The Defense Never Rests

You can talk about Tomas Sandstrom’s shot today if you want. It was a shot heard from Canada to California. It was the only shot Sandstrom took all night and he blasted it past Toronto’s terrific goaltender to win Wednesday night’s playoff game for the Kings, 3-2, so there is every reason to talk about it.

Me, I’d rather talk about something else.

I don’t feel like discussing any of the Kings’ shots.

I feel like discussing the shots the Kings stopped.

So did Luc Robitaille, who said, “People say we can’t play defense, but we showed ‘em.”

Hockey people praise Los Angeles for its defense about as often as they praise Los Angeles for its clean air. Many of them conveniently ignored the kind of defense played by the Kings during the first two periods of Monday’s defeat because of what happened to them in the third period, when, as Tony Granato put it, “Toronto dominated us like we’ve never been dominated before.”

That particular period left the Kings pretty red-faced, except for Marty McSorley, who was served a knuckle sandwich by Wendel Clark and was left purple-faced. No man among the Kings was eager for a second helping of such humiliation in Game 2, and so it pained them Wednesday to watch two pucks trickle past Kelly Hrudey before four minutes had ticked past in the game.

But that was that.

Not one shot got by Hrudey over the next 56 minutes.

I’d say that L.A. played some pretty strong defense.

“I’d say that was an understatement,” Hrudey said.

Felix (The Cat) Potvin, his counterpart from Toronto, had not given up three goals in any of his previous three games. Every time he was in a fix, Felix reached into his bag of tricks.

So I hated to see the Maple Leafs stake him to a 2-1 advantage. I particularly hated this because I figured there was no way the Kings were going to hold the Leafs scoreless for the rest of the night.

Well, they showed me.

“Of all the playoff games we’ve played, this one might have been our best team effort,” Wayne Gretzky said.

Last time it was Los Angeles that could barely get off a shot in the third period. This time it was Toronto that pulled the trigger only once during the third period’s first 14 minutes.

Was it the goaltending?

Not entirely. I know there are many people who will consider this contest a Hrudey awakening. But that wouldn’t be altogether fair to the King goaltender, who often cannot control what is happening in front of him.

Some of what he has gone through this season--slumps and criticism in particular--prompted Hrudey to say after Wednesday’s game: “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

But now he’s not only in the crease, he’s in a groove.

“This isn’t some all-of-a-sudden turnaround,” Hrudey said. “I’ve been telling everybody since the first of March that I feel real good out there. People think I woke up two days ago feeling great.

“This team has confidence in me and I have confidence in them. We don’t critique each other. All six guys on the ice are playing defense, not just me, and when the forwards are helping me out, then we can play team defense as well as most teams. I’ve liked our chances in this series all along and I like them even better now.”

The first goal Hrudey gave up came when the Kings were shorthanded. And it was scored by Doug Gilmour, who could probably score playing one-against-six.

The second goal came when Glenn Anderson zeroed in on Hrudey from point-blank range. Loni Anderson could have scored from there.

After that, the red bulb burned no more.

Nikolai Borschevsky came bearing down on Hrudey and was turned aside. Todd Gill reared back and slapped one that Hrudey stabbed with his glove. Jamie Macoun sprang from the penalty box, broke toward the goal and had Hrudey dead to rights, but Hrudey was up to it. He turned over one new Leaf after another.

And at least one eye through his mask always had to stay on Gilmour. Hrudey said: “He’s dangerous. He’s tricky. He’s hard to find. He doesn’t stand in one spot. He’s in front of you and he’s behind you and he’s on either side of you.”

It was all Hrudey could do to keep Toronto at bay while waiting for one of his teammates to slap home the game-winner.

The Kings are supposedly great scorers, but Robitaille and Jimmy Carson have only five goals apiece in 14 playoff games--they got off one shot apiece Wednesday--and Granato, too, had been awfully quiet before tying the score at 2-2. Gretzky didn’t try a shot in the third period and once-hot Warren Rychel didn’t try one all night.

But Sandstrom did.

One. And one was enough.

“You know what pleased me about what happened after Sandstrom’s goal?” Hrudey asked. “We didn’t go into some sort of shell. We stayed aggressive out there. We kept peppering their goaltender. That was nice. Now let’s go home and pick up where we left off.”

McSorley had a better idea.

“Let’s turn the Great Western Forum into a real skating party,” he said.