2023-2024 NHL/Hockey thread

[Amazin69]

Kempe made a surprise return against Dallas on Saturday night, and then the Kings cashed in a bad pass by Miro Haiskanen to take a 1-0 lead 26 seconds in. (Fiala, who has been scorching, with his 21st of the year.)

The refs then decided they would blow their whistles at regular intervals, whether they needed to do so or not. (Lots of penalties, including bad ones, both ways.) Kings gave up a pair of (full-strength) goals in an 18-second span midway through the 2nd, mounted no offense (except for a shorthanded breakaway that Kempe couldn't quite finish) and finally saw The Best PK in the League crack with :01 left on the Stars' 5th PP of the night, giving Dallas the insurance goal to lock the game up. An empty-netter finished the scoring, as L.A. is now 4-4-1 since Hiller's Hot start.

Too soon to panic, but still a bit gloomy, IMO.

[Cobra Mgr]

Tortorella suspended 2 games.

[reds1]

The Minnesota Wild pulled their goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, with just over a minute left in overtime against the Nashville Predators to get four forwards against three. It paid off.

[Amazin69]

That has to be the stupidest thing I have seen recently. I mean, since Andy Reid going for it on 4th-and-25 unnecessarily in the season opener.

(Logically, this means that the Wild will now go on to win the Stanley Cup. Or one of them will start "dating" Taylor Swift. Or whatever.)

[reds1]

If Nashville had scored an empty-netter in overtime, Minnesota would have forfeited its point for the overtime loss. But since the Wild are gunning for a wildcard spot, coach Hynes took the gamble. But it was definitely a risky move.

[Cobra Mgr]

If the Rangers & Canes meet in the playoffs, you might only get 10 total goals in a 7 game series. The only goal that got in in 60 minutes was a ricochet off Skjei's skate into his own net. Neither side could offer up many chances & anything that did manage to get past the 5 skaters was rejected by the goalies. Nothing was getting thru.

[Amazin69]

Monday night, the Kings hosted the Islanders, the only other team to stand pat at the deadline. L.I. had won 6 in a row, but L.A. handled them without any problems (Kempe undressed Sorokin for his first goal back, and Mikey Anderson was back in the lineup, which must have been a load off of everyone's back), so perhaps there is something to this "hold fast" strategy, Despite my despair (letting the Vancouver game get away, struggling to beat Ottawa in the extra session, being blown out of the building by Dallas), the Kings did end the home stand 3-1-1 Jim Hiller is now 10-5-1.

Off to the plains (STL, CHI, DAL) for three games in 4 days. You'll note that I haven't said anything about Chicago previously. That's because this is our first meeting, coming up on the Ides of March. (Appropriate, as The Ides of March were a Chicago-based group.) All three meetings in the final 1/5th of the schedule? Crazy, man.

I only regret not taping the Isles-cast simultaneous with ours, I forgot that MSG blacks out the replays now. Always a treat to see Butch Goring do the commentary, given his history in LA (still our #6 all-time in goals, at 275, before going to Uniondale for his Cups). And amusing that he and Jim Fox are the respective commentators, as they both wore #19 as a King.

(Butch had to flip to #91 as an Isle. Some guy named "Trottier" had #19.)

[Amazin69]

Oh, and as I enjoyed the Kings' win on Monday, I felt motivated to tune in the VGK-Seattle game last night, to see if the Kraken could keep the Golden Twits off of our necks.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the 3rd, Seattle's Best scored three goals in the 3rd to take a 4-2 lead with about 8 minutes left. Then they gave back a goal almost instantly, let Marchessault tie it with a 6-on-5 goal with :16.3 remaining, and lost in overtime.

Thanks for nothing, Krakheads!

[Amazin69]

Wednesday was a TNT game in St. Louis where Kenny, Edzo & Bouche spent the first two periods marveling at how the Kings were controlling the play and creating lots of chances…while barely mentioning that the Blues had scored the only two goals of the game and Binnington was having a notably better game than Talbot. In the third period, the Kings got tired of the hockey equivalent of leaving men on base and just took the L, getting out of there to save some energy for tonight's matchup in Chicago.

