After a less than stellar performance in Vancouver on Thanksgiving day that saw them lose 4-1, the Kings have bounced back nicely with two hard contested wins.

If you took one positive from the Turkey Day stinker in B.C. it was the strong play of Jon Quick and Wayne Simmonds. These two carried themselves into and through Saturday’s contest with the Chicago Blackhawks at Staples Center. Simmonds scored the Kings’ lone goal in regulation and Quick allowed the Kings to take the game through overtime and into the shootout where he was perfect leading the Kings to victory, 2-1. While Anze Kopitar hasn’t scored a goal in 10 games now (ouch), he did manage to undress Cristobal Huet in round one of the shootout. Quick would stop Jonathan Toews and Jack Johnson, who for all his defensive zone blunders early this season is practically automatic one-on-one in the shootout, buried the puck past Huet with a beautiful backhand move. Quick stopped Patrick Kane cold to seal the deal.

Next, we bring on the Ducks in Anaheim. Ahh, Duck. It’s a four letter word that will bring the blood of most Kings’ fans to a boil instantly. Most of us were fans of the game before NHL Commish Gary Bettman got the genius idea to make an NHL team out of a really bad Disney movie. We hated the idea in the first place. We felt like their uniforms were an atrocity, their fans should stick to something less complicated, and we ridiculed them for having Tinkerbell congratulate goal scorers on their TV broadcasts. Some things never change…

The Ducks still have AWFUL uniforms, and the vast majority of their fans try to cover up for their lack of hockey knowledge by blaming the officials at every turn. While most with even remedial knowledge of the game watch Randy Carlyle’s club take a ton of undisciplined penalties and realize this is most often a recipe for disaster. Not the Ducks fan. This is perpetuated at the highest level by their TV play-by-play team of John Ahlers and Brian Hayward, quite possibly, or rather most definitely the most shamelessly homer-ish broadcast team in the NHL. When you have a fan base who, in the vast majority of cases understands very little about the sport of hockey being preached to by buffoons who whine at every penalty call, bitch every time an opposing player makes contact with one of their own, and co-signs every goon tactic Carlyle has bred into the Ducks, well, you get the point.

As this years opening installment of the “Freeway Faceoff” between the Kings and Ducks was at Honda Center, Kings fans were forced to deal with the stupidity of Ahlers and Hayward, or, more likely to mute their television sets and listen to the Kings’ radio feed anyway.

I found the score of tonight’s 4-3 Kings’ triumph in Anaheim to be a bit misleading. While it took Brad Richardson (that guy finally scored?) deflecting a Jack Johnson shot past Jonas Hiller with under 3 minutes remaining to decide the game’s outcome, it really wasn’t that close. Perhaps it would be fair to call the Ducks opportunistic tonight, as they took advantage of the bounces that went their direction and were close to gaining a single point from a game they had no business being in. The penalty call on Wayne Simmonds that led to the Ryan Whitney 5 on 3 goal for Anaheim was a gift (if Hayward says it’s a bad call, you KNOW something’s up), and two bounces that went in Anaheim’s direction led to the Ducks’ third goal of the night from Todd Marchant. For all intents and purposes, this should’ve been a 4-1 game.

For a minute, let me set aside my obvious disdain for the Ducks and focus on some positives: Jon Quick, for the last 3 games at least, has looked like the Jon Quick of last season. Perhaps it’s the sharp looking new set of gear, or more likely it’s that Quick is stabilizing and starting to do all the little things right. For the entire game against Chicago, Quick was flat out brilliant. Tonight in Anaheim, Quick’s 3rd period antics shut the door on a Duck team that was pressing hard for points. Quick is 3-0 lifetime against the Ducks, all three wins by the same 4-3 score.

Jack Johnson is starting to look good in his own zone. He’s always been a gifted puck mover with a cannon shot, but we’ve been waiting for Jack to come into his own defensively. Smart plays in the D-zone, well timed hits. Oh, and there’s the offense thing too.

Brad Richardson scored his first goal as a King. While Richardson has developed into a solid shutdown type center, his offensive numbers have not reflected that of someone worth giving up a second round pick for a Summer ago. He went all of last season without scoring a goal and while he’s had more opportunities of late, you wondered if he would ever get off the schneid. It couldn’t have happened at a better time.

On the not so positive side, 10 games without a goal for Kopi? Yes, he most definitely misses Ryan Smyth on that top line, but we’ve seen production from Kopi for 3 years sans Smyth, and it’s hard not to think Kopitar is either playing banged up or just not leaving it all on the ice every shift. Every game night I keep telling myself “Kopitar can’t stay off the scoresheet forever, and when he does get back on it he’ll come roaring back”. but I’m still waiting for that to happen. I think Anze is capable of scoring without Smytty, but his play in the offensive zone doesn’t have the look of confidence of late. While the Ducks had Hiller pulled at game’s end I was praying for Kopi to get an empty netter, just to break the spell and get him going again. It’s got to happen sooner or later. Sooner would be nice, as points aren’t easy to come by in the West.

