Sweetness; Kings 3, Vancouver 2

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.

(AP/Noah Graham)

Hey, buddy. We miss you.. I mean, ... I miss you...

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Vote NO on Peter Harrold: Canucks 4, Kings 0

The Vancouver Canucks rolled into Staples Center looking for two points, which they easily took from us. Not to say that I was predicting the Kings to win, but if the Kings came out and played well, we could have had the two points instead. Coulda woulda shoulda.

For this game I was sitting in section 108 with a group of women that I did a beginner’s workshop with back in July. We learned to play hockey together and I’m now an alternate for the team that was formed from the workshop. It was good times except that a certain someone and her guest were hammered and it was clear that she didn’t go to too many Kings games or else she would have realized that you don’t need to scream “GO KINGS!” every time they have possession. But good times nonetheless! I must admit, the view from that section left much to be desired. I could only really see clear plays when the puck was on my side of the rink; other than that, I had to look at the jumbo tron to watch the plays. This was also a bit difficult since the person wielding the camera must have been stoned because the camera had difficultly following the puck and anticipating the action on the ice. Maybe the dude with that job was new at it, I have no idea. But the everything combined made it difficult for me to get really involved with the game, which turned out to actually be a good thing since the Kings were taken to task by the Canucks.

List of notables:

• Roberto Luongo is really good. On one play, Drew Doughty took the puck in deep into the offensive zone all the way behind Luongo, made a sharp pass to the front of the net where Oscar Moller was waiting, and Luongo absolutely robbed my poor rookies.
• The second line suffered with Kyle Calder in for Patrick O’Sullivan.
• Peter Harrold is not doing well. Plain and simple; he needs work. When Jack Johnson gets back in the lineup, Harrold can go to Manchester. For now, please, please, please put back in Tom Preissing so that he can be the point man on the 2nd PP unit. I can’t handle this anymore.
• I don’t know what to say about the goaltending anymore. I know Terry Murray wants to keep going with Jason LaBarbera, but can’t Erik Ersberg get at least one start in the next couple of games?
• After hearing all this talk about Kyle Wellwood, I was finally gonna get a chance to see him play in person. First off, he’s tiny even though he appears to be bacon on skates. He just doesn’t look to be fit as do other smaller players such as Danny Briere, Michael Cammalleri, and Jiri Hudler. It was the oddest thing to see him skating around during warm-ups. He also has very feminine facial features, which took me by surprise and I couldn’t focus on anything else really except that he creeped me out a bit.

So the Kings obviously were shutout but had almost 30 shots on net. I’m very interested in Terry Murray’s next move...

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Kings 4, Canucks 2

Roster Moves:
- Gabe Gauthier was sent back to Manchester
- Jeff Giuliano was recalled from Manchester
- Thoughts: I thought Gauthier was invisible for his limited time on the ice over the three games he was here; and he was actually a scratch for one of the games. Apparently he wasn't given the opportunity to showcase why he's actually one of the top scorers on the Monarchs this season. But even so, don't you think that he should have been able to show SOMETHING? We'll see what Giuliano brings to the Kings' table. Ha...ha...I'm so witty.

Pre-game:
- I decided to see what it was like to watch a whole game at the local sports bar near my dwelling. So I brought some cousins together and we set out. Now, I'm not afraid to admit when I think another girl is cute (in this case, the waitresses in this joint), but geez, couldn't they have at least come with some brains??
- This most likely isn't going to be as in depth of a review because I was definitely watching with no sound on the TV, but I could hear whatever football game loud and clear.

