May 29th, 2013

It took a full 60 minutes.  It took Jonathan Quick playing out of his mind.  It took Justin Williams’ heroics.  And it took Dustin Penner’s dirty work.   It took all of that for the Kings to leave Staples Center on Tuesday Night with a 2-1 victory in game 7 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals vs San Jose, which earned them a trip to the Western Conference Finals.

After a first period that was more conservative than the Republican National Convention, Justin Williams gave the Kings a big boost in the 2nd period with two quick goals in less than three minutes.  Williams hadn’t scored in his last 8 playoff games, but now has 5 goals and 9 points in 4 career game 7’s.  Jonathan Quick slammed the door on the Sharks after that.  San Jose mounted an attack in the third period that was more relentless than my crazy ex-girlfriend in Chicago, but Quick stood his ground time and time again.

When Sharks forward Joe Pavelski appeared to have an open net with about 5 minutes left, the entire building thought the game was about to be tied.  Somehow, Quick kept the puck out of the net, leaving everyone astonished.  He made another phenomenal glove save on Logan Couture with 1:20 left in the game as well.  It’s amazing that Quick is playing even better hockey this spring than last year’s Conn Smythe winning performance.

I like how Dustin Penner has slept through the last two regular seasons, then really earned his paycheck in the playoffs.  Penner threw his weight around all night, and was a big part of the Kings out hitting the sharks 39-30.

The Sharks were tough, and so was their goalie Anti Niemi, but Jonathan Quick was better.  I love the Shark fan that called the Kings post game show and claimed that losing Raffi Torres was the difference in this series.  That fan conveniently forgot that Torres suspension caused the Kings to lose Jarrett Stoll for the entire series, who is far more valuable to the Kings than Torres is to San Jose.

The bottom line is that once again, the Sharks top players flopped harder than Lebron James did against David West last night.  The Kings combo of Kopitar, Brown, Williams, Carter, and Richards scored 9 goals in the series.  The Sharks combo of Thornton, Marleau, Couture, Burns, and Pavelski scored just 5 goals in the series.   To win big in the playoffs, your best guys have to play well, and you have to have the goaltending.  The Kings edged the Sharks in both of those areas.

So who do the Kings want to play next? Conventional wisdom says the Kings should want the Red Wings because they get home ice advantage, and because they’ve won 14 in a row at home, but take a closer look kids.  Goaltending is always critical, and there is a much better chance that Quick will outplay Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford, as opposed to the upstart and talented Jimmy Howard of the Red Wings.  Quick and Howard will likely be battling it out next winter for the starting spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.

The Sharks had the best home record in the league this season, so home ice was critical in that series.  However, the Kings are one of the few teams in the league who have beaten the Blackhawks in Chicago this year.  Chicago peaked early, while the Red Wings appear to be peaking now.  Both teams fans are annoying as hell and you’ll have to put up with their ugly mugs at Staples Center.  Bring on the Blackhawks!

This year’s playoff run has been much tougher for the Kings than last year.  LA went 16-4 on their way to the cup, and lost only once in the first two rounds in 2012.  This year, they’ve already played 13 games in the first two rounds, and the team badly needs rest over the next few days.  The Kings know they can play better, but they seem resigned to the fact each and every game the rest of the way will be a grind.  With Quick in goal the Kings will always have a chance, and as long as the Kings top 6 continue to come through, you have to like their chances to repeat.  Meanwhile, the Sharks playoff hopes are shattered once again.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Nor Cal!

May 24th, 2013

Jonathan Quick and the Kings answered the bell.  I can’t believe some people suggested the Kings should start Bernier in the playoffs, or even trade Quick when he was struggling to find his game earlier in this season.  Quick should never be doubted again!

The Sharks have tried to get Quick off his game by bumping into him, and forcing him to complain to the officials.  In game 5, the Sharks continued to do that, but the difference was that Quick didn’t let it rattle him, and just responded with save after save.  He even flashed a few smiles at some of the Sharks players after making some stellar saves.  Almost reminded me of the former Kings killer Patrick Roy in the 1993 Finals.

Anze Kopitar also came to play as well, and just when I think the guy is about to disappear like hodini, he shows up when you need him more than ever at both ends of the ice.  Daryl Sutter must have beat the crap out of these guys the last few days because Carter, Richards, and Brown were very good as well.

The good news is that the Kings are up 3-2, and are only 1 win away from advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the 2nd straight season.  The bad news is that they have to play game 6 in San Jose, where they’ve had about as much luck as I had playing the Powerball last week.  In some ways, the Kings are probably due for a win on the road, but that also means they might be due for a loss at home after 13 straight wins.  In that case, the Kings better close it out on Sunday!

