If Kings fans missed the game last night against Vancouver, they might have thought they were seeing things when they read that their team lost 2-1 in a shootout. The only difference in the simple box scores was the game in San Jose taking 3 more rounds of the shootout to end the game.

Though he always went on to say that he liked the shootout for the fans and realized that the fans like the shootout and get excited, Terry Murray made it very clear that he hates the shootout. Many of us think it’s a bit ridiculous to decide a game by a team with a skill competition. Yes, penalty shots are exciting and the skills competition of the All Star game is always my favorite part. However, other sports don’t end team games with individual competition, why does the NHL? Could you imagine after 9 innings of baseball deciding the game in a home run competition instead of continuing to play? What about the team that loses in 22 innings getting a point for that in the standings? Didn’t think so. What about the NBA ending in a free throw competition or a game of HORSE? So why give a goaltender who’s played well enough to keep his team in the game and get them through 65 minutes of play a loss (even if it is in the separate overtime loss column)? Okay, enough of my anti-shootout rant.

Naturally, the Kings didn’t look as good in the second night of their back to back games. I still think that teams in back to back games should be facing other teams who played the day before on their second night (which would have worked if the Canucks had played the Ducks on Wednesday instead of playing them Friday). The Canucks will have the disadvantage against the rested Ducks tonight and the Ducks will be at a disadvantage on Saturday when they play in Phoenix. Somehow, it seems it could have been coordinated a bit better.

On the bright side for Kings fans, their team got a point for the shootout loss in both of their last two games and points in their last 6 (4-0-2) games. The Kings had two four game winning streaks in the same month for the first time since… I’m not sure when. I went back to the late 90s and couldn’t find another time when the Kings put together two winning streaks of 4 games or more in the same month. The Kings are at the head of their division and despite many reports to the contrary, when they were tied in points with the Sharks the Kings were in the lead of the division, since they’ve gotten 3 points in their 2 games with the Sharks and the Sharks have only gotten 2. They only had two four game winning streaks in their entire last season (and none longer).

It’ll be very interesting to see the Kings play the Penguins next week. They’ve played the Sharks, but the Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and (having lost only two games so far) are clearly still at the top of their game. The Penguins haven’t been to LA since November of 2006. For some reason, they tend to come to southern California in November or December (escaping the Pennsylvania weather for a bit?). I’ve seen the Penguins play so often the last couple years in Pittsburgh that I sometimes forget how little most southern California hockey fans have seen of the Penguins. The last time the Penguins were in LA was the season where they made the playoffs for the first time in years. It was Sidney Crosby’s first trip to California in the NHL and Evgeni Malkin’s first year in the NHL. They both had fairly big nights in LA and the Kings lost in overtime (Malkin scored the OT goal). Both teams have changed quite a bit since then. The Penguins have found a coach (Dan Bylsma) who seems to know exactly how to lead a group of young superstars. Bylsma’s record in his 61 games as a coach of the Penguins is 44-13-4 (they’ve won 72% of their games, 83% since his first training camp with the team). The Kings have done well with Terry Murray’s system focusing on defense and seem to have found a goaltender (in Jon Quick) capable of making the saves to give the Kings a chance to win every night. They’ve also added a few key players to help them achieve a higher level of play. Anze Kopitar has definitely stepped up his game this season. It’s early, but Kopi’s on pace to score almost 60 goals this season and has scored 1.5 points per game so far. (He was leading the NHL in points until Alex Ovechkin passed him last night.) Next Thursday’s game should be very interesting and will certainly be the biggest test the Kings have faced so far this season.

Brian Burke and Francois Beauchemin had triumphant returns to Honda Center and the Ducks took some careless penalties as they lost to the Maple Leafs at home. Toronto hadn’t won a single game and only had one point in their first 8 games of the season. Only one team had failed to beat the Maple Leafs in regulation, but the Ducks managed to take enough penalties to make the Leafs’ 6-3 win possible with only one even strength goal.

