The Kings are doing better than the Bolts

by Anne

I started to work on a post comparing how the two worst teams of two seasons ago are faring these days, but that turned out to be a lot of work. Basically all you need to know is the Tampa Bay Lightning are not re-building well at the Los Angeles Kings are.

We all remember the freakshow that was the free agent signing craze that went down in Tampa Bay in 2008, and look how well THAT turned out for them. Hey, it got them Victor Hedman.

Whatevs. The Kings went to Phoenix with their Papas last night and walked away with a 5-3 win.

Anze Kopitar scored first but Shane Doan managed to sneak the puck in behind Jonathan Quick with only 0.4 seconds left in the first. Ugh, that one stung. Quickie had no chance on that one. The Coyotes scored the next two goals of the game and the Kings trailed 3-1. Ryan Smyth scored in the second, Justin Williams scored early in the 3rd and Drew Doughty scored with five minutes left in the game to make in 4-3. Ryan Smyth added the insurance empty-netter in the final minute of play.

I love these two

When did I start loving defensemen?

Well, it started last season, but it's become even more ridiculous this season

Dewey and Drewey

The other big positive that came out of last night's game? Kopi's three points moved him back into the scoring lead. With Ovi out week-to-week, Kopi should (hopefully) be able to put some space in between the two of them. You know when Ovi comes back, he'll be on a tear.

Wooooo!

Tonight the Canucks play the Rangers at home and the Pens play in Anaheim. On Thursday the Pens head to Los Angeles and Rob Scuderi gets to face his former team! Woo!

Hey, the Kings won too!

by Anne

My lack of interest in baseball coupled with my complicated homework assignment caused me to not watch any sports before the Kings game at 10:30 last night. I hear I missed an exciting ball game and a whooole lotta goal scoring in Philly (or were they in Washington?). I don't know.

I love (x1,000) that Mike Richards got a hat trick last night and not Ovechkin. Haha. I have nothing against Ovechkin or the Caps (I like them better than Richards or the Flyers) but I just love when people are so high on someone or something and they're forced to go "Uhhh... ok well, he's good too... I guess."

I find it interesting that the unabashed Ovechkin love - which closely parallels the frequent unabashed Crosby love- never draws criticism from anyone in spite of the fact that Ovechkin has not accomplished a lot of the things that Crosby has accomplished yet. Hmmmm... hypocrisy, FTW.

The Kings won last night. Say what you want about the Kings, their games are rarely dull.

They roared out to a 4-0 lead, causing Evgeni Nabokov to be pulled. Thomas Greiss came in and the Sharks managed to score four unanswered goals to tie the game. It wasn't pretty.

Then somehow, someway, Teddy Purcell shooting the puck from behind the goal line scored the game winning goal. It took a crazy bounce off a Sharks defenseman and slid it's way past a totally unprepared Greiss, who until that point, had really kept his team in the game.

Davis Drewiske scored his first NHL goal - an empty netter - to seal the deal at 6-4. In his defense, there were lots of people between him and the net when he scored the empty netter, it wasn't like it was a dump in from the opposite blueline.

I think the crazy person on the left is Raitis Ivananabananas

(OMG UPLOADING PICTURES IS SO MUCH EASIER WITH THIS NEW EDITOR)

For those who were wondering: Davis WILL be featured in the ballot of this year's Team USA Olympic team of hottness:

Anyone with a roster photo this adorable and a jawline so chizzled MUST be featured

Also, he and Greener are partners sometimes

Those Sharks post game analysts are a bunch of dicks. They were SO put-out that the Sharks lost to such an INFERIOR team. Dude, it's the second game of the season, it's hard to say yet which teams are going to contend, compete for the playoffs, or tank. Who would've thought the Canucks, who had a blistering hot pre-season, would start 0-3? The Sharks won the President's Trophy last season, yes, but what else have they accomplished? They added a proven goal scorer in Heatley - who did score a goal last night - but they've gone through a leadership shake-up and with the weight of these expectations: what do they have to be so damn smug about this early in the season?

The Kings aren't exactly the 1974-1975 Washington Capitals here. They're going to win a few games, and seem to have the pieces to make a push to the playoffs (fingers crossed) and, believe it or not, the Sharks are actually going to lose some games, even to such sub-par teams as the Kings.

Last season is OVER, Sharks, this is a whole new slate and -brace yourselves- the Sharks might not see the same kind of success they had last season. Everything has started over and you'll have to fight to earn the credibility you feel such a sense of entitlement over.