LOS ANGELES _ Almost eight years ago the New Jersey Devils and the Los Angeles Kings battled for Stanley Cup glory.
Saturday afternoon at Staples Center the biggest storyline was the Anderson brothers. Devils forward Joey faced his brother Mikey, a Kings prospect, in the latter's NHL debut. Neither player really factored into the end result of the game but with both teams at the bottom of the NHL standings it was a nice storyline to break up some of the doom and gloom of a losing season.
The stars of this game were the goalies, Mackenzie Blackwood and Jonathan Quick. It was almost like 2012 all over again with Quick outdueling a goalie in red. Adrian Kempe went top shelf over Blackwood 1:58 into overtime and the Kings handed the Devils their second straight overtime loss, 2-1.
Blackwood made 36 saves and Jesper Bratt scored his 15th goal of the season to improve his career-best mark.
"I didn't like our first (period), I thought we were on our heels a lot, but the second and third we pushed a little bit more and had more of a shooting mentality," interim coach Alain Nasreddine said. "We knew that we wanted to shoot the puck a lot more, we only had four shots in the first. In the third period we couldn't get that go-ahead goal. Blackie kept us in the game with that flurry he had."
Quick looked a little like his 2012 Conn Smythe self against New Jersey but his opposition, Blackwood, was even better. This was his first loss of the month, bringing his record for February to 6-0-1. He leads all NHL goalies with a .967 save percentage this month.
Every time he plays, he gives the Devils a chance to win by making big saves.
"I go back to the last month or month in a half, if we have the lead he keeps the lead and those are big saves," Nasreddine said. "Tonight, if he doesn't make those two saves (at the end of the third) we probably don't take it to overtime. That's what you want in a goalie is big saves and that's what we're getting right now with Blackie."
Defensive zone miscues proved costly for the Devils but Blackwood, under duress from the second period on, kept his team in the game.
The Kings finally cracked him at 13:14 of the second period when Alex Iafallo intercepted a pass by Damon Severson and found Dustin Brown. Brown and Anze Kopitar, two of few remaining players from the 2012 Stanley Cup team, played give-and-go and Brown had the final go, going high over Blackwood to tie the game at 1-1.
Nikita Gusev set up Bratt for the one-timer at 7:19 in the first when he danced through the Kings' zone and slid a feed to Bratt at the bottom of the right circle. It was an impressive play from an impressive playmaker.
Neither of these teams played well in the defensive zone in the third period but there were a few good plays made by the Devils in the closing minutes. Ultimately, Quick and Blackwood kept it tied to extend the goalie duel into overtime.
The Devils have struggled with 3-on-3 overtime periods all season and this one was no different. The Kings forced the Devils into the defensive zone and they couldn't get a line change. A long shift resulted in Blake Lizotte going back for the puck in the neutral zone and finding Kempe drifting to the circle just as the Devils were finally able to get another player on the ice.
"They did a good job of keeping the puck to the outside and not forcing anything, not forcing any shots, so we didn't have an opportunity to recover the puck," Blackwood said. "When they get the opportunity to make three, four line changes and our guys are trapped out there just doing circles in our end, we're tired and they're fresh so it's a recipe for disaster."
New Jersey is 6-11 in overtime games this season. It's somewhat meaningless in the grand scheme of things considering the team is about to be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention any day now, but moving forward the club might want to take a look at some of their 3-on-3 systems and structures.
"We do have a structure in place and a game plan," Nasreddine said. "It wasn't the right decision made and that happens. We just couldn't get (the puck) back."