The Ducks took a total of 17 penalties for 45 penalty minutes tonight. Anaheim’s first goal was definitely suspect and watching it again at home in HD on FSN after the game, it was easier to see why Ron Wilson took the bench minor for “abuse of officials” after they didn’t make the call to wave the Ducks’ goal off due to goaltender interference. I’ve definitely seen goals called off for a lot less, but unfortunately for the Maple Leafs goaltender interference is not something they can review – if it’s not called on the ice, the goal stands. At least the goal didn’t end up making the difference in the game. If it had, I’m sure Ron Wilson would have been irate. In spite of having the first power play of the game and a middle of the league power play against the Maple Leafs’ dead last in the league (before the start of tonight’s game – the Ducks may have helped the Leafs in that area) penalty kill, the Ducks only had three power play chances and went 1 for 3 on the power play tonight. The Leafs also took quite a few penalties (10 penalties for 31 minutes), but most of them were offset by the Ducks’ penalties. The Maple Leafs went 5 for 11 on the power play tonight. The Toronto power play was only 12th in the league (22.2%) at the start of the game, but their 45% power play in tonight’s game is better than the best power play in the league (the Calgary Flames, 32.3%).

While I’m sure there are a couple goals Hiller would like to have back, I’m sure the Ducks fans know that he and his 85% save percentage were not the real problem. Most of the goals were scored on the power play (3 scored with a 2 man advantage). Randy Carlyle stuck with his goalie and didn’t pull him from the game when he knew it wasn’t Hiller’s fault that the Ducks were doing poorly. The real problem tonight was the Ducks’ lack of control. The Ducks’ bad penalty killing can’t even be blamed. What team could be expected to survive the penalties the Ducks took in their game against the Maple Leafs?

Hagman’s hat trick led the way for the Maple Leafs and though most of the fans left in the building as he scored his 3rd goal of the game were Toronto fans, no hats made it to the ice. Kaberle had a goal and 4 assists and Stempniak had 4 points (1-3) in the Maple Leafs’ big win against the Ducks.

I was talking to a friend who has Ducks season tickets before the game. He was planning on going to the game with a friend who’s a Maple Leafs fan and said that his goal was to “see one of the bottom teams in the league win a game.” He knew he couldn’t lose with that goal, since the Ducks were one of the bottom teams in the NHL and the Maple Leafs are still in last place even though they finally got their first win against the Ducks.

It’s early in the season (only 9-12 games of the 82 in the season have been played by teams at this point), but the games at the beginning of the season count as much as the games at the end and teams like the Maple Leafs and Ducks have to be hoping that they find the right combination soon. The Ducks did make major changes to their top lines and their defensive pairings, but after the preseason and 10 games of the season, one would expect them to be getting used to each other and finding chemistry somehow. If they’re not, perhaps the lines aren’t set the way they should be yet. Maybe some more line changes need to be made.

In spite of Williams’ injury (sustained during practice), the Kings looked good at the beginning of last night’s game. Breaking up the first line that’s combined to score 35 points in the Kings’ 9 games was certainly not something Terry Murray looked forward to doing. After the game, he credited GM Dean Lombardi with the idea of putting Wayne Simmonds on the top line. Clearly, Simmonds’ goal and assist support this decision (even though the goal was scored in a 4 on 4 situation and assisted by Frolov). Alexander Frolov had two assists in the game and looked much better than he did before he sat out as a healthy scratch. Perhaps Fro got the point and will be more dedicated in the future. I wouldn’t recommend that Kings fans hold their breath for that to happen, though everyone would love to see it.

The Kings started out very strong at Staples Center against the Stars. Anze Kopitar’s first goal was a great hard goal – a goal even Terry Murray said Kopitar would not have scored last year. Simmonds scored with a nice 4 on 4 goal at the end of the first and less than a minute later, the Stars cut the lead in half by when Neal scored his own 4 on 4 goal (unassisted). This wasn’t really a reason for the Kings fans to worry. Their team looked strong in the first period and they had every reason to think that would continue in the second period. It did.

