Day 16 of the 18 day road trip ended on a high note. The odds were against the Kings having this result considering Columbus’ mastery over the Kings this year. The win also allowed Crawford’s overall win totals to equal Hitchcock’s numbers. Funny thing is that if anyone took bets on how ugly this trip would be before it began merely on a win-loss ratio, the only thing that would have been in dispute would be how ugly is too ugly... yikes!
The same prognosticators would be just as wrong if they tried to guess the win-loss ratio of a Crosby-less Penguins. Some in jest now say “Sidney who” when speaking of Pittsburgh due to the stand-out play of Malkin. The Kings can definitely attest to that from personal experience when the Penguins doubled up against them in Saturday’s loss. As the saying goes, that is why teams play the games. How things look on paper and how reality unfolds is what makes life so interesting.
There are several things that changed the Kings’ fortune of late. For instance, between January 13 and February 8, 2008, Los Angeles tied Minnesota for only allowing three power play goals. That also had the Kings improving to the 26th best penalty killing team in the league as of February 8, 2008.. In fairness, most might find this statistic nothing to brag about. Those doubting people would think otherwise if they knew that at one time the Kings had the 29th best penalty kill – though putting the word ‘best’ for this statistic seems like a bit of an oxymoron.
Kings Break Blue Jackets’ Win Streak over Los Angeles (Carla Muller) 
