Game 80: Coyotes 3, Kings 2 (shootout)

For the next two games, the Kings need to get cracking. Sure, they are in the playoffs, but if they want to have any success, they need to pick up their game, and quick.

And speaking of Quick (weak transition, I know), this kid needs more support. No, I'm not talking from fans, although that would be nice as well. I mean really, we all know we have a possibly brilliant star on the Monarchs, but if we want to instill a winning atmosphere in L.A., it must be done the proper way. And that includes getting an accurate read of the talent on the ice, which means we ride the team, as is, into the playoffs.

No, the support I am talking about needs to come from the offense. In this seven-game slump, he's been given, on average, a little more than two goals a game. And while he needs to focus on what he can control, mainly his responsibility between the pipes, the scoring needs to be picked up.

Let's talk strengths, mainly the Kings penalty kill, which killed off all six penalties on Thursday. After killing off their fourth penalty, the momentum had clearly shifted in favor of the Kings. And that set up Drew Doughty's beauty of a goal, which hopefully attracts more attention to those East Coast writers and sways voters for the Norris Trophy. His goal was Orr-esque, which is a funny word to say out loud. Go ahead, try it.

Jack Johnson scored another beauty, taking a pass from Ryan Smyth and popping it past Jason LaBarbera. That gave the Kings a two-goal lead, which we all know is the most dangerous lead in professional sports. It looked as if Quick was finally going to notch his 40th (!) win of the season.

But Phoenix scored two scrappy goals in under two minutes late in the third, after the arena played Todd Rundgren's Bang The Drum All Day. Talk about tempting fate. Here is Rundgren is wailing about not wanting to work, and that lulls the Kings' into thinking the game is in the bag. People can blame the porous defense or lack of focus late in the game, I'm blaming Todd Rundgren. Curse you, Rundgren!

On the ice, there were two ugly white rectangles on each of the blue lines. I wondered if some kids had gotten on the ice and tagged their crew name, and Staples attempted to hastily paint over it, like CalTrans does on the freeway. But then it was pointed out by a fan that that was for the playoff logos. Ahhh, that's right. The Kings are heading into the playoffs. Well, let's hope they get more use out of those logos than just two games.

• AP: Coyotes rally in 3rd to stun Kings in shootout

“I just figured this goalie hadn’t seen too many hockey highlights, being in L.A.,” Aucoin said, laughing. “Maybe he hadn’t seen my special move. … We’re professionals. We’ve been playing this same way all year. Barbs made some great saves and kept us in it, and we finally capitalized.”

• LA Times: Kings let one slip away late against Coyotes

Quick's personal frustration was extended Thursday as the Kings squandered a late lead and lost to the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, in a shootout at Staples Center. The consolation point lifted them into fifth place in the Western Conference -- and a potential first-round playoff matchup against the Coyotes -- but it wasn't a lot of consolation at all.

• LA Kings: Kings bitten by dogs

The shootout loss brought the Kings to 98 points and moved them into fifth place in the Western Conference, with two games remaining in the regular season. If that holds, the Kings would face fourth-place Phoenix in the first round.

• NHL.com:  Coyotes rally for 3-2 shootout win over Kings 

Both teams will be in the playoffs for the first time since 2002 -- the single point gave the Kings 98; they are eighth in the West but could finish as high as fifth by winning their last two games, which would earn them a first-round matchup with the Coyotes.

They said it

“We work on our faceoffs a lot. We’ve got to be winning those battles on the boards. Our centermen work really hard to win those draws for us every night, and obviously they lose a few here and there, and when they do, we have to learn to recover from that and help them.” – Drew Doughty, on the Coyotes goals.

“The second one was my fault. I was blowing coverage there off the draw. I should be up on my winger there, and it’s a tip that goes in so it’s bad plays by us, mental miscues. I should definitely have that second one; nobody’s else’s deal. We’ve just got to sharpen up, know what your assignment is and do it.” – Matt Greene, on taking responsibility.

“The D-man came up on my, because I froze him with my shot, and I just dished it off to him and he made a great play. He drove it to the net and picked a corner. It was an awesome backhand goal.” – Ryan Smyth, on his pass on Johnson’s goal.

“The thing we wanted — and we talked about it before the game as a group — is to win this thing out. We would like to get over that 100-point plateau. I think that’s an important goal to achieve. At the end of the year, in the summer time, you’re talking about how your year was, and when you say, `We got 100-plus points,’ that’s a pretty nice thing. So we still have that opportunity." – Terry Murray, on the team's outlook.

Around the Kingdom

• The Throne Room: Wil-E-Coyote Always Loses in the End.

Kings played a pretty good game for 50 minutes tonight. Two mistakes in the last ten minutes allowed the Coyotes to tie in regulation. Two points were on the table, and the Kings needed a major shootout failure to lose this one with Jason LaBarbera in net for Phoenix. 

• HockeyBuzz's Matthew Barry: Anyone Wanna Buy My Playoff Tickets? Kings Choke Again 3-2

To come out flatter than Olive Oil's chest against a team that a) played an emotional home finale to wrap up home ice advantage LAST NIGHT - b) landed at 12:30am c) didn't get to bed until 2am and had no reason to play with any emotion, that's not a team I have any hope for whatsoever in the playoffs.

• ESPNLosAngeles' Tom Murray: What a bummer this game was

"A little lackadaisical," Jarret Stoll said. "You could tell in the third that we weren't getting on the forecheck and initiating, making things happen. We were sitting back in the neutral zone and you could tell that they were slowly, slowly coming and putting more pressure on us and boom-boom, it's a tie game."

From across the aisle, the Phoenix viewpoint

• AzCentral: Phoenix Coyotes relishing home ice edge in first round of NHL playoffs

Home-ice advantage in the postseason cuts both ways. Win the first two games, and a team is in great shape; lose them both or split, and the momentum of the series takes a serious swing.

• Ice Chips: Fiddler in running -- and should win -- Masterton Trophy 

 “His dedication to being a great teammate and his dedication doing whatever it takes for a team to win is invaluable to a group,” coach Dave Tippett said. “If you just see the things that he’s done for our group this year.

• Five For Howling: Coyotes Come Back In Third to Defeat Kings 3-2 in Shootout 

The powerplay continued it's exercises in futility as they went 0 for 5 again tonight. This is getting absolutely brutal, but hopefully it doesn't hurt too badly as the refs start to not want to use the whistles as much in the playoffs. 

• Hipchecks: Sorry I cannot hear you I'm kinda busy...

...watching the Coyotes win and move up in the standings! Woohoo! Sorry, I've been slightly obsessed with the Telephone video from Lady Gaga lately.

Peeping the dailies