The Kings scored two unanswered goals in the 2nd period, extending their lead. Anze Kopitar scored his first career NHL hat trick. The 4th Kings goal is definitely a goal that Auld wanted to have back. He bobbled the puck and it still got by him. Oddly enough, Turco almost allowed a similar goal the previous night against the Ducks in Anaheim, but managed to make the save.

A two goal lead is often said to be the most dangerous lead in hockey. Kings fans are probably thinking the three goal lead is up there on the list. By 8:30 into the 3rd period, the Stars had cut their deficit to one and they tied the game with almost 3 minutes left in the third period, sending the game into overtime.

I’m sure most Kings fans were wondering what hit them. They’re not used to the Kings giving up leads like that against the Stars. In fact, they typically do quite the opposite where the Stars are concerned. Though they didn’t make the playoffs last season, the Kings had a winning record against the Stars, including one come from behind win. The fans don’t want to see the reverse happen in their own building – especially not when their team has shown such promise.

Fortunately for Kings fans, Handzus scored less than a minute into overtime giving the Kings the win.

In spite of the collapse the Kings faced in the third period (brought on mostly by a couple of soft goals allowed by Jon Quick), the team did not give up. They stuck with their game and won the game in overtime. It’s my opinion that Kopitar’s first goal isn’t the only thing that would have been a lot less likely last season. I seriously doubt the Kings of last season would have won in overtime after giving up a 3 goal lead in the third period. Most likely, they would have buckled under in the overtime period or shootout and been happy that they escaped with a point.

This year, the guys in the locker room were definitely singing a different tune than they would have last year. They talked a lot about the fact that giving up a 3 goal lead in the third period is something they can’t do. They realize that getting two points is the most important thing, but they also know they can’t allow a team to catch up and just assume that they’ll still be able to win in overtime. The main difference is that the Kings expect to be playing in the postseason this time around. They don’t expect to go home early in April 2010. The Kings are ready for playoff hockey (which many of the Kings would be playing for the first time, not just their first time in a Kings uniform) and playoff teams can’t allow themselves to think losing a three goal lead is acceptable. Once you get to overtime, it’s anybody’s game. That’s not a risk a team that expects to win wants to take.

Now the team heads to Phoenix for Saturday’s game for the first of many quick road trips before heading home to host Columbus on Sunday. The way Quick bounces back after the collapse in Thursday’s game will tell Kings fans a lot about what they can expect from their team this season.

One of the teams had to end their winning streak last night when the Rangers hosted the Kings in Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately for Kings fans, the team that extended their streak was the Rangers. The Rangers remain tied for first place in the Atlantic division and the NHL (with the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins). The Kings remain in first place in the Pacific division, but drop from 2nd to 5th in the Western conference.

Definitely not the best game to attend as a Kings fan, but there were up sides to not getting credentials from the Rangers. I got to talk to more fans (Kings and Rangers alike). I also didn’t have to talk to the Kings after the game and somehow I don’t think they were in the best mood – especially with their upcoming flight to Detroit immediately following the game.

As a Kings fan, I was definitely in the minority at Madison Square Garden, but I did see quite a few Kings fans. I talked to almost all the Kings fans I saw before the end of the game. One of the fans hasn’t lived in LA for years (he’s spent most of that time overseas serving our country), but he still manages to follow his favorite team. One of the fans is from Philadelphia, but he’s been a Kings fan most of his life. Apparently, he really liked their earliest purple jerseys and chose the Kings as his team as a result.

Everyone watching the game saw Brian Boyle (a former King) score his first goal in a Rangers jersey. Considering how little the Kings face the Rangers, it’s pretty surprising that he scored his first goal of the season against the Kings.

