4 In a Row via Kopitar: Kings Over Coyotes and Blue Jackets

This weekend saw the Los Angeles Kings on their second back-to-back in this young season and I can't decide who has been the star of these past two games; wait, I can, but Jarret Stoll needs props. Stoll has scored his 3 goals in the last two games and has been effective in the faceoff circle and on the forecheck. On the other hand, Anze Kopitar now leads the league in both goals and points, 10 and 21, respectively. Obviously Kopitar is the player of the weekend, week, and month! He's been an absolute stud for the Kings and I couldn't be happier.

Last night the Kings faced the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time this season where they fared quite a bit better winning 6-2. The story of the game was Jason Chimera getting up ended by Rob Scuderi. Scuderi went to deliver what looked like was going to be a hip check but ended up actually clipping Chimera right in the knees. It was definitely low but it wasn't an intentionally dirty hit. Unfortunately, Chimera looked like he got his head throttled back as he flipped over, but I honestly can say Scuderi wasn't intending for that to happen, which I'm sure is something we all can agree on. Many people will have an opinion, so have at it. Or not.

By the way, the punch to the back of Alexander Frolov's head was REALLY not needed. You can be frustrated, Chimera, but let's leave the punching off the ice. Speaking of Frolov, this weekend he notched two goals and two assists, and I can only hope that he has officially been let out of the doghouse with his production. You really couldn't have asked for more from Frolov in last night's game; perhaps he could have stayed on his feet more against Phoenix, but Fro isn't perfect so I can't hate.

(LAKings.com)

Ryan Smyth continues to be his beastly self logging big ice time and making sure his presence is felt by the opposition. He was on the Fan590 on Friday and was asked about the upcoming Olympics. I don't think anyone is surprised that he was honored by the invite and would love to be a part of Team Canada.

(LAKings.com)

The difference between this game and Saturday's game against the Phoenix Coyotes is that the Kings beat the Jackets handedly while they were on the verge of another collapse against the Coyotes. This was a 5-3 win for the Kings but, let's be honest, it could have resulted in another OT stint or just a straight up loss. Instead the Kings readjusted themselves and finished the game with two more points.

Dustin Brown and Jarret Stoll were the highlights of this game. Brownie had over 21 minutes of TOI and had two goals. One was an empty netter, which neither the team nor he really needed. It appeared that he was just skating toward the Coyotes' empty net with no real intention to finish the game off with a pompous gesture. I'm not even sure the puck slid past the goal line before time ran out, but I would have still been happy if it wasn't counted. Stoll had two goals, 18 minutes of TOI, and a respectable 50% win in the faceoff circle.

(LAKings.com)

Some more tidbits to chew on:

• Jonathan Quick is currently tied for first in the NHL in wins. He has 8 wins, as do Craig Anderson and Marc-Andre Fleury.
• Drew Doughty lead the team in ice time for both games: 27:38 against the Coyotes and 23:34 against the Blue Jackets.
• The most invisible player on the ice has been Teddy Purcell. What is the issue there?
  

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A Little More Up And Down Action

Firstly, my apologies for the delayed post. My only excuse: Life is getting in the way.

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Currently the Los Angeles Kings are sitting 8th in the Western Conference with 10 points and are 3rd in the Pacific Division. With 9 games in I'm neither ecstatic nor depressed with the results; the Kings are showing that they can compete and that they can take a nosedive at any moment. This was the end of their longest road trip of the year and it just may be the start of something great.

On Saturday evening, I had the unfortunate occurrence of accidentally seeing the score of the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets while watching another game. Too bad Leafs TV is really good about keeping you updated around the league. The Toronto Maple Leafs started their game at 4:00 pm PST; I saw the Kings were down 4-1 around the middle of the 3rd period of the Leafs game, and (since the games began at the same time) I knew the Kings were going to lose the game. How utterly deflating. There is absolutely nothing that can salvage the feeling of already knowing the outcome of a game, especially when it's in favor of the other team.

At first I was upset that I saw the score, and then I was irritated that the Blue Jackets got 4 pucks past Jonathan Quick. Needless to say, I was not very enthusiastic watching the game later. There's something about watching a game knowing your team is going to lose that is very unappetizing. It might have led to my falling asleep at times. That being said, the Kings didn't look THAT bad. In my zombie-like state, I didn't think they played worse than some of their other losses. With that, I'm done with this recap.

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For the game I was actually awake and excited for, the Kings decided to bounce back and play like a coherent team yesterday against the Dallas Stars. They won 4-1 to the relief of everyone and proved they can play hockey like professionals. Everything about this game was better than their previous game and capped off this road trip very nicely. They were over .500 in the faceoff circle (thank you Jarret Stoll), ceased taking sloppy penalties for 60 minutes, and collapsed around their own net protecting the goalie.