What happened to Jim Fox’s hair?  I’m too afraid to ask.  And what the hell has happened to the Chicago Blackhawks?  They are letting a team that is half as talented as them completely dominate them.

May 17th, 2013

Holy Toffoli!  Two goals in 23 seconds and the Kings shocked the Sharks at Staples Center on Thursday night to take a 2-0 series lead.  As usual, Jonathan Quick was amazing, except I’m beginning to think the Kings players think they can go into a coma for long stretches because of his greatness.

Speaking of coma’s, I thought Anze Kopitar was going to go into one when he got hit in the face with the puck in the 3rd period.  After Kopitar left, the Kings were without 2 of their top 3 centers, and you could tell.  The Sharks won 44 faceoffs to the Kings 21, and they outshot the Kings by a wide margin until the last few minutes of the 3rd period.  I also take back half of those bad things I said about Jake Muzzin, who is playing some better defense.

This game was phenomenal, but the finish wasn’t better than the Miracle on Manchester in 1982, or the Frenzy on Figueroa in 2000.  Both of those comebacks had much greater deficits, and were at much more pivotal points in those playoff series than where we are now.  The Sharks have had plenty of playoff disasters over the years, but that collapse has to be right up near the top.  If these guys were a Canadian team, they might have their citizenships revoked by now.

That collapse serves them right for that cheap bull shit they pulled in the 2nd period when Vlasic faked an injury to draw a penalty on Carter, only to come back one shift later and score a goal to put the Sharks ahead.  Of course Shark fans are now crying because Raffi Torres is suspended for the rest of the series, and because they think they were wrongfully penalized for delay of game just before the Kings comeback.  At least Sharks Coach Todd McClellan wasn’t bitching too hard.  He admitted “When you get three, you better beat this team.”

The Sharks are just as good as the Kings at home, so it’s hard to imagine LA sweeping this series. Still, the Kings need to put the Sharks away quickly so they can buy some time to get healthy before facing the Blackhawks.  They’ll need the likes of Stoll and Matt Greene to win that series.

May 15th, 2013

Don’t you just hate Nor Cal?  They might as well be a separate state as far as I’m concerned.  Apparently, mastering the concept of public transportation and considering themselves “cultured”, has made many of their fans delusional about their hockey team.  The Kings gave them a dose of reality last night with a 2-0 win in game 1 of their Western Conference semi final series against the Sharks.

Every year, we’ve heard about how talented the Sharks are, and how this is finally the year they break through to win the Cup.  The only cups these guys have drank out of are the champagne glasses on their annual plane ride home for the summer.  In round 1, San Jose swept a team that’s had even more playoff ineptitude than them, in Vancouver.  Last night, they looked like the same chokers who have been showing up in the playoffs the last 5 years.  Meanwhile, the Kings played a Blues team that might have actually come out of the Western Conference if they didn’t run into LA in the 1st round.

Jonathan Quick was phenomenal again.  He single handedly shut down the Sharks, and already looks like he is in their heads.  The Kings sat back for much of the game, waiting patiently, but imposed their will for about 25 minutes of the game, and that was all they needed.  The Kings were extremely composed throughout the entire game, unlike the dude sitting next to me in section 116.

Just one minute into the game, the guy starts bitching “Where is the forecheck??!!! Damn it Where is the forecheck!!!?? We’re screwed!!!”  This guy clearly had not taken his meds because San Jose hadn’t even taken a shot yet and he was already panicking.  This guy was clearly a fan for many years because he had an old 1990’s Kings jersey on, but oddly enough, winning a Stanley Cup last year hasn’t given the guy enough faith in the Kings, or prevent him from losing his mind.

Raffi Torres better be suspended for his cheap shot on Jarret Stoll.   The Kings can’t afford to lose their best face-off man for an extended period of time.  They nearly lost Drew Doughty on the same play, which would have been disastrous.

In the NHL playoffs, there is something to be said about having mental toughness and grittiness.  The Sharks have plenty of talent, but they have always lacked that type of toughness to get them over the top.  The Kings developed that part of their game last year when they won the cup, and have shown more of it the last 5 games.  They are built for the playoffs.  The Kings took the Sharks to six games two seasons ago without Anze Kopitar, and with a banged up Justin Williams, yet Shark fans seem to think they are going to take this series in 4 or 5 games from the defending cup champions.  Keep your mouth shut Nor Cal, and just keep sending us the water.

May 3rd, 2013

Has anybody seen the person missing in the photo above?  His name is Anze Kopitar, and he was last seen on March 23rd, at the United Center against the Blackhawks.  At one point he resembled an all-star center, however, some witnesses are claiming they have seen someone that looks like him getting destroyed by David Backes this week in St. Louis.