Special teams were definitely a problem for the Kings last night. The Kings’ penalty kill (tied for 27th in the league going into last night’s game) was already struggling, but the power play had been tied for 4th. The Rangers fan next to me turned to me to say that the Kings were making the Rangers look good near the end of one of the Kings’ last power plays of the game – and he was right. I couldn’t keep track of all the times the Kings passed the puck to the point without looking to see if there was someone there and cleared the zone for the Rangers (the Kings did this when they weren’t on the power play, too). Los Angeles was 1-7 (14%) with the man advantage and only stopped one of the three Rangers power plays. If I had to guess, I’d say the Kings will spend a lot of money working on their power play and penalty kill in upcoming practices.

Erik Ersberg was in goal for the Kings, since they face the Red Wings tonight in Detroit. His save percentage of 81% is definitely not what he would have wanted, but two of the goals scored against him were scored on the power play (one with a two man advantage), which clearly made his job more difficult.

The Kings hadn’t had a four game winning streak since about 2 months before the end of the last season and hadn’t started out with a record of 4-1-0 since the 1992-1993 season (the year they went to the Stanley Cup Finals and lost to the Montreal Canadiens) and ties with the best 5 game start in Kings history. It’s too early to be super optimistic if you’re a Kings fan (especially since Kings fans have seen their team start out well and finish way out of the playoffs before), but I do think that the team Dean Lombardi has put together is on the right track and will finish in the playoffs this year.

Last night, the Anaheim Ducks gave up the 3-0 lead they had at the end of the 2nd to lose 4-3 in OT to the Minnesota Wild (in Minnesota). The Kings had a 4-0 lead against the Sharks until more than half-way through the game. With 4 minutes left in the 2nd period, the Sharks scored on their first power play of the game. One power play later, the Sharks were down only 4-2. A minute into the third period, the Kings were only up by one goal, since the Sharks had scored their 3rd power play goal of the night. Though I’m sure not taking penalties was emphasized on the Kings bench, the Sharks got their fourth power play goal at 14:24 in the 3rd period. In just under a full period, the Kings had gone from being up 4-0 to being tied at 4.

Needless to say, many were thinking that the Kings were going to crash and burn as the Ducks had in Minnesota earlier that night. The guy next to me in the press box even said something like, “I’m going to the Sharks’ locker room tonight.” Of course, before I even had a chance to respond with a comment about how he shouldn’t assume the Kings were going to lose, the Kings scored a goal. Just 26 seconds after the game tying goal, the Kings had regained the lead with Teddy Purcell’s first goal of the season. That allowed me to tell him to have fun, since the happy guys were going to be down the hall in the Kings’ locker room. Davis Drewiske got his first NHL goal into the empty net with less than two minutes to go in the game and sealed the fate of the Sharks.

Last year, I think the game would have ended with a deflated Kings team and my buddy next to me in the press box heading to talk to the Sharks. Once the Sharks tied the game, the Kings of last year would have probably thought the game was over, which would have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fans would have gone home upset that their team had started 0-2 again and would have started to question (even though it’s early) all those predictions about the Kings making it back into the playoffs this year.

It is early in the season and it’s definitely too early to say that this game is a good sign for the Kings in continuing to stay in the game (the way they did with their two goal lead early in the 2nd period and when the Sharks had tied the game), just as it was too early to throw in the towel after the Kings’ first game. However, I think the Kings fans should be pretty happy with their team right now. The Kings definitely need to work on their penalty kill – no question. Since the Kings had one of the best penalty kills in the league last year and have most of the same guys, I’m not concerned about their ability to improve their pk. The players know they’re capable of doing better on the penalty kill and aren’t concerned, which is also a positive sign for the fans.

If you had told anyone last year that the three California teams would start out with 1-2-0, 0-1-1 & 1-1-0 records, I doubt anyone would have picked the Kings as one of the teams with a win. I’m sure everyone would have chosen the Kings to start out with the worst record. Though it’s early, the Kings were blasting music in the locker room last night and happy that they refused to give up and fought back to beat the Sharks.

In other good news, Kings fans who could not make it to Staples Center last night were able to watch the game in HD! All games on FSN West and Prime Ticket will be broadcast in HD, which is a huge step up from last year’s 10 games.

