In 2009, I went 7 for 8 in first round predictions. Somehow, I think that’s very unlikely this year. It was difficult for me to decide who I think will win a couple of the series this year, which I hope means there will be some great match-ups. Here are my predictions…

Eastern Conference

Capitals vs. Canadiens
Capitals in 5 – I don’t think this will be at all challenging for the Capitals, but I think the Canadiens will win a game, hopefully at home for their fans.

Devils vs. Flyers
Devils in 6 – I think the Devils will take this one unless they have a completely unexpected breakdown or the Martin Brodeur of the Olympics resurfaces. It seems like Marty is determined to make everyone forget about his horrible performance in the 2010 Olympics, which will probably help the Devils, but the Flyers are still a very good team in spite of how they were playing the last couple weeks. I think they’ll bounce back and win a couple games.

Sabres vs. Bruins
Bruins in 6 – I know it’s not a popular choice, but I think the Bruins are going to step up and beat the Sabres. Buffalo hadn’t been doing that great in their last couple weeks and Boston may just take their winning streak into the playoffs.

Penguins vs. Senators
Penguins in 4 – A lot of those who know me will say I’m being too much of a fan in this prediction, but I disagree. I think that the Penguins (especially their Captain Sidney Crosby) still remember the 2007 meeting with the Senators in the playoffs. The Penguins swept the Senators when they faced the team the following year in the quarterfinals and I think they’ll do the same 2 years later.

Western Conference

Sharks vs. Avalanche
Avalanche in 6 – I know everyone keeps saying the Sharks are bound to break out of their playoff slump some year, but I don’t see it happening any time soon. The one thing that makes me a bit skeptical about this pick is that (unlike recent playoff years) the Sharks went 8-1-1 in their last 10 games of the season as opposed to barely squeaking by to win the western conference title. The Avalanche have struggled at the end of the season, so if the Sharks don’t crash and burn early, they may get past the Avalanche and lose in round 2.

Blackhawks vs. Predators
Blackhawks in 6 – I think the Blackhawks will take the series, though it’ll be more difficult for them than it would if they had a better goalie. A team can win the Stanley Cup with an amazing defense and an okay goalie, but Huet is near the bottom out of all ranked goalies. Niemi has been doing well, but has very little experience. Of course, many new goalies (even those like Hedberg with the Pens, who had played only 9 regular season games) have great playoff runs, so I think the Blackhawks will get through the first round in spite of the goaltending questions.

Canucks vs. Kings
Canucks in 6 – I’ve talked to a lot of people who think the Kings will win this one, but I have to go with the Canucks for a few reasons. First, the Canucks have a lot more playoff experience than the Kings. I don’t see them making it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but I do think they’ll get past the Kings. In 2007, I was sure the Penguins would beat the Senators and then collapse. Instead, they were out of the playoffs in 5 games. I think the Kings will win one more game than the 2007 Pens, but they don’t have much playoff experience and I think that’ll hurt them. The other issue in this match-up is the goaltending. Luongo just won the gold medal with Canada in his home arena in Vancouver. Conversely, Quick (who Terry Murray keeps reminding everyone is the “number one guy”) had never played as many games as he did this season (72). He played only 44 last season and came from college hockey, where he played fewer games. It’s been speculated that part of Nabokov’s problem in the playoffs is that he’s so tired (he played 71 games this season). If a lot of games affect a seasoned goalie the way they have Nabokov, what will it do to a goalie with a lot less experience? As if that’s not enough, the Canucks have the number one scorer in the NHL (and 3 of the top 25). All those factors add up to me thinking the Canucks will win this round and a picture similar to that of Sidney Crosby’s depressed locker room shot of captain Dustin Brown.

Coyotes vs. Red Wings
Red Wings in 7 – This series was the hardest series for me to pick a winner, which is why I had to predict that it’ll go to 7 games. The Red Wings have been doing so well lately (8-1-1 in their last 10 games) that I had to pick them. Until I started writing this, I was going to pick the Coyotes. I think it’ll be a great series. The Red Wings do seem to already be in playoff mode, though, and their playoff goaltending has been amazing lately (leading them to two Stanley Cup Finals in the last two years and one Cup). I don’t think the Red Wings will get as far this year, but I don’t think they’ll collapse until at least the second round. The Coyotes have been playing really well this season, but recently they’ve been good, but not great and I don’t think that’s quite enough to beat the playoff Red Wings. Would anyone have predicted that the Coyotes would have home ice advantage in this series? It’s doubtful. The Red Wings didn’t play that well overall this season, but they know how to win in the playoffs. They have a history of winning for a reason.

