Kings 2, Coyotes 4

Before I go into the game tonight, I'd like to give a shout out to all of the people driving north on the 110. Fuck you very much! Why were so many goddamn people on the freeway at 6pm on a Saturday night?

First Period:
- Starting lineup is Lubo with Modry, with Ratti, Anze, and Zeiler out in front. Aubin in net, GREAT.
- Most exciting part about the game so far, seeing Gretzky on the bench. The last time I saw that guy was when he was still playing at the Forum. Ahh, those were the days.
- Zeiler has been showing his presence out there, especially when he maneuvered the puck through the neutral zone and through some Coyotes all the way to the Coyotes' end boards and THEN layed up a nice HIT.
- Aubin - Makes a lucky save. But he didn't actually MAKE the save. The inside of the left post did when the Yotes had a 3-on-2.
- Brownie - HIT
- Carcillo decides to start some shit with Sully and gets a roughing penalty, which bring out the top line. This line comes through with Anze (13) scoring from Brownie and Lubo at 6:24. There was crisp passing and no one held the puck for too long, which put Phoenix' s D out of position. Brownie holding onto the puck the way he did showed patience, which caused Bryz to fall for the fake.
- Ratti gets called for roughing and 30 seconds later Blake gets called as well. I thought this was complete bullshit. Thanks to the ref for giving the Yotes a 5-on-3.
- Watching Handzus and Modry on this PK made me VERY uneasy. It might be their lack of finesse that causes that feeling. Aubin is definitely getting some lucky breaks with the Coyotes not being able to follow through on plays they set up. Ok, now that Vish and JJ are out, I feel more confident that they'll kill the 5-on-3 advantage, which they do. Whew, dodged that bullet.
- Ratti - HIT
- Thoughts on Gauthier: He's small and I don't know how I feel about his play on the ice because he hasn't played much from what I've seen. He definitely looked like a little kid next to Ratti.
- Kings on the PP - As Phoenix is trying to clear the puck Blake snatches the puck out of the air, drops it, and takes a hard slap to the net. I love that. For the rest of the PP, I thought the majority of players were milling around the neutral zone. It didn't look like there was too much effort to get it to into the Phoenix zone.
- Phoenix was able to set up a play, which Hanzal later fanned on. But Aubin should have covered up the first damn rebound that was right in front of his face so that Hanzal didn't get the opportunity to fan on it in the first place!
- Phoenix goal - Tjarnqvist at 18:30. This was shot from inside the blue line in front of the Kings' bench and it went through everyone's legs, including Aubin's. Terrible terrible goal.

End of the First:
- So I'm just going to now say that I am UNSURE OF AUBIN. I think that he should be pulled right now just for his sloppy play.
- At the end of the period Blake is talking to the ref on the ice about the roughing penalty. He is then given a 2-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike, a 10-min for misconduct, and a game misconduct. WHAT THE FUCK.

2nd Period:
- Willsie serves Blake's minor penalty. This is problematic because JJ is back to being paired with Modry, which is not a good sign because now all of the defensive pairs are shuffled around AGAIN.
- Gauthier was actually out on the ice but did not complete a hit that he went for. Zeiler is able to chip in and ROCKS the Yote's world. And in dramatic fashion the Yote's stick goes flying.
- Kings are on the PP. Cammy's actually noticeable tonight and is helping out in plays. He and Kopi got a nice rush and quickly took it to the net but were denied by Bryz. But after the first minute the Coyotes clear it and the Kings weren't able to regain their composure for the rest of the PP.
- Brownie - HIT
- Zeiler - HIT
- Aubin is just not doing it for me. Put in Quick.
- Gauthier is also not doing it for me. Has he even played more than 3 shifts? Thank god Klemm was sent back to Manchester. Why was he even here in the first place? So Crawford, are you gonna bring back Moulson now or what?
- Kings PP - Brownie definitely caught a Yote with his head down. You should really be more careful. I thought the Kings had good puck movement and got some good shots on.
- Stuart has been a nice surprise in this game. He's blasting shots from the blue line that are actually hitting Bryz and not going wide.
- Zeiler - HIT. His hits are definitely the loudest, which make me happy. Plain and simple.
- Sully - He's making a bit of a showing. But he definitely is not as studly tonight as he has been in previous games.
- A Yote got a break with the puck; just him and Aubin. And Aubin actually saved it! Is it sad or normal that I was genuinely surprised that he made the save?

