LOS ANGELES — Arthur Kaliyev had an up-close-and-personal chance to tie the score with 2:56 left on Wednesday, but Ilya Samsonov swallowed up that shot the way he had 33 others.
As the players unsorted themselves, Washington’s Tom Wilson, the bully of the Beltway, came in behind Brandon Lemieux and gave him a shot to the ribs that probably cost him some shut-eye Wednesday night.
Was that why Kings coach Todd McLellan called it a “playoff-ish” game at Staples Center? Actually, it looked like a lot of regular-season action so far, a lot of sweat and soreness exchanged for not much scoring.
This time the Kings lost, 2-0, the first time they’ve emerged pointless from a game since a 3-2 regulation loss to Winnipeg on Oct. 28. That was nine games ago.
“We’re going to be playing tight games like this the rest of the season,” McLellan said. “But you’ve got to take advantage and score goals when you have a chance.”
The Kings turned Alex Ovechkin’s night into something uneventful, even though they were playing 20-year-old Tobias Bjornfot and Mikey Anderson (22) as the primary defense pair against Ovechkin’s line. The 36-year-old Washington scoring machine got one decent shot on Jonathan Quick during a power play but wasn’t terribly visible otherwise.
It was scoreless until 3:30 remained, when Washington set up in front of Quick. A pass ricocheted off the skate of L.A.’s Alexander Edler, and John Carlson sent the puck toward the goal, where Garnet Hathaway had sneaked in behind Quick. Hathaway got the tap-in, and later Carlson scored an empty-netter.
“Both teams played with structure, so that is what happens,” Anderson said. “They got the bounce and we didn’t.”
“When it hit Edler’s skate it changed everything about the way guys were reading the play,” McLellan said.
Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek have plugged the Washington goal nicely in the early season, and Samsonov improved his personal record to 5-0-0 with his second shutout of the year. Washington, playing without Lars Eller and T.J. Oshie, improved its record to 10-2-5.
The Kings have given up just 16 goals in their past nine games, and that’s without Drew Doughty in the lineup. Some of it is solid goaltending, some of it could be an aggressive offensive style that keeps the puck in harmless places on the ice. They have only permitted more than three goals once (a 7-3 loss to the Blues).
“I think the goalie made some nice saves and I didn’t think we made it hard enough on him,” Anze Kopitar said. “It’s usually a combination of both. We have to find a way to score.”
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