Hopefully, a lot of the match-ups will be exciting this year. I think that’s all most serious hockey fans want (other than their own team winning the Cup, of course, but we can’t have that every year).

Enjoy the playoffs!

I’m not saying that Dustin Brown (husband and father of two), Jon Quick (who had been sick and probably wouldn’t have made it to the Opening Ceremonies even if he’d already planned it), Drew Doughty, Michal Handzus, or any of the other players who could have attended the Opening Ceremonies and didn’t have the wrong attitude about the Olympics and I’m not saying that they should have been at the Opening Ceremonies. I guess Jack Johnson just seems to be having more fun with the experience than the other guys. Maybe it’s just that (like me) Jack is really into the Olympics in general and would be watching as much as possible if he wasn’t there. I didn’t ask him that one.

When asked about traveling to Vancouver and back in a short time period (and with a more difficult travel schedule than normal, since he couldn’t get one of the direct flights from LAX to Vancouver), he said “Well, it’s the Opening Ceremonies… I think it’s a no brainer… I had the opportunity. Why waste it? It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. If I’m fortunate enough to play in the next one, it’s in Russia, I can’t just go over and back.” At the end of this, he brings up a very good point, which I asked him about later. Most of the NHL Olympians couldn’t attend the Opening Ceremonies even if they were as interested in doing so as Jack Johnson. They either had games or were on the wrong side of the country (which is true of most NHL teams). This is why I think the NHLPA should go for broke if they end up managing to allow their players to play in the Olympics going forward and get a break that would allow every NHL player to attend the Opening Ceremonies in Russia if they so choose. I think it should be the players’ choice and Jack Johnson (who did take advantage of his opportunity to attend the Opening Ceremonies) agrees. He described the Opening Ceremonies as the “coolest experience I’ve ever had in my life – something I’ll never forget,” so it’s not surprising he thinks the other NHL players in the Olympics should have the same opportunity he had in the future.

He’s planning to meet as many of his fellow Olympians as possible in the Olympic Village and attend as many other events as he can. I’m not sure how much free time he’ll have, since I know from the experience of John Speraw (assistant men’s volleyball coach for the gold medal winning men’s volleyball team in China) that they didn’t get much free time with all the games they played and practices, but I hope Johnson has enough free time to enjoy a few other events while he’s in Vancouver.

Hockey fans everywhere should be happy to hear that when I asked him about the coolest experience he’s had meeting a fellow Olympian so far and who he’s had a chance to meet in his brief time with his fellow American Olympians, Johnson said, “I got to meet Shaun White. He came up and asked me to take a picture with him, which I thought was pretty cool.” He went on to say that he’d met a couple of speed skaters, bobsleders, figure skaters, and that he wants to meet as many other athletes as possible and cheer them on, since that’s part of the Olympic experience and that he knew many of the other members of Team USA would be cheering on Team USA’s ice hockey team.

As a side note, Canada’s women’s ice hockey team makes a good argument for the mercy rule in international ice hockey competition with an 18-0 win over Slovakia. Talk about total domination. I’m looking forward to seeing their other games and hope most of them are a bit more interesting.

The Kings went into the All-Star break by getting 5 out of the possible 6 points in their three game road trip, which ended in the mile high city last night as they won their first back-to-back games on consecutive days in over a year (the last time was December 29 & 30, 2007 in Colorado and Chicago). The last time the Kings were in Colorado, the Avalanche beat them 6-1, going ahead 6-0 before Oscar Moller would score the only Kings goal more than half-way through the game. I’m sure the Kings were thinking of that as they faced the Avalanche last night and it seemed to help them get off to a good start. The Kings scored the first goal just 2:14 into the game and started off the 2nd period strong after allowing the Avalanche to tie the game 7:40 into the 1st. Though Kings fans were certainly worried as they watched the Kings give up 3 goals, allowing their 4 goal lead to drop to 1, they had to be happy to see their team hang on to their lead and go home for the All-Star break on a high note.