End of the second period:
- I definitely thought that this was the poorest last minute of any period. It's like the Kings didn't want us to get the McFlurrys! What's the deal? Why you gotta hate? Where's Fro?
- Thoughts on Gauthier after 40 minutes: Wow, I can't even say that you're sucking ass because I don't even see you out there on the ice. Are you still suited up?

3rd period:
- Kings PP - Once again, too much passing. The puck needs to get on net for scoring chances, right? Or am I completely off base here.
- There was a lot of messy coast-to-coast playing for a couple minutes at the beginning of the 3rd. A little too much; the Kings need to get something started, like cycling the puck and ATTACKING! Oh yeah, and grabbing a rebound or two would be nice.
- I felt that JJ was moving slowly in this game. You could tell that he was thinking about his next move, but he wasn't hopping on anything too quickly. Was it because Blake was out and he was back with Modry? He just kind of looked lost out there for the last 40 minutes.
- To Aubin - STOP coming out of the crease to play the puck. You look awkward and your stick-handling skills are sub-par. Huh! True to fashion, he just came out and got caught up in the trapezoid.
- It seems that the Calder-Handzus-Willsie line is the energy line tonight with Willsie at the helm.
- Goal - Handzus (3) with assists to Calder and Willsie at 10:39.
- The Yotes were able to cycle the puck and get it into the slot with Aubin exposed. Aubin let's another one in. That makes it 3-2 Yotes at 12:16 by Keith Ballard.
- Willsie is called for hooking and the Kings are on the PK. Stuart has definitely been pulling his weight this game. His partner, Preissing, on the other hand...
- Oh my god, Gauthier, you're still playing?!?!
- A Yote goes for a clean breakaway and the ONLY thing that saves Aubin is the crossbar.
- DAM line - They were able to get some great opportunities. Brownie threw up another solid HIT, and Cammy actually broke through two Yotes right inside the blue line to go to the net.
- The Kings pull Aubin for a 6-on-5 at the end of the third. But what was the point? The Kings literally shut down in the neutral zone. The last three minutes were piss poor hockey and the Coyotes totally owned the Kings. Oh yeah, Shane Doan got a goal on the empty net.

End of game:
- Kings 2, Coyotes 4,
- Aubin should NOT have been in net tonight. I felt cheated by not seeing Quick get his second NHL start.
- If I ever see Ryan Smyth on the street, you know fists will be flying and hair will be pulled.
- Zeiler needs to learn how to skate with efficiency. I'm tired of his choppy strides that aren't effective in getting him from point A to point B. Other teams are now realizing what role he's playing out there and he needs to start stepping up other parts of his game or he's just gonna get manhandled.
- After checking the game summery, I saw that Gauthier played for 5 minutes and 45 seconds. Ok, Blake played in only the first 20 minutes of the game and was out there for 7 minutes and 53 seconds. What the hell is Gauthier supposed to be doing? The fact that he's from Torrance, CA does nothing for me if he's not contributing on the ice.

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Part I - Coaching

For starters, I’m just going to state that these are my personal opinions on two issues I want to address: coaching for Part I and GM for Part II. I am just a fan looking at the sport/organization from an outside perspective and who does not have the inside scoop whatsoever.

With all the drama-mama that’s been going around the league about who might be getting fired and why, I figured maybe I should toss in a thought or two. At the top of the headlines, the Leafs are currently getting blasted by the fans and even by those within the organization on how things are being handled. I’m sure there’s been enough talk leaking out of people's mouths so that I don’t have to reiterate what’s been allegedly said by whoever to whomever.

Part I - Coaching

On the home front, I really didn’t look at a front office shakeup being a possibility for my Kings. Maybe I’m just biased, but I believe in what Dean Lombardi’s doing. Do I agree with Crawford changing up lines like the Mad Hatter on crack? To be honest, I don’t really know, but I’ve definitely noticed it. Don’t get me wrong, we ALL have; but that’s his job, right? To tinker and tinker until something clicks. But at the same time, we’re 27 games in and it’s getting a little ridiculous. Fro is now on IR and Cammy is floundering. He’s getting shut down left and right and now I’m wondering if he actually got 10 goals in 10 games at the start of the season.

