Arizona Coyotes Lit Up By LA Kings 6-2

The Arizona Coyotes had their lunch handed to them by the LA Kings on Tuesday night at Gila River Arena. After taking an early 1-0 lead, they ultimately fell to the Kings after allowing four goals in the second period.

The Arizona Coyotes were back in business in the desert on Tuesday night.

Or at least that’s what the program said. The team on the ice played like a shell of it’s usual tenacious self and the Kings made them pay dearly for their lack of jump.

After Jordan Martinook got the Coyotes on the board early against the run of play, the team began taking penalties hot and heavy and gave up the goals to prove it.

Jake Muzzin scored on the Kings’ first power play thanks to a Jeff Carter screen to tie the game 1-1.

Anthony Duclair got on the board after a nice feed from Max Domi to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead.

From there it all fell apart. Another Arizona Coyotes penalty led to an Alec Martinez goal with another Carter screen set in front of Louis Domingue.

Domingue proceeded to give up two more goals to end the second – including another center-ice shot (this time from Dustin Brown) – to send the Coyotes into the second intermission down 4-2.

Straight out of the locker room in the third period, Domingue gave up another laugher to Brown and he was pulled for Anders Lindback.

The Kings scored one more goal before the brutality was over to win 6-2.

Player Performance

There wasn’t much performance to speak of so in lieu of the typical player-centric discussion we’ll go a little more general.

Holes were apparent in every facet of the Arizona Coyotes game and they couldn’t get out of their own way when it came to undisciplined penalties.

The Kings were three for seven on their power play attempts while the Coyotes were zero for five. That’s the recipe for getting your ass kicked and that’s what happened tonight.

The Coyotes need the defense to step up on the penalty kill and clear the crease and protect the goaltender’s sight lines.

That’s a big part of the reason Nicklas Grossmann is even on this team, yet the first two Kings goals were a direct result of Jeff Carter camping out in front of Domingue and no one bothering to clear him out or even give him a hard time.

Both Grossmann and Martin Hanzal (among others) need to step it up and regain some aggression in their games. They are too big and Hanzal in particular is too valuable to be playing so passively – particularly against a big and brutal team like the Kings.

Arizona Coyotes Player of the Game

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Anthony Duclair continued his bounce back from being forced onto the fourth line with a nice goal and a pretty solid all around effort.

If the Duke continues putting up three or four shots on goal per night, he’s going to hit that 20 goal plateau pretty quickly.

The View From The 200 Level

There will be nights like this.

Unfortunately for the Arizona Coyotes, this is the second game in a row where Domingue has underperformed and the team has went right along with him.

It’s unfair to say effort is lacking but it certainly seems fair to say the Coyotes have came out flat two nights in a row (with an All-Star break in between).

Whether Louis Domingue can shake off his two poor outings remains to be seen, but no matter who is in net the players in front of that goalie need to be better.

Next: Arizona Coyotes' 2014-15 Fights, Part I

There’s no one clearing the crease on the penalty kill and there are too many odd man rushes given up in every facet of the game.

It gets no easier for the Yotes going forward.

The Arizona Coyotes take on the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night at Gila River Arena.