Tyler Toffoli’s play comes through loud and clear in Kings’ win over Rangers

Not even Jarret Stoll knew what Tyler Toffoli was saying.

Spumoni?

“No clue,� said Stoll, the former Kings player and current FS West intermission analysts. “Sorry Toff.�

Toffoli had gone off-script during Tuesday’s first intermission report, having been pulled aside to describe the sharp-angle goal Dustin Brown had scored with 10 seconds remaining in the opening period, a tally that concluded an eight-shot, 33-second sequence in the Kings’ 3-1 win over the New York Rangers at Staples Center.

“It was a bit of a Spumoni shift there,� Toffoli said, half-smiling at a term rooted so deep in hockey lore, few players even know what it means.

“No idea,� a puzzled Drew Doughty said.

“Not myself,� Blake Lizotte said with a chuckle when asked if he uses the term, which, when searched on the internet, returns images of Italian ice cream.

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Defenseman Matt Roy finally filled in the blanks. In short, Spumoni — derived from the bear-fighting scene in the 2008 film “Semi-Pro� — has been co-opted into a hockey code word for a long shift stuck in one end of the ice. Toffoli summed it up using layman’s lexicon.

“Nuts,� he said. “It’s crazy.�

Whatever the meaning, the Kings benefited from it Tuesday night, riding Toffoli’s bounce-back performance to their first win in five games.

Before Tuesday, Toffoli had gone nine games without a goal. On Monday, coach Todd McLellan said that Toffoli “had more to give,� then dropped the former 30-goal scorer to the fourth line against the Rangers. Two months after healthy-scratching Toffoli, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, McLellan was challenging the 27-year-old forward again.

Against that backdrop, Toffoli delivered his best performance in weeks, playing on both wings and creating havoc all over the ice.

“I feel like there’s a general consensus that, I know that I need to play better,� said Toffoli, who has 15 points in 31 games. “I accept that ... and I thought I did it tonight.�

Toffoli’s first-period assist came mid-line change, leaving him on the ice alongside top-liners Brown and Anze Kopitar during the breathless shooting barrage. In the second, Toffoli doubled the Kings’ lead by outmuscling a defenseman in front of the net to knock home a rebound. In the third, he and new linemates Matt Luff and Michael Amadio played key minutes to help goalie Jonathan Quick complete an electric 29-save win.

“He managed the game well,� McLellan said of Quick, who also dealt with several bouncing pucks around his crease, “and he made the saves when we needed them.