After last Saturday’s game against the Avalanche where they lost 5-2, I left Staples feeling dejected and angry at the same time. What the hell is going on? Why are the Kings falling apart? They had a great first period! Now I can’t speculate about what’s going on in the locker room, but I’ve read people’s opinions that seemingly blaming everyone in the organization. But from being on sports teams for many years, I believe that no matter how much the coach is trying to show the athletes the way, if they don’t take a stance and actually execute the plan, the results aren’t going to be there. Not surprisingly, this has caused me to absolutely despise clichés. “Buy into the plan,” “we need to play with more heart,” and my personal favorite to hate, “take it to the next level.” I’d like to punch whoever made that up in the FACE. Maybe it’s because I heard it too many times without a substantial result, but I’m hoping that Crawford doesn’t become a victim of cliché bashing.

I was taught never to question the coaching staff; they have an overall year-long plan of what they want to do and what paths they have to take in order to do so. With the Kings being a professional sports team with millions of dollars being spent every year, the pressure for results is extremely high. Any year-long project is at risk of being cut short if it becomes stagnant for too long. We can see from this season already that some teams have made this leap (Atlanta, Dallas, Capitals) while others have been holding on for as long as possible (Leafs, Phoenix). But let's face it, Gretzky owns the whole state of Arizona and isn't going anywhere.

Now I don’t like to constantly bash on my team, but I do angrily question what’s going on with them sometimes. But I’m not going to stand on a soapbox and demand that that Crawford be fired because you can’t deny him his efforts. If he decided he wanted to get fired, he would have kept all the lines the same and not tried to find some hidden chemistry that he believes is there. But I’ll reiterate the fact that athletes need time to gel with one another. But I do like to muse about what Crawford could do to run this team into the ground and not just into the bottom of the standings.

What could have been:

Scene: Crow sits down at his big oak desk and ponders how exactly he’s going to ruin this team. “Hmmm… I think I’m going to keep Cammy, Kopi, and Brownie together all year. After all, they’re pretty DAM good. (see that? see what I did there?) I think we’ll be able to ride that line for a while before people see I’m not doing a DAM thing. I’ll just let the other lines flounder around. Maybe I should have Vish center the 3rd line and I’ll bring up…Ratti to run D with Blakey. Wow, that’s fantastic! What else…oh! I almost forgot about the goalie situation! I think bringing back Cloutier will seal the deal. Yes, he’ll definitely be the back bone of this squad. I’m a flipping genius!”

As a note: I may like to make light fun of the players here and there, but don’t question for one second my complete loyalty to the Kings. No team can come in and take my attention and loyalty away. Ahem..cough cough DUCKS FANS cough.

Also, just to let you know, I’m not some beer-guzzling dude who thinks the new Reebok jerseys are too small because of my beer gut and who thinks I know what’s best for my team. Rather, I’d like to think of myself as a cute beer-sipping chick who will patiently wait for my team to get their act together without publicly bashing them to anyone who will listen. I’m not going to pretend I know what the best course of action is; I’m not making the millions of dollars to make these types of decisions. But even if they were to offer me the cold hard cash, I wouldn’t know the first thing about building up or saving a professional sports team.

Check out Part II - GM

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Kings 3, Oilers 4

I'm not exactly mad at the outcome of this game. The Kings only get one point as they are snuffed on the shootout by Mathieu Garon. The Oilers grab two points and the Kings take home one. But let's hit the rewind button.

First period:
- Aubin is in net with Jonathan Quick as his backup. Aubin is up against Garon.
- On D, it looks like Crawford has changed those up as well. It's JJ with Blake, Vish with Klemm (now on D), and Modry with Stuart. Looks like Preissing is a scratch.
- Handzus - HIT
- Kings Goal - Kopi (12) throws up a nice wrister at 5:29. Brown finishes a pass to Kopi on the breakout but gets rocked and is taken out of the play. But he grabs an assist and so does Blake and Kopi is now tied with Cammy for goals on the team.
- Zeiler - HIT
- Ivanans - HIT
- Kings have a PP against Torres with a too many men penalty. The Kings got some good opportunities but only get one shot registered.
- Click to the Pat/Ravens game. The Pats are down in the 4th; are the Ravens going to hand them their first loss of the season?
- Klemm gets a holding penalty. The Kings killed it but not well. They weren't able to clear it so the Oilers were able to get some solid shots on Aubin.
- Kopi gets a delay of game penalty.
- Zeiler is clearly making his presence known by being able to be the nagging pest under the oppositions' skin.

