The Kings will finish the season with 79 points. Just 8 points ahead of last year’s finish of 71 points. Last season, the Kings were 15th in the western conference and 29th in the NHL. This season, they’ve moved up to 13th or 14th in the western conference and 24th- 26th in the NHL. (Games later today and tomorrow will control their final place in the conference and league. Not a significant improvement over last year, most argue. I can see that line of reasoning when you only look at the points and where they’ve finished in the standings. Not a big step forward. A lot of people at last night’s Ducks game were talking about how I should go to today’s Kings game and be sure to say farewell to Dean, since he’ll get fired. I hope not.

Did the Kings make the playoffs this season? No. Did they finish not far behind a playoff spot (as I thought they would)? No. However, they also didn’t finish that close to last in the NHL. Last season, they were tied in points for last place in the NHL, but won the tie breaker with Tampa Bay. This season, Tampa Bay finished in 28th or 29th place (we won’t know what place until later today or tomorrow and how many points ahead of the Islanders will be determined when the Islanders end their season tomorrow). They haven’t made many improvements, though they definitely spent a lot more money. Did they do a better job than the Kings as some suggested at the beginning of the season? Definitely not! Granted, doing a better job than the Lightning is clearly not a good argument for Lombardi being a good GM or for him to keep his job. However, it does show that Dean’s got a level head and is trying to build the Kings the smart way.

For the complete story, see the Defending Dean (Lombardi) HockeyBuzz blog.

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

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

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

After the Kings beat the Ducks last night in Anaheim, they were blasting “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the rock ballad by Journey. They couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate song for the team or their fans. I only know of one Kings fan unhappy with the Kings this season. He claims if I had to purchase my tickets I’d feel differently than I do, but he couldn’t be more wrong. When I found out he was cheering against the Kings (except for last night, since he doesn’t want the Ducks in the playoffs either), so they don’t get into the playoffs this year, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I thought perhaps Sprint (who I’m getting rid of tomorrow – YES!) had garbled the text message. But no… he really doesn’t want the team he’s been cheering for since they played in the Forum to make it into the playoffs this year. I don’t get it.

Playoff experience is always good for a team. He thinks if they just barely make it into the playoffs the Kings will be knocked out by the Sharks or Red Wings in the first round. So? The Penguins were knocked out in the first round in 2007 and went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2008. Their first playoff run with Sid the Kid lasted only 5 games. The next one got them within a couple wins of the Stanley Cup. Would any Penguins fan wish that the Penguins had missed the playoffs in 2007 instead of getting in them only to be sent home after five games? I don’t think so, but I can’t imagine how anyone who claims to love the Kings could want them to fail this year.

The Kings have exceeded expectations this year and are only three points out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the western conference. Considering how much flack I got for liking the way Dean Lombardi was handling things, most people did not see this coming. One of my friends even mentioned that if he were a Kings fan he’d be upset that the Kings didn’t really shake things up and over pay for a bunch of new guys on their roster (as the Lightning did). He asked if I was upset that they didn’t do the same thing Tampa Bay did in the off season. I wasn’t then and I’m not now. Tampa Bay (with 49 points) is 17 points out of 8th place in the eastern conference. I’m guessing that many of their fans are wishing all their prospects hadn’t been traded away for a team that cares about the money and not the team.

Dean Lombardi often compares what he’s trying to achieve to the late 90’s Yankees. The team that had a core of players they brought up in their system (including Jeter, Posada, & Pettitte) along with the players they bought to complete their roster. Rich Hammond quoted Lombardi as saying that he wanted a Jeter, not a Rodriguez and I couldn’t agree with him more. Any Yankees fan (and most other baseball fans) knows how much more important Jeter has been (and will be) to the franchise. Kings fans should appreciate the fact that Lombardi cared enough to do what no other GM in club history has done, though many said they were doing it… REBUILD. Skeptics have started to see the light and fans are clearly pleased with their teams’ serious talk of playoff hopes. The last few years when the Kings’ season ticket playoff ticket priority was mentioned, I heard fans ask if that meant they were going to be given a chance to buy tickets in Anaheim early, since clearly their team was not going to make it to the playoffs. This year, the Kings have a chance and whether they make it or not the end of the season is more exciting for Kings fans than it’s been in 7 years. They should be enjoying this time and believe in their team.

