There is a conspiracy against me to inhibit me from watching any more Kings games. It’s what Matthew Barry might refer to as being ‘blessed’ but I find disturbing. Disturbing mostly due to the fact that I’m not all that upset about it. There was a time not too long ago that I agonized over missing even a single period of LA Kings hockey yet here I am today, tired after an exhausting week, having missed the last 4 games and having little intention of waking up earlier than I have to on a Saturday morning in order not to miss a 5th. I’m about as fond of watching hockey at 10am as I am sunbathing at midnight.
Sure, one could say my apathy is largely because it’s not easy to get riled up to watch the Kings take on a team that may just be duller to watch than they are, the New York Islanders. You wouldn’t be totally wrong to say that. But you’d be missing the far more depressing point that watching a team you love struggle to score at a pace that would have been bad even for the decrepit New Jersey neutral zone trap era of clutching and grabbing is not a recipe for a spicy weekend.
Still, with Dwight King and Jordan Nolan set to make their 2011-2012 NHL debuts as top six wingers, roles they weren’t pegged to reach in the duration of their NHL careers, who better for us to play than the NY Islanders, who have been making top 6 forwards out of bottom 6 forwards for over a decade. Take note young ones, just because you are in bigger shoes than your feet can fill does not mean you shouldn’t be able to score dem goals.
Matt Moulson is a 30 goal scorer on a bad team you say? My thought process was just derailed. Shouldn’t a guy who scores 30 goals on a bad team be able to score more than that on a good team? I never really understood that logic. “Well of course he does well there. He’s surrounded by shit!”. So the point being that you have LESS fun having a threesome with a hot chick and her so-so friend than if you had the same threesome with the so-so friend and the mongoloid chick they only let out on especially cold nights? If Trent Hunter can score 20 goals on the Isle, what does that say about the Kings? My money says that you put Hunter on a better team and he actually scores a few more. Put him on the Red Wings and watch his career be magically rejuvenated. Put Matt Moulson on the Flyers and watch him score 40. Though if that were the case he would then have 3 concussions over the next 5 years, get traded to the Kings and proceed to miss virtually the entire season without ever being replaced. Naaaaaaaah.
Ah but the game. The game indeed. I expect a spark. Rookies always provide a jolt of adrenaline. The youthful exuberance that a new recruit brings when they get to live out their lifelong dream for the first time is infectious. If it proves anything but, it speaks to the state of our locker room more than it does the assembly of our talent.
I do think I read that in their last game the Islanders allowed a goal on their first shot against for the 10th time this season, a hilariously pathetic statistic if true. Anywhoo, I’ve found no other news of interest about the Islanders worth mentioning. The Kings big changes have already been discussed. I actually expect a win, but I also expect it to be a struggle. I have been excited to see what Nolan can do in the NHL for a while and I do always love watching players in their first game. It will also be interesting to see if Dwight Kings has improved his game since last year.
Finally, the Islanders have someone whose first name is listed as ‘PA’, which upsets me a great deal. It probably stands for something. Something like ‘parental abhorrence’. That’s how I’ve decided to end this article. Time to get your forum on.
I’ve got an idea.
Why don’t we (all of us) compile an all-time, by position, former Kings: ”
What the Fuck Were We Thinking Team”?
Worst trade, free agents we let walk, etc.
I feel we don’t have enough pain just being LA Kings fans now, we should drudge up bad memories from the past too!!
I’ll grab the Jim Beam so we can do it right. Ya know, the ol’ tear in my beer thing.
- Ashamed to be a Kings fan… all over again
You are a masochist.
New around here when it comes to the Kings, eh?
You are putting your email down as .ent. That is why you went to moderation. The system didn’t recognize you. Of course, now you are known as .net or .ent by the system
Anyone awake out there? Am I the only one who woke up hours ago?
… Yep. Ready to do this.
Early game. Hope Donuts decides to set his clock and Pancakes is able to have his regular movement in time to lace up.
Absurd schedule…not just do the Kings face two sets of 3 games in 4 nights but those sets are nested inside of “4 games in 6 night sequences”.
Plus, the Sharks only had 11 back to backs this season, LA 13.
… Penner’s a healthy scratch today.
Yes I love that move! At least the kids are playing with some energy and heart.
“At least the kids are playing with some energy and heart.”
… They’re not embarrassing themselves too much, but the Kings have missed out on a couple of good scoring chances because of their jitters/lack of skill/whatever it is.
Jitters. You can clearly see they aren’t fully comfortable yet, but it’s getting better with each shift.
… King has made a couple of nice plays along the boards, and Nolan made a good play to break up a chance with a backcheck. So, there’s something to go on, for sure.
lol… Isles are a bad team. Ok. They’re 6-2-2 in their last 10, and they have a guy named John Tavares (who I guess you may have never heard of, living in LA) who’s probably going to end up leading the league in scoring before too long. Oh yeah, and then there’s Nabokov, who’s starling to look like the Nabokov of old.
I expect the Kings to lose today.
PA stands for Pierre-Alexander, btw…
A short good stretch of games makes them not second to last in the East? A good run of games does not make a team good.
Sure it does… Wild card teams in every sport come playoff time are the teams to watch out for. A team with an overall good record in the regular season is great, but a team with a good last ten is one of the hottest teams in the NHL, or whatever sport we are talking.
It’s not playoff time.
No it isn’t, but teams with a 8-2, 9-1, 7-3 record in the last 10 games during any point of the season are one of the hottest teams, from the Islanders to the Red Wings.
Sure.
thanks for agreeing.
“I expect a spark.”
“I actually expect a win”
… I expect to have a great breakfast. Beyond that, I expect to watch a hockey game and no more.