End of 1st:
- Interview with Patrick O'Neal and Kopi. Ultimately he doesn't say anything the fans don't already know. The Kings have to play a full 60 minutes. No surprises there.
- Shots on goal: Edmonton gets 9 to Kings 6.

Second Period:
- Don't get to watch until 4 minutes in. Quickly see that Edmonton has scored and that Ivanans took a penalty.
- Tom Brady throws a clutch pass and the Pats are up 26-24.
- Back to the Kings, JJ took the puck all the way into the Oiler zone and to the net but gets pushed off and denied. Nice effort though.
- Ravens' Scott (57) is acting like a freaking baby! The Ravens lose 35 yards because of him. haha! Oh!! Is he crying????
- God! This is the longest 44 seconds of my life! And yes, I don't have control over the remote.
- Back to the game to see a slo-mo replay of Penner's PP goal, which I deem as LAME. Oil up 2-1.
- Oilers get a penalty, The Pats win, and Kraft is happy.
- Kings Goal - Brownie nets it (11) with assist to Cammy and Kopi. A familiar sight. Hear that, KingsCast? The DAM Line actually put up some points.
- Ratti loses his stick but Blake gets involved in the fray and smashes an Oiler down.
- Nagy becomes visible and makes a quick pass to Stuart but is denied!! Garon!! Argh!
- Oiler Goal - Thoresen scores on a redirect due to a sloppy play by the Kings.
- Cammy - HIT
- Kopi - HIT
- Brownie - HIT on open ice.
- Kopi gets a shot off at the buzzer and gets a nice opportunity. No goal, but I like the effort to the end.

End of the 2nd:
- Kings have 13 shots on to the Oilers 10
- The Kings have 13 scoring chances to the Oilers 7, which is good to hear.
- I thought Blake was very involved near the end of this period. He was getting in the scuffles and moving his body around.
- Stat - Brownie leads the league in hits with 100. (He gets 10 from this game, so ends tonight with 110 hits total.)

Third Period:
- Nagy - He hasn't been visible, which is nothing new. But hey! He makes an appearance by taking a holding penalty! Fantastic.
- Brown - Fox mentioned a possible team MVP. I completely agree with this because I think he's shown a ton of consistency from the start of this season. When Cammy and Kopi haven't been able to produce, you could always count on Brown to step it up and take it to the net.
- Zeiler - HIT
- Brownie - HIT knocking the helmet off Pitkanen (and that's a pretty terrible picture)
- 10:54 left - Energy is still high and the Kings are laying on the pressure.
- Oh my lord, Zeiler almost got a goal. hahaha
- The Kings are throwing their weight around but can't get anything out of it.
- 7:30 to go - random thought: How much ice time has Gabe Gauthier gotten this game? I haven't heard his name since the first period. What the f. (and his picture is pretty terrible too) Hmm...it looks like he logged in 7:14 in ice time over 11 shifts.
- 5:56 to go - How did that rush not get converted into a goal???
- Stuart hits Penner and then Penner comes back around and checks Stuart. Conclusion: Penner is quite a large boy. Wasn't he supposed to be losing weight?
- 3:10 left - Kopi makes a beautiful pass...to no one. Damn!
- 2:00 left - This isn't looking good. The Kings are down 3-2 and they can't get anything past Garon.
- 1:28 left - BLAKE TAKES IT TO THE NET!!! Omg, I think I felt a small tear trickle down my cheek.
- Upon review the goal is given to Nagy with an assist to Blake at 18:32.

End of 3rd:
- Kings outshoot Oilers 31-21. What I really liked was that the Kings got 12 shots on and held the Oilers to 2.
- I'm impressed with the Kings' play through the whole 60 minutes thus achieving their goal. You can't deny their efforts.

OT:
- Sully hits the post
- Brownie straight up pushed Staios to the ice. Was he even paying attention? That knock down seemed way too easy.
- Vish makes a good showing in the five minutes of OT.
- Garon is a beast for these five minutes. Geez.
- Brownie shows off some ridiculous moves!!

End of OT:
- WOW! Hey guys! The Kings decided to show up and try to make something happen in OT!
- Interestingly, the Oilers are 6-0 in shootouts. Ok, how can the worst team in the NHL have the best shootout stat? Stuff like that baffles me.

