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The Los Angeles Kings were in San Jose last night to face the Sharks. The game was wide open with both goalies playing in a subpar fashion; Evgeni Nabokov was unimpressive and Erik Ersberg was quite rusty. The game ended 5-4 in OT with a sweet spin move by captain Dustin Brown who desperately needed a goal.
The Los Angeles Kings had a great showing last night in their 2 to 1 win over the visiting Calgary Flames. The action was great and I can't say I've been disappointed with any one particular player as of late. Although there was one surprise from my point of view; I felt like the Kings dominated the Flames in virtually all facets of the game (except for the PK, which the Flames attack more aggressively than any other teams I've seen so far this season), but there was one particular stat that I found quite surprising. It was that the Flames outshot the Kings 27 to 16. Only 16 shots? That is pretty amazing considering how much time the Kings had possession of the puck.
Stream of consciousness to follow: Did anyone else notice that Justin Williams had a ridiculously fantastic game? He was definitely the standout for me registering the primary assist for Jarret Stoll's GWG in the second period. Stoll has also been strong on every shift; he played 19:25 last night and I think he has deserved every minute. Speaking of more minutes, Brad Richardson has been rewarded with more and more time and has been effective on all shifts as well. His hop has been pleasantly surprising along with Scott Parse's continued production. It's fantastic that these guys are utilizing their short amount of minutes, and I've been very pleased all around with everyone's play.
The Los Angeles Kings defeated the hottest team in the NHL with a win in overtime. The Chicago Blackhawks came in tonight with a record of 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and brought with them a style I wish the Kings could play with on a regular basis, which is an up-tempo, puck-moving mentality. It took until the second round of the shootout, but the Kings pulled through for the W. Regulation had a lot of open play geared more north-south than anything else, and Chicago far outshot the Kings (33-22) especially in the third period. All of the excitement during regulation was transferred to the overtime frame and continued into the shootout.
Wayne Simmonds scored in the second period to put the Kings up, and it would have been epic if he had notched the game-winning goal in OT. He played a great game and his rise in the past few games has been very impressive. He played only 15:24 tonight but it seemed like he was all over the ice. He was popping up in the correct places and times and was definitely making his presence known. A return for Jarret Stoll was also made very aware with the faceoff numbers for the entire team above .500; 59% to be exact.
While the 4th line is playing more minutes, I definitely didn't think Brad Richardson deserved ice time in OT. He didn't have any business being anywhere away from the bench outside of regulation. I could be a bit over critical here, but let's be serious. One player who actually made the most of his 11:53 of TOI was Teddy Purcell. I noticed him pouncing on pucks and getting in the corners. I think he may just be coming around! One thing to note is his reluctance of getting the puck to the goal on the power play. He's getting minutes there but is like a deer in headlights when he has an open lane. Granted the open lanes only appear for just a second at a time, he should have the confidence to not hesitate when he can see them.
It is very clear that Anze Kopitar needs Ryan Smyth. The Los Angeles Kings hosting the Philadelphia Flyers was one I knew would be a feisty battle to the end. I can retrospectively say this was probably the worst game for Smyth to be out of the lineup because the Flyers came to Staples Center and left with a bashing victory. This game was wide open due to missed passes and subsequent turnovers, and the Flyers were all over the place pouncing on loose pucks and misreads by the Kings.
The first 10 minutes of the game were north-south to the max. The feeling out process for teams in different conferences takes a bit of time, and thankfully the Kings were the first to gain control. Jarret Stoll was able to score off a sharp angle on Brian Boucher for the first goal of the game. (I seem to remember Boucher letting in a similar goal last season when they faced the San Jose Sharks.) The second period went back to neither team dominating causing an overall manic feel and the third was flat out frantic. The 5-on-3 advantage the Kings had should have slowed the game down drastically in their favor, but it was just about the worst man-advantage I have ever seen. The Kings couldn't get the puck past the offensive blueline let alone set anything up. The Flyers were aggressive all around and the 2-man advantage expired with nothing to show for it.
Once again it takes a shootout but the Los Angeles Kings pull out another win in the Southeast. They faced the Florida Panthers who were looking quite different from last season. I remember the Panthers to be a team on the brink of shambles, but this season has definitely been much kinder to them. They aren't... last in the Southeast Division, so there's that. The Kings, on the other hand, have another two points to their name bringing them up to 28 points. They have surpassed the Colorado Avalanche (27 ) and only trail the San Jose Sharks (32) in the West.
