The Throne Room

Terry Murray has talked a lot this season about the young Kings needing to learn how to win. Tonight, they passed a tough exam. The Kings’ offense cashed in by getting 6 goals total past two different Colorado netminders – Kyle Calder, Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown, Jaret Stoll and a pair from Alexander Frolov.

Colorado made the game too close for comfort, getting a goal (which looked to have been tipped in with a high stick by Chris Stewart) to cut the Kings 6-2 lead down to 6-3 in the final minute of the second period. The Avalanche carried that momentum into the third and the Kings came out sloppy. Jon Quick, who is normally steady if not a little adventurous when handling the puck, appeared to fan on a clearing attempt and gave the puck away to Brian Willsie (yes, you read that right, Brian Willsie) who roofed it high glove-side past Quick to make it 6-4. Cody McLeod, Colorado’s resident goon scored to make it 6-5 less than two minutes later.

After the McLeod goal, the Kings’ survived a frantic couple of minutes and then managed to band together and settle down to prevent the Avs from scoring the tying goal.

The Kings head into the All-Star break having collected 5 points in their last 3 games, all on the road.

Dustin Brown and Drew Doughty (Young Stars) will head off now to Montreal for the All-Star festivities.

Kings resume play on Jan 29th against the Chicago Blackhawks at Staples Center.

-JS

Nothing really positive to say about tonight’s game. I can forgo the stats and analysis for the most part, in the end it all boils down to one thing. The Colorado Avalanche, not a good team by any stretch (I can see the argument being made that some of the teams I’ve classed as bad are in fact, not, but Colorado can’t be included among those), own the Kings this season. Don’t know what it is about Colorado specifically that is giving the Kings fits, but they’re now 0-3 against the Avs this season. Peter Budaj, who is about the only “starting” goalie in the NHL I would consider worse than Jason LaBarbera, has a sterling record against the Kings and only allowed one goal (Oscar Moller’s 6th of the season) all night. Meanwhile, our mediocre goalie du jour, LaBarbera gave up 6 on 26 shots. That’s an outstanding .769 save % for those keeping track out there. We will see if Murray throws LaBarbera under the bus for his poor play as he did with Erik Ersberg after the fist period of the Edmonton game last Friday. In both goalies’ defense though, I don’t think you get out of either period unscathed even if you resurrect Patrick Roy and put him in the Kings’ net.

The Avs got their coveted retribution for the Adam Foote injury all right. I almost looked for a paper bag to wear on my head watching the game at home. It really couldn’t have been much worse for the Kings tonight.

I suppose it’s the sign of a very young team: Play possibly your best game of the season and then follow it up with your worst. I’m starting to think the playoffs are a pipe dream this year, though I still think the team, even on it’s current course won’t do worse than 10th or 11th in the West.

The positive – we get St. Louis, who we’ve owned in two games thus far this season, at home Thursday.

Hopefully that will give us something to cheer about.

-JS

If you want something concerning that may make the difference between whether the Kings are competitive for a playoff spot (it’s early but they’re 2 points out at press time) or in the “black hole” in the Western Conference, this is it: The Kings are now a combined 0-4 against two teams that are not only easily beatable, but that the improved Kings ought to not just beat but steamroll. Losing 4 points each to Nashville and last night’s opponent, Colorado hurts. For this team to take the next step and become a contender in the West, they need to take care of business against the also-rans of the conference.

The Kings last night played exactly 20 minutes of solid hockey, and still escaped with a point in the shootout loss. That’s more a testament to how bad Colorado is than how much better the Kings are. For the first two periods of the game the Kings were unfocused, sloppy and uninspired. It’s almost as if the Kings expected to roll right over Colorado and realized finally going into the third period that wasn’t going to happen. Kings got in a 0-2 hole quickly before Alexander Frolov’s blast past Peter Budaj brought some life to the team. Kings scored two more unanswered goals to start the third period (the third goal by Dustin Brown was a GIFT typical of Colorado’s mediocre goaltender, a five hole dribbler that was softer than warm butter) and take a 3-2 lead but the Kings suffered a defensive breakdown later in the period that would lead to a goal for Colorado’s Paul Stastny to tie the score at 3.

