I went into tonight’s game with such anticipation. After all, I hadn’t seen a live game in two weeks and still haven’t. Seriously. With rivalry month finally over, and the fresh meat of a team that had only three road wins all year,
before tonight, surely the Kings would show up and win or lose, give fans something to get excited about. Funny thing happened on my way to the Staples’ Center, it turns out that the Kings’ propensity to play to the strength and talent of their opponent remains intact... Ouch! And true.
I listened to Assistant Coach Emerson on the post game show with Evans. He suggested the Kings played well the first sixteen (16) minutes. I wish I was at that game. Again, seriously.
My take on the first period entailed both teams doing a whole lot of watching, skating as if the players had someone hanging on their jerseys slowing them down – only it turns out the players did that to themselves. Giving credit where credit is due, the Kings were better than the Avalanche
by far the first 17:00 of the first period.
I do submit that if the Avalanche had broken any kind of a sweat in the first, the Kings lack of anything to get excited about would have been a lot more apparent. Patrick O’Sullivan is becoming worth the price of admission. He set up both Ivanans and Kopitar’s goal in similar fashions. He has sublet Gretzky’s old office behind the net and gets the puck right in front of the goal crease for a nice goal to the first King who promptly arrives to put it home. The double shifting of O’Sullivan in the first on both the first and fourth line gifted the team two goals and the last of the offense for the night.
The first period shot differential may appear even with 9 for the home team and 8 for the other guys. The play was anything but as the Avalanche took those 8 shots scattered over 3 minutes and the other 17 acting as pylons on the ice. When the Kings gave up a goal to sophomore phenom, Stastny, that was the beginning of the end.
The second period shot totals exactly reflected what those who watched wish they could forget. The Avalanche made an astounding 17 shots on goal to the Kings 4. It was even harder to watch than that.
In the second, the Kings took 2 of their 3 penalties. Three minutes and change of Klemm’s whopping less than six (6) minutes of ice time were on display. If he is the answer to the Kings’ penalty kill issues, then I am mystified.
Chalk his presence here as Crawford going back to his man-love attachment of players who did something for him elsewhere. And, frankly, like Cloutier, Klemm isn’t the guy for the job today. Yesterday, perhaps, the day before that, perhaps. Now, send him back to Manchester to mentor the kids and bring someone up who might at least develop and help the future.
Right now the best +/- player on the Monarchs is Brady Murray and he has only played in 8 games all year there to go along with his 4 games with the Kings. That tells me he isn’t the guy I want called up next.
On closer review, I am not sure who the right call is in the category of penalty kill specialist since a majority of the Monarchs are negative players. The best ones defensively, for this stats’ purposes, are either even players or plus one guys
only. So, for those who are scouting Manchester and focusing on the offensive guys, time to take a deep breath and come to grip with the fact that there are some guys you want up here for the goals they prevent, not their offensive points.
In the category of “I am sick of the Kings giving every other team’s players their first NHL goal category”, tonight’s early Christmas gift went to T.J. Hensick. He just got the call when Brad Richardson was sent down. The Avalanche coaches deemed Richardson’s play not ready for prime time and Hensick got his spot.
By my count, and admittedly I am going from memory, the Kings previously gifted 1st ever NHL goals to the Ducks’ Bobby Ryan, the Blues’ Eric Johnson too. In the category of “the Kings’ jinx 1st NHL goalscorers”, Ryan got sent down shortly thereafter and Johnson’s hairline fracture in his foot became bothersome after he scored against us and went on IR shortly thereafter.
As to the remainder of the second, the penalty kill % of success didn’t take a hit, but this continued to be an unofficial weakness. This is the second game in the last 7 days where the Kings’ gave up a goal against while waiting for a whistle on a delayed call against. That tells me, if nothing else, the players need to be far more alert. When the referee’s arms goes up, cheat, steal and do everything short of taking another penalty to get that whistle and stop giving away free power play time to opponents.
The third period brought more ugliness on and off the score sheet. On the score sheet, the Kings helped Smyth break a goal drought with two Saturday. Off the score sheet, Smyth’s propensity to put his backside in the face of opposing netminders came with an extra bite that could cost the Kings far more than tonight’s game.
