A Questionably Solid Win: Kings 6, Sharks 4

The Los Angeles Kings redeemed themselves last night against the San Jose Sharks with a 6-4 victory. I was extremely proud of their efforts in the first period but was soon shell-shocked in the second and third when the Sharks came back to score 4 unanswered goals. Before puck drop I was still wondering about the defensive pairings that seemingly paired like-and-like instead of one offensive-minded with one defensive-minded, but anything could have been better than last Saturday so I wasn't too worried. I soon was swallowing any doubts because the Kings showed up and played a hell of... well first period and second half of the third period. This game was no where near what the Kings would like on a per-game basis.

In looking at the positives of the game first, I'm not sure which of the Kings 6 goals was the best but I will say that Jack Johnson's aggressiveness and willingness to get to the net can only lead to great things. As long as he has the defensive support on the back end, I can only encourage his spark to get his stick on the puck. Michal Handzus' pass to the front of the net couldn't have been better timed during the 4-on-4 play. Another positive was Anze Kopitar's goal in that he should be scoring like that every single game. His was just about the nastiest and sickest goal I've seen from a King in awhile and Evgeni Nabokov never saw it coming.

(LAKings.com)

My mantra of the Kings being "consistently inconsistent" continued last night by their sheer meltdown in the middle of the game. Yes, their passing and transitions were impressive, but the inevitable excitement and inability to immediately calm the nerves after their lead was built lead to the Kings suffering 4 unanswered power play goals from the Sharks. The most blatant penalty was the Too Many Men call while they were on the power play. The Kings were all over the place during their penalty kills and the bloom was quickly off the rose as the Sharks tied the game with less than five minutes in the game. Yet hope was renewed by Teddy Purcell, the player under arguably the most scrutiny, and his "hail mary" shot from a ridiculous angle. [Update]: Thomas Greiss Nabokov didn't have any control over it whatsoever and the Kings were back within getting the well-deserved two points.

I was very impressed with the 3rd line of Alexander Frolov, Handzus, and Wayne Simmonds. These guys were playing against the Sharks' better players while generating offense at the same time. Their chemistry last night proved that this could potentially happen every single game, which makes this line more of a threat than the 2nd line of Purcell, Jarret Stoll, and Dustin Brown.

According to the stats sheet, Frolov was on the ice for only 17:29 but he utilized every single second by producing 2 points while also being double shifted on the 4th line, which disappeared pretty quickly. Raitis Ivanans did his duty playing less than 5 minutes but letting the opposition know what he really thinks about them. Here's Raitis landing some dome shots on Jody Shelley after Davis Drewiske was slammed into the boards. Thanks, Ivanans for sticking up for the rookie!

(LAKings.com)

All of the Kings were nicely either even in the +/- column or on the plus side while it was just the opposite on the Sharks end. Interestingly, Dany Heatley collected three points and was a -2, Devin Setoguchi got 2 points and ended at a -2, and Joe Thornton got three assists and had almost a team-worst -3.

Lastly, props to Drewiske for scoring his first NHL goal. Yes, it was on an empty net, but it was with full traffic between him and the goal mouth and it put the game away for the Kings.

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Kings 1, Sharks 3

Well, the Kings lose their season opener to the San Jose Sharks. Great. In what seemed like a promising game ended in ... a bit of disappointment. The Sharks came out tentative but slowly picked up their momentum and killed off any hope for the Kings to get back in the game. But that doesn't mean I gave up hope for them to make a come back.

I thought the Kings had a great first period. It seemed a bit tentative in the first 10 minutes and I felt like the Sharks would take control of the game at any moment, but the Kings were able to get a bit scrappier when the tempo was hightened. Something that I thought was interesting was that during the Sharks' first PP rather than getting the puck into the Kings' zone as quickly as they could, they regrouped and came into the Kings' zone four across. I don't think I've ever seen the Sharks do that; so I can automatically see a change for that team. Alexander Frolov's goal was pretty solid. The cross-ice pass from Michal Handzus hit Fro's tape and the Kings were up 1-0. But really, that was it for the positives.

In the second period, the Sharks dominated the Kings all over the ice, but I never believed that they'd get a goal against Jason LaBarbera. I was feeling pretty confident with their efforts. Be that as it may, the Kings were missing passes and causing turnovers, but I was still hoping... The first goal against Barbs was by Devin Setoguchi in a scramble at the top of the crease. I was more annoyed with the second goal against the Kings, which was shot in by Tomas Plihal off the short side blocker. Jack Johnson pushed him out to the outside angle but Plihal was still able to get the shot off. Booo. And of course the Kings end two periods with only 9 shots on net. 9!!! Just to illustrate how ridiculous that was, the Sharks had 31 by the end of 2. How do they expect to win if they can't get anything going in the offensive zone?

Just relax, Connie...

One last thing, Handzus (my faceoff whipping boy from last season) has won 8 faceoffs and lost only 5! Amazing! BUT, the guy we brought in to win faceoffs? This Jarret Stoll? He's won only 1 and has lost 4 so far. That's 20%, Stolly. C'mon now.

The third period doesn't hold any better for the Kings. The Sharks come out and continue their dominance. Time to move to bullet points.

• In looking at the stats at the end of the game, Fro was the only forward to get more than 20 minutes of ice time.
• Interesting: Stoll only had 13:44 of time. He also only won one faceoff and lost 6. Crud.
  
