Hrmph

by Anne

I am entirely NOT pleased with last night's Kings' game. They played a decent first period (as per usual) a craptacular 2nd (also typical) and a great 3rd (mostly) then Scott Parse, eager to prove himself in his call-up, scored in a comeback to tie the game at 3! Woo! Happy dance! Go Scooter! Hooray!

Then, they friggin' let Eric friggin' Belanger score TWELVE seconds later to give the Wild back the lead and THAT'S how the game ended. Repulsive.

Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown, Michal Handzus, Alexander Frolov, and Drew Doughty are all fired for allowing that to happen. 

Ok, well Dewey's not fired, because he scored, so he'll just be on probation. Although his goal was the definition of messy:

He scored a goal like that.

I love Jack Johnson immensely but he's still fired. Same goes for Brownie. Frolov was actually fired on the Wild's 2nd goal when he made the ill-advised decision to leave the PK to get a new stick as he floated through the neutral zone. Fool.

Also, please go away:

For non-Kings fans who read this blog, the Kings' most productive line of the season has been Anze Kopitar centering Justin Williams and Ryan Smyth. Smyttie was out for a while and came back last game and then Willy broke his leg/ankle and now they need to slot in yet another new winger. They chose Teddy Purcell. NO. If Wayne Simmonds isn't the other winger on the top line the next game, I'm going to hold my breath until he is. You're on notice, Terry Murray.

Quick reference guide, Wayne Simmonds is the Kings' winger equivalent of Paul Gaustad. Young, plays hard every shift, never quits, stands up for his teammates, solid in both zones, not afraid to mix it up and go into the corners. Aka, I love him and I'm biased.

Next game is Wednesday in Calgary. I'm watching you, Murray...

Canucks Win! / Kings lose :(

by Anne

In the first of four "I don't know how to feel?!" match-ups of the season, the Canucks walked away the victors.

That game was wicked-hella boring after the first period.

It was so boring it zapped me of almost all energy to blog about it. I feel I will be unable to show a bias but all I will say is about the fans I was talking to during the game: there were a few questionable non-calls by the refs for Canucks penalties or some moments when Canucks players were getting a little too chippy for the Kings' tastes and none of the Kings fans were whining. I say that with love, Canucks fans, it was only one tweeter whining who bugged me.

Scott Parse, sans teeth, scored his first NHL goal tonight!

Stolly, Greener and Teddy are all looking at the net thinking the same thing:

"Did someone get the puck?"

Good teammates.

Check out Bailey's sweet Halloween costume

Mikael Samuelsson got the equalizer and then scored the shootout winner on a beautiful fake that totally fooled Quickie Monster. The Kings are so bad at the shootout, it hurts. Why Kopi wasn't in the top three shooters is completely beyond me. IMO it should be Kopi, Jack Johnson (apparently I've deduced I should call him "Killer") and Michal Handzus. Toss in Fro maybe to mix it up now and again.

The Kings outshot the Canucks 31 - 15. Raycroft stood tall in net in filling in for Roberto Luongo who fractured a rib the other night against Toronto, but still played against Detroit, despite the pain.

Matt Greene was named the 2nd star of the game. He was playing the intangible role, a few key hipchecks, solid presence in front of the net on the PK, including dealing with Big Bear at least once and being all defensively responsible and the like. He also played 16 seconds on the PP. I'm really not too sure how that happened, he must've been confused.

It clearly wasn't because of his crisp tape-to-tape passing skillz

Oh well, let's do this again, shall we? How about on (American) Thanksgiving? Say 10:00ish EST? Oh hell, ain't no way I'll be able to stay awake for that. I'll try. I really will.

Oh hey, Alex, Alex.

See you two then!

(Sidenote, have the Kings had their Halloween party? I'd love to hear about it. Andrew Cogliano as Dany Heatley to the Oilers party will be hard to top.)