From a Kings fan’s point of view, it was frustrating to watch the team continually shoot pucks into the midsection of Budaj, who is a marginal NHL goalie at best (think Jason LaBarbera category) and who has TONS of trouble with low shots. Instead the Kings shot right into the crest of his jersey most of the night (including Dustin Brown’s shootout attempt).

When the game reached the shootout, Patrick O’Sullivan and Dustin Brown both failed to score for the Kings, while Marek Svatos and Milan Hejduk both converted for the Avs to win it. A disappointing end to the game but, as I said previously, one point for 20 minutes of play isn’t bad, I just wish we could’ve seen a full 60 minute effort from the Kings.

I am never one to blame officiating for a loss, but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. This was the worst officiated NHL game I have ever seen. The referees missed a ton of not marginal but BLATANT penalty calls – twice in the first period, Avs center T.J. Hensick had a death grip on a Kings player’s stick – no call. Lots of hitting and holding by the Avs away from the puck – no call. An Avs played holding Drew Doughty AND his stick in the third period on a Kings’ Power Play on a pass right to Doughty that could’ve resulted in a game winning goal – no call. And perhaps the worst and most frustrating non call of the night – Anze Kopitar gets a breakaway in overtime and is pulled down from behind by not one but TWO Avs players, a play that should’ve resulted in a penalty shot for Kopitar – no call, not even a tripping penalty. Just atrocious. I’m not sure which game this officials were watching but it certainly wasn’t the one the rest of us saw. All of that aside, if the Kings had played 60 minutes of hockey instead of just 20, they win the game in regulation and the non call isn’t an issue.

The Kings’ new alternate uniforms look much better in person than I imagined they would. I’m not a fan of the piping that runs down the shoulders but the rest of it grew on me very fast.

Erik Ersberg was good enough to win. Of the three Colorado goals against him, one was a power play laser beam from Hejduk and the other two were defensive breakdowns that led to a bang bang play and a tip in. The loss is tough to swallow but he’s still giving the team 100% better goaltending than LaBarbera was, and should continue to play. Hopefully the back to back road games this week don’t convince Terry Murray otherwise.

One more non game related rant – the Avs fans. Is this what hippies do now that Phish isn’t around anymore? There were a few groups of Avs fans at Staples last night, the majority of them dreadlocked, Birkenstock clad and smelling like stale cow patties and patchouly. There was one female Avs fan in a group a couple sections over from where I was sitting who kept shrieking terribly as if someone has slipped her some bad acid. I don’t know if that’s what the Avs fan base in Denver looks like (probably not, you have to sell a lot of qualudes to afford season tickets) but most of the Colorado contingent who traveled to Staples last night looked (and smelled) more like they were there to see a jam band concert than a hockey game.

On the John Zeiler hit on Adam Foote. I don’t condone hitting from behind at ANY point in time. I haven’t seen the television replays of the hit yet. I know that John Zeilier doesn’t play a prominent role in the Kings lineup and won’t be missed too much if he’s suspended. My comment is – Karma’s a b*tch. Adam Foote has been a dirty player in the NHL for a decade and a half. He’s laid many similar hits on other players. Again, I don’t condone hitting from behind, but Foote definitely had it coming to him from somebody at some point in his career for all the less than clean hits he’s laid in his career. The O’Donnell hit on Wolski was not a dirty hit, Wolski was already going down and O’Donnell hardly made contact with him. Wolski either injured himself hitting the boards or did a hell of a job embellishing the fall in attempt to draw a penalty.

I have never been an Avs hater before but I am starting to dislike this team almost as much as I dislike the Ducks and Stars.

Kings travel to the province of Alberta to face the Calgary Flames on Tuesday and the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

-JS