Utter Ridiculousness & A Solid Showing

On Monday the 16th, the Kings faced the Atlanta Thrashers at Staples Center and it was a wild game. Having the emotional and physical highs and lows with 6 goals for and 6 goals against caused me sheer exhaustion. If I ever wanted to know what it was like to be bipolar, I got a good taste of it. This game was basically a must-win with the worst case scenario being the Kings getting a single point, but when the Thrashers scored the first three goals in the opening 8 minutes, it looked like the Kings were toast. But they came back, but then the Thrasher went ahead, and back and forth and back and forth with broken plays everywhere. Heading into the third period, the Kings were still down a few goals with the shots far in their favor. The goal to tie the game came with only 5 seconds left from Anze Kopitar and caused Staples to erupt.

The overtime was just as exciting and just as dominated by the Kings. After five minutes of stress, the shootout began with Atlanta's Erik Christensen getting the game winner. Once again Jack Johnson got an opportunity in the shootout without scoring. I'm sooooo curious to know why he's getting opportunity after opportunity. The Kings scruffed up one point in this game and looked like they cleaned up a bit for the next game against the Ducks.

Side note: This game was also celebrating Armenian Heritage Night and the arena was in full swing. Zach Bogosian is the first Armenian player in the NHL so the Kings celebrated that fact since there is a very large Armenian population in the Los Angeles area. Here's an interview from the Thrashers website with Bogosian. Also I met up with James Gralin, blogger of the Colorado Avalanche persuasion. He is on a west coast swing of the hockey teams and he went to two Kings games. Go to his blog, Jerseys and Hockey Love, to get an outsider's point of view and take a peek at his pictures!

(Getty Images/Victor Decolongon)

Too cute

Tonight's game against the Anaheim Ducks was a different beast altogether. The Kings never trailed in the entire 60 minutes and ended the game without having any brain cramps. Interestingly enough the Kings only tossed 26 shots on Jonas Hiller while Jonathan Quick saw 31, but I kind of see this as the Kings playing a more efficient game, especially compared to that strange game on Monday. Overall the game was a bit boring, but as long as it ended with the Kings grabbing two more points, I could be satisfied. There wasn't too much going on overall, but there was a fight (Wayne Simmonds and Mike Brown) and a scuffle at the end of the game with Quick getting mixed up in it but only because the scrum began with him getting taken down behind the net.

(Getty Images/Debora Robinson)

Wow, what a waste of space.

At the end of today the Kings have 59 points (tied with the Minnesota Wild) and are 3 points out of the 8th position. Tomorrow the Kings go into the Shark Tank where the Sharks have been tearing it up. They are 24-2-3 at home, but the Kings have been riding a hot streak on the road. Games against the Sharks are always unpredictable, so this one will definitely be exciting.

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Thoughts On The NHL All-Stars

Super Skills:

- When they were introducing the coaches for the west, Bailey was definitely in the camera shot dancing!! Awww, I loved that!
- Obstacle Course: I LOVED the wee net they used!! I was pretty excited to see DiPi shoot the puck 180 feet across the entire rink to score on his leg.
- Fastest Skater: I thought Kopi should have had at least two skills to do. The Fastest Skater event was anti-climactic for me. I think one lap around the whole rink is a much more exciting event than skating for 4.5639327593 seconds. Shawn Horcoff is actually cute when you can't see that he has one blue eye and one brown eye.
- Elimination Shootout: Mike Ribeiro looks like Beetlejuice. Dion Phaneuf: (1) actually has some skills on the shootout, (2) unimpressive on the Hardest Shot, and (3) my new nickname for him is "Woof."
- Young Stars Game: A little boring. I thought they should have brought in Baby goalies, Dallas' Mike Smith perhaps?
- Accuracy Shooting: Thomas Kaberle was impressive. Jason Arnott went to the final and failed to beat the Leaf.
- Hardest Shot: Vinny Lecavalier surprised me with getting 101.9 mph on his shot. But of course, Zdeno Chara. What a beast (103.1 mph).
- Breakaway Challenge: Pavel Datsyuk = BORING. I thought Evgeni Nabokov gave Martin St. Louis the shaft on his shots. AO got the idea with what the league was trying to do with this event.
- If you haven't seen the YouTube clip of Chris Pronger falling on his face, it is glorious.
- I'm posting this here because Finny didn't want to post it on her blog, but Ryan Getzlaf's bald spot is growing. I hadn't seen it in awhile, but wow. I'm sure he gets teased to no end by his teammates, so I feel bad. But Getz, Rogaine actually makes its product in foam form now.
- With all the confusion of everything going on, they put up a picture of Scott Neidermayer while they were interviewing Anze. Dude....do they even remotely look alike? I was laughing for a while...and then got kind of annoyed that they let that happen.
- And speaking of confusion, with so many guys with mics around the building doing mini-interviews, goalies being mic-ed up, and commentators telling stories and whatnot, I thought it was kind of overkill to be hearing like 17 different people talking at once. What the hell am I supposed to be listening to?

I thought the whole 2 1/2 hours of the Super Skills went by REALLY QUICKLY. It might have been because I was gchatting with Finny while she was live-blogging. But everything seemed to start and end in a flash. Overall, this weekend is always fun to watch and I'm glad Anze Kopitar got the nod!!!


All-Star Game:

Some flashes of awesomeness and good times all around. Nabby didn't allow any goals during his period in net; Ilya Kolvachuk had some killer chances though. I have more to say, but I'm too tired because I'm full of Dim Sum. Oh wait, I thought it was hilarious when Commissioner Gary Bettman was booed when he was announced

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Hidden Gems - 6

These notable quotes were found in Phil Coffey's "More quotes than you can shake a stick at" on NHL.com. Here are my three favorite from his selection.

1) “I guess I had a large behind when I got there. That was Kris Draper’s funny joke. First it was ‘Big Swede,’ then ‘Big Ass,’ then ‘Bubble Butt,’ then ‘Bubba.’ Now, most of the guys just call me ‘Bubs.’ That’s the evolution of the whole thing. It’s stuck for 12 years.”
-- Flames defenseman Anders Eriksson on the origin of his nickname, “Bubs.” Could have been worse; Draper could have called him “Stinky.”

This is pretty much self-explanatory.

2) “Two things with Dustin ... he has to continue with the conditioning and be intense. He has to get himself at a weight where he’s comfortable going up and down the ice. At times he looks incredibly fast and powerful, but at other times ... all I’ll say is Dustin has been very receptive to what we’re asking him.”
-- Oilers coach Craig MacTavish on Dustin Penner.

Finny – haha I was RIGHT! His ass DOES look big in those pants! I think they’re trying to slim your boy down. But, seriously, he DOES have quite a bit of junk in the trunk.

3) "That's the reason why I'm here. He brought me to this country and drafted me No. 1. When he's behind the bench, it's a little bit special for me."
-- Thrashers winger Ilya Kovalchuk is more than a little loyal to Atlanta GM/coach Don Waddell.

Umm…ok... It’s because he’s foreign, isn’t it. If you haven't clicked on Kovalchuk's link yet, do it now. You won't regret it. That's a promise.

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