Since the world figure skating championships are being held at Staples Center in addition to the Grammy Awards, Lakers & Clippers games, and other normal events, the Kings face more away games than their usual high number after the All-Star break. Many have said they think the large number of away games will hurt the young team and they’ll end up at the bottom of the heap. I actually think the time to bond might help the young team and they’ll continue to do better than they did last year (they’re now 13th instead of 15th in the conference and 23rd instead of 29th in the league). I guess we’ll all find out after the All-Star break. At least the Kings and their fans can enjoy watching Drew Doughty in the Young Stars game and their captain Dustin Brown in his first NHL All-Star game thinking of their team ending on a positive note before the break.

Remember that the Kings’ first game after the All-Star break (on Thursday, January 29th against the Chicago Blackhawks) is not being televised on FSN West, so if you want to see that game outside of Staples Center you’ll need access to the Center Ice package to get WGN’s HD coverage of the game.

Jonathan Quick has been performing amazingly well since he was called up from Manchester when Erik Ersberg got injured and seems to have a permanent spot on the Kings’ roster, since they traded Jason LaBarbera to Vancouver. Tonight’s game against the Flyers led Quick to his first NHL overtime and shootout, where he shut out the Flyers. Of course, it was also helpful that the Kings (who haven’t been performing well in the shootout this season) scored two goals in the shootout. Terry Murray’s strategy in the shootout has always been to shoot first in the hopes of scoring and putting pressure on the competition. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been working that way for Murray until O’Sullivan scored leading off the shootout for the Kings. Apparently, when scoring on the first try, Murray’s approach works. Kopitar missed his shooutout attempt and Dustin Brown scored ending the shooutout before the Flyers’ third shooter.

With 31 saves (33 counting the shootout) and a save percentage of 96.9%, Quick earned the first star of the game and is listed as ESPN’s 3rd star of the day. Though Ersberg is healthy now, he remained on the bench due to the great performances Quick has been giving. I’m sure Ersberg will be in goal again for the Kings, since I can’t imagine Terry Murray not giving him another chance after his injury, but long stretches of starts have been common this season for all three of the Kings’ goaltenders.

The Flyers only had 3 power play chances today, but were held without a power play goal. After only scoring one last night, Philadelphia definitely didn’t look like the number 2 power play in the country when visiting southern California this season. The Kings did score a power play goal in one of their 6 chances against the Flyers, which means they had one more power play goal than the Flyers, just like the Ducks last night.

On the bright side for the Flyers, they went into tonight’s game tied in points with the Rangers (though still ahead of them for the Atlantic division lead because of playing fewer games) and came out of it as the sole division leader and third in the eastern conference. The Kings also moved up in the standings (to 12th from 14th in the west and back into 4th in the Pacific.

The Staples Center announced attendance tonight was a sellout of 18,118. It didn’t break any records or include any SRO tickets and there were many empty seats, but most of the empty seats were in the PR section & the suites (sold out for every sporting event in Staples Center). Clearly, the Flyers are a huge draw in southern California.

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.

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.

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.

Last night, the Kings played their first two (yes, two) preseason games. Half the team was in Kansas City playing the Blues, while the other half remained in LA to play the Coyotes. The game in Kansas City sold more tickets. The attendance there was 11,603. The official attendance at the game in Staples Center was 8,221. A lot of those seats were empty, of course. I don’t know the official count of fans in the building, but a lot of season ticket holders don’t attend preseason games, so Staples Center was very empty.

The fans who did attend the preseason game in Staples Center got a good show. Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Jack Johnson were all at the game in LA.

Not too long ago, fans were booing Dan Cloutier in net (and when he was announced at the start of a game). They were chanting to put in LaBarbera. When Mathieu Garon and Jason LaBarbera were playing for the Kings, I knew fans who would only show up to the games Jason was supposed to start and many fans shouted that they wanted to see LaBarbera in net.

Last season, the fans pretty much got their wish and LaBarbera was in net… until he got injured. Cloutier was booed whenever he played and fans cheered if he got pulled from a game. That’s a rough situation for a goalie and I’m sure the fan reaction didn’t help Cloutier’s performance in net.

This season, it looks like Jason LaBarbera will be the number one goalie for the Kings and (partly because of his injury and rehabilitation from that) he’s feeling like he’s in better shape than ever. LaBarbera has really paid attention to his eating habits and training program and is ready to go. That being said, he hadn’t played in a hockey game for over 7 months. When I asked what happened last night, since he looked a bit off (allowing 4 goals in 17 shots), he said it was rust. He hadn’t played in over 7 months and was rusty. Jason’s not at all concerned about getting back into the swing of things and I think the fans need to give him a little slack before attacking him.