We weren't two minutes into the game when Jim Fox was roasting Pierre-Luc DuBois for a giveaway (weak pass into the middle of his own zone) that created an early chance for ex-King Andreas "Greek Lightning" Athanasiou.

(Jim never comes off as bullying, because he is very technical in his analysis…he's like a reverse Andy Brickley…but you tend to notice that he rarely takes very long to notice how DuBois is screwing up.)

Of course, by the time we were 3:10 into the game, DuBois had scored, so this was a "take the bad with the good" night. Sure, it was basically a lucky bounce (Spence was trying to find LaFerriere in front of the net, but the pass bounced off of LaFfy's stick wide of the goal, caromed off the boards and came to an uncovered P-LD in the right circle, and he blasted it home), but those count, too.

Then, three minutes later, DuBois tried to hit LaFerriere (in the same spot) with a pass, missed him only for the puck to reach Matt Roy at the blue line, who blasted it towards the net and LaFfy redirected this one into the net, so the Kings had a 2 goal lead and P-LD had two points despite not playing very well.

The Hawks' defense continued to resemble Swiss cheese, as a couple of minutes later, goalie Arvid Soderblom looked up to see Byfield zooming uncontested through the circle with the puck. He came out of his net to cut down the angle, but way too far (completely left the crease) and QB completed an easy pass to Kopitar, who essentially had an empty net to aim at, and didn't mss. 3-0.

Five minutes later, Byfield got the puck at the half-wall, and this time the Chicago "defense" was in front of him. Which meant that nobody was bothering with Kopitar at the back post, and one quick pass gave Kopi his 20th goal and Soderblom a mercy pull.

The Hawks played better for Peter Mrazek, but the Kings locked down Bedard all night long (didn't get a shot on goal until 6 minutes left, and barely had any attempts) and cruised to the easy 5-0 win.

So what happens in Dallas tonight decides the road trip. Sure, they've crushed us both times we've played them, but that just means we're due, right? Right?

Sigh.

(Lineup note: Kempe, who had been playing on the 3rd line with LaFerriere and DuBois, was back on the top line with Kopitar and Byfield. I believe this is the fourth time this season that coaching [including McLellan] has tried to drop Kempe in the lineup, only to have it undone almost instantly.

I don't know if this is Kempe refusing to play with DuBois, or Kopitar insisting on having his good right hand back or GM Rob Blake or Prex Luc Robitaille resetting things, but it's almost funny by now. Coaches need to get the memo and let "Juice" keep his spot, already.)

[Cobra Mgr]

Big week for the Canes ends tonight in Ottawa. Hosting the division leading Rangers, the Conference leading Panthers, on the road vs the 5th best record in the East Toronto & the Senators.

1st game was the 1st with the Canes new toys, Kuznetsov & Guentzel. I described that 1-0 wr earlier.

2nd was Florida w/Freddie Anderson in goal & it was a surprising 4-0 domination by Carolina. Guentzel & Kuznetsov each got their 1st points as a Cane.

Last night was a thriller I wish I saw live (too many important college basketball games to watch). Canes fell behind 3-0 & none you could blame Kochetkov for. Each one a Leaf got behind the defense & was one on one w/the goalie. I have no idea what was going on w/the backline. Canes got 2 goals, including one seconds before the 2nd intermission to get back in it. Then, once more, a Leaf snuck behind the Carolina defensemen & scored, doubling the lead. Somehow, Carolina was able to send it to OT thanks a pulled goalie & to 2 Aho goals in the final :90, the last w/just 7 ticks remaining. In the shootout, both goalies stopped the 1st 5 attempts. Then Guentzel put his first puck in the net for the Canes, giving them the win & extra point.

So a lot of positives. A lot of excitement for hockey in Raleigh. Some puzzlement about the defense last night. Would have preferred getting a W over the Rangers since Carolina is chasing them, making that the most important game of the week. But 4 points vs teams headed to the playoffs is nothing to downplay.

Gotta make it stand up in Ottawa today.

