Kings Schedule In Depth

When the Kings schedule was released last year, I spent numerous labor-intensive hours examining and breaking down the schedule. Two days ago the Kings released the 09-10 schedule with a very comprehensive breakdown virtually eliminating any work for me; thanks guys! This season starts out with more promise than a year ago, so I feel I'm looking at the schedule with a different mindset. There are teams that the Kings could easily dominate who weren't so easy to play against last year (Minnesota and possibly San Jose). San Jose had been making zero waves this summer, so I'm not exactly sure with my assessment; all I know is the Kings are stronger now so it'll be interesting to watch.

The following is a quick scan on my part after perusing the schedule:

Oct. Sat. 3 vs. Phoenix (home opener): Talk about the most boring way to begin the season...
Oct. Tues. 6 vs. San Jose: ...Go Rob Blake...
Oct. Sat. 10 @ St. Louis: Start of the longest road trip over 11 days
Oct. Mon. 12 @ Islanders: Will Matt Moulson play??
Oct. Mon. 26 Toronto @ Anaheim: Going to the Pond for this one... will need a women-sized Leafs jersey. Wouldn't that be hysterical if I got Burke on the back of it? Hated him in Anaheim, but like him in Toronto.

Nov. Thurs. 5 vs. Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby at Staples!
Nov. Mon. 9 @ Chicago: Start of possibly the worst 5-game road trip. CHI, CAR, ATL, TBL, FLA. Zzz..zzzzz....ZZzzZzzzz....
Nov. Wed. 18 @ Philadelphia: Pronger still in orange, yikes.
Nov. Wed. 25 @ Edmonton: Battle versus Moose!

Dec. Thurs. 10 vs. Phoenix: Can't think of a more boring two-game home-stand.
Dec. Sat. 12 vs. Dallas: ...zzz...ZZZzzzzZZzz....

Jan. Sat. 2 vs. Washington: Do you think Ovechkin will try to take a run at Dustin Brown again? Ow, my ear!
Jan. Thurs. 21 vs. Buffalo: End of the longest home-stand at seven games.

Feb. Sat. 13 vs. Colorado: First game against Kyle Quincey! How many tears will Ryan Smyth shed?
Feb. Sun. 14 - Mar. Mon. 1: Olympic Break. Can't say either way if I'm excited yet. I probably will be, but I'll just be hoping the Kings are still in the hunt at this point.

Mar. Sat. 6 vs. Montreal: Kings against the smallest line in the NHL, which includes Michael Cammalleri, bahaha.

Apr. Sat. 10 vs. Edmonton: Last home game of the season; not a bad way to end except if both teams need that last few points to get into the 8-seed.
Apr. Sun 11 @ Colorado: Kings end regular season with a back-to-back, hrm.

Any games that stand out to you? Let me know if I missed something of interest...

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Where Irrationality and Calmness Butt Heads

Calm down everyone. It's just a rumor and will stay a rumor unless something happens on Draft Day in two weeks.

I know you're all bored and need some fodder for the next two weeks, but let's let rationality take over because the rumors are going to begin running rampant from here on out. The Stanley Cup will be awarded tonight and nothing is going on until the Draft, so the brain cells need some action.

Bottom line: Kings fans should first be focused on acquiring a forward, not a defenseman.

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Heading In The Right Direction: Ducks 1, Kings 0 (OT)

On election day my Los Angeles Kings faced the dreaded Anaheim Ducks. Freeway Faceoff? Please. The Kings went into this game on a 4-game losing streak and the Ducks have been doing... well (boo), but the latter did not leave with two points easily won. The Kings fought and grinded and did their best to get any pucks past JS Giguere's mattress pads; alas, after 61 minutes, the game was done. Overall, the boys stood up to the Ducks and did a commendable job. I was definitely wary at the start of the game since the Ducks were doing everything they could to clog up the neutral zone, which caused the Kings to take the first half of the first period trying to get their legs under them. It was honestly getting a bit boring with the Kings not being able to get across the offensive blueline without chipping in the puck and chasing after it. The puck possession was a little questionable since the passes were going all over the place.

I forgot to check the stats sheet last night, so no numbers for this post.

Things I didn’t like:

• Matt Moulson being reassigned to the Manchester Monarchs. What the eff!
• Peter Harrold skating as a forward.
• Brian Boyle on a line with Peter Harrold.
• Patrick O’Sullivan having to skate with these two yahoos.

First, Erik Ersberg looked solid. This isn’t to say that I think he’s leaps and bounds better than Jason LaBarbera. I just thought that the Swede was square on almost all of the shots that came his way. That being said, there were some tense moments when he was flopping around when a rebound was snagged by a Duck, but, other than that, he looked good. But one game isn’t going to convince me; I basically won’t have full confidence in Ersberg unless he pulls a Ty Conklin from last year. I need to know that he can stand up to teams who are prepared to face him in the net. If other teams know his tendencies in net and he can STILL shut them down, then I’ll give him my full vote of confidence. But, of course, I’ll be cheering for him to be successful for every game. I’m obviously not going to turn on him if he has one bad game.

Second, the goal to end the game in overtime basically sickened me; a slapper from Chris Pronger with a screen in front of Ersberg. Vomit inducing indeed. It was such a shock when it went in; it felt like it just happened way too quickly. But no clichés here, the Ducks scored and the Kings grabbed a point. They’re still last in the standings and, of course, the Western Conference, but by no means are they out of the race. It’s the beginning of November for Christ’s sake! I’m so focused on the Kings working on their consistency that I haven’t even been watching the standings all that much.

In conclusion: keys for Thursday's game against Florida? Umm, win?

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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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