The past 8 days have been interesting for the Kings. They got beat badly by both San Jose and Dallas(6-3 and 5-3). Dallas was harder to take since the Kings trailed 4-3 going into the last minutes of the third. It should’ve been tied 4-4 but a quick whistle cost the Kings a goal. The fifth goal was an empty netter.

The Flames game on Saturday was nice. The Kings got off to a bumpy start with a soft goal. The Flames had a 2 on 4 rush and somehow, the Kings managed to let a goal in. Usually, when the defense out numbers the offense, there is no goal. Kopitar finally scored at home on a nice pass from Brown. Frolov and Cammy scored “work ethic” goals.

Annette is slightly flummoxed by “work ethic” goals and the use of the phrase. Basically, I tell her that a good work ethic produces goals that are ugly. In the past few years, the Kings never had a mucker who stood in front of the goal and made a nuisance of themselves. Now, I would count Avery, Blake, Brown, and Frolov as the Kings muckers. Maybe throw in Thorton, too.

Overall, a good game. One of the nice things about the game is that we found a free parking spot on the street and saved $15. It is going towards paying off the credit cards from the Black Friday sales.

I’m not sure how this happens but it seems that time always slips away from me. Almost 3 weeks since my last post.

The Kings have played well and pathetic at the same time. They’ve played well for 50 minutes of a game only to lose it in the other 10 minutes. A prime example is the Philly game. In a span of 3 minutes the Kings gave up 3 goals and lost the game 4-3. This is after Frolov had two goals and the Kings played well. The next game against the Coyotes was interesting. In addition to almost losing the game after having a 3-0 lead (they won 5-3), Roenick was booed every time he touched the puck. I guess the fans are holding a grudge since he played like crap last year and now says he purposely showed up out of shape. Maybe he should give back some of his salary. Yeah, like that will happen.

So, we went to the Penguins game last night. It was nice that the Kings had a sell-out crowd last night although there were empty seats. The Kings have this knack of playing well but still losing. Last night, the game was lost in OT.

The good: scoring

The bad: Cloutier

Why the heck is Garon sitting? His GAA is less than 2 and the Kings win when he is in goal. I’m still puzzled why Cloutier received a contract extension prior to playing one regular season game. Right now, the opinion on Kings talk is to let Garon play. Of course, this probably won’t happen.

Finally, it was cold last night. Ok, it wasn’t cold last night but I was able to wear my sweater (jersey for you non-hockey types) and my sweatshirt at the game. Of course, I was boiling on the subway on the way to the game.

So, I didn’t mention Kopitar in the last blog too much. After 14 games, he has 13 points. Looks like the Kings have a Calder Trophy contender.

We are off to the Penguins game tonight so we’ll see Kopitar’s competition, Staal and Malkin, and last year’s runner-up, Crosby. Too bad I was sick for Ovekchin’s visit last year.

So, last night the Kings beat the Rangers, a team on a roll and a playoff team last year, fairly easily. Might’ve been a fluke but it seems that “playing hard” is more than just the lame slogan this year but might actually work as a team philosophy. I haven’t watched the game yet (tivo’ed it last night) but I’m going to tonight.

Next up, the Penguins, which, after the Ducks, might be the sorriest name for a hockey (or another sport) team.

How did I get 24 days into the hockey season and not have a post yet? The easy answer that most people would say that I didn’t post because the Kings haven’t played well. Or, in the words of Annette, they’re stinking up the place.

I guess part of the reason I didn’t blog is because I don’t quite know where to put this season yet. Last season, with the fast start and good players, it was easy to have sugarplum visions of playoff prowess. This season, it is hard to imagine that Anze Kopitar and Patrick O’Sullivan are the savoirs to lead the Kings to the playoffs. So, where does the season go from here? I hope upwards. After watching some very disappointing hockey against the Wings and the Ducks, the Kings seemed to have found some footing for this season. Sure, they lost Saturday, but there was something about the game that gives me hope. First, the Kings had played Columbus the night before and were on the last game of the road trip. Last year’s team would’ve called it in and headed home for the next couple of games. Last night, the Kings played hard and almost won. Now, almost winning is not a desired result unless the Kings want a top 5 pick but the game from start to finish was good. Blake played like he should. The Kings crashed the net. The Kings took bodies the entire game.

The Kings are now 3-8-2 and I’m hoping this beginning is the bad streak that all teams endure at some point in the season. The Ducks sucked through November last year and made it to the conference finals. Maybe the Kings can do the same thing. We’ll see.

So tonight’s the night, hope it will be alright…. or something like that. First game with the formerly Might Ducks now just Ducks. As I read, the Ducks have reduced the stupidest name in sports by 50%. The only name that might be as weird as the Ducks is the Penguins.

Go Kings Go!

…..it must be time to start the hockey season. Last night, the new NHL season started with three games. I watched two of them on Tivo (which makes the games much shorter) and cheered when Buffalo won and booed when Dallas won. Overall, the games were fun to watch since they count now. The only thing that was missing were the Kings.

So, here are a few more pictures from Las Vegas. First up, Annette with Craig Conroy. Craig is the happiest person in hockey, maybe the world. As I said before, he was in the moment for the 15 seconds he was with Annette.

Second up is a picture of Annette with Alexander Frolov. Frolov has this great expression on his face. It is like a canary in a coalmine type look. I would love to know what he was thinking.

Next Michael Cammalleri. I guess I stunned both of them when I took the picture. It seems that neither is smiling. I think when I took this picture, Annette didn’t know where I was and both spun around I snapped the picture.

Last picture here but the first taken was of Sean Avery. Both Annette and I like Sean as a player. He’s hard working, a little brash, and talks a bit of trash. When he was interacting with us, and anyone else, he didn’t smile. He seemed very focused on something else. Maybe he just got chewed out by the coach.

All in all, a good hour or so of talking to some of our favorite players. I think one of the reasons I like hockey is that the players are very friendly, at least in LA. Edmonton or Vancouver might be another story since the sport is much more popular in Canada.

Both Eric Belanger and Tim Gleason were traded today to Carolina for a stud prospect (Jack Johnson) and a defenseman that I can’t remember his name. Wow. In some ways, I’m not surprised but it sad to see them go. Both were very friendly players. Strangely, these were two of the players Annette had here picture taken with on Saturday.

So, in honor of these two, here are there pictures with Annette. First is a slightly out of focus picture of Tim and Annette. I think the camera was fooled by the corner of the wall behind. The second picture is of Eric B. bending over to make sure that Annette was in the picture.