Also, for those Kings fans who worried that Rob Scuderi had won the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh and might not play as hard for a the Kings in LA… I think Rob proved himself to be the tough guy he’s always been last night. Scuderi took a puck to the nose (it’s not broken, just caused gushing blood) and only missed a shift as they got him cleaned up and made sure that he wouldn’t bleed all over as he went out to play the rest of the game. If Scuderi will do that this early in the season for the Kings, I don’t think there’s any question about how hard he’s going to play in LA. He’s clearly here to win games, which makes sense. Anyone who’s been on a team (of any level) that wins a championship knows how great it feels to win. Why would anyone choose to move to a team they didn’t think had a bright future? Scuderi’s not the party boy Jeremy Roenick was when he was in Los Angeles. Rob’s here to help the Kings make it into the playoffs and I think he can do that.

Initially, I was annoyed that the Kings and Ducks home opening games (this year also both season openers) were the same night and only a half hour apart again. I was additionally annoying that the Ducks game was only on in standard definition, since I planned on watching it when I got home from the Kings game. In hind sight, I see that the NHL scheduling gods were saving us from being able to watch both of these horrible opening games live. After seeing the box score of the Ducks/Sharks game, I couldn’t bear to watch it – especially without being able to see it in HD. (Like most people with HD, a show has to be really amazing for me to bother watching it if it’s not on a channel I get in HD.)

The Kings looked very unorganized and a lot more like a team trying to figure out their lines in preseason than a game playing their home opener in front of a sold out crowd at Staples Center. There were (of course) some empty seats in the lower and club levels, but that will almost always be the case in LA and those seats were sold. Near the end of the second period, a fan near us shouted “Preseason’s over!” We had been discussing how it didn’t seem like the Kings were aware that the season had started. Perhaps if the fan had gotten her whole section to scream that the season had started it would have helped, but I doubt it.

When trying to look at the bright sides of last night’s Kings game, it was pretty difficult from the Kings perspective. The Kings did get 3 goals in 8 power plays, but it would be nice to see them be able to score outside of the power play, to stop giving the puck away, and to look like a team that had practiced with each other. Murray has always said his focus is on defense and I’m guessing today’s practice emphasized the complete breakdown they had last night in that area. The home opener is supposed to be a time for fans to celebrate the beginning of a new season. The player introductions were well done this year (complete with castle façade) and the graphics used on the jumbotron have been improved, but that can’t do enough to help the fans feel better about the performance of their team on the ice.

One of my friends pointed out that the Kings have had a good record in home openers for a while, so perhaps last night’s game is actually a good sign. Maybe they won’t peak too early in the season and they’ll actually make the playoffs. I hadn’t thought about that angle. It might be something to give the Kings fans hope.

Since I didn’t actually see the Ducks game, I can’t comment on their play, but their fans clearly wanted more than their team getting killed in their first game of the season – especially since that first game was at home.

On the bright side for both southern California teams and their fans, it was only one game. They have 81 left in the season and both futures are potentially bright.

When the NFL kicked off their season on Thursday, September 10th, there was one game that night. The Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers faced the Tennessee Titans at home. That game was the only game on opening day. It was nationally televised and well advertised. They showed the ceremony with the fireworks and the Steelers started off their season with the NFL world watching them celebrate their championship a bit before the game started.

As the MLB kicked off their season on Sunday, April 5th, the only regular season game that day was played by the World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies as they faced the Atlanta Braves at home. This opening game of the season was also available for all baseball fans to enjoy as the Phillies celebrated their win with their fans one last time before starting the new season.

The NBA started off their season last year on October 28th with a double header on TNT starting with the NBA Championship Boston Celtics hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers. The second game of the double header featured the first regular season game for the number one draft pick in the 2007 NBA draft.

