This year will be another without both southern California teams in the playoffs. It’ll be great for southern CA hockey to see them play in the playoffs the same year. Maybe next year it’ll happen. In spite of the fact that so many things could end the Ducks’ playoff run (and did), before the game I was having a disagreement with a friend in the press box about whether the Ducks could make it. Sure, before the Colorado/Vancouver game ended in a shootout (not long before the Kings beat the Ducks the same way), it was still possible for the Ducks to make it to the playoffs this year. Most of us knew that wouldn’t happen. I called it in October from the way they were playing and publicly predicted the Ducks missing the playoffs in November. I didn’t believe you could fail the first 30% of your season and still squeak into the playoffs. The Avalanche and Kings helped prove me right tonight.

The West is all sewn up for those in and out of the playoffs. Exact positions have yet to be decided, but there is no question that the Flames, Blues, and Ducks are out of the playoffs and the Avalanche will be playing in them again.

Terry Murray pulled Quick after the third goal by the Ducks and the Kings rallied to win the game 5-4 in a shootout. Kopitar and Johnson scored for the Kings after Perry scored for the Ducks, winning the shootout 2-1. Kopitar came close to ending the game in overtime, but had to go on to use his most famous shootout move to beat McElhinne and win the game for the Kings.

Now the debate turns to where the teams will end up in the standings and what teams will face each other in the playoffs. As usual at this time, there are many possibilities there. The last few days of the season are always exciting. Kings fans are looking forward to seeing their team in the playoffs for the first time since 2002 and many of the Kings are looking forward to their first playoffs of their NHL career.

With their playoff spots secure, many teams are having trouble coming out strong in these last games before the playoffs. Hopefully for Kings fans, tonight’s game against the Ducks will help the Kings to finish the regular season strong so they can build on that performance when the playoffs start.

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.

Since the Kings have their first preseason game after only two days of training camp, the beginning of training camp meant very long days for the coaching staff of the Kings. Eight hours on skates without a lot of time between sessions for the three groups of players – that’s a long day. Terry Murray said they restructured training camp because of the early preseason game and got rid of the Rogie Cup (the competition between training camp teams in their scrimmages at the beginning of training camp), since there wouldn’t be time to play enough games to determine a winner. With the first game so early, the Kings need the practice time to get into game form.

One of the nicest things for Kings fans this year is probably that they have a clear number one goalie (Jonathan Quick) who has proven the ability to stop the puck and give the Kings a chance to win every game he plays. When it became clear that Jason LaBarbera (last year’s number one goalie at this point of the season) wasn’t working out for the Kings and Jonathan Quick was brought up to the NHL, coach Terry Murray refused to name a number one goalie. Murray had to do this on a regular basis, since some members of the media seemed determined to have him name a number one. Clearly, Quick did a lot to prove himself to Murray and the fans last season and he is the clear number one. As Murray said at the end of the first day of training camp, “Our number one goaltender is Quick. He’s the guy.” He continued by saying that “There’s no gray area in that for me. Right at the start of training camp – it’s his to lose; it’s his to keep.” Murray made it clear that Quick is the guy in goal this year for the Kings as far as he’s concerned.

Though everyone knows it’s easier to come into a position when no one is expecting much and your team is already so close to the bottom of the standings, Jonathan Quick did play very well for the Kings last year. It’s clear that the players and coaches have confidence in Quick to give the Kings a chance to win every game he plays, which is really all a team can ask of their goaltender. Many players have talked about how being able to trust your goalie can help a team play better. That’s why most of the best teams have great goaltenders. Kings fans are definitely hoping that Quick will be able to be the goalie to lead their team into the playoffs for the first time in years.

The focus of the players this year is clearly on getting to the playoffs. Those really paying attention at training camp probably noticed the shirts some of the players were wearing under their practice jerseys. They say “Only Reason We’re Here” on the back. Though the meaning of this seems pretty clear, a couple of the players were asked about the shirts and said that what we suspected is definitely the reason they’re here. The Kings want to be in the playoffs this year. They’re tired of having long summer breaks and going home in the beginning of April. They want to be in the playoffs, not watch them. When I asked goaltender Erik Ersberg if he’d watched any of the playoffs, he said he didn’t and “I want to watch it from the ice.” Clearly, that’s how every player wants to see the playoffs and it’s a good attitude for the Kings to have. They’re ready to move forward and believe they will be playing in the postseason this time.

Rob Scuderi, who won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, is one of the new Kings at training camp. When asked about the mood at the Kings camp, he said, “It’s a real nice attitude. It’s really not that different from where I came from. Maybe we have a little more experience in Pittsburgh, but it’s the same type of feel. The guys are hungry to do more, they’re hungry to win.” Scuderi went on to say that it’s a good feeling and that it’s clear that the team wants to win and they want to win now. They’re sick of waiting. So are their fans. The Kings are ready to play postseason hockey. Their fans are more than ready to start watching playoff hockey live again from their seats in Staples Center. They haven’t been able to do that since 2002 and 7 years without a playoff run is a long time for fans who continue to go to support their team in spite of the outcome.

Will the Kings be in the playoffs in 2010? Only time will tell, but the players and coaches clearly believe they can make it and most of the members of the media seem to agree. The main disagreement seems to be on where they’ll finish (6th? 8th?) and how far they’ll get in the playoffs. Some seem to believe the Kings will get out of the first round. Personally, I think it’ll go more like the Penguins’ first run in the playoffs with most of their current group (out in 5 games), but even that will be a huge step up and a much needed playoff experience for the young Kings team.

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As a side note, I’m sure many of you were as curious as I about why Rob Scuderi was absent with the Penguins visited the White House last week. Scuderi explained that his daughter Kate’s 2nd birthday had to come first. He said, “Disneyland did take precedent over the President for probably the first time in history.” I’m sure President Obama would understand. Not surprisingly, Rob also said, “I would have liked to have gone, but it was an awful lot of flying for one day and I wasn’t going to miss my daughter’s birthday.” It sounds like he’s one father who has his priorities in order where his family and his team are concerned (anyone who watched the playoffs last year noticed how Scuderi is willing to sacrifice himself to block shots to make sure his team succeeds).

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.

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.

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.