June 5th, 2013
Another close call, but the Kings came up with another win at home. The Kings jumped out to a 2-0 lead agains the Blackhawks in game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, and held on for dear life in the final minutes before adding an empty net goal, securing the 3-1 victory. Justin Williams came up big again, scoring the first goal of the game, which was his 4th goal in the last 4 games. Williams said “I don’t think we were too uptight at all. We knew what we had to do, plain and simple. We’ve been here before, and we used that to help us tonight.” Really? because I was practically peeing in my pants, just knowing you had to win this game!
Jonathan Quick should be arrested for robbing Bryan Bickell of a goal late in the 3rd period. Quick somehow came up with a save from point blank range with the inside of his blocker. As I predicted, Quick rebounded from his subpar performance in game 2, by playing a spectacular game 3. Meanwhile, Slava Voynov’s agent could hear the cash registers ringing after scoring the game winning goal in the 2nd period. Voynov now has 5 goals in the playoffs, which is a record for Kings defenseman in the playoffs. He’s a restricted free agent this off-season, and the Kings will have to find a way to lock him up long term.
I expect Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith to be suspended for the next two games after high-sticking Jeff Carter. If he isn’t, Kings fan should be lining up with pitch forks and tiki torches outside of Brendan Shanahan’s office. Keith is a repeat offender, and we’ve already seen incidents like this where Shanahan suspended first time offenders for two games. Keith appeared to be sorry for the incident, but he should still be punished regardless of the intent.
Speaking of being sorry, Anze Kopitar needs to send Daryl Sutter an apology of some kind to get out of his coaches dog house. Kopitar was demoted to the third line after continuing his scoring struggles. His play last night wasn’t bad, but he needs to score goals if the Kings hope to win this series.
The Kings did a great job of imposing their style of play on the Blackhawks. LA made sure Chicago couldn’t build up speed through the neutral zone as they did in the first two games, and their defense was tighter than a Beyonce jumpsuit. They also knocked the Hawks around, outhitting them 36-26. The Kings aren’t back in the series yet, but if they bring the same effort to the table Thursday, I like their chances of tying this series up.