• 20Nov

    Capitals in Southern California

    Hockey No Comments

    Tonight, the Kings ended the Capitals’ 13 period streak of scoring at least one goal in each period. Washington definitely looked tired after playing the Anaheim Ducks last night at the Honda Center, but the Kings kept the offense that’s ranked 6th in shots and 5th in goals to only 3 shots (all of which came in the Caps’ two power plays) and no goals in the first period. The Kings outshot the Capitals 12 to 3 in the first period, though Washington had the only two power plays. There is definitely a reason the Kings have allowed the fewest goals in the NHL, but with all of Washington’s offense, I’d expect some more shots, even without Alexander Semin & Mike Green in their lineup. The Capitals still have Alex Ovechkin, one of the most dynamic players in the NHL, and Nicklas Backstrom (one of last season’s best rookies), who just seemed to hit his stride this season and is in the top 30 of scoring, playing. Last night, by the end of the first period, the score was Capitals 3, Ducks 2. The Kings kept the Capitals off the score board in the first period and prevented them from getting a shot on goal without the man advantage.

    In the second period, the Capitals scored a power play goal with a 2 man advantage and the Kings continued to keep them from shooting the puck on goal for the most part. Washington only had 9 shots against the Kings in the first two periods. Conversely the Capitals had 28 shots in the first two periods against Anaheim last night. They had more power play chances against Anaheim, which makes sense given the style of game the Ducks play, but the difference between last night and tonight is still remarkable. Clearly, a lot of the difference can be attributed to the fact that the Caps are tired from playing last night, but the Kings are playing very well, too.

    The Kings got their only power play of the game in the third period, when Quincey took the puck down the ice and passed it to Brown, who had a great shot to get the goal. O’Sullivan’s return to the Kings’ first line clearly worked out well. O’Sullivan, Brown, & Kopitar all got goals tonight, though Kopi’s goal was into an empty net, and Sully was on the ice for the first three of the Kings’ 5 goals. The Capitals outshot the Kings 12-10 in the third period, but still only had 21 shots in the game to the Kings’ 33.

    Though Erik Ersberg started in his 8th consecutive game tonight for the Kings, Terry Murray evaded the question about the Kings’ number one goaltender yet again, saying he didn’t think goalies needed a label above their head to play well. Whether he’s willing to admit it or not, it’s clear that the Kings’ number one goaltender is Ersberg even though Erik hasn’t played in as many games as Jason LaBarbera this season. The games may be close to even, but Ersberg’s performance has been superior to LaBarbera’s so far. He’s better at trapping the puck and preventing rebounds. Erik has one of the top goals against averages in the NHL (4th going into tonight’s game) and is in the top half in save percentage. Jason, on the other hand, is close to the bottom of the NHL in save percentage and in the bottom half for goals against average.

    Drew Doughty continued to support my thought that he’s the best candidate so far this season for the Calder Trophy. He had a goal and a +/- of +2 tonight. As usual, Doughty looked a lot more mature than your typical 18 year old defenseman. Just imagine how great Doughty will be in a couple years when he’s this impressive already.

    The Kings are still one of the three teams Alexander Ovechkin has never scored a goal against. The other two are San Jose & Minnesota (the teams the Capitals play next). Since Ovechkin has only been in the NHL for a little over 3 years, it’s impressive that he’s scored against 90% of the teams, especially since he’s only played the teams in the western conference a handful of times.

    Ovechkin and Backstrom both seemed a bit worn out like the rest of the Capitals tonight, but Ovechkin still made some of the amazing moves we’ve come to expect from one of the best players in the NHL. I hope the NHL changes to a schedule where every team plays every other team at least twice each year (once home and once away) so those of us on the west coast will get to see players like Ovechkin, Backstrom, Crosby, Malkin, Lundqvist, the Staal brothers, and many more from the east coast every year.