Smyth’s stick conveniently found its way into LaBarbera’s ribs ... hard and LaBarbera got shaken up enough he had to come out of the game. How did the Kings respond? Well, for starters, our less than $6 million dollars’ of value captain gingerly skated toward the crease while Jason was down. He stayed away and skated slow enough to remove all doubt I dislike him even more.
When the captain comes on the ice, and the other team just took out his netminder, step one is to go over and at least pretend to look like you care. Step two is to do something, anything, to the other team to stand up for your goalie. Ya think?!!!
In that department, no one, and I do mean no player stood up for LaBarbera Saturday. Shame on every King who made that choice tonight. Every last player on the team, you should all personally be ashamed.
I know I am for you. It is now turn for every Kings’ player to learn how to be a teammate...
now!
The remainder of the third resulted in the Kings making the Avalanche look like world beaters when they are anything but. Aubin helped prove why the year is about to get even uglier if LaBarbera is out any length of time. He is barely good enough to be an NHL back-up on his best day.
Statistics
Rather than belabor the game’s ugliness, here are some stats to keep you warm and cold tonight... ouch!
Every player felt the holiday spirit as gift-aways were everywhere, 18 to Colorado and 21 to the Kings. Los Angeles got more physical with 30 hits to Colorado’s 14. The night’s 3rd star Brown and Zeiler each had 6 a piece.
Stuart, Blake and Visnovsky each blocked 3 shots. Here is some of the answer to part of what gave the Kings’ fits, the Avalanche blocked 20 shots overall. The last time I noticed a lot of blocked shots was the Phoenix away game. There too, Los Angeles looked especially bad doing it. The next thing for Crawford to put on his practice drills is how to work around and be effective against shot blocking teams.
The face-offs were taken primarily by these three players with the following percentages:
Handzus 42% at 8/11 for 19 total
Kopitar 57% at 8/6 for 14 total
Armstrong 55% 6/5 for 11 total
Some day if I ever get to ask Crawford a question, it will start with why he has so little trust in all Kings not named Handzus in the face-off circle. And, since this is the case, why not practice the hell out of this until the players’ earn his confidence possibly, experience definitely.
Blake had the most shots on goal at 3.
The following players had 2: Handzus, Visnovsky, O’Sullivan, Brown, Ivanans and Kopitar
In the snake bit department, that would be Nagy. He had one official shot on goal and a scary 4 missed shots on goal. Really.
Shout Out
I promised Jason a special mention here. This individual wins the prize for the first person at a game who asked me why I brought a note pad and was scribbling constantly. When I told him I blog for Hockey Buzz. He said, “You’re Carla”. Thanks for reading Jason!!
Jason and I got into a heated debate late in the third period when nothing was happening on the ice anyway. (Yikes.) He is not the first person to think this; he is the first person I have had the best response to as to cap dollars on some Kings’ players.
It went something like, did I appreciate that $10 million cap dollars are being spent on Handzus and Blake and wasn’t that the biggest waste? Now, admit it, many of you have either thought, heard, or said this yourselves. Just own up, it will save some time!!
I finally had the best explanation for this disposition. As to Blake, I have nothing "G" rated to say about him or his salary. Kids may be reading... Not!!
As to Handzus, I will stand up for that contract for the indefinite future. He is being paid his dollars more for the goals he prevents, then the goals he scores. When others come to that realization, perhaps you will be far less offended by his contract.
Challenge to Kings’ Players
The next opponent is Edmonton and the Kings have a sad propensity to raise their play to the lowest denominator. In other words, they play better against strong teams and play down to the weakness of the weaker teams.
Please consider Monday as your chance as a team not to be the answer to Edmonton’s prayers and gift them a win like you did Colorado Saturday and Phoenix in November.
It is absolutely mandatory to find your killer instinct, bring it out and start hating to lose more than you like wanting to win. When you stop inviting defeat, it will stop accepting your invitations.
Carla Muller Carla.hockeygal@att.net 
Carla Muller
Passengers' Night Only 