Like the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, this contest was a physical battle with one pretty significant difference, the Panthers are more organized defensively than the Lightning. They had a much more aggressive defensive mindset, their forechecking was harder, and their defensive box was much bigger than what the Kings are used to. The extra pressure put the onus on the second D to accept that first pass out of the zone, but missed pass after missed pass put the stress on their own shoulders. In the end, it was another hard fought victory that was less physical than the last game but still saw the shootout. This time around the Kings only needed Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson to stand at center ice, and Jonathan Quick was his beastly self in stopping all shots taken by the Panthers.
The Los Angeles Kings faced the Carolina Hurricanes in the second game of this 5-game road trip. They broke a 2-game losing streak by tweaking the lineup a touch and facing a team on its own 12-game losing streak. The 5-2 victory over the Canes was indicative of the latter's play, which looked beyond rough and the Kings exploded out of the gate with a great first period. Ryan Smyth did his job getting his 9th goal of the season in front of the net, and that's basically the bottom line. He's playing his role to a T and I have zero criticism going his way. Jarret Stoll's goal was a bit odd in that I'm not sure he could do it again if he tried. It seemed to be 90% luck and 10% skill. Either way it put the Kings up 2-0 and Randy Jones got his first point as a King. He then went and got his first goal in the third while looking very comfortable in the line up. I'm very pleased with this whole situation of Jones and am hoping it turns out to be a Kyle Quincey-like occurrence.
The Los Angeles Kings hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins last night and proved they deserve to be at the top of the standings. Things are clicking for the Kings and they show no signs of slowing down. Anze Kopitar is on FIRE and his line mates are providing support for him all the way. He is dominating the games the way he should have been doing last season.
Last night his first goal was scored less than 30 seconds in was the best wake up call the Kings could have given to the Pens who have been doing very well for themselves so far this season. Sidney Crosby looked mortal and ended the night with a -1. This game wasn't won on pure luck but hard work by everyone on the roster.
Jonathan Quick had two of the sickest pad saves and led the Kings to their victory. The San Jose Sharks sit two points higher for the Pacific Division lead and the Kings are vying for that spot. At this point in time, the Kings don't need to look at those in their rear view mirrors anymore. The focus is forward for every game.
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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.
I'm not going to say the Los Angeles Kings deserved the two points against the New York Rangers nor the Detroit Red Wings. In the first game of the back-to-back, the Kings played well but the Rangers were able to get their heads together and finish the game in their favor. In the second game, the Red Wings took advantage of the Kings' frustrations with their own play and subsequent penalties. Since life has me a bit busy, here is a bullet-point list, short and sweet.
The Kings are off to a solid start to the season going 4 and 1. I found their game on Saturday against the St. Louis Blues to be a solidly won game while the win this morning against the New York Islanders was less cohesive but still satisfactory. On Saturday the Kings played a great game all around. The passing was clean, the transitions were smooth, and the lines were clicking nicely. They won 2-1 with the Blues giving it an exciting ending to the cap off the night.
Every game brings me closer to saying, "I'm cool with Ryan Smyth." I can't deny he does what the Kings have needed for a long time, get a body in front of the freaking net, and I can comfortably say I like Smyth better than Justin Williams. I feel like I'm never going to be sold on him; what's the deal? Someone please have a discussion with me! I give a definite two thumbs up to this win with the only time the Kings faltering in their play was the incident that led to Alexander Steen's goal, which was in and out of the net so quickly that play was not halted immediately. The defense looked great and Jonathan Quick was solid.
The score was also 2-1 for today's game on the Island, but the noted difference was that both teams were allowing the play to move back and forth through both zones instead of one team asserting themselves over the other. The Kings didn't control the game until Anze Kopitar's PP goal in the 2nd period. I can definitely see Kopitar's potential beginning to show itself from his past seasons If he keeps this point and performance streak moving forward, he will definitely get noticed outside of the greater Los Angeles area. The noted player of this game was Drew Doughty wearing facial protection due to the puck-in-the-mouth incident in Saturday's game. Jarret Stoll did an awesome job on this play drawing the opposition to him while he was bringing the puck into the Islanders' zone, which left Doughty wide open for the pass. Doughty slapped the puck and got it far side on Marty Biron for his second goal of the season. SICK.
Preseason is in full gear and the Kings have released three commercials to highlight the beginning of a possible burst of talent. They're definitely well done, but I'm also done with the "Pride = Passion = Power" motto and have nothing good to replace it with.
Fears abound on Thursday evening were killed about 30 minutes ago by the completion of the Dany Heatley saga. TSN reports that he will be a San Jose Shark along with a 5th round pick and that Jonathan Cheechoo, Milan Michalek, and a 2nd round pick are going back to the Ottawa Senators.