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  • 16Nov

    Hiller’s First NHL Shutout Ends Ducks’ Losing Streak

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    Jonas Hiller stopped all 29 of the Kings’ shots and got his first NHL shutout tonight, ending the Ducks losing streak at 3 games. In my opinion, Hiller (with a save percentage of 90.8% & record of 2-1-1 before tonight’s shutout) has looked a lot better than Giguere (save percentage of 90.5% & record of 7-6-1) this season. Will tonight’s shutout give Hiller a bit more of a chance to play? Time will tell.

    The Kings managed to keep the Ducks from scoring on their 2 man advantage (which they had for almost 2 minutes), but could not score against Hiller. Clearly, it’s impossible to win if you can’t score. Terry Murray thought the 5 on 3 power play the Ducks had seemed to take the wind out of the Kings’ sales. Murray attributed it to being the turning point of the game for his team.

    Though Erik Ersberg stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced (a save percentage of 92.3%) and looked fairly strong in goal tonight, he got his second regulation loss of the season. The Kings were clearly frustrated by both of their losses this weekend. They have the day off tomorrow. They’ll start working on turning things around on Tuesday and hope to come out strong when they play the Capitals on Thursday.

    In spite of the fires in southern California, the sold out Honda Center was pretty full. Most fans made the effort to get to the game to see the Ducks and Kings match up. I was impressed by the crowd, given the circumstances and the fact that the Ducks had lost a couple games.

    Wednesday & Thursday’s games with the Capitals in southern California (Wednesday against the Ducks, Thursday against the Kings) should be exciting. The Capitals haven’t been to southern California in three years. Though Alexander Semin is really shining this year, I’m sure most fans in attendance will be looking forward to seeing Alex Ovechkin in person. At least with the NHL schedule changes, the Capitals should be here every other year, but seeing Ovechkin in person is definitely exciting for those of us who don’t get to see him very often.

    Home viewers were surely happy that the entire game was not shown in the rinkside view format tonight. Fans were very vocal about hating the rinkside view and in spite of public comments to the contrary, apparently, FSN West/Prime Ticket does care about fans watching the game.

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  • 13Nov

    Four in a Row for the Kings

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    For the first time since Jason LaBarbera won four games more than a year ago (October 19 – 27, 2007), Erik Ersberg has led the Kings to a 4 game winning streak and hasn’t lost a game in regulation out of the 5 games he started. (Ersberg is 4-0-1 in his five starts with the Kings this season.) Terry Murray has been very clear about Jason LaBarbera being the Kings’ number one goalie, but one has to wonder how much longer that will last. LaBarbera started the first ten games for the Kings, but hasn’t played since then. It’s a bit sad to watch this happen, since Jason is a great guy who didn’t get the chance he deserved years ago when he was hot and was benched half the time so Garon could play. I know fans that would skip games if they found out Garon was going to be in goal, since they expected a loss and only attended the LaBarbera games, but he wasn’t given a chance to prove what he was capable of accomplishing. While I wish Jason had gotten the chance he deserved a few years ago, it’s impossible to go back in time and make that up to him. I’m very happy that Ersberg is being allowed to prove what he can do in the NHL. Ersberg had a save percentage of 92.3% tonight, stopping 24 shots.

    The Kings have gotten a point in each of their last 5 games and have been continuing to outshoot their opponents as they have most of the season. After the first game of the season, where the Kings were outshot 41-13 in San Jose against the Sharks, they’ve only been outshot by 3 teams and two of those were games the Kings won and only got outshot by a few goals.

    Clearly, defense has been a priority for Terry Murray since the moment he was named the head coach of the Kings. It may have taken the Kings a while to get adjusted to the new system, but they seem to be doing a good job with the system now. The Kings have been enjoyable to watch almost every game this season. They’re young and play with energy the Kings fans haven’t seen in their team this consistently in years. Hockey is exciting at Staples Center and in spite of the economy; I hope more fans will come out to see the Kings play. Staples Center has been pretty empty, in spite of the attendance figures. Though it seems FSN will no longer be using their “rinkside view” the way they did in the first games of the season shown using this gimmick, it’s still better to see hockey in person. Apparently, in spite of what he originally said, Tom Feuer does want the hockey fans to watch. Hopefully, the fans will be happy with the changes. The next telecast to feature FSN West/Prime Ticket’s “rinkside view” takes place this Sunday night at 5 p.m. when the Kings play the Ducks at Honda Center. It’s also available in HD, so check it out to see the improvements. I’ll be at the game, so I’ll probably only watch portions of it when I get home, but I hope to see a better presentation and hear more positive feedback from everyone who watches the game.