(LAKings.com)

Going into this game, Bob Miller and Jim Fox mentioned that the top line of Ryan Smyth, Anze Kopitar, and Justin Williams had a combined 29 points in the first 8 games. After they picked up another 6 points against the Stars, the top line is sitting pretty with 35. Okay people, I'm fully on board with the Smyth Train. Williams? I'm getting there. Also I'm over Marty Turco. I don't quite understand the love affair people have with him. I've witnessed far too many meltdowns to have any confidence he's going to stop enough pucks to win games for his team. Am I being too critical? I think not, but let me know what you think!

(LAKings.com)

Also Alexander Frolov is on the hot seat. After the poor performance against the Blue Jackets, Frolov was benched for being a turnover machine while also falling down at inopportune times causing goals against, among other things. Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider posted a transcript of his conversation with Frolov about what happened between him and the coaching staff. Per Hammond: here's what Terry Murray had to say and here's what Dean Lombardi said.

Decide for yourself what really is going on. I personally believe if he doesn't shape up and sign a contract Lombardi-esque, he's going to be sent off to wear a stranger's crest. I will subsequently be heart-broken, but that's only if nothing else negative comes out of this situation.

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Thanks, NHL Media

So the NHL media dudes voted and Drew Doughty was not included in the Rookie Of The Year balloting. The three who were chosen were Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks, and Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks. Now I'm not insanely annoyed at this travesty, but I am curious to know where he ranked overall. I'm sure Doughty would have been recognized had he been playing in a big hockey market in the West or just in the East or, at least, been talked about more. It is disappointing that he didn't get national recognition but we Kings fans know just how awesome he is. When you're a difference maker on a game-to-game basis, knowing that you're gonna be around for many years to come is all I really need.

Thanks Donuts!

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SNAFU: CBJs 2, Kings 0

The Columbus Blue Jackets were ready to play the Kings last night. Boy, they did their research. They knew just about every which way to shut down the Kings in the neutral zone and how to put forechecking pressure to prevent the Kings from even having the confidence to break out of their zone. The most telling stat from the first period that foretold the rest of the game was the number of shots on. The Jackets had 10 and the Kings had only 8. I could tell from this stat that this was going to be a fight to the finish; the Jackets had CLEARLY come to LA ready to play.

The other telling fact from this game was the sheer number of missed calls throughout the game. Dustin Brown was getting run over almost every single shift; there were interference penalties not being called all over the place; trips, slashes, etc not called. It got down to me being surprised when the refs arms would go up in the air and thinking, "Ok, you're gonna call something now?"

As you can tell, I'm not really in the mood to write about this game. The new year is upon us and my mind is in other places. The Kings don't play again until this Saturday when the Philadelphia Flyers come to Staples, which I'm super excited for. I'll probably post again before that game so check back when you have a free moment!

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Snoozefest 2008! Kings 3, Blue Jackets 0

The Kings snap their three-game losing streak with a win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. We definitely needed this win seeing as how the boys were dropping very quickly in the standing with each loss. Even though this was a win, it started out as just about the most boring hockey ever. The first period was a little painful to stomach actually. I wasn't necessarily fighting sleep, but the brain cells that help me to function on a daily basis were slowly melting with each passing minute. Funny enough, the Kings outshot the Jackets three to two in the first frame. Let me repeat that. The Kings had 3 shots on net and the Jackets only had 2. Unbelievable.

(AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Jared Boll thought the game was boring too.

One thing I was looking forward to was that I got to see Steve Mason live and in color for the first time. He's a lot bigger than I thought he was gonna be, but he was competent enough even though he tallied a loss for this game. The Kings only put 18 shots on the Jackets and got three goals with one being an empty netter. The Jackets had 23 shots on Jason LaBarbera who looked pretty good again except for the occasional ugly rebound. I'm not sure why he lets rebounds out so easily like that. You're a professional athlete; you can gobble those up, right? But he got the shutout and was the first star of the game, so I can't hate.

(Noah Graham/Getty Images)

Too cool for school, Walter Cronkite

The scoring began with Wayne Simmonds who got a break in the second period and charged toward the net taking a shot that wasn't looking too promising, but it actually went in! It went far side and Mason just couldn't get it. We actually all thought the first goal was scored by a one Patrick O'Sullivan who was on his own break in the first period. But he lifted the shot, it hit the post, and bounced off Mason's back, which was why the angle of my line-of-sight made it seem like it went in. Later in the game Sully got the chance to take a penalty shot, but that one was unsuccessful too. Lame.

