Unfortunately, Oxygen didn’t air the World Figure Skating Championship men’s free skate until 11 p.m. – 1 a.m. last night/this morning on my cable network. So, I avoided all news of the results and watched the competition today.

Lysacek won his first gold medal in the World Figure Skating Championships in the town he’s chosen to call home. Very few competitors (in any sport) are lucky enough to win their first World Championship in their country, let alone in their favorite arena in their own city.

After the perplexing standings at the end of the short program, even the commentators seemed completely unsure of how fair the judging would seem at the end. When a skater can touch his hand to the ice in his short program and end up in 1st place, I can’t really support the method of judging. The same problem happens in ice skating and gymnastics, since they changed the way scoring is done. When Joubert had his first major error in his free skate, they talked about how it might not cost him as much as we’d expect, since his errors in the short program still allowed him to start the night in 1st place. When Joubert fell, it was pretty clear that Lysacek had secured the gold medal, though. I think there would have been a riot in Staples Center if the judging had gone that horribly wrong. Canada’s national champion (Patrick Chan) had performed his free skate before Lysacek, so Joubert’s fall secured the gold medal for Evan Lysacek.

Their performance in this year’s World Championships also secured 3 spots for the American men in next year’s Olympics. Lysacek mentioned that being an important part of his win.

The World Championship win at home is a great accomplishment (especially when he’s done it all with a stress fracture) to help Lysacek on his road to the Vancouver Olympics next year.

Evan Lysacek, born and raised in Chicago but currently living in the Los Angeles area, had an amazing short program last night to start off his 2009 World Championships with a bang. Evan practices not far from Staples Center at the Toyota Center in El Segundo (where the Kings and Lakers practice) and attends Lakers games at Staples Center. Evan has medaled twice in the World Figure Skating Championships (bronze in 2005 & 2006). He came in fourth in the 2006 Olympics and was US Figure Skating Champion in 2007 & 2008. Clearly, it would be special for Lysacek to win his first World Championship on his home turf at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Lysacek is perfectly positioned (in 2nd after the short program yesterday) to win the World Championships for his first time, which would be a wonderful accomplishment to for the year before the Olympics in Vancouver. Evan’s performance in the short program was outstanding. One of the best things about the short program (from a simple spectator who’s obsessed with the Olympics and many of the sports in them viewpoint) was that Lysacek was clearly having a great time. Once he got the jumps out of the way, he just let loose and enjoyed himself. This allowed the audience to enjoy it with him and clearly got the Staples Center crowd (surely rooting for their local contestant) involved.

Since Oxygen was airing the championships and I don’t get that in HD, I’m hoping NBC will be kind enough to re-air last night’s short program (and tonight’s free skate) in HD when they get to their coverage this weekend. I know women’s figure skating is more popular, but I’d love to see last night’s short program in HD.

Tonight’s men’s free skate starts at 5:35 p.m. Pacific and will air on Oxygen. The complete schedule can be found at Universal Sports and it’s all available to watch live and on demand after it airs. If you’re interested in more information about Evan Lysacek, check out the official Evan Lysacek website.

At this point in the season, a lot of teams are normally set in stone for the playoffs. The eastern conference has 3 teams that have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs (Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and NY Islanders) and Boston has clinched their division title/playoff spot. The western conference is a lot more up in the air. Other than San Jose (clinched the division title & playoff spot) and Detroit (clinched playoff spot), everything in the western conference is up in the air. The closer it gets to the playoffs, the less likely it is for some of the lower teams to make it into the playoffs, but there is definitely a lot more excitement this year surrounding the playoff race than I can remember in recent years.

It’s been suggested that this is largely due to the points for losing in overtime and shootouts. I didn’t feel like completely redoing the standings again this year to figure out if that’s the case. I suspect that the points for losing are a factor. Teams have been moving in and out of the playoffs for weeks in the western conference and it seems very likely that the last day or two of the season (April 11 & 12) will be very important to some of the teams in the western conference.

In spite of all the people I’ve heard who believe so strongly that the western conference is the stronger/tougher conference (due to the top two NHL teams coming from the west), teams in the eastern conference need 83 points to be in playoff standing (Montreal is in 8th place with 83 points). Teams like Edmonton (in 7th place in the west with 79 points), Anaheim (currently in 8th in the west with 78 points), and Nashville (tied with Anaheim in points, but with fewer wins) would be in 9th – 11th place in the eastern conference. The 6th place team in the western conference would just barely beat out the Montreal Canadiens for the 8th spot if the Blue Jackets were competing in the other conference. The eastern conference has more teams in the 80s & 90s than the west. Of course, the fact that each team doesn’t play every team from the opposing conference at home and away each year makes it even more difficult to argue either side of that dispute, but I think it’s worth thinking about the fact that the teams in the last two playoff spots in the west (a quarter of the qualifying teams) would not be in the playoffs if they had to qualify by the eastern conference point scale.