Every year Kopitar goes into a goal scoring coma from around game 35 until game 60.  Unfortunately for the Kings, that coincides with this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs because of the lockout shortened season.  If the Kings have any hope of coming back in their 1st round series vs the Blues,, Kopitar needs to wake up from his coma a little earlier than usual.

The Kings have been getting dominated physically.  Coach Daryl Sutter insists that he is completely comfortable with Jake Muzzin and Keaton Ellerby, but those two defenseman have been completely rattled, and should be watching from the press box.  Matt Greene and Alec Martinez need to be inserted back into the lineup for these two kids immediately, or else the Kings will be making their plans for Cancun come Monday.

Meanwhile, what the hell were Trevor Lewis and Jarrett Stoll thinking  with under a minute left in the game?  Both of them got caught up ice, gambling to try to force a turnover.  In an instant, I felt like I was watching the LA Kings of the 1990’s, who were practically allergic to playing defense.

Then there’s Jonathan Quick.  Yes, he’s played like an elite goaltender over the last two games, but his miscue at the end of game 1, and his inability to come up with a save on Jackman’s routine shot turned out to be costly mistakes for the Kings.  In the Stanley Cup playoffs, you almost always have to have the best goaltender to win, and the Quick’s mistakes have come at the worst times.  Then again, the Kings aren’t leaving him much margin for error, since they haven’t even scored an even strength goal yet.

May 1st, 2013

The game looked like it was in the bag.  The Kings were on a 4 minute power play in sudden death overtime, and Jonathan Quick gave the puck away, and the game.  So the Kings are down 1-0 to the Blues in their best of seven 1st round series.  Did the Kings really deserve to win though?  Probably not.

No matter how much respect the Kings were saying they had for the Blues, they were well aware of the fact they have owned them for the past year, and had been beating them into the ground.  Daryl Sutter even said “a handful of guys” weren’t ready for the physical beating the Blues put on the Kings early.  I think he really meant that Jake Muzzin and Keaton Ellerby didn’t expect to get their asses kicked as badly as they did.  The Blues were obviously tired of the Kings pushing them around, and that’s why they dominated the first two periods of play.

So a fiercely determined Blues team gave the Kings their best shot, and it resulted in a 2-1 win for St. Louis in overtime, which they were fortunate to win.  Yes, the Kings could have devastated the Blues by stealing game 1.  But if this is the Blues best shot, the Kings can easily take this series.

Jonathan Quick made 40 saves, and looked pretty close to the guy who dominated last spring.  The only goal he gave up in regulation was a power play goal, in which he made a spectacular initial first save on.  Quick also showed us that he was mentally tough last spring, bouncing back from any soft goals he allowed and carried the Kings at key moments.  No reason to think he can’t bounce back here.

This isn’t to say the Kings don’t have anything to worry about.  They’ll need Matt Green’s physical presence back in the lineup, and they’ll have to get a much stronger forecheck going earlier in the game to wear down the Blues.  They’ll also need to get Kopitar and their other big guns going, but LA has far more talent up front than the Blues.  If the Kings come out and match the Blues physicality on Thursday night, no reason to think they can’t tie this series up before heading back to LA this weekend.

April 1st, 2013

The Kings have made a deal!  TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting that the Buffalo Sabres have traded defenseman Robyn Regehr to the Kings for two of 2nd round draft picks.  According to Kings GM Dean Lombardi, the deal is pending Regehr passing a physical.

This may not have been the splashy deal that some Kings fans were hoping for, but it adds some very important depth to their depleted defensive core.  Defenseman Matt Greene is still at least a month away from returning from a back injury, and Willie Mitchell remins out indefinitely after off-season knee surgery.

The 32 year old Regehr is a very physical, stay-at-home defenseman, who should also help improve the Kings 15th ranked penalty killing unit, down from 4th best in the league last season.  Regehr is earning a $4 million salary this season, and is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

Although the 2nd round draft picks seems like a hefty price to pay, this was a much needed move for the Kings.  Jake Muzzin and Keaton Ellerby’s play have been a very pleasant surprises for the Kings thus far, but it’s unrealistic to expect such a high level of play from these inexperienced players when you get into the playoffs and start seeing quality opponents over a 7 game series.

Interestingly enough, with the acquisition of Regehr, the Kings are one player over the maximum roster size of 23, which means one player will have to be sent to Manchester, or another trade would have to be made.  Given the fact the Kings will not have a 1st round pick this year (Sent to Columbus in the Jeff Carter Trade), Dean Lombardi may even look to move Alec Martinez or Davis Drewiske for a pick or two.

Although some fans were hoping the team would add more fire power up front by acquiring a Jerome Iginla or Jaromir Jagr, the Kings aren’t in desperate need of offense, and the price for those veterans was enormous.  The Kings have scored the 6th most goals in the NHL this season, much improved from last season’s 29th place finish.