The Lightning may have only won 13 games this season (fewer than any team in the Western Conference) and be ranked 12th in the Eastern Conference, but they’ve done well in southern California. They beat the Ducks 4-3 Friday night and beat the Kings 3-1 last night. In last night’s game, the Lightning scored two goals in 41 seconds at the end of the 1st period to give them a 2-0 lead. They went ahead 3-0 at 5:48 when Vincent Lecavalier scored his 17th goal of the season. At that point, Murray did what I would have done at the beginning of the 2nd period – he put Jonathan Quick in goal. Though Quick stopped all 15 shots he faced, the damage had been done and the Kings only scored one goal against Lightning goaltender Mike Smith.

Ryan Malone scored goals 98 and 99 of his NHL career on Friday in Anaheim, but didn’t get the hat trick in Anaheim or a goal in LA, so he’s still in search of his 100th goal. Maybe he’ll get that in San Jose on Wednesday.

This was only the second game I’ve seen Stamkos play live. I’ve watched the Lightning quite a bit on TV (to see Stamkos, the ex-Penguins on the roster, and to see if they’re going to perform pretty much as I expected this year – horribly), but I’ve only seen Stamkos play in two games live. Unfortunately, he did not play against Anaheim (he was benched due to the new conditioning program he’s doing). From what I’ve seen, it really doesn’t seem like he was ready for the NHL yet. It seems that he was rushed and pushed to be ready, since he was the number one draft pick. Perhaps they should have done what the Ducks did with Bobby Ryan (selected 2nd behind Sidney Crosby in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft). Ryan had played in a couple NHL games, but was essentially kept in the minor leagues until November 16, 2008. Since then, Ryan has had a couple games where he didn’t look great, but has been amazing overall. Ryan’s got 26 points in 26 games (putting him in 4th place for all NHL rookies in points, though he’s played 10+ games fewer than the top 3 rookies). He’s also scored a hat trick, has a +/- rating of 11, & has 32 hits. Stamkos (who has played in 41 of the Lightning’s 42 games) has only 15 points (tying him for 14th among rookies).

Clearly, the Ducks are a better team than the Lightning, which many will argue helps Ryan. Stamkos doesn’t measure up when compared with comparable team. The Blues have one fewer point than the Lightning (and have played one less game). Patrick Berglund of the Blues is tied for 2nd among rookies with 27 points in 36 of the Blues’ 41 games. Though I haven’t seen Stamkos play enough in person and television coverage can’t show you everyone on the ice most of the time, I still think it’s possible that he was rushed into the NHL and might have done better as a rookie in the 2009-10 season.

Oddly enough, I’ve seen the Lightning play in 3 games live (against the Penguins in December and their two games in southern California this month). They’ve got a perfect record when I’m in the building. Perhaps I should ask them if they’d like to take me to some of the arenas around the league I haven’t seen yet.

Yes, I realize that the Mellon Arena (which I’ll always think of as the Civic Arena or the Igloo) will be around for more than another full NHL season. However, tonight’s Penguins game was probably the last game I’ll see there in person. Sure, I’ll see tons of games on Center Ice, but it’s never the same as being there.

Though the Penguins didn’t win tonight, all Penguins fans should be happy with the way the Penguins played. They outshot the Canadiens 34-19. Though the Penguins’ power play definitely looked like what it is at the moment (a power play most teams have no need to fear that’s only ranked at about the middle of the NHL), they shot the puck. As most Penguins fans know, the Penguins are ranked last in shots on goal (with an average of only 26.8 shots per game going into tonight’s game against the Habs). Shooting the puck more is definitely a good place to start. The Penguins haven’t won two games in a row since Fleury got injured (they won 6 in a row from 11/1 – 11/15 and then hit a very rough patch.

