Game 71: Blues 4, Kings 0

To peep out all the videos online about this game, check out today's Hockeywood Dailies.

After a brutal but triumphant road trip, where they had visited some pretty hostile places and came out unscathed, returned home to do battle with the St. Louis Blues.

And instead of building on the positive vibe of going undefeated on the road trip, the Kings came out flat, made too many defensive miscues, hardly shot the puck, and left goaltender Jonathan Quick hanging in the wind in a 4-0 embarrassment

Now let's keep things in mind: the Blues have OWNED the Kings this season. In fact, the Blues have been the Kings' Achille's Heel for the past seven games. There are just some teams that are the torn in the side, and, for some reason, that team is St. Louis.

Jaroslav Halak has a lot to do with that. The Czech goalie recorded his 17th shutout, although he wasn't the first star of the game. The dude only faced 17 shots, for Pete's sake. But he is a King-killer; he remains unbeaten against L.A. with a record of 4-0.

Whenever you have both Kyle Clifford and Kevin Westgarth in the lineup, you can tell it's gonna be a grinder of a game. And sure enough, the two got involved in scraps. Westgarth got some work in against Cam Janssen in a slobberknocker of a fight. Clifford, though, was punched in the face by Ryan Reaves. His legs folded like a cheap card table and the fight stopped before it got good.

Then, instead of going to the penalty box, he was escorted to the locker room. As per the new rules, a player must be "removed from the game and sent to a quiet place free from distraction so they can be examined by the on-site team physician." Some fans mused Clifford must be sitting in the back somewhere in a timeout chair. It invokes an image of the 6-foot-1 winger sitting on an over-sized chair, legs swinging as he sipped a Capri Sun and munching a cookie while a doctor flashed a light in his eyes.

On the contrary, Clifford never returned, and was later diagnosed with an "upper-body injury." Well, there really was only one part of Clifford's body that could've been injured, which means that punch from Reaves must've rung the wingers' bell.

After Clifford's departure, the Kings' rough-and-tumble gameplay seemed to evaporate. In fact, the whole game devolved into a game of grab-ass. Just watching the game confounded fans, who had witnessed this team plow through their last opponents by a combined 13-7 goal differential. The Kings' penalty kill provided the only bright spot of the game, and has now killed 26 straight penalties over last six games.

The Kings' couldn't shoot: they could only muster (officially)  six shots through two periods. And they couldn't keep shots either. Late in the second period, a Dustin Penner shot was deemed not a shot by officials, and was negated. Yeah, it was that kind of game.

The Kings' couldn't win in the faceoff circle either: the normally solid faceoff player Jarret Stoll won an Anze-Kopitar-esque 50 percent of the drops. In fact, Kopitar led the team with a 57 percent at the faceoff. When Kopitar leads your team in faceoff percentage, you know it was that kind of game.

The second goal late in the second seemed to sink the Kings' spirits. It actually looked like they had hit the spirits earlier, since it was St. Patrick's Day. It was uncharacteristic to see the team register their worst loss, goal-differential-wise, and wind up with their lowest shot tally all season. Yes, that kind of game.

Just as the Kings let a goal from the red line, as if on cue the Sharks took the lead in their game, to extend their lead on the Kings in the Pacific. And to think, for a brief moment in time this late in the season, the Kings were within one point of the Pacific leaders, when if it was for a few hours.

On the bright side, coming off a shutout this season, the Kings are 4-1 the  next game. Bad news for the Ducks, who come into Staples on Saturday. Let's hope the Kings could put this massacre behind them and focus on their divisional rivals, whom they will have to face three times in the next 11 games.

• AP: D’Agostini’s 2 goals lead Blues sweep of Kings

The Kings, who tied their previous season low for shots with 18 on Tuesday in a 4-2 win at Nashville, were outshot 24-3 through the first 31 minutes in front of a frustrated sellout crowd that saw them get shut out for the third time at home and sixth time overall this season.

• LA Times: Terry Murray is angry – with the fans

Murray seemed to think fans owe a blind loyalty and called the jeers "the most disappointing, frustrating thing" in a dispiriting evening. The Kings trailed, 2-0, and were being outshot, 30-6, and fans who paid good money were getting a bad performance that kept alive the fear lodged in the heart of the most optimistic among them.

• LAKings.com:  Kings lose to Blues 4-0 

Certainly, the Kings had the ability to rally from a two-goal deficit, but nothing in the first two periods suggested they would, and they didn't. In fact, the Blues added two goals, including one on a slap shot from the neutral zone. Afterward, Kings coach Terry Murray did little to hide his overall disdain for the game.

• NHL.com: Blues dominate Kings in 4-0 victory 

St. Louis outshot the Kings 13-2 in the opening period, taking the lead at 16:30 with D'Agostini's 16th goal of the season. He beat Quick to the glove side from the slot after the goaltender gave up a long rebound on Adam Cracknell's 30-foot wrister.

They said it

 “The only guy who probably was ready to go was Quickie. I thought he was tremendous in the first two-and-a-half periods. A couple tough ones, lucky bounces, and he was probably exhausted at that point. A trap game? Maybe. Sometimes you're going to have to fight through those." - Rob Scuderi, on the game.

“Everyone makes a big deal about that. I think it’s just a mindset, really. I mean, if you’re ready to play, whether it’s your first game back or not…tonight it didn’t matter if it was our first game back or we’d been home for four or five days. We play that way, we’re not going to win games.” - Dustin Brown, on losing the first home game after a road trip.

"I wasn’t thinking about pulling Quick. It’s one of those games where nothing is happening. The energy is low. The focus, the compete. You’ve got to play. You’ve got to hope, as you get through the game, that you’re still working on your game, you’re trying to get better. But changing goaltenders doesn’t do anything.” - Coach Terry Murray, on possibly considering pulling Quick.

"There are no easy games; we can’t take any nights off. It’s very frustrating, and if you’re not frustrated in this room then you shouldn’t be in it. It’s, for sure, a disappointing loss, especially the way we played. But it doesn’t matter if you lose 2-1 or 4-0, it’s a loss and it’s behind us now.” - Ryan Smyth, on the game.