NHL Sunday: Jonathan Quick preserves Kings win over pesky Oilers

The weekend in the NHL ended with a game that had to leave both teams feeling good about the directions in which they’re headed.

The Kings look like they’re gaining their sea legs a bit after a slow start. They play a heavy style of hockey, true, but Los Angeles’ success has always depended on their ability to control the puck in the offensive zone. At times throughout their visit to Edmonton on Sunday the Kings did that almost at will, possessing the puck along the boards without impediment from the Oilers before finding the open man.

To nobody’s surprise, the play was reviewed back in Toronto. The call on the ice was no goal, but video evidence showed that the puck might have fully crossed the line as Quick’s glove retreated further into the net.

But without any visual evidence of the puck buried in his glove, the referees upheld the no goal call and Quick escaped with the save of the year so far.

Trailing 5-4 with under two minutes remaining in the third period, Wild winger Jason Pominville tried to beat Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien off the rush along the boards. Pominville tripped, but tried to regain the puck as he got back on his feet. But that’s when Byfuglien decided to take him out of the play for good with a hit into the boards.

Pominville was slow to get up and required attention from the Wild’s medical staff before returning to the bench. He was clearly woozy, and you can see why from this angle:

As if that wasn’t depressing enough, they apparently have a giant sad puppy staring at them from behind their bench the whole game.

Boy. That’s a ruff thing to deal with. This is a great fan prank because it works on multiple psychological levels. The Wild will either be creeped out, confused or terribly sad when they look into the puppy-man’s large, sad eyes.

That goal was Zucker’s first of the season and broke the previous Wild franchise record for the fastest goal to start a game by two seconds. The Jets weren’t fazed, however, and quickly took control of the game with two goals in response.