[Amazin69]

Dallas scored a silly goal before we were three minutes in. (Thomas Harley shot high off the glass behind the net, it landed behind Rittich's butt and he accidentally knocked it in while trying to keep Roope Hintz from sniffing around.) They then scored two other ugly goals in the first period and (rather than collapsing as the Stars did in their past two games) clamped down for a 4-1 win. (Fiala got our goal.)

Highlight of the night was the Mike Modano statue unveiling. (The ceremony was supposed to be pre-game, but was pushed back by rain and held during the first intermission. The Kings didn't cover it, but I caught the Stars-cast rerun. Daryl Reaugh was a good MC, but still a bit skimpy compared to how the Kings do similar ceremonies, although that may be a function of the rain-compressed time slot.)

Two things of note: Modano now has five kids (1 pair twins), all born in the last 10 years. I would say I know how he's been spending his retirement, but given his age, the letters may be more I-V-F than S-T-U-D. (Which is fine, don't get me wrong.)

I had also forgotten about his last, sad season as a Detroit Red Wing. It's always ridiculous when clubs get cheapskate with legends who want to play one more year. What would it have hurt the Stars to give Modano a cheap contract, stick him on the 3rd line and let him realize it's time to leave the stage? (It's not as though Detroit treated him well, either.) This sort of thing always annoys, whether it's Marty Brodeur in St. Louis or whatever. 22 seasons with the team, give him a 23rd. Feh.

Kings now return home for a Tues/Wed v CHI/MIN, and then Tampa on Saturday. We'd better sweep those, as VGK is so close on our butts we can smell what they had for breakfast. (Those Devils who whupped Dallas then went and got whupped by…Arizona, so who knows how the NJD/VGK game on TNT right now will go? Scoreless so far, as Jake Allen tries to plug the gaping chasm in goal for New Jersey.)

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Gotta make it stand up in Ottawa today.

Carolina D-men must have had a heart to heart on the ride to Ottawa. Orlov 2 goals & 2 assists. Chatfield a goal & a helper. Burns, Skjei & Slavin each w/an assist. 3 goals, 7 assists from your back line in a 7-2 win. And the big trade deadline acquisitions each picked up a goal & an assist.

Now if somebody could just handle the Rangers for them.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Scoreless so far, as Jake Allen tries to plug the gaping chasm in goal for New Jersey.)

And New Jersey scored! And then VGK scored…and scored again…and scored once more.

3-1 final. Kings now officially in the 2nd wild-card. The good news is that our Annual Playoff Loss to the Oilers is now canceled.

And, hey, we've won the Cup as a #8 seed before! In fact, 2012 started with an upset of #1 seed Vancouver, so this will be just like old times. Look out, Sedins! We're coming for you!

(Who says there's no market for nostalgia? [/desperate attempt at whistling past the graveyard])

[Cobra Mgr]

This should be some playoff. Carolina is only 5 pts from the league pts lead, yet they are 8th in that category.

[Cobra Mgr]

Canes finally gain ground on the Rangers. They win 4-1 on Long Island while NYR lose to the Jets 4-2 @ MSG. Guentzel has 9 pts (2 goals, 9 assists) in his last 4 plus a GW in a shootout.

[Amazin69]

Los Angeles 12, Midwest 2.

As back-to-backs go, that didn't suck. Arvidsson's latest return nicely energized us where we had slept through the first period against Chicago the night before. (The Blackhawks' defense was improved, but they still couldn't keep track of Kopitar when other players had the puck, so Anze had two goals and an assist, among other scorers.) Kings were all over Minnesota in the offensive zone, jumping on loose pucks and moving the puck well when they had control. 3 goals in the first, 3 goals in the second, and solid defense all the way through.

Kopitar had a goal and an assist, moving him up to 1201 career points. He has passed Patrick Marleau and Dino Ciccarelli and now stands at 51st all-time in NHL history. Get past Vinny Damphousse (1205) and it's Top 50.

