The Phoenix Coyotes were absolutely demolished by the Los Angeles Kings last night, losing 4-0 for their second defeat in two games in the Western Conference finals.
Three of the best Coyotes players were booted from the game, while Kings center Jeff Carter dropped a hat trick on Coyotes goalie Mike Smith.
For the second straight game of this playoff series, Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick had to stop way fewer shots than Smith, as Quick stopped all 24 that came at him, compared to 36 saves on 40 shots for Smith.
The referees for this game apparently showed up to regulate a shuffleboard match, because almost every bit of physical play ended up in a freak-out causing major penalty minutes.
Captain Shane Doan was out for misconduct after "boarding" Kings center Trevor Lewis, who wasn't paying attention to the fact that there was a playoff hockey game going on around him.
Martin Hanzal also got hit with a misconduct penalty after "boarding" Kings queen Dustin Brown, who reacted to the hit as if the only way he was leaving the arena was in a body bag, then hopped up for the next play.
Antoine Vermette got his misconduct penalty late in the game for God knows what. (Here's the video if you'd like to figure it out.)
While the Coyotes felt like they were delivering good hits, and being penalized for it, they just appeared to get frustrated, and made some not-so-clean hits.
Smith got penalized for slashing Brown -- although Brown got a penalty of his own for another Hollywood performance -- while some of the other men you don't typically expect to be sent to the box on roughing penalties, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Keith Yandle, got busted for just that.
It's hard to win when you spend considerable time with three men on the ice, while the other team has five -- a situation that popped up a couple times because of the penalties.
Other than that, the Coyotes failed to get an offense going again, which was a problem in game one.
The Coyotes get to try this one again in Los Angeles on Thursday in game three.