Fleury has been playing very well since his return. If the Penguins can play like they did tonight in front of him consistently they’re bound to string together a bunch of wins sometime soon.

It was hardly a high point as a Penguins fan, Andrei Kostitsyn scored his first NHL hat trick tonight at the Igloo. I always like seeing a player score their first hat trick, even if it does mean that ‘my team’ ends up losing. It’s always sad to see a player get their first hat trick that away from home, though. Even the fairly large group of Canadiens (on his side of the ice when he scored his 3rd goal) didn’t throw any hats onto the ice.

Since I’ll always be a Penguins fan at heart, it’s been frustrating for me to hear Therrien talk about how his team isn’t prepared. Correct me if I’m wrong, but getting them prepared is the most important part of his job. He has such a talented group of players. If he can’t get them motivated, perhaps he’s not the right guy for the job.

I wish I could travel back to see the team that first made me fall in love with hockey more often, but travel is a bit too expensive for that at the moment. I’m really glad I got to see a couple more games in the Igloo before the new arena (which we recently earned will be the Consol Energy Center for its first 15 years) opens. The Penguins lost both of those games (and played horribly against the Lightning just before Christmas), but they played really in the last game I’ll see them play in the arena. I even got to see them wear their third jerseys in person. I may not be a huge fan of the baby blue jerseys, but at least they’re a colorful glimpse of the Penguins’ past.

On a bright note, the last two games I saw in the Igloo were accompanied by my other favorite team (the Los Angeles Kings) shutting out their opponents on the road (Jonathan Quick got both of them and had not gotten a shutout in the NHL until December 23rd. What a way for him to end the calendar year. At least one of my teams won each night.

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.

Is it just me, or did you expect more from Steven Stamkos? I’m not a scout, so I only saw clips of him before this season. However, with all the hype, I expected more of a Sidney Crosby than just your average rookie. In 8 games, Stamkos has 1 point. That’s worse than 17 of the other rookies (including Jakub Voracek of the Columbus Blue Jackets). I’m not saying that Voracek is facing even close to the pressure that has been placed on Stamkos this season. In fact, none of the other rookies this season have to deal with the pressure he’s faced. Crosby dealt with more pressure (he was on a team without a lot of scoring talent and was immediately revered as the savior of the franchise, part 2) and many rookies have been under the same amount of pressure as Stamkos without having the talent that Tampa Bay has assembled. Granted, Tampa Bay is doing about as well as I predicted, not as many seemed to think they’d do. However, Kopitar was on a worse Kings team and he did great in his rookie season.

I’ve only seen Stamkos play in 4 complete games and a bunch of partial games, but I’m still pretty surprised by his lack of impact on the Lightning. Stamkos was supposed to be the rookie to watch this season and he’s just part of a group that includes 8 other rookies (6 of whom have played in fewer games than he).

On the topic of Tampa Bay… a lot of people predicted that the Lightning would be a great team this season. They were supposed to have the biggest turn-around season by many accounts. I never saw that as likely. I thought Tampa Bay would be a mess. One of my friends asked if I was as upset as he would be if his team did nothing instead of doing what Tampa Bay did (referring to the LA Kings). I laughed and said that I’d much rather be a fan of a team that cares about the future than one that is overpaying a bunch of guys who will have no sense of being part of the same team. The Kings didn’t make a big splash and sell out their future and they’re a fun team to watch this season. They will be able to make an impact in the future and have a good team that is sustainable. I don’t think the same thing can be said about Tampa Bay at this point, though I realize it’s early in the season. Right now, Tampa Bay has the same number of points as Los Angeles, but fewer wins. Both teams are doing better (relative to the rest of the league) than they did last season, but Tampa Bay wanted more out of this season. The expectations for the Kings are much lower, so if they ended the season where they are today, everyone would be happy about the improvement they made and realize their future looks bright. If the Lightning finish where they are now, I have a feeling the fans will be disappointed that they didn’t improve as much as they should have.

I am so happy that the NHL Network finally used their HD capabilities for the start of the season. It’s great to start out the season with HD hockey.