The fans in Staples Center last night were very quick to boo Jason LaBarbera. One fan near me shouted that LaBarbera sucked and that there had only been x shots and there were already y goals. I realize that Kings fans are looking for a hero in net and want a miracle this season. They’ve been waiting a long time for the Kings to do well. Who wouldn’t like that? Any fan of a team that’s predicted to do poorly would be thrilled if they got into the playoffs, but it’s different to dream than it is to hold the players of your team to unrealistic expectations.

When Cloutier was playing poorly the Kings fans gave him the benefit of the doubt. Many argued that Cloutier was doing great when he won games, though I argue that if a team wins 5-4, the goalie performed just as badly as if they lost 4-0 and you have to factor in the kinds of goals that are being scored, whether the goalie was well screened, etc. The score doesn’t tell you everything about how a goalie is performing. Even the save percentage (though more accurate than the goals against average, which takes into account the rest of the team, especially the defense) isn’t a perfect indicator of how the goaltender is performing. Maybe there was a crazy deflection or the goalie was well screened and couldn’t see that shot from the point.

Even if all four of the goals by the Coyotes had been easy goals (which I don’t think anyone would argue) for a goalie to see and ones that any goalie would think they should have gotten and beat themselves up over, Jason LaBarbera hadn’t played a game of hockey in over 7 months. After his injury, he only had 4 days of on-ice training camp (counting the day of the game) to prepare for his first hockey game in 7 months. I think the fans need to think about how difficult it is to bounce back from an injury and give LaBarbera a bit of time before they judge him and decide he’s not worthy. Jason LaBarbera is a good goalie. One the fans have requested in the past. They got what they wanted and now they’ve decided they prefer Bernier. While Bernier may be the goalie of the future for the Kings, he probably has some more development to do and I don’t think he’ll be in the NHL this season. I would like to see the fans step up and support the team the Kings coaching staff decides to put on the ice, rather than making their own rash judgments and condemning players before they’re given a chance.

The fans who were at Staples Center last night are the die hard fans. They’re the fans who refused to give up their season tickets after years of poor performance by the Kings and care enough to attend preseason games, which don’t count and have some players who will not be in the NHL this season. When looking around at all the empty seats last night, it was clear that most season ticket holders couldn’t care less about a preseason game. I expect more from the die hard fans than booing a player who has always tried his best to do a good job in net for the Kings and cares about the organization. I hate seeing fans boo any player on their own team and it bothers me more when the player in question is a great guy who’s determined to play well for the team and the fans.

If you’re a Kings fan, please consider the impact you could have on a player by booing him. How would you feel if every time you made a mistake in your job a big red light went on to highlight the fact and the fans booed (or in an opposing team’s arena they chanted your name taunting you)? I can’t remember who pointed out that being a goalie is really one of the most difficult jobs anywhere, but I agree with them. Think of all that pressure. Fans are very quick to blame a goalie for their problems, but Jason LaBarbera had the same save percentage as Evgeni Nabokov, Jose Theodore, & Martin Gerber last season. He was tied for 20th out of 44 ranked goalies. Just about the middle of the pack. Not at the bottom with Johan Holmqvist or Ray Emery. Give him a chance to show that he can do a good job.

I realize the Kings fans are passionate (they wouldn’t still support the Kings if they weren’t), but I would like to attend a game without hearing fans boo their own team. I think the fans who booed Jason LaBarbera last night should be ashamed of themselves. I believe it’s incredibly rude to boo someone who is trying so hard to please the fans. If he weren’t trying it would make a bit more sense, though I still think booing your team is wrong. LaBarbera tries. Fans should at least give him a month or so of the regular season to do his best before they start berating him, but even if they get to that point I’d like them to think about the fact that Jason LaBarbera is a person and he is doing his best to win (which is clearly what the fans want). He and the rest of the Kings want to win more than the fans want the team to win. Losing isn’t fun. Everyone has played some sort of sport or game in their lives, so I’m sure everyone can relate to the fact that winning is more fun than losing. Players try to win. Please give your team a chance – especially during the preseason when lines are being changed and the team is getting used to new players and (in the Kings’ case) new coaches.