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 their two bench minors for too many men on the ice (inexcusable in a must win game) and two other power play chances they gave the Red Wings, Anaheim’s penalty kill kept Detroit’s power play at bay for 3 of their 4 chances. Anaheim’s power play (ranked 2nd in the postseason going into tonight’s game) was also successful 1 out of their 5 chances (though it was really more like 4, due to the overlapping penalties). Fortunately for Ducks fans everywhere, most of Anaheim’s 46 penalty minutes, 12 penalties) came at the 20 minute mark of the 3rd period when the gloves were dropped by just about everyone (Scott Niedermayer included). Until that point, the Ducks were even with the Red Wings in penalties at 5 (10 minutes each).

Jonas Hiller was amazing again, stopping 38 of the 39 shots he faced (97.4% of the shots). The Red Wings outshot the Ducks 39-28, but the Ducks played much better after the first period. Considering how poorly the Ducks played in Detroit on Sunday, I expected them to come out with all cylinders firing at the beginning of the game tonight. Apparently, they didn’t all get the message that the game time had been pushed up to 7 p.m. (all the previous playoff games in Anaheim had been at 7:30 p.m.). The Ducks came out looking a little tired, but by the end of the first they were still tied with the Red Wings and that was important. They came out strong in the 2nd and got the only two goals of the period, in spite of being outshot by the Red Wings in that period.

When the Red Wings scored their power play goal, a lot of Ducks fans got a bit nervous. A one goal lead is far from safe in the playoffs – especially against a strong team like the Red Wings. The Ducks held on to their lead and are ready to play their style of game again in Detroit Thursday night in game 7. In spite the pressure of a game 7 on the road, the players know this is what the playoffs are all about. The excitement of a game 7 is hard to match.

Thursday’s game will be the Ducks’ 4th game 7 in franchise history. They’re 2-1 in game 7s so far. The Joe Louis Arena is a difficult arena to face in the playoffs. In a game 7, it’s sure to be incredibly loud, but the Ducks are as prepared as possible and they’re ready to face Detroit and fight for their playoff lives. They know if they don’t win their season is over and no team is ever really ready for their season to end.

Ryan Getzlaf had a point in each of the Ducks’ 2 goals tonight (1-1), making tonight his 7th multi-point game of the postseason.

Fortunately for Ducks fans who couldn’t make it to Honda Center tonight, FSN Prime Ticket aired the game in HD (even for those of us unlucky enough to get only one of the FSN HD channels).

Corey Perry tied the Ducks’ franchise postseason record for the fastest goal scored at the start of a game (Sykora scored 42 seconds into game 5 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals in New Jersey on June 5, 2003), established a career high for points in a postseason game with 3 (2-1), & had his first career postseason multi-goal game. However, his first goal of the game was probably the highlight for most Ducks fans at Honda Center tonight. Perry’s goal gave the Ducks their only lead of the game, which they held until Hiller gave up a soft goal to Franzen at 11:49 in the first period.

Ryan Getzlaf extended his league-leading postseason point streak to 8 games. He has 14 points in those 8 games (2-12) and has regained the solo lead in postseason scoring (he was tied with Sidney Crosby going into tonight’s game). Chris Pronger & Scott Niedermayer also extended their point streaks (to 5 & 3 games respectively), but overall the Ducks looked pretty bad tonight in front of their announced attendance of 17,601 (including 427 standing room only tickets) breaking the record set this season against the Philadelphia Flyers on January 2, 2009 (17,597). One of my friend’s who was at the game joked that it was all Red Wings fans, but the Ducks fans were well represented in the crowd, in spite of the “Let’s go Red Wings” and “Ozzie” chants that could probably be heard by watching the game on TV near the end of the game almost as well as they could in Honda Center.

Another bright side for the Ducks is that they managed to continue their power play goal streak, scoring one goal in their 3 power play chances. For a while, it seemed like the Ducks didn’t want a full power play, since they took a penalty 31 seconds after Detroit’s first penalty and only 6 seconds after Detroit’s second penalty. They scored to end their third power play opportunity after only 12 seconds. Obviously, that’s the way the Ducks would prefer to end a power play early. I’m sure the Ducks will aim to spend less time in the penalty box in games 5 & 6, even though Detroit only scored one goal in their 5 power play opportunities tonight.

The Red Wings clearly didn’t start game four as they’d planned. Mike Babcock mentioned in his post-game interview that they’d talked a lot about starting the game stronger, since he feels the Ducks have out-skated the Red Wings for about the first ten minutes in every game this series and that the Red Wings have improved as the games progressed. The plan was to change that tonight and start stronger, which they obviously didn’t accomplish. Babcock also mentioned that he thought the first period of tonight’s game was their worst period they’d played in a long time and that he’s not sure how they managed to come out of it with a 2-1 lead.

The Ducks and Red Wings have two days off to rest up before playing game 5 in Detroit on Sunday. The series has become a best of 3 series and whichever team can come out of it winning 2 of the next three will advance to the conference final against the Vancouver Canucks or Chicago Blackhawks (also tied at 2 a piece after tonight’s overtime Hawks win).

Honda Center will surely be packed again Tuesday night for game 6, since everyone already knows the series cannot end earlier.

Note: Hiller was pulled for the first time in his playoff career (his 10th playoff game). I’m sure Hiller will still start game 5 for the Ducks, since he started tonight’s game as the number one goalie in the playoffs and was in the top for the regular season, as well.

The Ducks had a successful return home to Honda Center tonight (in front of a reported sellout crowd of 17,174), as they beat the Red Wings 2-1 in game 3, to take the lead in the series 2 games to 1. This series was the hardest one for me to decide who I thought would win and I expected every game to be decided by only one goal. So far, the Ducks are on track to win in 6 (which was my prediction) and have won and lost the games I predicted they would by the numbers of goals I expected.

