LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings were expected by many pundits to win on Wednesday night and sweep aside the New Jersey Devils for their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
History was not made on this night. In fact, the Kings were somewhat disappointing in their effort and were not nearly the team that raced out to a 3-0 series lead.
Devils head coach Peter DeBoer was matter of fact in his assessment of the difference in game four from the rest of the series.
“Not a whole lot different. We found a way to get the first goal. We found a way to keep momentum. We didn’t play any harder. I mean, I think the chances were relatively even again tonight, like they have been most of the games,” DeBoer said. “Our poorest effort was in Game 1. I think the last three games could have gone our way as easily as they’ve gone L.A.’s way. We finally got rewarded tonight.”
Adam Henrique came up with the game winning goal after the Kings had stolen away some of the thunder from the Devils after they took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Patrik Elias.
Elias’ goal came off a rebound to Jonathan Quick’s right side and he backhanded the puck into a wide open net.
The goal was in contract to the rest of the series where the Devils were missing open nets.
But the Devils’ David Clarkson was called for boarding immediately after the goal and the ensuing power play for Los Angeles resulted in a goal to knot the game at one apiece.
“We never give up. We always believe in ourselves,” said Ilya Kovalchuk, who scored an empty netter to seal the win. “It is nice — nobody is ready to go on vacation. We’ve got another week to play. We’re going to see what happens.”
The game itself was choppy and had no real flow to the play making. The Kings were playing as if the Cup was going to be handed to them and failed to go out and grab the play and force the play from their perspective.
For three games, the Kings had been the quicker teams with their sticks and their feet. For game four, the Devils were not so much faster as much as they negated the LA quickness.
In addition, the Kings were passive when they should have been forceful with their offensive effort and failed to pressure the Devils in the neutral zone or the offensive zone.
Henrique was asked if he felt the Devils were positioned to extend the series beyond game five.
“ For sure. There’s no question. There’s no better time than now to do it. Seems we waited to get that first one under our belt. It was a hard-fought game. It was close from start to finish. Coming down to the wire, it seemed whoever was going to get the next one with five or ten minutes to go was going to grab the win. We have to take it one game at a time. That’s the bottom line,” Henrique said.
Whether the Devils can extend the series beyond game five is dependent on their ability to continue their efforts from Wednesday. They did not play nearly as well as they wanted but they played better than Los Angeles.
Game five is Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark.
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