4 goals tonight was the Kings’ biggest offensive output since November 16th in Florida. 4-3 has been the final score of the past 3 installments of the Freeway Faceoff, all in favor of the Kings.

No matter how you slice it, NOTHING, and I mean nothing, feels better than beating the Ducks, especially in their own barn, where you’re likely to see as many or more Kings fans in attendance than their own.

Next up, Jason Spezza, Alexei Kovalev and the Ottawa Senators at home on Thursday.

See you at Staples.

-JS

The past week, like much of the season, has been a bit of a roller coaster for the Kings. If inconsistency is an earmark of a young team still in the learning process, then, well, excuse the obvious but that’s what we’ve got.

A loss to the Ducks in Anaheim (in one of the most flat out boring games of the season) was certainly frustrating. A win back at Staples against Anaheim two nights later provided some sweet vindication (and, I refuse to join the Bobby Ryan ass kissing parade, sorry. Any King defender other than Peter Harrold would’ve laid Ryan on his ass and made him swallow half his teeth.) even though the game was a little more dramatic than perhaps we had hoped. Any win over the Ducks, provides a great deal of satisfaction. Anaheim has the least classy organization in the NHL, the most ignorant, insolent fans…I could go on and on. It’s going to be wonderful to watch them lose a ton of key free agents (thank you salary cap!) while we continue to improve. While the ignorant masses might gloat about them being a playoff team, I will personally enjoy watching them get bounced in the first round because they’re a bunch of gutless cheap shots who can’t stay out of the box. Anyway, I digress.

Saturday was, in my estimation anyway, the worst game of the season for the Kings. They didn’t win many battles, didn’t have the necessary hustle and were rendered offensively ineffective to the point they made Kevin Weekes look good. Yup, that’s pretty embarrassing. New Jersey played their system to a tee. The Kings managed 35 shots against Weekes and the Devils, but few of them were more than harmless. The Devils are good at what they do, for certain. They scored 3 power play goals, and the Kings penalty killing, which has been good all season for the most part, looked pretty suspect. Adding to that frustration was the fact the Kings couldn’t catch a break from the officials…which leaves me to rehash…

I’ve been pretty critical of the officials all season long. Time and time again these guys are blatantly blowing calls. Every game I’ve attended this season there have been some pretty obvious no-calls on both participating teams, as well as some pretty ticky-tac stuff that got called. Saturday night’s game was absolutely atrocious in the officiating department (and it didn’t involve Don Koharski!). The Kings got sent to the box repeatedly for ticky-tac “infractions” and New Jersey was repeatedly not called for blatant ones. Case in point – one shift at the end of the first period where Dustin Brown was taken down away from the puck (interference), tripped while carrying the puck, and then cross checked to the ice by Devils’ center John Madden. No call. Later in the second period Dustin Brown got called for a slash that was little more than a love tap. I’m no conspiracy theorist but if you didn’t know better you’d assume that Brad Meier and Justin St. Pierre were on the Devils’ payroll.

I’m not going to suggest the officials cost LA the game. When you can only score once against a fringe NHL goalie like Weekes, you’re not going to win. My chief complaint is, who the hell do these officials have to answer to? You or I would be fired for poor job performance. The NHL doesn’t allow criticism of it’s officials (like every other major pro sports league), but at least in some other sports, the officials are held to some level of accountability. In some cases, they even admit when they’re wrong (see: Ed Hochuli). Based on what I’ve seen both in person and in games I’ve watched on TV, the NHL needs a major overhaul in this category. Hell there are guys reffing in local men’s leagues who do it with more integrity than the clowns officiating the best league in the world. I keep thinking maybe I ought to apply to become an NHL referee. After all, it would be pretty sweet to get paid for sucking at my job! But, back to the game…

I thought Jon Quick played well enough. It’s pretty tough for a guy not getting a lot of goal support to stop everything thrown at him. Three of New Jersey’s goals were deflected, one was a 2-on-1 pass, and the other was a nice move and a perfect over the shoulder shot by Zach Parise. I thought Terry Murray’s decision not to pull him was the right one. The glove save he made on the first New Jersey power play of the night was instant highlight reel material. Quick isn’t giving up soft goals like LaBarbera before him, his great games have peaked higher than any other Kings goalie this season and his OK games haven’t been as low as that of his counterparts either. That said, Terry Murray has been preaching giving both goalies playing time, and coming off the loss I am expecting to see Erik Ersberg in net for the Kings against Tampa on Monday night.