The LA Kings still have slim playoff chances. They haven’t been mathematically eliminated – yet. However, it’s clear that they (and probably the Ducks, slated just ahead of them in the standings with 2 more points) will not make the playoffs this year. I was surprised by how many people said that last night’s game was “it,” meaning the end of the playoff hopes for the Kings. I understand wanting your team to do well. I definitely wanted the Kings to make the playoffs. I really enjoyed seeing the players happy and in the race for the playoffs, blasting Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” in the locker room. Most of the Kings’ current roster had never been in a position where it was possible (if all the stars aligned) for them to make it to the playoffs until this season. They’re young and the Kings have not been good since most of them joined the NHL. The excitement of the playoff hunt didn’t change the fact that the problem the Kings faced was not the points in the standings, but all the teams between them and the 8th and final playoff spot in the western conference. Last night at the game, someone mentioned that all they had to do was change the number of points they had to get into the playoffs. However, that’s not a realistic view of the situation. In order to advance, a team needs to win and have other teams lose. Since the Kings face east coast teams (Boston and Pittsburgh) in the beginning of their road trip that starts Thursday), they can only control their result. They have no way of keeping teams they’re competing against from getting points unless they’re playing them at the time.

Some fans may still believe the Kings have a shot at the playoffs this season, but their long shot just got more unlikely when they lost a four point game (as Terry Murray always calls the division games, but last night’s was more of a four point game than a game against the Coyotes this season) last night against the then 9th place Nashville Predators (last night’s game moved them into 7th place). The Kings will most likely finish where I expected them to finish (not in the playoffs, but not far from it). They’re definitely outside looking in this year, but at least they can see the playoffs in their future. Last year at this time, the Kings’ locker room was one of the most depressing places one can imagine. Now, the Kings see what they need to do to improve and realize that they are capable of making the playoffs… just not this year.

Unfortunately for NHL fans in southern California, the only hockey team in the area making the playoffs this year might just be the Ontario Reign. In good news, the arena is beautiful, prices are lower, and parking is free. The down side, of course, is that all the NHL playoffs may have to be on TV or require travel for those who live in southern California. There is the possibility that the not-so-distant future will have both the Kings and the Ducks in the playoffs, though. The future looks bright for hockey fans in the LA/Orange County area.

Today, I watched the Rangers/Flyers game on NBC in HD and the Penguins/Bruins game (not on the NHL Network in HD, in spite of what the guide said – good thing I checked and recorded it on Center Ice where it was on in standard definition, but at least it was playing – the NHL Network chose to show replays of the Maple Leafs/Flames game from yesterday and then the Canadiens/Devils instead of airing the Penguins/Bruins game live. I can’t even begin to understand that programming choice, but I’m sure there was a good reason.

Those of you who watched the Penguins game know that Chris Kunitz (acquired from the Ducks in an early trade around the trade deadline along with Eric Tangradi for Ryan Whitney) scored his first hat trick with the Penguins… or did he? What you might not know if you didn’t look at the stats a while after the game is that Kunitz’s one goal (and, therefore, his hat trick) away. When I was watching the game, I didn’t think he had touched the puck (clearly they later found out that Kunitz hadn’t tipped the puck in), but I think there should be some time limit on when they can change the scoring of a goal in the NHL.

In talking to one of the NHL employees who works on that in Anaheim after the game, I found out that there really is no time limit. Guys sometimes remember after the game that they might have touched the puck or the team’s people look at the goals a little bit more closely and realize that a certain guy did or didn’t touch the puck. They said at that point it’s up to the main NHL office in Toronto to make the call and take closer looks at the goal and make the scoring change. It was my understanding that the Toronto office looked at every goal and closely analyzed it at the time of the goal, so I don’t really see how this can happen. I would assume the offices in Toronto have HD feed even though all games aren’t televised in HD and are looking at the goals very closely. I know the NHL officials at the rink don’t always have HD capabilities, but I assume that the office where they make all the final decisions has the latest technology and closely examines each goal right after it happens. It would seem in that case the goal scoring records would not need to be changed after the fact.

I don’t know exactly when Kunitz’s goal was taken away from him, but I know it wasn’t announced until after the game, since my dad (who was at today’s game in Pittsburgh) learned about the change while listening to the post game show on his way home from the game. Considering the fact that it was not a late goal, I think they should be able to make that call earlier and not change that late.