All of these leagues have a few things in common. The reigning champion of the league gets to start off the next season. The start of the season is a well advertised event with countdowns on public websites. The opening game and pre-game events are nationally televised in HD for anyone in the country to see without a special sports package. The national TV coverage of the games happens on a channel that everyone with cable gets (I realize that TNT is a cable channel) for free. They don’t need to purchase a sports package (as I do in order to get Versus) and the channels are all on DirecTV (which Versus is not as I write this – I’m still hoping they’ll work that out before I move, since I really want to change back to DirecTV when I’m able to get it). These games also all take place in the United States of America.

In contrast, the NHL starts their season with four games on opening day (Thursday, October 1st). Two of these games are nationally televised (including HD) on Versus – the Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins (7pm) and the San Jose Sharks at Colorado Avalanche (10pm). The other teams playing on opening day are The Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, and Calgary Flames. None of the teams playing on opening day were even in the Stanley Cup Finals last season. In fact, only three teams out of the eight playing on opening day made it out of the first round of the playoffs. They (the Capitals, Bruins, & Canucks) were all eliminated in the conference semifinals.

The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins play their first game the second night of the hockey season. They play the 8th game of the season and will have all the fanfare of raising the Stanley Cup Championship banner with only local audiences (Pittsburgh & New York City) as well as those of us who have the NHL Network (a pay channel on my cable service). I am hoping the NHL Network shows the Pittsburgh feed of the game. Center Ice normally airs the home feed for home openers and I’m hoping the NHL Network will do the same. I’m also hoping that when entering the info someone just forgot to check the box to select that the show is in HD, since as of this morning the repeats on the NHL HD Network are going to be in HD, but the live feed will not. I think it’s horrible that the first game of the reigning champs isn’t nationally televised on a channel that’s easily accessible to all sports fans. Those wanting to see the raising of the banner living in New York will most likely have to settle for YouTube replays or watching it on the Penguins’ website, since the NHL Network feed will be blacked out in NYC due to the MSG telecast. I’m sure the Rangers will do the same thing the Ducks did when they played in the Penguins’ first home game a few years ago and cut out anything fans of the Penguins would want to see of the opening of the season and local fans will not get a choice.

The NHL messes up a lot of their marketing (or lack of marketing, as it were). Their not acknowledging the reigning Stanley Cup Champion is just one of many errors. The NHL continually tries to compete with the NBA (which will always be more popular in most parts of the US). This competition makes it difficult for some people (especially those in southern California and other areas where local basketball teams were doing well) to find a bar that will show the games if they’d like to go out with friends to enjoy them (or, as in the case of my one friend, didn’t have cable and needed to find someone willing to show hockey that had Versus – at least Versus and DirecTV didn’t have their battle until the playoffs ended). If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that Bettman was brought in to lower the NHL’s ratings and prove that it should eliminate some teams. A lot of the choices he’s made seem more like the choices networks make when they want to kill a show’s ratings. I could talk about different errors in judgment the NHL makes for ages like most hockey fans.

Southern California residents not attending the Ducks’ season opener (also their season opener), which is the same night as (and only a half hour apart from) the Kings’ season & home opener, will be disappointed if they’d like to watch it later. It’s one of the few games airing on KDOC instead of Fox Sports Prime Ticket or West, so it will only be aired in standard definition. I’ll be at the Kings game that night and was disappointed that the Ducks’ first game of the season will not be televised in HD. I think this is another bad marketing choice, though this one was probably made by FSN & KDOC, not the Ducks. I’m sure the Ducks would prefer all of their games to be aired in HD. Who wouldn’t? It makes fans happy and that’s the goal, isn’t it?

I know fans of all sports complain about choices those running the league make, but how is it possible that all the other major league team sports in the country have figured out that celebrating the reigning champion is a good idea and the NHL still hasn’t understood this simple fact? It doesn’t take a brilliant mind to figure out that having one (or two) game(s) to open the season and making a big deal out of the opening night with the current champ as well as nationally televising that game (and the game after it, if applicable) is a good marketing strategy. For all of Bettman’s talk about expanding interest in the NHL in the United States, he doesn’t seem to make choices supporting the concept.