In other news:

Dustin Brown has been named to the All-Star team for the Western Conference. We all know the All-Star system is flawed (see: Eastern Conference starting lineup and Giguere and Neidermayer starting for the West), but the coaches got this one right. The fact that there weren’t any other Kings on the West roster reinforces my theory that the Kings don’t get much respect from most of the east coast based hockey media. Alexander Frolov, in my estimation is more deserving than a couple of the forwards on the West roster (and yes, I understand Tkachuk is a sentimental pick).

Drew Doughty and Erik Ersberg have both been named to the Young Stars game. Doughty will start on defense for the rookies and Ersberg will start for the sophomores. Exciting for both players, but how in the name of Odin did Kyle Quincey not make this game?

Terry Murray was on Kings Talk on the Kings’ flagship radio station, KTLK AM 1150 after Saturday’s game and he says Jack Johnson should be cleared to participate in full-contact drills by Wednesday of this week. Will be interesting to see if Johnson will get a 2 week conditioning stint in Manchester or will stay in El Segundo. My vote would be to get him some game action in the AHL to help bring him up to speed, but I don’t believe that’s a likely scenario.

Kings take on Tampa at Staples Monday night. Lightning forward and first-overall pick Steven Stamkos was a healthy scratch against Anaheim in Tampa’s last game. He’s expected to play Monday night, but to every King fan who griped about picking second overall instead of first, at least at this juncture it’s clear the Kings got the better player in Doughty. The hapless Bolts beat the Ducks 4-3 in their last contest. Hopefully the Kings will rebound from their stinker of a game Saturday night with a big win.

See you at Staples.
-JS

If you’re looking for words to warm the cockles of any King fan’s heart, here’s a good place to begin: The Kings dominated their cross town rivals in a convincing 6-3 win last night at Staples Center.

The Kings picked up their first win of the season and kept the Ducks winless. They were able to duplicate and surpass the intensity the had at the end of Sunday’s 1-0 loss to San Jose. Special teams played a big role as the Kings went 3 for 9 on the power play and remain perfect on the penalty kill this season.

Kings spotted Anaheim a 2-0 lead on goals by Brent Sutherby and Todd Marchant that were at best routine saves for LaBarbera. Shortly after the first Duck goal, Kings’ heavyweight Raitis Ivanans and Ducks’ enforcer (and John Holmes wannabee) George Parros dropped the gloves. Ivanans won the fight cleanly, ending the fight on top of Parros (the most overrrated fighter in the league) after a long exchange which even saw Ivanans pummel Parros with a few body shots. The Kings’ were buzzing around the Duck net early and you just sort of knew it was a matter of time before the floodgates were coming open.

The next goal scored was Wayne Simmonds’ first NHL goal, lifting a rebound of a Sean O’Donnell shot over a sprawling J.S. Giguere and into the top of the net. Welcome to the NHL, kid. Simmonds played great tonight – aggressive on the forecheck, crashed the net hard and hustled end to end. His goal would start a string of 5 unanswered King goals.

Kings tied the game on Patrick O’Sullivan’s first goal of the year. He took a pass from Anze Kopitar, cut to the net and took a shot that hit the right skate of Duck defenseman Chris Pronger. Always great to humiliate Pronger (edit – initially I thought O’Sullivan’s shot was on net before it hit Pronger’s skate. After watching the replay again today the shot would’ve gone wide. A goal is a goal though.) Kings took the lead for good on a goal by Jaret Stoll coming in the last minute of the second period near the end of a two man advantage on a beautiful one time blast that beat Giguere high to the glove side.

Matt Moulson and Tom Preissing scored third period goals for the Kings before Teemu Selanne scored the Ducks’ third goal of the game on a turnover and mistake by Brian Boyle. Alexander Frolov scored an empty net goal to seal the Kings’ win.

The Ducks played consistent with their season so far – lots of stupid penalties and undisciplined play. I’m still amazed though, for as many penalties as the Ducks took there were at least as many that weren’t called. Getzlaf in particular was setting picks on forecheckers in the neutral zone all night long. I’m not sure how that doesn’t warrant an interference penalty, or if the Ducks are just good at doing it when the referees aren’t paying attention. The other thing the Ducks do best – from their coach all the way to the last player on their bench and probably the trainer too – is whine. I didn’t see one Duck head to the sin bin without crying like a spoiled child who can’t get his way. Getzlaf, Perry and Pronger are the worst at this but everybody on that team does it. Watching Giguere sulk after every Kings’ goal makes you wonder what exactly it is he thinks he’s entitled to. This team is the epitome of poor sportsmanship.