First Period:
- I noticed that Luongo was on the bench and I was hoping that this was an automatic indicator that the Kings were going to come away with 2 points.
- Kings goal - Stuart (3) takes the shot at 3:22 in. Sanford definitely got a piece of it off his shoulder.
- Canucks' Burrows is looking to start some shit with Cammy. Hmm, I wonder what the energy is going to be like for the game.
- Thornton is actually not a healthy scratch tonight and comes to the aid of Zeiler who gets rocked by a Canuck.
- Vancouver goal - At 7:34 Taylor "Let me woo you with my smoldering eyes" Pyatt gets a PP goal past Aubin who gets caught laying down. Well, I'll give credit because he made some saves before Pyatt took it up high on J.S.
- Vancouver is forechecking pretty aggressively but the Kings aren't being outworked = GOOD SIGN!
- Kings Goal - Anze (14) moves straight down the slot from a solid pass by Brownie. He takes a backhand on the near side of Sanford and brings home the bacon.
- Calder - He's been having some nice shifts out there and he looks comfortable in front of the net screening Sanford.
- I gotta give props to Aubin so far; he looks a lot cleaner and less frantic in his movements than from Saturday's game. But please don't leave the crease to play the puck; you still look awkward doing so.
- Nearing the end of the first, Vancouver is setting up quickly but, around 3:30 left, the Kings have a good forecheck situation and they're just as quick to shut down anything the Canucks are thinking to start.
- Army - HIT
- Aubin - Save!
- The last 15 seconds I thought the Kings had a good break out that started behind Aubin. Sully banks it off the boards to Vish and then he charges through the neutral zone. Ahh, effort in the last minute of the period; things are looking up.

End of 1st period:
- Kings up 2-1
- Shots on: Kings 12 to Canucks 9

Second Period:
- Kings Goal - Army (2) gets the only goal this period at 4:49 in with assists to Blake and JJ.
- Kings PK - I'm starting to like Sully's style on the PK. Giuliano goes a nice job removing any passing lanes around the point, which is something I wish the Kings would do all the time. His efforts force the Canucks to go down low and he successfully blocks a shot. I thought this was a good PK overall.
- Stuart - HIT
- Brownie - HIT
- Last half of the second - no side really has complete control over the puck for too long. There are some quick first passes but there's no follow through to the second pass to the neutral zone.
- Calder is very visible mucking up in the corners and in front of the net. This line is keeping the energy up for the last 10 minutes here.
- Kings PP - This is something I've noticed recently: the Kings set up and look decent for the first minute, but once the opposing team clears the puck, the Kings have a problem getting everyone back into the attacking zone. I'm hoping this doesn't continue on for too long.

End of 2nd period:
- The Kings have played a full 40 minutes. Wait, make that 39 minutes. The last minute of the second showed an unorganized Kings line.
- I don't like watching this game without sound. Where's the server to refill my drink?
- Shots on: Kings 1 to Canucks 9

Third Period:
- One player I haven't really noticed so far is Brownie...Is it because I don't have sound and I'm not hearing his name mentioned on a regular basis?
- There is a rush at 14:55 and let me just say that Sanford got lucky.
- Patrick O'Neal is shown interviewing Emilio Estevez. It's Billy the Kid!! Man, I wish I could hear what they were saying...
- Krajicek totally takes out Sully, but less than a minute later Sully recovers and backs his rear up against Pyatt. It's almost a la Blake-style, but not quite there. It was lacking a little bit of "My name's Rob Blake and it's lights out for you."
- There are some choppy passes that aren't connecting and the Kings can't break out. Argh.
- Burrows takes out Anze at the boards while he had his head down. Anze wasn't facing the boards, but I'm just gonna put it out there that I thought it was fucking cheap. I'm glad Cammy immediately came to Anze's defense, but I seriously felt like slapping a ho.
- The Kings are now on a 5-on-3 and the puck is being moved around cleanly. Army is at the left goal line and makes a solid pass onto Brownie's stick. Kings goal at 11:41; Brownie hardly did anything on this pass by the way. Army's pass hit the blade dead on and Brownie is on the board with his 14th goal.
- 6 minutes left and I'm thinking that Cammy needs another goal...
- The Kings are actually picking up the rolling pucks off of the Canucks' rebounds. Finally.
- Blake is in the box for cross checking at 16:44.
- Vancouver Goal - Aubin makes a sweet kick save denying Pyatt but Elder gets the rebound and throws it behind Aubin.
- With about a minute to go, Blake is in front of the net with Cooke and basically mauls him down to the ice. This results in a 2-minute roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.

End of game:
- Guiliano made a good showing in this game. I was pleasantly surprised to see him contributing.
- Shots on total: Kings 31 to Canucks 28
- Once again, the Kings inconsistent play brings the fans something to cheer about. A decisive win and two points! Hooray!

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