I know this is old news (old hat?), but I can't ignore it. You know who had too much time on the ice again? That's right, ladies and gentlemen, John Zeiler had 8:24 of TOI. He was just plain horrible; he did absolutely nothing to help the team. He's an offensive liability because he just runs around and hits whatever, and he just came off a suspension! Just please put a leash on that guy.

Conversely, can we take a guess as to who ISN'T a liability? He goes by the name of Drew Doughty and is just about our most highly coveted prospect. This kid is going up against the top flight players in the league and he can do no wrong. I think the big test for me personally was when he faced Alexander Ovechkin. When I saw that he could stick with Ovie without any problems or hesitation, I was completely confident for this game against Rick Nash. Doughty logged 25:05 of TOI and looked fantastic while doing it.

I feel like I'm repeating myself. I need something new to say, pretend that I'm actually smart. I give praises and critcisms all the time it seems. Maybe I should focus on someone else for a bit... Sean Avery? No, eff that guy. Actually, I need to drop him from one of my fantasy teams...

...Please hold...

Ok, picked up some Vancouver guy. Anyway, so I can't think of anything interesting or funny to share with my faithful readers. Although I did hear Nick Nickson say that the guys at the NHL Network recently called him up and interviewed and filmed him for their "Voices" segment that is running all through this season. Be sure to be on the look out for that! Okay, I'm going to transfer the "snooze" from this Snoozefest of a game and take it into my bed. Night all.

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"I'm Not A Puck Bunny" Podcast - Episode 24

Bethany joins me this week to talk about hockey during the summer. The episode is short and sweet since the summer has been.... so busy. She dishes on the Columbus Blue Jackets while I give the two quick updates on the Kings. We open the show talking about Nikita Filatov and where he is exactly in terms of contracts and such, and then we finish the show with the usual shoutouts and info for the listeners.

We're changing up the way we record, so it's still in its experimental stages. Please don't mind the editing where it sounds like I dominate the episode.


Please check us out at our respective blogs and at http://imnotapuckbunny.podbean.com/

You can listen from the player under my picture to the left, subscribe to it on iTunes, or you can go to the above link and either listen from the site or download it.

As always please direct any questions, comments, complaints, thoughts, ideas, or rants to: imnotapuckbunny[at]gmail[dot]com.

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Consistently Inconsistent; Kings 3, Columbus 4

So maybe Crawford shouldn't give the players a day off from practice after a huge blowout. It failed to produce a win tonight and it failed earlier in the season. I'm going with a uber short recap since I took in the game with a friend I haven't seen in about 6 months; we'll call her AG.

Good points from the night:
- AG is now a Kings fan!!!
- Sully is still my Sophomore Stud with a sweet goal from mid-air.
- Good times with KingsCast.

Bad points from the night:
- The lack of energy from the Kings in the first and second period.
- The Blue Jackets complete dominance of the neutral zone. I don't even want to know how any giveaways we had.

Game recap


RANT:

When you are up on the jumbotron, it is NOT OK to:

1) Make like you're flashing the audience and convulsing like you're on speed
2) Pull the top of your shirt down and grab your boobs
3) Put your hands up in the air and have your shirt not long enough to cover your flabby belly.

That's right, you 3 stupid sluts at the end of the game. This is a fucking family function. Have a little respect for the thousands of people in attendance because you most certainly don't have any for yourself.

I'm done.

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H & HH Follow Up & Quick Update

Original post date: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I have been quoted. muhahah

I had a feeling they were going to use that specific quote... So when you know you're being interviewed for something like this, is it normal to basically say what you KNOW they want to hear? I mean, I knew it was going to be a short interview and I needed something to sum up everything. Damn, I DID just regurgitate what they fed me! Oh well, at least I learned how to do something in college. =P

*****

At the Toyota Center on my lunch break today: Columbus Blue Jackets practice

There were two guys I wanted to see, Rick Nash and Sergei Fedorov. Nash was easy; just look for the really big, tall guy. Sergei, on the other hand... Well, I guess my time spent away from LA made me also lose track of Sergei. And yes, we are on a first name basis. If I ever meet him, I will call him Sergei. I guess I forgot that he had played for the Ducks?? Wikipedia has him there for 03-04 and 05-06. Can someone please tell me why his numbers for the 05-06 season sucked major ball sack? Oh wait a second, apparently he only played 5 games that season. Can someone tell me why he played only 5 games? I don't feel like doing more research beyond Wikipedia. Thanks. =)

Anyway, so Sergei was really hard to pick out of the guys on the ice today. I thought I was going crazy and I was afraid I was going to have to go back to work without seeing him! Lo and behold, who comes walking by me but Daryl Evans. I stop him and we talk for a bit; he's definitely a chill dude. And of course I ask if Fedorov is still on the team. He says yeah and easily points him out. I guess I was looking for someone skinnier...haha... Anyhoo, my day is complete.

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