• Patrick Marleau lost 2 and won 9. I hate you, Patrick Marleau.
• The Kings end the game with only 13 shots on. The Sharks had 41.
• On a positive, Matt Moulson had 17:05 of ice time where he saw time on both the PP and PK. It was a bit of a disappointment to see that he ended at a -3. But hey, is that really surprising when you're on the Kings?

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadians
In the same fashion, the Leafs were dominated by Montreal. The game started out promising, but the Habs took over and were taking advantage of everything the Leafs were missing out on. Just like in their opener, the Leafs weren't able to generate any offense and the Habs were looking pretty damn good. One thing that stook out to me was how well the Habs were able to hold down their own slot area. Anytime the Leafs were able to get the puck in front of the Habs' net, there were always either 4 or 5 red jerseys there.

The Habs came out the victors in this game winning 6-1. Vesa Toskala was pulled after 40 minutes and Curtis Joseph didn't look too bad in net. Hopefully their next game looks a bit more cohesive where their lines can actually move together. Hmm, sounds like something the Kings need to accomplish. Is it too early to say that I don't think it'd be too farfetched to say that the Stanley Cup finals might have the Canadians facing off against the Sharks? God, I hope the Sharks don't make it that far...

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Kings 2, Sharkies 1

So I turn the TV on to FSN for the start of the Kings game. What do I see instead but a WSU/WASH game in the last 5 minutes, which they've decided to show until the end since it's tied 35-35. What the hell!! I have to wait for this to be over before I can see my Kings whomp on the Sharks? With each minute that ticks by, I get angrier and angrier. Let's see how I pass the minutes by:

7:39 – 2:08 left in the game. Switch back to Mr. And Mrs. Smith since it's on another channel. Might as well ogle at Brad Pitt for a bit.

7:45 – 15 seconds left on the clock. Things that I'm missing: any pre-game interviews, any game analysis, ANYTHING!! Switch to Wedding Crashers, which is on another channel.

7:53 – The clock has been at 9 seconds for too long. Get it over with! Ok, it's FINALLY over, now go to the game!!! What? Post-game interviews??? CRAP!

7:56 – I'm so fucking pissed. FSN, I'm so mad at you right now.

1st Period: We come into the game with 9:14 left in the first and Brownie (9) has just scored a goal. Wow, I'm even MORE mad at FSN now.
- Calder is on the first line? Well, it doesn't really matter since Crawford is changing up the lines on every shift. I could be out there for 30 seconds and I bet no one would know. I'd put up a hit on Setoguchi and skate away while saying, “That's for colonizing my ancestors...and scoring a lot of goals.”
- On Marleau's penalty, Blake took 3 shots on, which made me happy since he hasn't really been doing that this season because it's been the norm up until this year. What's the deal?
- Zeiler – Way to completely miss that attempted hit. Good job.
- Side note: Calder now as 5 titanium pins in his thumb to match the pin that's already in his shoulder.
- Kopitar (9) scores on the PP from awesome passing from Brownie, to Vish (who fakes a shot, only to pass), to Kopi who one-times it past a stiff-looking Nabokov. Sick.

End of 1st: I'm still pissed at FSN, but the Kings are up 2-0 so I guess I should relax a little.
- Looking at the stats, the Kings have only one hit to the Sharks' 4? And 5 shots compared to the SJ's 7? Those numbers have got to come up.

2nd period: Fun fact: Rob Blake has 215 shots on goal, which is the most by any NHL defenseman. AWESOME.
- I thought the PK from Nagy's penalty was good; they were clearing the puck and shutting down the Sharks.
- In always hoping their passing improves, I thought at 10:38 in, Moulson's turn around pass to Blake was a nice setup. Even though it was blocked, it still brought in a shooting opportunity.
- Nagy was awarded a penalty shot and tried to go 5-hole on Naby, but was denied. No worries, they're still up 2-0.
- Side note: Ivanans now has 4 plates in his left cheek courtesy of Rob Blake.

End of 2nd: Hmm, it appears that Handzus is actually being effective and making a noticeable difference on the ice.
- The Kings were outshot 13-6 this period. Crap guys! What do we gotta do to get the puck to the net more? And by “we” I mean “YOU.”
- Even though the shot total wasn't ideal, I thought the Kings transitioned their energy well from the first to the second period.
- During the intermission, they showed a clip of Cammy while in London. The season opener was a while ago, and they're just now showing this? Anyway, since I am pretty critical on speaking skills and the ability to talk without using “umm,” “like,” and “you know” in everyday vernacular, I have something to say about Cammy. I am SO GLAD that the Kings have captains who are competent in their speaking abilities. Blake, Thornton, and Cammy are well-spoken and I definitely appreciate that.

3rd period: Off the bat, the energy levels are still there making this a very hectic period.
- Sully – HIT! (and appears to not be wearing his teeth tonight)
- Zeiler falls. Hmm, why is that not surprising? I see this guy as being like a spastic younger sibling in that he just gets out there and starts running around. But, I mean, it's his job as being part of the energy line, right? But lately, with Crawford changing up the lines like there's no tomorrow, who knows what Zeiler is supposed to be doing....besides falling down a lot.
- The Kings are still skating with energy and hustle, which is actually causing me to feel a bit stressed even though they're still up by two goals.
- Goal for Sharks by Milan Michalek. Damn, Barbs almost got a shutout.
- At the end of the game, Joe Thornton almost scores on his own goal from the Kings end but hits the post. Oh well, I'll take the one goal win.

Game: Kings 2, Sharks 1. Five-game losing streak SNAPPED.

When Barbs was being interviewed after the game, did anyone else think the guy sitting behind the glass to his left looked like Newman? Seinfeld anyone?

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