Marc Crawford’s comment about the Kings’ season opener in London being the highlight of the season for the team and that being the reason he was there as an announcer was priceless. What a way to start out the broadcast. Crow is clearly not used to being a color commentator and he said “uh” a few times at the beginning of the broadcast, but he improved as the game continued and it’ll be interesting to hear his thoughts about the games as the season progresses.

The fact that there’s no longer a TV timeout when a team ices the puck should make the game a bit faster this season. Since the team icing the puck can’t change up and they don’t get the break of the TV timeout, teams will probably try harder not to ice the puck.

One of the other rules that should make an impact on the game this year is the puck dropping in the offensive zone for teams on the power play, no matter where the penalty occurs. They had a bit of confusion with this rule in the second game of the season, but I’m sure the finer points will be discussed and all the refs will have the same understanding of the rule soon.

Since today’s games were technically the Lightning & Senators’ home games, I was surprised to see the Lightning and the Senators wearing their home jerseys. The NHL went back to home teams wearing white this season and I thought the first two games of the year in Europe would follow this. I’m glad to see the NHL returning to the home team wearing white jerseys. Since most team’s white jerseys look very similar, I think it’s better to see the visiting team wearing their dark jerseys. Though many teams have switched to mostly black away jerseys (like the Kings, the Flyers, etc.) instead of using their colors and have used their other color in their third jerseys or just trim colors, a lot of teams (including the Senators and the Rangers) still have much more colorful jerseys. The home team wearing white makes things more colorful for the fans as their team plays different teams throughout the season and I appreciate that. Once you’ve seen one white jersey, you’ve seen ‘em all.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers in Prague, Czech Republic

Fortunately, there were no problems with the arena lights or any other problems, as the opener in London experienced last season.

I expected the Rangers to win the first game against the Lightning. The Lightning definitely looked out of sync quite a few times during the game (especially on the power play, but they looked better than I expected them to look in their first game this season. I still don’t expect much of them this season, but they’re not as much of a “hot mess” (as my sister would say) as I thought they would be in the first game of the NHL season.

The Rangers’ only power play goal ended up being the game winning goal and they won in Jagr’s home country without Jagr. As someone who’s not a fan of Jagr’s, the comment about the Rangers using “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” as their theme song this year, since they got rid of Jagr made me smile. Mike Milbury seemed very happy that the Rangers got rid of Jagr and I’m sure everyone on the Rangers is happy about it, too.

Ottawa Senators vs. Pittsburgh Penguins in Stockholm, Sweden

When Kennedy scored the first goal for the Penguins just 40 seconds into the game, I had a feeling the Pens/Sens game would be interesting. They didn’t let me down. This game went back and forth, in spite of the many penalties the Senators had and power play chances the Penguins got as a result. The Penguins are definitely missing Gonchar and Whitney on the power play. They’re clearly still adjusting their power play and working on figuring out how to be effective. With any luck, they’ll figure that one out soon. Fortunately, the fact that they don’t have their power play back up to their normal standards made the 2nd game of the NHL season much more interesting.

Both teams scored shorthanded goals (including a breakaway by Malkin and a goal by Spezza in a 2-on-1).

If you had told me Tyler Kennedy would score the first and last goal of this game (considering that he got 10 goals in the 55 games he played last season), I would have thought you were nuts. What a way for Kennedy to start the season. His overtime goal where he stole the puck was great to watch.

Gerber definitely let in a few weak goals, but I have to agree with the minority opinion that keeping Gerber as a number one goalie is better than picking up Khabibulin. Martin Gerber had a slightly better save percentage last season and seems to be a bit more consistent lately. There’s a reason the Blackhawks went out and got Cristobol Huet. Of course, what I think doesn’t matter and it seems pretty clear that the Senators are going to end up with Khabibulin on their team. Maybe they’ll get lucky and it’ll work out well for them.

If today’s games are any indication, tomorrow’s games from the Czech Republic and Sweden will be very interesting. It’s great to see the hockey season get off to such an exciting start.