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  • 09Nov

    Booth’s Hat Trick Breaks the Florida Panthers’ Losing Streak

    Hockey No Comments

    David Booth, who scored his first NHL point against Jean-Sebastian Giguere & the Anaheim Ducks on December 12, 2008, got his first NHL hat trick tonight in Anaheim. Booth’s three goals were the only goals the Panthers scored tonight, but they were all Florida needed to beat the Ducks.

    Craig Anderson made 44 saves and had a save percentage of 97.8% in the win that broke the Panthers’ 6 game losing streak and ended their 5 game road trip on a positive note. The Ducks out-shot the Panthers 45-26, but Giguere couldn’t hold off enough of their shots. In the Ducks’ last two games, Giguere’s had a save percentage of 82%. The Ducks were all pretty sluggish in their last couple games and it’s clear that they need to do something to get the team going back in the right direction. The crowd at the Honda Center reflected the recent performance. Though the attendance announced was 16,951, there were a lot fewer people at the game.

    In other sad news for southern California residents who wanted to watch the game at home, FSN Prime Ticket opted to show the game only in standard definition. Anyone out of the area who has Center Ice could get the game in HD from Fox Sports Florida. Of course, the bright side of the southern CA fans not getting tonight’s game in HD is that they did not have to put up with the “rinkside view” they hate so much. Most people I’ve talked to would choose to watch the game in standard definition the traditional way to watching “rinkside view” in HD, which is a very strong statement. Most HD viewers get spoiled with HD and will choose what they watch partially based on what shows/games are available in HD.

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  • 06Nov

    Hockey Themed Price is Right?

    Hockey No Comments

    Derek Armstrong, Dustin Brown, Kyle Calder, Denis Gauthier Jr., & Bailey (the mascot) of the LA Kings were on The Price is Right (CBS) yesterday. It’s been advertised all season and the ad (with the guys either bidding almost nothing or choosing not to bid on a Ducks jersey) is great. Click below if you haven’t seen the ad yet.

    The behind the scenes footage they’ve shown in games (which is available through Kings Vision at the official Los Angeles Kings website) is also very entertaining. Unfortunately, the actual appearance on the show wasn’t as good. It was great to see the Kings on there and hear the (half-hearted and clearly forced) “Go Kings Go” cheer from the crowd, but I’d heard that day’s show referred to as “hockey themed” and the only thing hockey themed in the entire show was the showcase the Kings did. The prize package was an amazing one for any hockey fan, but the people in the showcase showdown were clearly not hockey fans. The idea of going to Switzerland for the 2009 Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships didn’t even appeal to them. I can understand the ice box at Staples not being appealing to someone who likes hockey (you can’t really see the game, but I guess it wouldn’t be bad to watch one game from there – it’d be better than that horrible “rinkside view” FSN is forcing on the fans), but when the idea of going to Switzerland for the world championships doesn’t appeal to you, it’s clear that you’re not a hockey fan. Any Kings fan would have loved the prize package, but the guy who won the other showcase was thrilled that he didn’t win the Kings showcase, even though he got a snowmobile and lives in Florida. Of course, a Kings prize package for someone who lives in Florida would be a bit annoying even if the guy was a huge fan of the Florida Panthers (in town to play the Kings tonight and Ducks Sunday) or Tampa Bay Lightning.

    I always figured the showcases that are not won are used in future showcases for the show, but does this prize package just go away and give the Kings advertising without having to spend any money on prizes? If so, it worked out very well for them. The guys looked like they had a lot of fun (I haven’t talked to them about the experience yet, I wanted to see the show first), it’s just too bad more of the antics didn’t make it on the air.

