Depleted Kings shut out by Avalanche

LOS ANGELES — Playing with a makeshift defense corps against the team with the NHL’s best record, the Kings avoided outright embarrassment but couldn’t take any points or even a goal from the Colorado Avalanche, which took a 3-0 victory on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Jonathan Quick made 24 saves in a losing effort. The Kings were shut out for the sixth time this season and for the third time in two seasons by Colorado, specifically.

Winger Valeri Nichushkin scored one goal and assisted on another by forward J.T. Compher. Right winger Mikko Rantanen set up Nichushkin’s goal and added one of his own. Darcy Kuemper recorded his second consecutive shutout and his fifth of the season, turning away 23 shots on Tuesday after denying 46 against Calgary on Sunday.

The Kings are not down to their last defenseman but rather past him, as Tobias Bjornfot missed Tuesday’s game after sustaining an injury in overtime on Sunday. He joined five other Kings defensemen in the pressbox, meaning the Kings dressed more blue-liners from their minor-league affiliate the Ontario Reign’s opening night roster (4) than their own (0).

“We believe in the group that’s here,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “As they keep falling out, it gets tougher, you get deeper in the batting order and guys end up playing significantly more minutes against opponents that they normally wouldn’t play against, and that catches up with you after a while.”

Colorado featured new faces as well, including one on the back end. In less than 24 hours, they acquired Josh Manson from the Ducks, who made his Avalanche debut on Tuesday, and forward Nico Sturm from the Minnesota Wild, who was still in transit.

Regardless of roster composition or lineups, the Avs have owned the Kings of late. They have won both meetings this year by a combined 7-1 score and they took seven of eight matchups last year, including an 11-1 aggregate drubbing in the final two games of the season.

“Last year, playing this team, we gave up 55 or 56 shots. It was ugly. Tonight, we checked again, we did what we could,” said McLellan, whose undermanned Kings have given up just two even-strength goals in two games against two elite teams, Florida and Colorado. “I still believe that the group is further ahead now than it was last year against that team.”

The Kings went 0 for 4 on the power play. They were missing half their roster – 10 players, including significant man-advantage contributors like Drew Doughty and Viktor Arvidsson. But their futility has been a longer-standing reality that has gotten even worse in recent weeks. Since Feb. 26, they have scored just two goals with the extra man in 26 opportunities, which represents both the lowest total and lowest percentage league-wide during that span.

Compounding matters, they have had the third-worst penalty kill during that same stretch, and now have to insulate an inexperienced defense while also juggling forward lines as injuries mount.

“As short-staffed as we are, that’s where we have to take advantage of some of those situations and get at least one,” McLellan said.

“It does put more pressure on the power play and the penalty kill to get it done, and we haven’t been good all year in those situations, so it’s tough right now,” McLellan added.

The Kings nearly averted a shutout when they appeared to score with 12:50 left off a gorgeous shot by defenseman Christian Wolanin. But the play was reviewed and the goal was nullified due to an offside zone entry.

Colorado put the game away 5:03 into the third period. Rantanen stole the puck in the neutral zone, passed to winger Andre Burakovsky and then finished a give-and-go play off the rush with a one-timer that became his 29th goal of the season.

The waning moments of the second period were unkind to the Kings. First, center Anze Kopitar’s short-handed partial breakaway was thwarted by the swift skating of defenseman Cale Makar, who helped induce Kopitar into sending the puck wide of the net.

Colorado went the other way with a power play that concluded when Makar’s long shot through traffic was deflected past Quick by Compher. An uncharacteristically frustrated Kopitar was spotted throwing a water bottle from the bench and down the tunnel after the goal. Kopitar, who paces the Kings in points, and linemate Adrian Kempe, who leads the team in goals, have produced no goals and two assists in their last 10 outings.

With around six minutes remaining in the second period, Quick turned in a bit of vintage “Quickie” as he battled and contorted his body into more positions than a yoga instructor during a goal-mouth scramble. He made a pair of stops on Rantanen, and defenseman Jordan Spence, who led the Kings in time on ice in his fourth career game, blocked another shot attempt during the sequence.

Colorado nearly opened the scoring four minutes into the game when defenseman Ryan Murray rang the post with a shot. At the 6:36 mark, they did get on the board with a power-play goal.

Center Nathan MacKinnon moved the puck from high to low, finding Rantanen behind the net. He surveyed the ice and set up Nichushkin’s tap-in for his career-best 15th goal of the season.

“That group of five, when you put (Devon) Toews and Makar together on the back end and throw them out with the forward line that they were playing with, it’s tough even on the veteran players. They’re that good,” McLellan said.

There could be at least one reinforcement on the horizon for the Kings’ defense as Alex Edler took contact in practice Tuesday for the first time since breaking his ankle on Dec. 11 and is on track to return by the end of the month.

MANSON’S DEBUT

Manson quickly settled in after eight seasons with the Ducks, finishing with a plus-1 rating, one shot and 10 hits in 18:13 as he hopes to add some grit to a group known for its offensive skill.

“They have so much talent here that really all I need to do is just come in and fly under the radar and help keep pushing the team in the right direction,” Manson said before the game. “Doing the little things that I do that a lot of times just go unnoticed, and I think that’s kind of the best way to describe it is if I’m not being noticed, then it’s probably a good thing.”

News services contributed to this story.

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