when the Kings scored at even strength to make it 4-2.