Shootout:
- For the Kings, no surprises with Cammy, Brownie, and Kopi taking the shots.
- For the Oilers, it's Gagner, Nilssen, and Horcoff.
- First round: Cammy hits the crossbar and it's a no goal call and Gagner scores
- Second round: Brownie shoots wide and Nilssen is stopped
- Third round: Anze is denied by Garon's right leg pad and Horcoff doesn't need to take the shot

End of game:
- Edmonton wins 4-3 and takes home two points. The Kings get one point.
- So when was the last time Cammy, Anze, and Brown ALL got denied in the shootout???
- I can't be too sad with this ending even though it was a loss. The effort was drastically different from Saturday's game, so you can't beat them down for that.

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Another Lackluster Performance

Looking back on this game as a whole, I think the best part for me was the pregame interview with Cammy. When Patrick O'Neil asked him about the lines and what they might look like, he got a huge smile on his face and said that things would be looking a bit differently. In reference to the Coyotes, he said, “We might throw the shocker at them.” And he thoughtfully added a little WINK on the end of that sentence. OK CAMMY. Do you even know what The Shocker is????? hahahah, WOW! I think I might have fallen off the couch laughing.

Note by commentators: Brownie leads the NHL in hits. =) Ahhh, that's what I like to hear. I'm not an advocate of violence, but a good solid hit will from my team will ALWAYS put a smile on my face.

So this is Cammy's idea of what The Shocker is: 1st line of the night: Kopi, Brownie, Nagy. 2nd line being himself, the Fro, and Sully. Somehow, his version of The Shocker isn't quite as scandalous as the known version. Oh Cammy, you and your 5'9” frame kill me.

This game really didn't hold much excitement so this review will be reduced down to a list:

1) Zeiler definitely put up a hard hit and drew a cross-checking penalty. Wow....good job... The thing to note is that this was the longest delayed penalty I've ever seen (as agreed upon by Jim Fox).

2) Brownie – HIT!

3) 2 shots on that PP? Umm...

4) Jim Fox - “Can't get caught sucking down low.” Umm...

5) The first period had a lot of coast-to-coast playing with not much going on. Not surprisingly the Kings had 10 giveaways compared to Phoenix's 3.

6) During the first intermission – Video montage of Gretzky. Aww, I LOVE Gretzky!

7) Airborne was on HBO and I started flipping at the commercials. If you've never heard of Airborne, let me say that it is horrendously awesome and everyone should check it out. If not for the stellar acting of 1993, then for the terrible ice hockey moments scattered throughout the movie.

8) In the second period they kept the camera on Anze on the bench for a minute or two. So what exactly was he sniffing (smelling salts?) and why was he shooting water everywhere BUT in his mouth?

9) Lone goal by Doan. Damnit, Vish and Blake for giving them a 5-on-3.

10) Is this post interesting anymore, because the game sure wasn't. *sigh*

11) Crawford decided that the DAM line needed to get back out there and actually start producing. This resulted in a much-needed push, so good job for that. Yet the constant stoppages by Bryzgalov were killing any momentum the Kings were trying to build. Oh yeah, the Coyotes picked him up off waivers this morning. (More on this later). Side note: Cammy, nice roller hockey turn on the skates. ha

12) So I've said it before, but I feel I need to reiterate this point: The Kings need to stop passing so much when desperate times call for ACTION. NOT PASSING.

13) After not taking advantage on 5 PP opportunities in these 60 minutes, the Kings continued their losing streak (3) and gave Bryzgalov a shutout. What did they end with? A whopping 3 or 4 shots on net in 5 PP chances? Cool.

14) On a happier note: I will give a props to the goaltenders for the night, Barbs and Bryzgalov. I thought both played well and saw them both as walls in front of their respective nets.

15) After the game Kings Talk with Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans brought up a interesting/comical/terrible point. A caller asked if the Kings would have picked up Bryzgalov if the opportunity had presented itself. Nick (or was it Daryl, they kind of sound alike) said this most likely would not have happened due to the number of goalies the Kings have (Barbs, Aubin, and Cloutier – with Bernier on the rise) AND the amount of money that is tied up by these guys. Do you realize that (according to the math done by Earl Sleek over at BofC) the Kings would have just needed to pay out the remainder of his salary worth $900,000? Wait, what's that? We're spending $3.1 MILLION on Cloutier so that he can continue to be a losing goaltender even at the minor league level? That's fantastic, guys. Money well spent.

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