Speed kills.
… So does the inability to clear the defensive zone when given opportunities to do so.
And I love how Quick just has to overplay everything.
Don’t exaggerate. He has gotten much better at that this season. He did slide a bit far on that one but some of that was momentum
And Grabner made a pretty great move to spin and get a stick on that.
As always, we can’t manage to get our sticks on loose picks around the net.
Finally a stick on a puck around the net! Not the most glamorous first goal for Loki but I’m sure he ain’t complaining!
Woah there’s a game on! And we’re down by one!
… Holy balls, Loktionov did a thing! He poached Brown’s goal to do it, though.
Poached? That puck was going wide son.
… It was? Hmmm … well, they’ll show it again but I thought it was headed in, perhaps off the post and in.
I just went back and looked again. Definitely going a foot wide.
GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
At this point in the season I’m OK with giving up some D for increased O.
Whoa Richards FINALLY running the point. Not sure about putting King on the PP but glad to see Loki there. About time.
Lol as Richard fucks up.
Richards…You Fucking Idiot!!!
… The Kings have been ultra-sloppy with the puck over the last few shifts.
Some nice board work by the rooks
Forget Stoll and pancakes keep these kids until they fuck up badly
… Nolan’s been making some fine moves, but is utterly unable to finish. He’ll fit right in here!
Heh. We’ll cut him some slack since it’s his first NHL game, unlike some other former 30 goal scoring healthy scratches.
Big PK right now. Let’s do this.
More donuts for you Doughty? Lazy
… I’m going to start up an S&S drinking game – take a drink everytime there’s an unwarranted post bashing Doughty. Guaranteed to be drunk.
Unwarranted? Now that shits funny…
… Funny because it’s true.
Excellent. Although I think Drew has been excellent this game.
… He’s played pretty well. I thought the penalty was just bad luck – he was trying to go after the puck and he got Tavares’s skate. Shit happens.
The Puck was no where near his feet. Lazy careless play. Typical DD
… Yes of course every time a stick goes near a puck it never hits anything else, great analysis and cool story bro
You’re not making any sense but what else is new…
Drew has been good. Not fantastic but good. Couple of times he wasted some open ice on the offensive end but defensively he’s been pretty rock solid.
That power move to the front is EXACTLY what I expected of Nolan. Kid loves tw puck and is gonna be a good player.
That was a great shift there at the end!
I just found out why the Kings keep Kompon. During the Nichols interview you can see it. He makes the players laugh! He’s the feel good guy!
… Damn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy hit his chin on the boards like that after a hit. Terrible.
Martin is a dirty piss ant. That was karma.
How is that not a trip on Richards??
Wow Nolan gotta bury that. You can tell the kids play a lot together they seem to know where eachother are without really thinking too much about it
Or they’re just cycling like normal teams do. Kings cycle is frustrating to watch. We can maintain possession but it’s always to the outside.
I know I’m a little behind on the play but Doughty got away with a high stick/rough onthat penalty kill.
… Also, Brown got away with a trip.
Nolan is a keeper, Westgarth on waivers.
Westgarth, Hunter and Penner all to Manchester.
If we lose any of them good!!!!!!!
Bring back up Morneau and Hickey.
Hunter missed a fucking wide open 4′x6′ game tying goal earlier this year against Chicago, that’s all you need to know!
Put Jack Johnson up on offense at LW
King/Kopitar/Williams
Johnson/Richards/Nolan
Clifford/Fraser/Brown
Loktionov/Lewis/Moreau
Greene/Doughty
Hickey/Mitchell
Scuderi/Martinez
Wow nice boarding call on Williams
… Quick with a beauty, right there. That’s a big one.
… Well, at least my expectations were met today. Good breakfast? Check. Watched a game? Check.
Ain’t that just like you, always finding the silver lining.
… Hey, they played well today. Dominated for most of the game. But, as Jim Fox says so simply, when they’re unable to score much, every mistake gets magnified. I was happy with the manner in which they played, as I usually have been, but it’s been one of those seasons where they just can’t seem to find the results. It reminds me of 98-99. I’d love to say I can go and expect a win in this game or that game, but realistically that’s just not how this season is going.
Wow! I’m impressed.
Doughty to the Islanders for Streit.
I doubt Garth Snow is stupid enough to make that trade.
… Time to take a drink! Good thing I had a beer lined up and ready.
Well that was fuckin anticlimactic.
Streit looking like Bobby Orr.
How much would our offense improve if we brought him in along with Hemsky?
I would say Kopitar, Quick, and Voynov are our only untouchables but Mitchell, Scuderi, and Richards would like to keep but maybe for a great deal……
The rest, fuck em…..take em away.
Didn’t see it, just heard it. Sounds though like the sort of play you expect from Doughty, not so much from Streit.
Before they were scoring two goals a game. Lately two goals a game seems a boatload.
I cannot take this PAIN . . .
Trade Drewiske, Bernier, Penner and Richardson for Nash.
Westgarth, Hunter, Drewiske and Penner all to Manchester.
If we lose any of them good!!!!!!!
Bring back up Morneau, Voynov and Hickey.
Hunter missed a fucking wide open 4′x6′ game tying goal earlier this year against Chicago, that’s all you need to know!
or : Trade Drewiske, Bernier, Penner and Richardson for Nash
Put Jack Johnson back on defense and:
Richards/Kopitar/Williams
King/Nash/Nolan
Clifford/Fraser/Brown
Loktionov/Lewis/Moreau
Greene/Doughty
Johnson/Mitchell
Scuderi/Martinez
Quick
Bench: Hickey, Voynov, Zatkoff