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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8 In A Row

Pre-Game:
- Had dinner with KingsCast at the Royal Room. Thoughts: It was a little dark in there. It gave it a kind of "I'm too cool for school" ambiance. The food was good and you could definitely share one order of something with someone else.
- Sharks activate Cheechoo and the Kings scratch Cammy (ribs), Willsie (sucks), and Dallman (sucks and broke his foot). This is gonna bring some poor soul up from Manchester.
- Sharks start Carle, Rivet, Cheechoo, Thornton, Roenick (to resounding boos), and Nabokov
- Kings start JJ, Modry, Thornton (the not superstar one), Handzus, Giuliano, and Barbs
- No matter how much the Kings suck, the opening on-ice video and music presentation can always inspire me into thinking that the Kings could actually pull something off.
- When Crow's name was announced, the entire arena filled with boos. Really not surprising.

First Period:
- There were a couple of good hits thrown up in the opening minutes; Lubo is able to break through SJ's sloppy D.
- After a whistle Lubo and Goc get into a short but sweet slap fest and both get sent to the box. I think Goc wanted some cookies but Lubo wasn't willing to share. Each get 2 minutes for slapping.
- Did anyone else notice JJ taking a face off?
- Hey, guys, we're 3 minutes into this game and it already looks lifeless.
- JJ - HIT
- Preissing and Stuart - you guys could probably do better.
- Giuliano is forechecking like crazy 5 minutes in, but one guy working on his own isn't gonna get it done.
- A Shark almost gets annihilated by Blake's ass. =)
- Let me just remind everyone that Kopi's got some sweet ass moves.
- Goc just can't seem to stay away from Lubo. He's all over him and it looks like it's gonna be a long night, for Lubo, and hey, for us as well!
- Sharks Goal: Milan Michalek slaps it past Barbs at 9:02.
- At one point Kopi, Sully, and Brownie charge across the blue line and Kopi throws it up at Nabby who makes a solid glove save. Lesson from this moment: don't put it on Nabby's glove side.
- Sharks Goal: Joe Pavelski at 12:17 on a backhand from Marcel "I want some cookies" Goc.
- This marks SJ taking 9 shots resulting in 2 goals, which brings Aubin in net. Umm...

I'm sorry we suck so badly, Barbs.

- JJ breaks out and chases the puck into enemy territory. Even though Nabby makes the save, it was nice to see him being aggressive on those kinds of plays.
- JJ - HIT
- 5:30 - It appears that the Kings are shutting down SJ's offense and are taking some control of the neutral zone. This causes the Sharks revert to a dump-and-chase.
- 3:01 - Aubin! WOW! Good save!
- So the Kings don't have control of the neutral zone anymore and are lacking everything. This is where I wonder, "Hey guys, you're playing 5-on-5, right?"
- Sharks penalty on Rob Davidson for too many men. Sully tries for a sweet wraparound but can't stuff it past Nabby. JJ fans on a shot and a Shark grabs it for a break away. Score remains 2-0 because he shoots it high and wide.

End of the first period:
- You guys should really stop going glove side on Nabby. He's kinda grabbing everything.
- Nagy looks like he's figure skating out there.
- Sharks are up 2-0
- The smoking balcony is cold and filthy. Hear that KingsCast? Gross.

2nd Period:
- Kings are on the PK at 2:41, then it's 4-on-4 at 3:57, and then the Kings have a 5-on-3 for a little bit. The Kings were able to kill the first part of the first penalty against them; it was kind of boring, not gonna lie.
- But on that 5-on-3, way to NOT take advantage of that.
- Who is this Brad Stuart kid? What is your function? Conjunction junction?
- Kings Goal: Fro, way to take it to the net. Nabby blocks the shot but the rebound goes right to Blake (3) on the outside who slaps it home at 6:18.
- Sully - goes for a softy hit
- Brownie - HITx2
- Fro gave Matt Carle the behind
- There are some sloppy plays on display; one might even question if these are even "plays."
- JJ - HIT
- Ratti - HIT (Playing without the face shield; he's ready to be the resident pugilist again.)
- 10 minutes left - If the Kings were on a PK, I'd praise them for their hustle. But they ain't.
- Blake - HIT
- 6 minutes to go - Anze takes it up himself, through the neutral zone, across the blueline where he gets shut down. Good effort but no help from the teammates. Story of the season.
- Nagy loses the puck and gets leveled. Hey Sharks, don't you know this guy was injured? Leave him alone, jerks.
- 4:17 - (I am not creative so I'm going to use some well-know imagery here) The Sharks cut through the neutral zone and across the blue line like a heated knife through room temperature butter. We really should work on every aspect of our game.
- JJ & Thornton have some shit they need to work out, which draw penalties at 16:04 (JJ for cross checking and Thornton for roughing).
- Nagy is getting picked on hardcore. Rivet gets 2 minutes for elbowing, a 5 minute match penalty, and gets ejected for cross checking Nagy in the throat. Nagy sits 2 minutes for cross checking Rivet.
- I shouldn't have to say what you already know; the Kings need to stop passing so much. Period.

End of the second period:
- Stuart needs to be benched or something. He's sucking some major ass out there.
- Sully, being the stud that he is, is not playing up to par...gotta work on that.
- The second half of the period had an overall lack of focus and control from both teams.

3rd Period:
- Began this period with 2:something left on the match penalty and the Kings don't take advantage. Fro even got a good pass but hesitated a little too long and lost the shooting lane. Bah!
- A good opportunity came when Fro took it to the net at 17:20. Nabby stops it but has no idea where it is; he regains composure and stops any stuff attempt by the Kings.
- Giuliano has a spirited but unsuccessful forecheck.
- Sharks Goal: Milan Michalek tips it in at 3:24 in.
- At 5:23, the blade of Blake's stick somehow finds Ehrhoff's mouth and is called for high sticking.

There was a lot of this business going on.

- Giuliano gets rooooooooocked
- Question of the night: who do I trust less, Stuart or Vish?
- Side note: it might be worth going to Staples just for the highlight montages on the jumbo tron. They assure me that the Kings can't really suck this much.
- For a team at the bottom of the standings and who has said they're "desperate," they sure aren't playing "desperate hockey."
- 4:55 left - the shots are surprisingly even at 30 a piece.
- Holy hell, Carle gets called for slashing at 19:27, which leads to a Kings Goal by Vish (3) from the blue line.

End of the game:
- Kings 2, Sharks 3
- Has Crow just told Zeiler that he's not allowed to shoot the puck at the net? He's basically the "dump" of the "dump and chase" school of thought.
- What is with the Kings' inability to connect the stick to the puck??? Everybody's fanning out there!
- 8 losses in a row. So when's the bleeding going to stop exactly?

Just in case you've never seen the inside of the Staples Center

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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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