    I remember seeing an article in one of the Canadian newspapers about how The Price is Right should have had more important players from different teams on the show if they wanted to have a hockey themed show. While I agree with this, there are a couple problems with that idea. A. The show wasn’t hockey themed, B. The showcase that was hockey themed was more LA Kings themed than general hockey (you wouldn’t get a prize package from a team of your choice, you’d get a Kings prize package, same thing with the tickets), and C. The Kings are local, so they were around when the show was filmed.

    The Price is Right with the Kings was a bit disappointing after the amusing previews, but it was good to see hockey showing up in a TV show, just as it’ll be great to see Luc Robitaille on Bones (Fox) in January.

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  • 02Nov

    LA on Hockey Night in Canada

    Hockey No Comments

    The Kings don’t appear on US National TV at all this season (unless you count the NHL Network airing CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada), but they did make it onto the Hockey Night in Canada schedule. CBC does a much better job with HD than FSN, so it’s good to watch some of the highlights at home after the game from CBC’s coverage. (Initially, I was annoyed that FSN chose to make all their HD games home games of the Kings or Ducks, but once I saw the terrible “rinkside view,” I was thankful that I wouldn’t have to watch that for an entire game, since I’d be seeing the games live.)

    Tonight’s game was a rough loss for the Kings, but it still demonstrated how much fun their young team is to watch this season. The Kings play with a lot of energy and it’s good for the rest of North America to get the opportunity to see them play. Hockey Night in Canada is watched by a ton of viewers. Hopefully, they stuck around to watch the second game and were able to enjoy this entertaining game.

    It was fitting that Oscar Moller got both of the Kings’ goals tonight, since it was his 10th game in the NHL and the first game after he was told he was staying in LA and not being sent back to juniors. Moller now has 6 points in his first 10 NHL games, leading the Kings rookies and near the top of the NHL rookie list.

    In the beginning of tonight’s broadcast, Kelly Hrudy mentioned that he thinks Dustin Brown might be the most underrated captain in the game today, since “he’s gritty, he hits hard, and he has a great scoring touch.” I have to agree with Hrudy. Dustin Brown is definitely an extremely underrated player. I think that’s true of many players who fight hard to stay in front of the net, but Brown has the distinction of typically having the most hits and not having many penalty minutes. Most of the guys who battle to be in front of the net seem to rack up a lot more penalty minutes.

    Tonight’s show was also Marc Crawford’s first Hockey Night in Canada broadcast in LA since being fired by the Kings after last year’s next to last place finish as head coach of the Kings. He was actually at the game Thursday night, but Hockey Night in Canada did not broadcast that game.

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  • 30Oct

    Waiting for the Impact of Stamkos?

    Hockey No Comments

    Is it just me, or did you expect more from Steven Stamkos? I’m not a scout, so I only saw clips of him before this season. However, with all the hype, I expected more of a Sidney Crosby than just your average rookie. In 8 games, Stamkos has 1 point. That’s worse than 17 of the other rookies (including Jakub Voracek of the Columbus Blue Jackets). I’m not saying that Voracek is facing even close to the pressure that has been placed on Stamkos this season. In fact, none of the other rookies this season have to deal with the pressure he’s faced. Crosby dealt with more pressure (he was on a team without a lot of scoring talent and was immediately revered as the savior of the franchise, part 2) and many rookies have been under the same amount of pressure as Stamkos without having the talent that Tampa Bay has assembled. Granted, Tampa Bay is doing about as well as I predicted, not as many seemed to think they’d do. However, Kopitar was on a worse Kings team and he did great in his rookie season.

    I’ve only seen Stamkos play in 4 complete games and a bunch of partial games, but I’m still pretty surprised by his lack of impact on the Lightning. Stamkos was supposed to be the rookie to watch this season and he’s just part of a group that includes 8 other rookies (6 of whom have played in fewer games than he).