The Ducks have gotten very little respect in the playoffs this year and though I realize most east coast reporters probably don’t see the Ducks often, they play enough games on the east coast and have gotten far enough in the playoffs by now that a few members of the east coast based media outlets should have had time to catch the Ducks in the playoffs. Their 3OT game on Sunday (starting at just 2 p.m. eastern) even caught the attention of many people I know who rarely watch hockey teams other than their own (playoffs or not). It would seem that those who report hockey might have caught a bit of it, as well.

Those who saw the Ducks play since the trade deadline can’t be all that surprised by their performance in the playoffs so far this year. They may not have predicted that they’d beat the Sharks (I seemed to be one of the few who predicted that one), but they’re not all that surprised to see them in round two leading the Red Wings in the series and playing up to the level of one of the best teams in the playoffs.

Did the Ducks get a little bit lucky tonight with the whistle being blown a bit early as the Red Wings would have scored the tying goal? Definitely. Did Hiller perhaps earn that luck somehow by stopping 45 of the 46 shots he saved with a save percentage of .978? I’d say so. Someone in the press box was complaining that the Red Wings had outshot the Ducks 2-1. However, the Ducks did very well when the Sharks did that and like the games that started the series in San Jose, the Ducks mostly limited the Red Wings to shots Hiller could see easily and stop. Hiller gave a lot of credit to his defense for keeping Detroit from getting too many really good scoring chances where he couldn’t see the puck easily.

In other good news for hockey fans living in southern California who couldn’t get to the game, FSN West HD aired the game live and is currently showing it again (even though the guide says off the air). Clearly the complaints they got in the first round for not airing games in HD while Versus HD was blocked out in the area were taken to heart. The schedules I’ve seen have included HD for all the upcoming games of the series (on FSN, Versus, or both).

Jonas Hiller hadn’t played a game in the NHL playoffs until the first game of this series against the Sharks (April 16 – also his first playoff shutout). He’s played only 4 NHL playoff games and he has 2 shutouts. A lot of people seemed to doubt Hiller’s ability to handle the playoff pressure, but considering the fact that the Sharks have only scored 6 goals against him in 4 games and he shut the Sharks (the winner of the President’s Trophy for the best NHL season) twice. I think Hiller has shown he can handle playoff pressure. Sure, it’s early in the postseason, but if I were a Ducks fan, I’d be happy Hiller was in net.

Bobby Ryan, Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) finalist, scored Anaheim’s first goal of the game (and their second – scored right after the long break close to the middle of the 2nd period as the Honda Center crew jury rigged a solution to temporarily replace the glass between the benches). Tonight’s goals were Bobby’s first two non-power play goals of the post season. Because of tonight’s goals, Ryan co-leads the NHL in goal scoring (with Ryder, Malkin, & Kessel). Tonight was also only the second time in Ducks franchise history that a rookie scored multiple goals in a postseason game (the first was Francois Beauchemin, who scored 2 goals in game 3 of the conference quarterfinals on April 25, 2006 against Calgary. His three game goal streak (4-0) is tied with the longest playoff goal streak in the NHL so far.

Fans chanted “Bobby” after each of his goals and a couple times late in the game. They also chanted “Hiller” near the end of the game. I didn’t ask Hiller about the crowd chanting, but Ryan said it was really great to hear and that he realizes he’s come a long way since last year and the crowd’s cheers mean a lot.

Ryan Whitney’s 4-game point streak (0-4) is tied for the NHL point streak of the postseason (with Ryder, Crosby, Kessel, Martin, & Franzen). Getzlaf has scored in 3 of the Ducks’ four games and has 5 points so far (1-4). Whitney, Ryan, Hiller, and Getzlaf are definitely leading this Ducks team, which wouldn’t even have made the playoffs in the eastern conference, in shutting down the number one team in the regular NHL season.

Sadly, tonight’s announced attendance (always a lot less than the actual attendance) was only 16,830. That’s two home playoff games for the Ducks without a sellout. Considering the fact that they had some of their biggest announced crowds this season at the Honda Center, it’s amazing that they can’t sell out the playoff games. Perhaps the prices are just set too high given all the other options (Lakers playoffs being just one of them) in southern California. Whatever the reason, it’s sad that the games haven’t sold out. In my opinion, the games here in Anaheim were the most exciting games of the California playoff series.

The Ducks definitely played their best hockey of the postseason tonight. That’s one fact no one seems to dispute. Clearly, the Ducks want to carry this style of play back with them to San Jose and end the series in 5 games.

Fortunately, for all of you with HD (apparently, enough people complained that FSN Prime Ticket decided they should air tonight’s game in HD), FSN is not covering Saturday’s game. That’ll be three Ducks/Sharks playoff games in a row that those of us in southern California will be able to see in HD, since Versus has shown all of their playoff games in HD. Suffering through the first two games in standard definition was definitely rough for all of us who are spoiled with all the other playoff coverage, most of which we’re able to experience in HD.

When I predicted that the Ducks would win this series in 6 games, most people thought I was nuts. Some told me the Sharks would win in 5, some said 6. I’ve only talked to a couple other people who picked the Ducks to win the series. Clearly, the California playoff series is far from over. However, now that the Ducks have a 3-1 lead and need to win only one of the remaining 3 games to end the series and advance to face the Red Wings in the conference semifinals, a few people seem to be thinking that I might not have been completely nuts when I picked the Ducks to advance.

(In other news, not long after the first period ended, there was a 4.0 earthquake centered about 7 miles from Anaheim. Those at ice level didn’t feel it, but more than half of us in the press box noticed it.)

Enjoy the playoffs!

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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