I can fully breathe a sigh of relief at this outcome now that Alexander Frolov and Jarret Stoll are safe (for now). I'm not sure what the rest of the day will hold as training camp starts tomorrow! I'm hoping to be there checking out the potentials for the remaining roster spots.
Looks like good times
Jack Johnson was unimpressive with his low shot, but Justin Williams finally did something. He went five-hole on Marty Turco and it looked like we were going to a 4th round until Turco ended the game. Instead of stopping himself after he held the puck between his legs he slowly slid into the net and his whole body crossed over the goal line. The goal went to review and the game was over.
Thanks Turco!
The Kings faced the Vancouver Canucks last night in a pretty damned important game. The Canucks are sitting in 5th place in the Western Conference while the Kings are in 13th and still out by just a bit. This game brought them up two points and (as of today) are sitting just three points out of the 8th spot.
This game started out and continued to be a solid game for the Kings, not to mention exciting; that is, until the Canucks scored their first goal, which was just about the time Denis Gauthier thought it convenient to take a penalty on the next shift. Someone get that guy some glasses or something. So Matt Greene. He's pretty studly, I must say. But not in the "I think he's smoking hot" type of way; I mean more of the "you just blocked that puck with your goddamned face!!!!" And Jarret Stoll. What a game! He was in all the right places. For instance, his first goal was on the PP and Teddy Purcell found the open seam and Stolli snuck right up to slam home the perfect pass. After another goal, Stolli was named First Star of the game. AND RIGHTLY SO.
Jason LaBarbera was sitting on the bench for this game but Roberto Luongo wasn't looking that great. The first two Kings goals came within the first 10 shots of the game and, actually, both teams only had 22 shots on net. For being an exciting game with a lot of fast-moving flow, the shots on and against were definitely lower than usual. Anyway, just a short game recap for your reading pleasure.
Hey, buddy. We miss you.. I mean, ... I miss you...
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!
Too cute
Wow, what a waste of space.This Kings continued their east coast swing today and played their fourth game of a five-game road trip. They hadn't played well the last two meetings against the New Jersey Devils, but tonight turned out to be quite different. I think the biggest shock was when the Kings started out the first two shifts hustling their tails off in the offensive zone. I can't remember the last time where the Kings were in the opposition's zone to start off a game. They weren't in there for just one shift, but two! I had a feeling that the game would turn out to be a good one and they didn't disappoint. Jarret Stoll and Anze Kopitar got on the scoreboard and Patrick O'Sullivan followed through on his penalty shot. Overall, I didn't really have any complaints with this game (and I can't say that often). The forwards have really been stepping it up and getting pucks past goalies. They were a lot more controlled in that department tonight than they were in the last game against the Washington Capitals. The Devils only got 26 shots on Quick and the Kings put 32 on Scott Clemmensen.
Once again, Jonathan Quick has been quietly impressive in net. He's been making solid saves and, at the same time, been making the big impressive saves. He's stopping pucks that Jason LaBarbera just couldn't seem to ever stop, which automatically means that Quick isn't on anyone's hit list in the Los Angeles area. He's smart and shifty and I like it.
Yeah Quick!The start of this 5-game road trip looked to be a fantastic outing. The Kings were looking solid in their passing, skating, and defensive play. Last season when the Montreal Canadiens came to LA, they outworked and outskated the Kings; this game proved to be quite different. The Kings set the tone right from the start; they dictated the speed and flow of the puck and the Canadiens were the ones that had to do the adapting. The first period saw the Kings leading the way but little did I know that by the end of the game, I'd be in for shock and disappointment... and with no points to show for it.
Let's get the whole Denis Gauthier incident out of the way. I'm not going to go into whether I think he needs to get suspended for his hit on Josh Georges or not. The fact that I don't think he's a great player overrides his action yesterday. I was irritated that he was in the lineup to begin with, and watching him leave his feet to land an elbow on Gorges' head proved my point. If you want to vote on how many games he should be suspended, go to James Mirtle's post and then head over to Puck Daddy for some thoughts on it. I really couldn't care less.
Something that annoyed me: The announcer for the Canadiens. What a homer, seriously. And when Wayne Simmonds fought Max Pacioretty, it seemed like it ended almost with a tie, but I gave it to Simmonds because he landed more fists. This announcer said something like, "Both benches are cheering and I don't know why." What do you mean you don't know why? Are you a person who thinks the game should be without fighting? That comment and others put a sour taste in my mouth and I was irriated with his play-by-play for the rest of the game.