    On the topic of Tampa Bay… a lot of people predicted that the Lightning would be a great team this season. They were supposed to have the biggest turn-around season by many accounts. I never saw that as likely. I thought Tampa Bay would be a mess. One of my friends asked if I was as upset as he would be if his team did nothing instead of doing what Tampa Bay did (referring to the LA Kings). I laughed and said that I’d much rather be a fan of a team that cares about the future than one that is overpaying a bunch of guys who will have no sense of being part of the same team. The Kings didn’t make a big splash and sell out their future and they’re a fun team to watch this season. They will be able to make an impact in the future and have a good team that is sustainable. I don’t think the same thing can be said about Tampa Bay at this point, though I realize it’s early in the season. Right now, Tampa Bay has the same number of points as Los Angeles, but fewer wins. Both teams are doing better (relative to the rest of the league) than they did last season, but Tampa Bay wanted more out of this season. The expectations for the Kings are much lower, so if they ended the season where they are today, everyone would be happy about the improvement they made and realize their future looks bright. If the Lightning finish where they are now, I have a feeling the fans will be disappointed that they didn’t improve as much as they should have.

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  • 16Oct

    My First Trip to Hockey Town

    Hockey No Comments

    It’s been a dream of mine to get to all hockey arenas in the NHL (all 30+ of them, since I’ve been to both arenas in Phoenix, Pittsburgh is getting a new arena, etc.) someday. Last season, I wasn’t able to cross any off my list, but this season my cousin’s wedding (this Saturday in Lansing, MI) was perfectly planned, since the Red Wings are in town. Naturally, I flew in a day earlier than most so I could attend a Red Wings game.

    The Joe Louis Arena is clearly an iconic hockey building and I’m glad I’ve finally got to cross it off my list of arenas to visit. I haven’t been to that many arenas, but somehow I’ve managed to get to most of the oldest arenas. The fact that the three oldest are all in the Atlantic division and I’m from the northeast and have friends and family in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia definitely helps. The only arena I haven’t visited in the Atlantic division is the new Devils arena (Prudential Center). I thought I might be able to get there this season, but the arena isn’t going anywhere, so I’m not too upset that it didn’t work out this year. There will be plenty of time to visit it. Getting back to the Igloo again is much more important.

    Fortunately, the game tonight was very exciting. The Canucks ended it 27 seconds into overtime after the score went back and forth in regulation. I sat with some great fans and had a lot of fun discussing hockey with them. It was just the kind of game one would want to experience at any arena they were visiting. I wish I could see a game this interesting at all arenas I visit. It’d be a lot easier to compare the atmospheres then.

    The prices at the Joe Louis Arena are a mystery to me. The tickets are incredibly expensive (I paid $25 for a seat near the top (very near) of the arena in the corner. The only higher seats were the press box & the luxury boxes (which tend to be up high in older arenas). However, once inside, the prices for food and merchandise were less expensive than most arenas I’ve visited. Of course, I realize that everything is relative. Just as I was text messaging a friend about the low costs of food there, the guy behind me said something to his girlfriend about how they knew the prices would be insanely expensive there. If you’re from a place like LA or New York, where food tends to be expensive (especially at arenas and amusement parks), the food prices at the Joe Louis Arena seem low. Compared to other prices around here, they’re clearly high. When I was in the elevator on my way back to my room, the guy in the elevator commented on the inexpensive merchandise at the arena, but clearly he’s from out of town, like me.

    I’m still not sure how I feel about them calling Detroit Hockey Town when they can’t fill an arena during the playoffs or the first couple games the season after they won the Stanley Cup (tonight’s game was only the second home game of the season), but the atmosphere at the Joe Louis Arena was great for hockey and I would definitely come back for a game if it worked out with my schedule again.

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  • 12Oct

    Home Opening Night in Southern CA

    Hockey No Comments

    I didn’t attend the Ducks home opener in Anaheim tonight, though I did record it (one of the 10 games the Ducks will have aired in HD on FSN HD this season). Unfortunately, it’s the only game airing in HD for the Kings or the Ducks this season that I won’t be attending. I wish they had chosen to do some of their away games in HD. Most people don’t record the games they attend as I do, they seem to be punishing fans who attend all the home games of their team, which doesn’t make sense to me.