The goals are reviewed at the time for a reason. The goal announcements are often delayed as the NHL powers that be try to determine who scored a goal, the assists, etc. I think once the final whistle blows all goals (other than the goal or goals in the last couple minutes of the game) should be finalized and no more changes should be made to the scoring. Would mistakes be made occasionally? Sure. Mistakes are made sometimes in baseball and football on whether a home run is a home run or should be called a foul ball. They review the plays at the time and sometimes they make the wrong call. In hockey, they’re not taking back a goal – that is reviewed at the time and I’ve never heard of a goal being disallowed after the fact. Changing who scored a goal is clearly not as drastic a change, but I still think it’s something they should determine in a specified amount of time.

The new players on the Ducks seemed a lot more at home in Anaheim tonight. Nokelainen got his first goal of the season, Whitney & Christensen got 2 assists each and Christensen got a goal that was questionably called off by the ref, due to goaltender interference by Getzlaf. As a Kings fan, I wanted the Ducks to lose tonight’s game in regulation. However, I think the call by the ref taking away Christensen’s goal was one of those calls that could go either way and would normally go the other way. Clearly, when Vancouver scored their third goal, the goal that got called back was very important. Fortunately for the Ducks and their fans, Scott Niedermayer scored 3 on 3 (after the Ducks had taken a penalty to remove their power play advantage) in overtime to win the game.

Perhaps the Ducks did a better job at the trade deadline than most seem to think. I thought their first trade was probably the best trade they made this season and I’ve talked to many people who think the Penguins or the Ducks didn’t do well with that trade. I still think both teams got what they needed a bit in their first trade of the trade deadline time.

I was curious how it felt for a player to go from Pittsburgh where the arena is full every night to the home crowd in Anaheim where there are a lot of empty seats – even on the nights when they have standing room only sellouts. Tonight’s announced attendance was 16,967; however, there were a lot fewer fans at the Honda Center than that. Whitney said that the Honda Center is “pretty loud” and that the three games he’s played in Anaheim have had a “really good atmosphere.” That it’s “not like going to the Islanders or Atlanta where you really feel an empty building.” He went on to say that the fans are great here and clearly he seems to be comfortable with his new teammates, he’s getting used to playing with Pronger. Obviously, it was also nice to get the first home win (he was traded early enough that he had won a game with the Ducks in Dallas against the Stars on February 28th) and experience the Anaheim crowd when the team wins.

Needless to say, Erik Christensen didn’t agree with the call made when he got the puck in the net, but it all worked out in the end and the Ducks won the game. He never got an explanation from the refs, since he doesn’t have a letter on his jersey. The ref refused to talk to him about the call, since he’s not the captain or an alternate. Christensen said, “Nothing you can do about it now, so, I mean, I disagree with the call, I guess.” He saw the replay and didn’t really see Getzlaf push anyone into Luongo, but at least it didn’t make a difference in the outcome of the game.

The games at this time of the season are so important to everyone (especially with the tight competition in the western conference) and all three games today were decided after regulation, giving out 3 points in each game. This frustrates players and fans alike when their teams are relying on other teams failing as much as their team doing well for the rest of the season. Every point matters and the teams are competing strongly to get as many points as they can down the stretch to the playoffs.

We’re all used to hearing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” after games now and it’s clear that the Kings haven’t stopped. “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” a rock ballad by Starship, may be another appropriate song for this season’s Kings. Last night, the Kings (who many had counted out of the playoff race a while ago) ended the Canucks’ winning streak – a streak that included a regulation win against the Sharks who have only 12 losses in regulation this season. Roberto Luongo and his team were on a roll, but the Kings didn’t let that stop them. Don’t tell any of the Kings that in spite of being only 3 points away from 7th – 9th in the conference they are unlikely to get into the playoffs. They don’t need to hear that. All they can do is control how they play and they believe that if they play their best they can make it.

The problem isn’t that the Kings are 3 points away from a playoff spot. The problem is that in spite of being only 3 points away from 7th place the Kings are in 12th place and only 6 points ahead of 14th. If the Kings were in the eastern conference, they would be 9 points out of 8th place, but only 11th in the conference. Those extra teams between the Kings and 8th place are very important. While the Kings can control their play, they can only control how the other teams do on a few occasions (when they play Nashville & Dallas twice, Edmonton, & St. Louis). Most days, they can only control themselves and for the next four days the Kings will practice as other teams play and hope that the games work out in their favor. Clearly, at some points, the teams the Kings need to lose for them to move into playoff position will play each other. All the Kings and their fans can hope for when the teams around them in the standings play each other is for a regulation win on one side or the other. If three points are handed out in those contests, it hurts the rest of the teams contending for a playoff spot.