Once again the Kings held their opponents to shots-on in the mid-20s at 26 and they got 32 shots to Carey Price. But things fell apart in the third period when the Canadiens came back to tie it and got the go-ahead with less than a minute to go. The first half of the game had the Habs getting penalties here and there, but in the third, the Kings took five total penalties. I didn't even realize this until I just looked at the stats sheet, but Jarret Stoll received a 10-minute misconduct with less than a minute to go in the game. Maybe I was too upset to even realize this happened, but I still have no idea what it was for.
At this point I'm just upset that the Kings lost. The end of the game was just ridiculous and I don't believe the Habs deserved the win. Yes, I can be a homer because this is my team and they were robbed, but I'm not boohoo-ing over this loss. There is no singular player that I can hang this loss on. I'm not even sure what the problem was on the Kings' side; the Habs just seemed to get their legs back under them and finish out the game. Anyway, the only thing the Kings should do from this loss is to learn from it and move on to their next game against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday evening.
The Kings don't disappoint as they route the Phoenix Coyotes in the second game of this back-to-back. I was a bit wary that they wouldn't be able to pull out the win purely due to the fact the game was in Phoenix and the Kings didn't have the home crowd behind them. But as Jim Fox said after the game, the Kings have usually won the game following a messy loss and this was no exception as they shut out the Coyotes four to nothing.
To start, the first goal of the game was pretty spectacular; Raitis Ivanans took a slapshot coming across the blueline and it went in beautifully over Ilja Bryzgalov's shoulder. I think everyone was surprised by that one, especially Ivanans! He leaped into the air in sheer joy and the look on Jarret Stoll's face was priceless. I'm pretty sure he took the shot just to get a shot on net, nothing more. But it was a great and surprising goal to start off the game. Go Raitis!
An interesting thing to note about this win was the ridiculous number of penalties the Kings took. Their play didn't look particularly undisciplined, but they were getting called every other minute it seemed. They had 10 total penalties against them with one being a fighting major, which was John Zeiler squaring off against Daniel Carcillo. I wasn't too impressed with the encounter in general and was definitely expecting Carcillo to win because, well, it's Zeiler. The Kings penalty killing units stepped up and did a fantastic job on all nine infractions. Their control of those minutes was the complete opposite of the previous night's game, which made it that much more satisfying.
The only exciting part about this "fight"
So proud of you, Teddy!The Kings are now in a 3-game losing streak, but it really doesn't feel like it. We still got a point last night but we had to take this crazy game to the shootout. The Edmonton Oilers scored three goals in the first period on 11 shots on Erik Ersberg and Jason LaBarbera came out for the next 40 minutes where he proceeded to let in only one goal on 30 shots. Pretty shocking but a familiar feeling (read: shot differential similar to last season). The Kings ended with 44 shots against, which is utterly ridiculous considering how they've been playing all season. The Oilers ended with 36 shots against them, which is normal for the Kings to do to their opposition, but this game was definitely back and forth.
The Oil dominated the first period whereupon Moose reassured me that his boys don't play a full 60 minutes whilst threatening a 12-year-old kid on the concourse. He turned out to be correct when the second period opened with the Kings blasting out the gates. Four goals and 20 minutes got the Kings up 4-3 with a full period left to play. Ridiculous. The openness of the game was a bit surprising as well, and there were some sweet individual moves and plays. I.E. Ales Hemsky doing about four toe-drags... in a row... like in the same possession.
Honestly, Gauts. Now is not the time, nor the place...The Chicago Blackhawks were in town and the Kings welcomed them with open arms, which they promptly used to squeeze the Hawks into submission. The Kings opened up the game with something that happens about once every month, score a goal in the first few minutes of the first period! A bit of confusion in front of the net concluded with Jarret Stoll being awarded the goal with Michal Handzus and Alexander Frolov assisting on the play. I think I'm getting use to hearing Handzus' name being announced over the loud speaker.
Besides the fact that the Kings won the game, there is a stat that must be put in the spotlight here. The Kings dominated the Hawks in the faceoff circle. It wasn't just a beating, it was a pounding of the epic sort. Stoll won 10 faceoffs out of 14 for a percentage of 71. Anze Kopitar beat Stoll by winning 15 and losing only 5 for a 75 win percentage! The third was Derek Armstrong with a 73 win percentage by getting 8 and losing only 3.
Dude Stoll, it's okay if you aren't 100% in the circle...you're doing fine...
What Kopi visualizes as he approaches the faceoff dot...
Army, just because you're not scratched doesn't mean you can go kicking people...© Blogger template Cumulus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
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