Speaking of Giguere, he was absolutely horrible. Makes me wonder if the NHL’s new, albeit minor regulation changes on goalie equipment have finally done him in. Every goal the Kings scored except for O’Sullivan’s was high, taking advantage of the fact that Giguere is down ten minutes before the shot is taken. He looked less than human Tuesday night and as previously mentioned he was visibly frustrated. He was outplayed by LaBarbera soundly, and LaBarbera hardly had a great outing.

LaBarbera made saves when he needed to but both the first two goals, particularly the five hole floater from Todd Marchant (second Ducks’ goal) were terribly soft. I can’t help but think, if the Kings are capable of dismantling opponents that are supposed to be powers in the West without getting good goaltending, imagine what they could do with a legitimate number one goalie. I can’t imagine that Terry Murray hasn’t taken notice either. It’s early, and one could presume that LaBarbera will be given a little time to right the ship, but let’s hope the leash will be short if we are still seeing this type of play from him in the near future. This team playing to it’s potential with a bona fide NHL goalie has a shot at, dare I say, the playoffs.

It was great to see the team take the physical play to Anaheim. Denis Gauthier made a couple of huge hits, notably one each on the Ducks’ twinkle toes due of Perry and Getzlaf. Gauthier also pummeled Getzlaf after he ran LaBarbera in the third period. Dustin Brown absolutely leveled Sammy Pahlsson.

If there’s one guy in the Kings lineup last night who looked out of place, it was Peter Harrold. He got a little better as the game went on and had to play a lot of minutes in the third period after Drew Doughty left the game suffering with the flu. Harrold will likely be a healthy scratch (or reassigned to Manchester) when Kyle Quincey makes his Kings debut on Friday.

All in all it’s hard not to love the way the Kings are playing right now. It took the first two losses but they certainly came out firing on all cylinders Tuesday night. If the team keeps this up, there were be a lot of surprised people in the hockey world. I’ll be the least of those.

As for the Ducks, well, they’re going nowhere fast except the sin bin.

God it feels good to say that.

Kings next game is Friday night at Staples against the Carolina Hurricanes.

-JS

The Orange County Register published an article yesterday about Ducks color man Brian Hayward, basically defending him against accusations of blatant “homerism” by Kings fans. If you want a good laugh, you can read the article for yourself.

Here is a guy who has been caught on camera pleading for Duck players to go after Kings star players with intent to injure, but he doesn’t see himself as a homer. Hayward, who was essentially a career backup goalie who played for 4 different teams in his NHL career; has also said on record that Montreal should’ve made him their number one goalie instead of Patrick Roy. Someone who thinks he’s not a homer, and also thinks he was better than arguably the best to ever play the position. Sounds like someone’s got a skewed perception of himself!

The truth is, Hayward is disliked among hockey fans around the league, not just those whose association lies with the Los Angeles Kings, and his attitude about the whole thing is indicative of the arrogant pretentiousness that permeates the Ducks organization from their General Manager all the way down to the guys who mop the bathroom floors at Honda Center.

What I personally find humorous are the comments made by Anaheim fans on the OC Register article. Proof to myself and the rest of the league that Duck fans are near, if not at, the bottom of the barrel when it comes to hockey knowledge. Their gripes sound like a mini van full of 13 year old girls on their way home from soccer practice somewhere in Irvine, texting frantically to their friends “OMG, teh evil kingz fanz called hazy a homer!”. The funniest part was one poster’s reach of an assumption that Hayward will get a permanent job doing national hockey broadcasts one day.

Hayward is a bush league hack in the broadcast booth just as he was a bench warmer on the ice. (Now I’ll sit back and wait for a Duck fan to come here and tell me that Hayward was really better than Patrick Roy…)

Kings and Ducks square off tonight at the puddle.

-JS

Kings lose to the Ducks (God, I hate saying that, even in preseason) 2-1 in a shootout at Staples Center.

Matt Moulson scored for the Kings in the first period, Kent Huskins scored in the second period for the Ducks, and Chris Kunitz scored the only goal in the shootout.

The Kings were robbed of a 5 on 3 power play opportunity when officials sent Anze Kopitar to the box for holding while the Kings had the man advantage in overtime. It was clear that Kent Huskins had a hold of Kopitar’s stick, and the officials made the wrong call.

Jonas Hiller stopped 22 of 23 shots for Anaheim and Jason LaBarbera played very well for the Kings, stopping 30 of 31 shots for the Kings.

The two teams meet again at Honda Center (affectionately known to Kings fans as “The Puddle”) tomorrow night.

-JS

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have acquired defenseman Sean O’Donnell from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a conditional draft selection in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Tuesday.

Source – lakings.com

Good move, a solid, stay at home guy. Much cheaper and more responsible in his own end than Schneider would’ve been.

Welcome back, O’D

-JS