BOSTON — Milan Lucic looked as though he didn’t want the night to end, taking the ice after both teams left to thank the fans who showered him with cheers most of the game.
It was a banner night for his teammates, too.
Lucic scored in his return to Boston, Drew Doughty had a power-play goal for his 300th career point and the Los Angeles Kings had nine goal scorers in a 9-2 rout of the Bruins on Tuesday.
“I didn’t have it planned. A couple of teammates told me to go out and do it,” Lucic said of his postgame skate. “I can’t thank (the fans) enough for making tonight a special night for me in my return.”
The 27-year-old Lucic played eight seasons with the Bruins and was a member of their 2011 Stanley Cup championship team. Boston traded the popular wing at the beginning of last summer.
The Bruins played a video tribute to Lucic midway through the first. He got a long standing ovation from fans, with loud chants of ‘Loooch!“ He smiled and raised his stick to the crowd, and skated around waving at the end.
Lucic also scored the Kings’ seventh goal off a rebound of Anze Kopitar’s shot.
“As much as I was looking at this game, I’m glad it’s finally over so I can stop thinking about it and thinking about the rest of the road trip and all those type of things,” Lucic said.
Marian Gaborik added a goal and an assist for Los Angeles, which had lost four of six. Doughty also had an assist.
Jeff Carter, Andy Andreoff, Dwight King, Trevor Lewis, Luke Schenn and Dustin Brown also scored for the Kings, who chased Boston’s starting goalie, Tuukka Rask, during the second period on the way to setting a season high for goals.
Los Angeles also had a season-best 57 shots on net. That was the most shots against Boston since Detroit had 57 on March 18, 1965.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been with the Kings when they’ve got nine goals,” Doughty said. “It was fun, a lot of fun.”
Brad Marchand scored his team-leading 25th goal, and Tyler Randell had the other score for the Bruins, who lost in regulation for just the third time in 11 games (7-3-1). Rask gave up five goals on 32 shots.
“I feel like we got absolutely embarrassed,” Boston captain Zdeno Chara said. “Obviously, they played a good game. We were nowhere near the game we needed to play.”
It’s the most goals Boston has allowed since a 10-2 loss at Washington on March 3, 2008, and the most at home since giving up 10 to Toronto in January 2007.
“A lot of things went wrong,” Bruins centre Patrice Bergeron said. “So it’s hard to really, standing here, name them all.”
Jonathan Quick made 35 saves for the Kings.
Trailing 1-0, the Kings scored twice in the closing 2 minutes of the first. Carter’s attempted pass to the front caromed into the net off defenceman Kevan Miller’s stick.
Gaborik’s backhander from the side of the net slipped past Rask 1:23 later, pushing the Kings ahead.
They broke it open with four goals in the second, chasing Rask with 7:18 left in the period.
Andreoff stole Miller’s attempted clearing pass and slipped a wrister inside the post, making it 3-1.
Doughty scored when he caromed a shot off Rask’s back from behind the net at 12:09 for his milestone point.
Only 33 seconds later, King scored off a rebound, making it 5-1 and sending Rask to the bench in favour of backup Jonas Gustavsson.
Lewis’ goal with 64 seconds left made it 6-1 and brought a chorus of boos from the crowd, which grew louder when the teams headed off at the end of the period.
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead when Marchand scored on a power play.
NOTES: Marchand surpassed his goal total from last season (24) and is three short of his career high set in 2011-12. … It was one goal short of a season high allowed by Rask, who gave up six against Tampa Bay on Oct. 12. … The teams came in with two of the NHL’s top four power plays. Boston was ranked second. The Kings went 3 for 3 and the Bruins 1 for 3. … Boston RW Loui Eriksson needs two goals to reach 200 in his career.