The Kings look happier than I’ve seen them – ever. I didn’t have access to the Kings the last time they were in the playoffs. Lately, their playoff hopes have been over pretty early in the season. At this time of last season, the Kings were trying to make themselves feel better about the fact that none of the games they played mattered. There was no way they could make it into the playoffs and they all knew it. The excitement of the playoffs and trying to get into the playoffs is what the players love. They live for the exhilarating games. Now, the Kings are fighting for a spot and every game is like a playoff game. They know how much each game means and they’re battling to get every point. One game at a time… The team realizes it’s a long shot, but they believe they have the power to make their dreams of making the playoffs come true and perhaps believing will make all the difference. Most Kings fans certainly hope it will.

The Kings will be in Vancouver on Friday to face the Canucks again (after the Canucks play in Anaheim Wednesday) & in San Jose to play the Sharks Saturday. They return to Staples Center on Monday to face the team currently in 8th place, the Nashville Predators. It’s a rough road, but the Kings having fun trying to get to the playoffs and the fans that are attending the games are having fun with them. Last night, the Kings had an announced attendance of just under 17,000 fans. Sure, many of these fans were cheering for Vancouver, but Staples Center was fairly full. There are only four home games left in the regular season and the fans are enjoying their team’s excitement and energy as they fight to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

Is it just me, or is it sad that NHL.com is one of the worst places to find information on the NHL? I don’t know about most fans, but I think TSN.com covered the trade deadline the best (as usual). Their live tracker had trades posted within minutes. NHL, on the other hand had the countdown clock. That’s it. Apparently, they thought having a countdown to the last second was more important than having trade updates, since their “Complete list of NHL trades, since Feb. 3” was always updated about 2 hours after the trade happened (TSN’s site listed the time of each trade as the trade was posted just minutes after it took place).

MLB.com does a good job of keeping up on baseball. I don’t see why the NHL can’t do the same. The NHL could really use some help from MLB’s marketing department, too. Though I don’t watch commercials, I notice baseball commercials as I fast forward through them when watching other shows on many channels. Conversely, I only see NHL commercials on NBC during their NHL game of the week or on Versus during hockey games. Versus could show NHL commercials all the time and they probably do. However, like most people I’ve polled, I only watch Versus, or even know it exists, because of hockey. Some fans I polled also watch the Tour de France, but that takes place in the summer during the NHL off-season, so NHL commercials then wouldn’t make too much sense. There is no reason NHL commercials have to be limited to NBC and Versus. They should be on during American Idol, CSI, and all the other popular shows.

I have a lot of female friends who don’t follow hockey, but they know Sidney Crosby’s name because he’s an attractive kid. There’s no reason well-done advertising and focusing on some of the other attractive NHL players couldn’t get women like them (and teenagers) to start watching hockey occasionally.

The trades started out pretty slowly this year, but have certainly picked up in the last hour. Enjoy the last few hours of the trade deadline madness!

I’m a big fan of the NHL in HD and although I don’t think Versus covers the games as well as ESPN did or as NBC, CBC, TSN, MSG, or most of the FSN & other sports stations that air NHL games, I love the fact that Versus has the games they show on in HD – every single one of them. Between them, NBC, the NHL Network, and Center Ice’s HD channel, there’s almost always a game on in HD.

That being said, I thought it was pretty sad that the only HD game (in fact, the only game) in the NHL today was the last place teams of each conference (Colorado Avalanche at New York Islanders). I’m sure when Versus picked this game for national coverage they never imagined it would be the two last place teams against each other. However, it seems like they might want to consider NBC’s way of choosing what games they’re going to put on national TV. I’ll watch almost any hockey game, but even I didn’t actually care about today’s game.

The Islanders are still 10 points behind the Avalanche after tonight’s game and seem to have last place in the NHL sewn up, since they’re also 5 points behind the Atlanta Thrashers.

It’s still a very tight competition in the western conference this season. The last place Avs are only 10 points behind the 8th place Ducks, though they are the only team in the conference that’s played as many games as the Ducks so far this season.

Clearly, the next couple days will be exciting. It’s always interesting at this time of the season and the crazy rumors seem to be flying around as usual. Every fan wants to believe their team can end up getting that essential player without giving up anyone important, but we all know that’s not how it works.

Enjoy the trade deadline madness.