    The Kings hadn’t lost a home opener in regulation since 1993 against Vancouver, though they did lose their first game in Staples Center last year (their home opener was technically in London that season). Overall, the Kings played a lot better tonight than they did last night in San Jose. They were definitely shooting the puck more and playing better defense. They cut down the shots San Jose had (more than in half) and almost doubled their own shots. Clearly, this was a huge improvement.

    In more good news for Kings fans tonight, the Kings only lost by one goal and only had one goal score against them. In bad news, they’ve only scored one goal in their first two games. Typically the offense is not the issue with the Kings. I think this is a result of the concentration on their defense, though. I’d be surprised if they didn’t bounce back offensively soon. It was good to see a major improvement in their defense tonight. The Kings have been perfect on the penalty kill so far. It’s only two games, but that’s definitely a great start.

    The most shocking thing that happened in tonight’s game (for me) was Anze Kopitar getting a 10 minute misconduct penalty. I saw him break his stick, but hadn’t seen him arguing a lot with the refs or anything. What I missed from the press box is that when Kopi broke his stick, the glass broke, too. No one I talked to upstairs understood exactly what had happened, so we had to wait for Kopi to explain the situation. Kopitar is clearly annoyed with himself for losing his cool and said he knows something like that can’t happen again.

    I can understand his frustration at that point. The Kings had two goals disallowed in the 2nd period after the Sharks had scored their goal. Though both of the rulings were called correctly, it was a very unfortunate situation and I can understand why the Kings would all be frustrated at that point.

    Jason LaBarbera only let one puck get by him in the 19 shots he faced. That’s a 94.7% save percentage, which is great. Now, the Kings just need the offense and defense working at the same time and they’ll start winning a few games.

    Since the Ducks play the Kings at Staples Center on Tuesday, one of the two southern California teams will break their season starting losing streak tomorrow. Both teams are without a point in their first two games, but there aren’t ties in hockey any more, so one of them will win on Tuesday.

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  • 11Oct

    Penn State Football & JoePa

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    I’ve been watching Penn State football since before I can remember. My dad’s whole family is Penn State oriented, so I was raised a Penn State fan. JoePa (Joe Paterno) has been a part of that experience since before I was born. When I was volunteering at a college fair earlier this month, JoePa came up a lot. Clearly, everyone knows that Penn State football is doing very well this year and almost everyone who follows sports at all seems to be fond of JoePa. It’s easy to understand why JoePa is so popular. He works hard to ensure that his guys spend enough time on their studies (I found the whole program very interesting when a friend of mine was a tutor for someone on the team). Many asked when I thought Joe would retire. That concept is completely foreign to me. I don’t think Joe will retire. He’ll die at some point, surely – he can’t live forever. I was worried when JoePa’s younger brother (George) died, but fortunately JoePa has been healthy. He’s certainly had some problems with his knees and hasn’t been down on the field as much as he’d like this season, I’m sure. However, JoePa is still going strong and doing an amazing job.

    Paterno is the coach who has won the most games in college football history and (not surprisingly) the most bowl games. He has two National Championships under his belt, but clearly wants that third.

    The announcers for today’s Penn State game in Wisconsin kept saying they hoped that JoePa would leave the Penn State football program of his own accord. Though I realize that Paterno’s contract is up this season, I simply can’t imagine that Penn State would consider not renewing his contract (assuming he’s interested). I’ve never heard of another football coach who has been better with recruiting players and schmoozing parents. JoePa takes good care of his players. Wouldn’t you prefer to hand your son over to JoePa and his program than one of the many coaches with bad reputations? I would.

    Penn State is now 7-0 this season and is sure to move up from 6th in the rankings, since Oklahoma (1), Missouri (3), & LSU (4) all lost today. I’m sure USC will still be ranked higher than they should, but at least Penn State will break into the top 5.

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