Month: December 2006

Ok, it seems that we’ve gone back to the future. Last night’s 7-4 Kings win of the Oilers was almost like a game from the 80’s where the Kings and Oilers in the playoffs scored 18 goals between them. Most of my comments are only from what I heard since my Center Ice package decided to blackout the game since I’m in the local area for the Kings. Of course, the Kings didn’t broadcast it but at least Versus did online.

The good – Garon back in goal, 7 goals, Alyn McCauley played for the first time this year, another solid effort by Armstrong

The bad – 4 goals given up, Garon rusty in the first half of the game, no local coverage

The ugly – Scott Thornton going nuts and whaling on one of the Oilers

Overall, a good win, two in a row, and going for three in Calgary tonight.

Go Kings Go!

….and he wears Purple, Silver, and Black. Cloutier was placed on the IR today. This means that Brust and either Fukufuji or Garon will be the Kings goalies.

Last night, we were treated to a win over the Coyotes. For a good team, this wouldn’t be a cause to celebrate but for the Kings, any win is a good win. Avery scored the game tying goal with less than 1 minute to go on a nifty between the legs pass from Kopitar. Then, the Kings won in OT on the excellent goal tending of Barry Brust. In Brust We Trust. Or in Garon or maybe Fukufuji.

Well, as someone pointed out today, the Kings have 31 points with 43 games left. This means that if the last playoff spot needs 90 points to qualify, then the Kings will need to win 30 of their next 43 games. Damn. It is December and the Kings seem to be out of it already. If this is the case, maybe the Kings can start Fukufuji for a game or two. I’d love to be at a game and say I saw the first Japanese national play in an NHL game.

It is starting to get fun for the Ducks. O’Donnell is hurt, Giggy and Beauchemin left last night’s game early, Todd Marchant was scratch, Bryzgalov was already hurt. Maybe the injury bug that has affected the Kings will move down the 405 a bit.

One last thing. On the letsgokings.com site, it seems that Duck fans and Sharks fans have invaded a bit to bash each other team’s. Too bad that they don’t have a good site of their own.

Our next game is Jan 3rd. So here’s to a better 2007.

Or, as some people call them, authentic game style Cammy jerseys.

Tonight is the night we get our first mini jersey, which is Rogie Vachon’s. The game should be interesting because the Kings are playing worse and worse each week and right now they are playing like the middle of next month. The Kings GAA is 3.51, which is only better than the Flyers and Phoenix. Good thing they are playing the Coyotes tonight. Cloutier is holier than the Pope, with a GAA of 3.98, last among goalies with more than 10 starts or 68th out of 74 goalies when all goalies are considered, including guys who were lit up in a single game. His save percentage is 69th out of the same 74 goalies. How the heck can you justify his ice time as 20th out of 74 goalies. I don’t get it.

Maybe the Kings will win tonight. Go Kings Go!

So, at the beginning of the season, everyone thought that the NY Islanders would be bad. I was watching the Carolina/Islanders game tonight and both teams had about the same record, 17-10-3 or so. Interesting how bad the Kings are in comparison. Could it be they have the worst goalie out of the 40 or so that have at least 10 games played?

Oh, yeah, it is still cold here. Dropped down to the low 30s for the last two nights.

Ok, Cloutier is beginning to get on my nerves. We went to the Flames-Kings game on Tuesday and poof, the very first shot, from the blue line, goes in. Now, Cloutier was out for a week or so but to let this goal in was horrible. The rust excuse doesn’t work for me because you should knock off rust in practice.

The Kings look to be going nowhere fast. Except for Anze, the team looks overclassed every game. In the Flames game, Kopitar almost go the hat trick scoring two goals and bouncing another in off of Brown and hitting the post on another shot.

Tonight will be interesting since the Kings will be playing the Blues with the former Kings coach Andy Murray behind the bench. I wish I could hear Murray and Crawford talk during the post game show since both of them have a distinctly froggy voice.

btw, I love the fact that it has gotten cold in LA. Ok, maybe not cold but cold enough that I need t turn on the furnace. This is in sharp contrast to the 5 degree weather that Edmonton had a few weeks ago for the Ducks game. I Love LA!

They look good and then they don’t. The Kings still don’t have their act together. We went to the Sharks game on Tuesday and saw the Kings eaten alive. Ok, maybe not that bad, but a bad bounce, two PP goals, and a lackluster performance provide the grist for another loss.

In Kings related news, last year’s lacklust performer, Roenick, is in some hot water with the ‘Yotes. From cbc.ca:

Roenick ignited a mini-controversy Tuesday night when he left GM Place in Vancouver after Gretzky made him a healthy scratch for the Coyotes game against the Canucks. Reports surfaced Thursday suggesting Roenick’s days with the Coyotes were numbered. But Roenick says the situation was blown out of proportion.

Nice. Get scratched and leave. Avery after getting booted from the Kings-Avs game stuck around until after the game. In fact, he gave props to Conroy for the game winner after Conroy gave Aves props for starting a fight with Lappy that turned the game around in a post game radio interview. It was about time for the Lappy-Aves fight since Lappy has been itching to fight Aves since Aves said French-Canadian players were visor wearing wussies.

Oh, well, let’s hope tonight is the night for a Kings win. Go Kings Go!

…..to get you excited about your team.

Annette and I went to the Kings-Avs game on Saturday. After the first period, the Kings were losing 2-0, tied it in the second, gave up a goal, tied it at 3, gave up a goal, tied it at 4 and finally potted the game winner for a 5-4 win. Conroy got the game winner on an ugly goal that was the result of plain hard word in front of the net.

The bad that happened would be the Predators game. The Kings lost 4-1 and it wasn’t even that close. I’m not sure if the Kings will play well enough to string some wins together. We are going again on Tuesday and it should be interesting to see if the Kings can beat the Sharks.

More up and down. The Kings lost to Phoenix and then the Ducks but managed to hand the Ducks their 3rd loss in regulation.

The good: Frolov, Kopitar, Avery are still performing well

The bad: Cloutier

Cloutier seems to have more holes than….swiss cheese, a bicycle tire, etc. Against the Ducks he did well but the Phoenix game was a nightmare. He let in 3 goals on 5 shots and it should been 4 goals. A quick whistle saved him from the 5th goal. Garon is gone with a groin pull so the Kings are stuck with Cloutier for awhile.

In stupid waiver rules, LaBarbera wasn’t called up for Garon because the Kings would probably lose him in a waiver claim and then be on the hook for 50% of his salary. Stupid. Even though he is tearing up the AHL the Kings are stuck with his backup who had 4 starts prior to his call up.