Wednesday’s Three Stars: Kopitar, Doughty lead Kings to Game 1 win over Devils
Rex Ryan, no doubt using good, clean language.
No. 1 Star: Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
The Kings' first line centre scored the overtime winner in the Kings' 2-1 win over the Devils, taking a sweet breakaway feed from Justin Williams and sliding the puck under an outstretched Martin Brodeur. He also added 4 shots, 4 hits, and won 14 of 24 faceoffs. Lots of fours in there. That's not meaningful or anything. Just something I noticed.
No. 2 Star: Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
Brodeur did what he's done well his entire career, keeping the Devils in the game when they were chasing the play. He made some excellent plays with his stick, and he stopped 21 of 23 shots. His best saves came on this padstacktacular sequence:
No. 3 Star: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
Doughty was on the ice for both Kings' goals and picked up the second assist on the Kopitar goal. But his best work doesn't show up on the statsheet. The Devils lost this game because they couldn't establish their forecheck, and they'll spend the next two days telling the media that it was because they didn't work hard enough or push the tempo or whatever, but the truth is that Doughty, who played 28 minutes, evaded them constantly with fabulous outlet passes and smooth puck-carrying
Honourable mention: Jarret Stoll went 9-for-10 in the faceoff circle ... Danius Zubrus registered 8 hits ... Bruce Bennett took this fabulous photo:
Dishonourable mention: The Devils had a lot of chances to ice this game, the most egregious being Mark Fayne's whiff in the third period ... Here's Zach Parise's disallowed goal from the perspective of the net cam. It's super cool. My favourite part is when the official calls it a "hand pass into the net." Isn't that a hand shot?
