Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

What does that mean? I mean, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot'? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot?

Well, with apologies to Billy Crystal (who stated that question back in 1989 in the movie When Harry Met Sally), the Kings are hoping to forget everything that has happened to them the past year. They have found the scoring touch in the early part of the season, but defensive lapses and suspect goaltending continues to plague the club. Another problem the Kings have is playing from behind. They have allowed the first goal in the last eight games.

Blue Jackets coming off best month in franchise's history, with nine wins in December. Their new coach, Ken Hitchcock, has the team believing in his system. Hired in November, Hitchcock has seemingly motivated the moody Sergei Federov, averaging a point a game the past month.

The line of Anze Kopitar, Mike Cammallari and Dustin Brown has a great shift, where Kopitar makes a nifty pass behind the back to start a Kings run. Several shots later, Columbus is whistled for a penalty. But the power play comes up flat.

A second power play is neutralized by a Craig Conroy hooking penalty, so they skate four-on-four. Lubomir Visnovsky passes the puck up to Derek Armstrong, who jets into the zone. He skates past Duvie Westcott, and puts the puck on goal, but Fredrik Norrena can't contain the puck. Cammallari coasts in and backhands the rebound past Norrena for the Kings' first goal of the game. Cammy's goal was the first time in nine games that the Kings have led to start the game.

The Blue Jackets has only 2 shots in the first 12 minutes of the period. They wind up with 7, but the Kings have clamped down on the Blue Jackets. Garon has been solid, although he didn't really face but a few real scoring chances.

First period: Kings 1, Blue Jackets 0

The second period, there is no scoring. Both teams take 10 shots. But the on-going story has to be the Kings' inability to score with the man-advantage. So far they are 0-for-5 on the power play, which is uncharacteristic of the team as of late. However, they are playing a tighter defensive game, which is something that they haven't been doing. I would gladly trade the Kings' lofty PP percentage ranking for a more complete defensive game. But it's still frustrating when your club has an extra man and they can't put it in, especially at home.

Second period: Kings 1, Blue Jackets 0

Kopitar almost redirects a Rob Blake pass past Norrena , but comes thisclose before Norrena plops down and stops the puck.

Brent Sopel clears out the puck during a Columbus barrage, and Sean Avery wins a foot race over Westcott. Avery immediately passes it to an open Frolov, for a quick two-on-one action. Frolov feeds the puck under the stick of a crouching Westcott to Avery, who one-times it past Norrena for his third goal in five games.

Late in the third, the Kings, after getting nine chances with the man-advantage, the Kings finally score a power play goal. Cammallari skates around the zone with the puck, and fake-passes to Blake. He shoots from the blue line, and the Norrena makes the save. But the puck is lost in the ensuing scuffle, and Visnovsky digs it out and pops it in for the score. Frolov actually gets his skate on the puck, shielding it from Norrena, and gets an assist on the play. With that assist, Frolov now has his fifth multi-point game in a row.

The Blue Jackets, now faced with a three-goal deficit, seemingly throw in the towel, and the Kings get the win. Mathieu Garon gets his second shutout of the season. Kopitar is shut out for the third straight game, matching his longest drought this season. But I wouldn't worry about Anze. After his last drought, he responded with scoring seven points (4 G, 3A) in the four games afterward.

Third period: Kings 3, Blue Jackets 0