Still Over .500

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.

(LAKings.com)

• The Kings' best period from these two games was the 2nd against the Rangers. The question of "Can the Kings sustain that kind of offensive pressure through the entire game?" is something they're still addressing.
• The Kings were better in the faceoff circle against the Rangers (54%) and sustained the percentage in Detroit (52%). Jarret Stoll rocked it getting a 91% win in the 2nd game.
  

(LAKings.com)

• Marian Gaborik got the goal that sealed the deal for the Rangers by cherry-picking the play. That was a goal Eric Ersberg should have had but he was beaten plain and simple, which he was well aware according to his post-game quotes. Jonathan Quick returned for the Detroit game and didn't fare as badly considering he was helping to kill penalties for almost 10 minutes.
  
• Nicklas Lidstrom notched his 1,000th career point on just about the sickest pass slash goal to Henrick Zetterberg. That was just pure eff-ing skill.
  

(LAKings.com)

• By the way, FSN West. The "technical difficulties" was not appreciated. I don't want to listen to the radio if I have the option to watch the game on TV. Bad form.
• David Drewiske was on the ice causing more mistakes than he needed to. His 14:08 in New York was too long and he played more in Detroit (18:25)! Granted his play was better in Detroit, 18 minutes is still too much ice time to give to him.
• For a positive, Dustin Brown scored his first goal of the season against the Red Wings! He definitely needed this spark and his game is on track getting back to where it needs to be.
  

These two losses do not mean the Kings are deteriorating and that the winning streak was a fluke. This is a better team compared to last year and they will go through the season as such. They are in Columbus tomorrow playing a team that is on a 2-game winning streak. Catch it; 4:00 pm PST on FSW.

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Trade Deadline Shocker

Just as I thought the Kings weren't going to make any big moves today, Dean Lombardi comes out and surprised the hell out of me. He had signed two players, the deadline passed, and I was content. But about 15 minutes later, the trade announcement rolled out as a crazy three-way deal, wait no, a 4-something deal. First the two players who were signed:

(1) Sean O'Donnell signed one-year deal - $1.25 mil
(2) Erik Ersberg signed two-year deal - $1.5 (combined)

I'm definitely very pleased with O'Donnell getting signed again, and honestly, there was no way he was going to be let go in the summer. Also, we get to keep the conditional pick from that original trade to acquire him. Having Ersberg signed for two years is a pretty good (and cheap) security blanket. He's been solid in the net and I'm glad a deal was signed before the summer began. No complaints from this humble blogger.

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Onto the big honkin' trade. For a four-square visual of the trade, go to James Mirtle's page.

(1) Patrick O'Sullivan and a 2009 2nd round pick (what the hell happened there??) was sent to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Justin Williams.
(2) The Carolina Hurricanes turned around and traded both to the Edmonton Oilers and sent Erik Cole back to Carolina.
(3) The Oilers then took the 2nd round pick and sent it to the Buffalo Sabres and received Ales Kotalik.

In the end these are what the teams end up with:

(1) Kings - Justin Williams
(2) Hurricanes - Erik Cole
(3) Oilers - Patrick O'Sullivan & Ales Kotalik
(4) Sabres - Kings 2009 2nd round pick (originally in deal for Craig Conroy?)

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Apparently there were still Marian Gaborik rumblings? I can't really be excited for a player that would say (taken from Russo's Rants):

Speaking of watching games, Marian Gaborik put his foot in his mouth today back in Minnesota when he voluntarily said when asked if he feels the pressure to return with the team sinking, “Quite frankly I haven’t really been watching games. I’ve been following the scores but I haven’t been watching games. From my perspective, I just really need to focus on how am I feeling, how everything goes with me and then if everything goes good I’m going to jump in to play. Definitely the pressure is on, but first of all I want to feel confident in my body and … so far everything is going well.”

Wow, talk about selfish. I'm sorry Kirsten and Elise, but I can't hide my dislike for Gaborik. From an outsider's perspective, if he leaves Minnesota on his own, without anything in return for the club, that will be the final nail in the coffin in terms of player and team relations. And I'm pretty sure it'll happen that way if he doesn't re-sign since he's going UFA status this summer.

So that was my preface for my short thought about him potentially coming to LA. If this does go down, it'll be during the summer and (hopefully) for cheap because he'll be on IR for 80 of 82 games next season.

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