FINAL: Kings 4, Ducks 3

I think the Fro, Kopi line was a great line. They worked well together and simmonds fit in well with them. Brown played great, I think hes starting to come into his game. Over all I think the lines were good, Z didn't need to be there at all.

We'll see how they work out over the next couple of games. Calder/Stoll/Brown started out hot as well. Now Stoll especially appears to be slipping. Just over 10 minutes in tonight' game. Maybe it's just because TM went with size, both Boyle and Ivanans getting quality time in the 3rd.

Nice win. Ryan made me real nervous. Sick moves for the hatty.

Good thing they scored. Quick let in two BAD goals tonight.

He lays an egg every so often it appears.

Ah, just heard that TM benched Stoll for the delay of game penalty.

Yes, it's a win. And yes, Kopitar scored. And yes, Frolov/Kopitar/Simmonds looked great. But wait, none of those is the thing that made me happiest tonight; that would be:

POS/Boyle/Purcell.

And the fact that they were out the entire third period. And the fact that I think I didn't see Calder at all in the third, or much of Stoll. Ivanans against Ryan in key defensive situations (!!!!!).

Okay, the win made me happier than the POS/Boyle/Purcell line, but you get the idea...

I would just like to point out that, if you ignore total points in the standings and just look at the standings baseball style (which eliminates the games-in-hand messiness) you will see that the Kings are:

...two and a half games behind Vancouver (who we DON'T have to catch).
...a game and a half behind Anaheim, Minnesota and Edmonton (only ONE of whom we have to catch).
...a half-game behind Phoenix, Colorado and Dallas.
...even with Columbus.
...and a half-game ahead of Nashville.

That's ten teams, including the Kings, only four of which will make the playoffs. The Kings are a game and a half out of the last playoff spot, as of today.

The Kings don't have to do anything other than this: get a couple more wins than half of those teams, from here on out.

thank god we pulled that one out. how bad would it have been on here had we folded after being up 3-0?

very happy to see brown, kopitar and frolov score goals tonight. they all needed it and got it.

we did not play a complete game and still got the win tonight. anaheim played better than tuesday, but we still pulled it out.

17-17-6 = 40 points. 10/12 points better than last year at this time. only a couple of points out of the playoffs as crazy as that sounds being in 11th place in the conference.

looking forward to seeing the devils on sat and stamkos and the bolts on mon.

quisp,

i like the way you lay it out there, very creative. nj on sat is a toss up, but i would think we could put away tb on monday.

J-Q looked a little shaken up, but he'll learn from his mistakes. I still think he should split the start with Ice or start even more.

NJ has turned around their offense this season, so hopefully the Kings can minimize the damage tomorrow.

Quickie looked fine.
Nobody has shutouts every game.
The Boyle line with O'S, and Purcell looked good.
I really liked Murray's lineup and I'm really excited to see if he keeps some of this going for a few games.
I don't want to see Stoll riding the pine, though, a little harsh there. But it kept Z off the ice and Ivanans didn't hurt us on the defensive end.
I was shocked to see him out near the end while we're trying to kill off the game, but he did the job.
Too bad we didn't make a trade for B Ryan. That kid looks pretty good.
Great save by Quick on Pahlsson near the end. Great glove stopped something on target AND with Ryan awaiting a rebound. Still cool as a cucumber back there too.
I can't say enough about Murray in this game. I think he realized he's got to get something going and it really worked.
Kopitar and Frolov were great. Creating all night long and CONTROLLING POSSESSION in Anaheim's end the entire game.
That, my friends, is PUCK POSSESSION hockey. I think Murray did well to match them with Simmonds, though I think Brown, Purcell, and Moller could also compliment that line if Murray wants them too.
I really think Simmonds is going to be scoring 30 goals a season pretty soon - 4 or 5 years.