New year, new Kings!
Wow, Kings win 9-2 over Chicago. A hat trick for Nagy, two goals for Frolov and one apiece for Brown, Sully, Preissing and Visnovsky. Maybe I should not go to games more often? To be fair, though, I was at the Dallas comeback.
I'll post some post-game quotes as soon as I get them from Lindsay. In the mean time, here are some quotes she got from this morning's skate ...
Crawford on first half of season: "Well I hope we have 32 points in the first half of the season with a
victory tonight and we're disappointed with it for sure. We started
off with some very good promise after digging a little bit of a hole
going 1-5. And then we started to play very well I think, it's
largely been characteristic of when our goaltending has been good. We
had that stretch where Jason played really well and our played really
well. We had a terrible December and unfortunately we played a lot of
games in that timeframe. You hope when you play like that, when it
seems like everything that can go wrong goes wrong, you hope you're
not playing that many games and unfortunately for us we played a lot.
So we've dug ourselves a very big hole but we cant look at the
overall picture right now we have to concentrate on process and I
think if we look at the things that we can control, which is how
we're playing in our own end, limiting how many chances that we're
trying to give up I think we're giving ourselves an opportunity to be
in games and a result from that process will follow."
"We have been very close in all these games, we won the last two, and
eight of the last ten were all one-goal games and we've come out on
the right side of the last two. We have to come with the mindset that
when we think the game's going to be close try not to give up easy
chances. You've got to make shots to win, you have to make good plays
to win, but we give ourselves a better opportunity if we're not
giving away chances."
Crawford had said Monday that he didn't think Frolov was playing like his usual self from coming back from the groin injury. Looks like that changed today. Here's what Frolov said about the groin before the game ...
"It's so-so. I've had a lot of problems with my groin and it's still
hurt and I just try to play through it. It's been hard to be in good
condition because I couldn't skate for a long time, I didn't do leg
workouts, lower body workouts, and now with the schedule there's a
game pretty much every next day. It's hard because we don't really
practice a lot. It's getting better so I'm more concerned about it
not getting worse.
"Sometimes I feel a little bit better sometimes I feel a little bit
worse. I guess with injuries like that I need to have some time off
the ice to heal up 100 percent and it's hard to get it right now and
I don't really want to shut it down. I really want to play so I'm
just playing through it."
Have to comment about the King fans tonight. Boy did they suck. Nagy gets a hat trick and I counted about 9 hats in the wheelbarrow. In the east the ice would be covered in hats.
That shows great support for the team, the players. Guess Fans don't really know how hard it is to get a hat trick....
I sure hope Foxy doesn't wear out that red sports Jacket. Could be the key to the King's comeback!!
I'm telling you guys, the playoffs are not out of the question.
11 points to be made up in 41 games is easy, especially if the team continues to play like this.
If fro, Nagy and Cammi (after his injury) start putting up these kind of numbers, this team will be tough to beat. Along with Kopi, Brown & Sully, no defense will be able to contain this team.
Oh by the way, Sully got a match penalty for attempt to injure. To me it didn't look intentional. Maybe overly aggressive.
Does anyone believe a suspension is will be issued by the league.
Actually, the lack of hats can be contributed to three issues:
1. Goal was scored at the beginning of the 3rd period and a huge chunk of the crowd wasn't back in their seats from intermission for the goal.
2. A lot of fans left after the 2nd as the game was clearly out of hand at that point.
3. Only around 16,000 tickets were sold to begin with, and with New Years I'm sure not a lot of those showed up after the long day.
Sully's penalty was a 5 minute major; I can't believe he'll get any time off for attempt to injure. There is no way his hit was intentional, he lost control of his stick, pure, plain and simple. The Hawk that was injured didn't even bleed, it was a poor call in my opinion.....
As far as the King goals are concern, most were soft. Chicago just didn't show up tonight, their defense was horrid, worse than an average Kings night. Still, this is positive. The Kings played within themselves. They have a modest 3 game winning streak that they can build on. If they play the system, they can win. They proved it tonight....
Someone say something about playoffs? Tonight was a nice win. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Last year lowest seed to get in the playoffs had 96 points. Kings have to get 30+ wins in the next 42 games to solidify a spot.
There's no excuse for the lack of hats on that rink. That was embarrasing. It was so bad that FSW didn't pan out to show them on the ice. They just showed 1, then the uneeded wheel barrel.
Pinch me when the playoffs begin because until then it's just a dream.
Hopefully they'll continue to play better hockey. It's alot easier to watch when they win.
Great game to watch but lets not count our chickens. One side of me wants to see them go on a tear. The other side wants them to tank so we get the coveted #1.
I think the lack of hats was because it was Nagy, but that's no excuse. He's been a disapointment so far but when a guy blows up like that he should be encouraged. It's not like he's an ass to the fans or anything, he's just having a slump at the wrong time....the beginning of his stint with a new team.
One more thing....
Can someone explain why Thornton is still wearing the "A"? When there aren't injuries the dude is in the stands more than he's on the ice. That doesn't help much.
I say give it to Brown. He's earned it in stats and on the ice. Let the kids take over now and maybe even drop the "C" on Cammy and the other "A" to Anze. They may be young but they're the future and when they're a couple more years into it, they'll be used to that role.
BTW was there ever a team only meeting during that 8 game slide? I never heard of one and usually the captain would have called that somewhere in there.
Hahahahah the playoffs are not out of question........ ahahaahahahah! Shows how much you know Anthony. The playoffs couldn't be further. We are 11 points out and it just shows how dumb you are. We win three in a row and you think we are contenders for the cup. We are still dead last in the NHL!
I'm still far from even thinking about drinking the Playoff Kool-aid. I still don't see the playoffs as being realistic. I still want Stamkos.
Keep in mind, its not just a matter of gaining 11 points in the standings to get the 8th seed, but you've got to jump 7 teams to do it.
Although, is it just a coincidence that the Kings recent better play has happened around the same time that Ivanans was cleared fight again?
The lack of hats can be simple attributed to LA. On New Years Eve I drove home from work with the ragtop down and a t-shirt. And seriously - two weeks ago would you have thought that ANY King player would get a hat trick this year?
Yep EncinoMan, it's definitely an uphill climb! 95 points is the absolute bare-minimum to get in, so we'd have to go 31-9-1. I just don't see ANYBODY having that record down the stretch. I'd be happy with us getting to .500 hockey!