With this new found opportunity to try and be a voice for fans, I have read and heard a lot of what most people think. Here are some of the most common sentiments:
• The Kings have no heart
• Crawford is clueless, fire him now!
• No one will fight (as if enforcers ever won a game)
• Lombardi has accomplished exactly nothing, bring back Taylor and Murray
• My personal motto: Kings fans … conditioned for mediocrity
Monday’s game offered no more results than any other loss. Once again, the team gives up 2 goals in the first and quickly. In the four game losing streak, the Kings have given up 8 goals and scored 1 in the first period alone... ouch! On every level, seriously bad statistics.
The first period the Kings managed a meager four shots on goal... Double ouch! I still submit this team while challenged, possesses far more heart than fans give them credit for, by a mile. The following players came back from injury,
most likely all, before their bodies were ready:
• Ivanans (broken orbital bone)
• Cammalleri (groin)
• Frolov (groin)
• LaBarbera (rib soft tissue damage, uses a heating pad between periods to function and a scant 2 weeks ago couldn’t drive without pain)
• Aubin (2 injured groins)
• Calder (thumb far from fully healed from surgery)
I get this team appears ‘heartless’ on the ice. Surely, since Smyth spent the game unscathed by Kings’ retribution that is further evidence they lack their collective souls...not. Fans need to take a step back, take a deep breath and appreciate that this house of cards otherwise known as the Kings is a work in progress. It just is. Trying to make them something more than this is why everyone is looking more for a scapegoat than a solution.
The Kings are legendary for scapegoats. The problem is when you search for blame, before you search for answers; it is emotionally satisfying but accomplishes exactly nothing. Los Angeles has 40 years of futility to show for that approach. Firing Crawford will not turn this team around permanently,
if at all, for no more than the short term,
if that.
There are a lot of things that appear and feel wrong. I get that. Heck, once again, the Kings cured what ailed the Avalanche. Colorado has a whopping six road wins, and two of those are compliments of the Kings. Sakic is out with a groin injury and that made no difference. The home team gave up three goals and 16 shots in the first. A time out solved exactly nothing and the visitors still scored a 3rd goal before the first 20 were over.
On a positive note, the Kings finished off the next to last team who hadn’t previously allowed a short handed goal, these Avalanche. The Kings did the same against Buffalo and now Ottawa remains the only team not to surrender a shorty.
Various blog titles came to mind as I watched this particular debacle unfold. Here are my top three:
Kings 07-08 Season R.I.P.
Kings Hockey: Alcohol Required
Will the Real Kings Please Stand Up?
As to the home crowd, please never mistake a non-traditional hockey market with passionless fans. Kings’ fans know their hockey, love this team and know how to respond when they do something right and when they do everything wrong. And if it is in the same game, they ride that roller coaster with the team and ride those highs and lows like some kind of bad theme park ride. The problem is the fans pay to watch these episodes and this team’s inconsistency is enough to drive the sanest fan to drink. Heck, liquor makes the losing more palatable, doesn’t it?
The most shots in this most recent loss are nearly all defenseman:
• Blake 3
• Stuart 3
• Preissing 3
• Handzus 3
• O’Sullivan 2
• Kopitar 2
• Brown 2
This is hardly good news to find out that the most shots came from defensemen and the most defensive forward on the team. Handzus' play of late shows why Lombardi signed him and considered him his 'key' signing of the off season. Right now he and other players are still a work in progress. That just is. When the Kings start to show their potential, the fans rightly reward their team with cheers at deafening decibels.
I could spend an inordinate amount of space detailing the team’s weaknesses but that would be near redundant to what others have said before me. Here are some of the basics from this game:
• Kopitar, Cammalleri and Armstrong were weak in the circle at 40% or so
• Gift-aways were abundant with Frolov and Johnson leading the way with 4
• Cammalleri missed on an astounding 5 ‘attempted’ shots on goal (Is he officially pressing?)
• Modry and Johnson’s less than stellar disciplined play at 2 penalties a piece
My Take
If I had to try and provide an explanation to the MIA play on the ice, lack of heart would not be my take on the uglier plays of the night. I get that the team looked like that but looks can be deceiving.
Think back to how each of us is on a daily basis at our jobs. Can anyone honestly say they give 100% every time and every minute at work? I am thinking no.
Right now it seems like the players are not skating as a unit.
I find one area for improvement is shorter shifts and better timed line changes. Both of these items can also be traced to the guys being more aware and more relentless as a unit, not as individuals. When the Kings get 3 line changes on power plays and penalty kills, they start to show what they can do. That takes some heads up play and far more urgency than I currently see during games.
The Kings are also playing like a bunch of individuals not working in sync. I would actually like to see some practice exercises that prove this point. I saw a movie when this when an issue. The players were put on the ice with a rope around their collective waists. The exercise had the skaters having to go from one end of the ice to the other. The challenge is they go nowhere unless they move as a unit. When these players can do that, something as simple as that, the difference will eventually become evident on the ice.
Here is what O’Sullivan said on the post game show:
“We played great in the 3rd period. It’s not good enough. I don’t know why it takes 2 periods or a period for us to realize the way we have to play. It is frustrating because, our team, you can see how good we can play. This is not the 1st time this happened this year. We got to figure out something figure out a way to start games like that and we will be fine.”
On the penalty kill:
“We tried to put a little more pressure on their D started forechecking with 2 guys and I thought that created a little bit more energy for us. We knew we had to try to do something if we were going to get back in the game. Being down three nothing going in to the 3rd period, there is only so many times you can come back and tie it and try to get a win in overtime or the shoot-out. We fell short again. That has happened too much this year.”
On the little things being the issue:
“I like to think so. This is a good group of guys in the room. Everyone cares and everyone is trying to do their best. It is not so much the effort. The effort is there. It is the little things; the little mistakes that ya know at the time are little but end up being the difference in a game. I don’t know. If we had the answer, this stuff wouldn’t be happening. All we can do is try to improve with what we did wrong in this game. Come out with a better effort, Detroit is obviously the best team in the league. We are going to have our hands full with them. We need to prepare and try and get this going in the other direction.”
Detroit will be a far bigger challenge than the past Kings’ opponents. For what this is worth, Los Angeles often plays better for tougher opponents. Let’s hope this is one of those games.
Carla Muller Carla.hockeygal@att.net 
Carla Muller
Heartless, Hopeless or Today's Scapegoat 
