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The Kings are in trouble. A third period rally was a case of too little too late as the Kings took a 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Their series is now tied at two games apiece.
The Kings saw this exact same situation take place in their first round series against the St. Louis Blues. The only difference was that in that series the Kings were the ones who went home to tie up the series. They then won the next two games to take the series. And that's where the trouble lies.
They got off to an awful start outshot by the Sharks 15-3 in the first period. It was actually worse than that. They gave the Sharks consecutive power plays in the second half of the period, and they could never get anything going. It was just plain awful.
There were glimmers of hope in the second period. There was an apparent goal scored by Tyler Toffoli which Antti Niemi never had control of in the second period, but the referees whistled the play prematurely.
Then there was the surge in the third period that was topped off by the gritty power play goal scored by Mike Richards.
But when the final horn blew, it was the Sharks gathered around their goaltender in celebration.
So how do the Kings solve the Sharks top two lines? How do they nullify Joe Thornton and Logan Couture? They have until Thursday to answer those questions.