Only bad note was when things got really physical in the 3rd period and the refs hit everybody on the ice with a 10 minute misconduct. Including Kopi, who was literally just in the corner minding his business. Hate to think that might cost Kopi the Lady Byng. (He only took 4 minutes in penalties all last season, after all.)

Tampa Bay on Saturday will presumably be an entirely different situation. But come Saturday night, I will likely have watched so much March Madness that I'll have forgotten what a puck looks like. so we'll deal with that then.

[Cobra Mgr]

Interesting race for NHL's best record. With 10/11 skates to go, currently 7 teams have 98/97 pts. Three in the West, 4 in the East. Rangers lead the Canes, Panthers & Bruins w/a game in hand. Canucks lead the Av's & Stars, who are battling for the division lead as well.

[Amazin69]

Kings took a 3-1 lead into the 3rd period of both of the last two games. Tampa Bay is pathetic at 5-on-5 nowadays (I don't know what's wrong with Vasilievsky, but something is) and their ESGD of -17 was in the bottom 5 in the league coming in. The Kings scored one goal on Saturday, when Matt Dumba (looking very much 5/7 of a Dumba-ss, indeed) lost track of the puck that Byfield and Kopitar were digging out of the wall and decided that he would just face-guard Kempe, not even looking for the puck. Yeah…that's not how you play defense. It was easy as pie for Kopi to feed Kempe in front of the net for the early lead.

Then, they gave it back when Kopitar (that GOON!) took a penalty, allowing the Lightning to unleash The League's Best Power Play, which is all that keeps TB afloat these days. The League's Best PK was no match, and we were tied after one period.

Then the Kings utterly controlled the 2nd, scoring twice. First a scrum at the left post (with Vaz unable to cover the puck) led to the puck bouncing to an uncovered Moore on the other side for an easy one, and then Taylor Raddysh got too aggressive pinching in, the Kings got a 2-on-1 the other way, and Hedman properly took away the pass, leaving Vaz to face Mikey Anderson heads-up…and Mikey easily put it past him. (I said, Mikey Anderson! 2 goals all season.) That sure wasn't playoff-calibre goalie play.

So the Kings had the game locked…until they took a penalty with 4.00 left, gave up the PP goal, messed up a shot at the empty net (Kempe tried to get it to Byfield when he should have just shot it) and conceded the 6-on-5 goal to force OT. It was as if McLellan never left.

Fortunately, the 'Ning suck as badly at 3-on-3 as they do at 5-on-5. Eric Cernak decided to go help on Kempe because TB had conceded a break out, which left Gavrikov completely open on the other side of the ice, and Vladi blew it past Vasilievsky (again, what?) for the winner.

(The Kings are actually 9-2-1 at home under Hiller, so that is a change, after all.)

Tonight, LA started a 4-game Western Canada trip in Vancouver. Fiala got the opening goal, VAN equalized, and the Kings took control again in the 2nd, scoring on a delayed-penalty 6-on-5 that pinballed off of both Lewis and Lizotte without anyone actually shooting it, and then Kopitar fed Byfield in front of the net, and while the 'Nucks were swarming on QB and Kempe, Kopi slipped around behind the net, came out the other side, and was waiting uncovered at the back post (he does that a lot, you'll note) for the puck to come to him. (The goal tied him for 50th on the all-time points list with Vinny Damphousse, as I mentioned in the previous post.)

And so LA took that 3-1 lead all the way down to the last 4 minutes, when VAN pulled the goalie, scored an extra-attacker goal, Lizotte missed the open net, Doughty took a penalty…but then the Kings killed the final 20 seconds at 6-on-4, so no worries. A bit of a bad habit to concede these late goals, though.

And since the wins have come at the expense of a struggling Vasilievsky and Casey DeSmith (Demko is still out), I do wonder what LA can do against a top goalie. I guess we will find out next Monday in Winnipeg. (Kings have Thursday in Edmonton and Saturday in Calgary first, though.)

The run-in looks decent, though. 2x with the Ducks, and Seattle and San Jose and Calgary again at home and Chicago to finish. Only contenders in the final 8 games are one last visit from Edmonton and Vancouver each. Still, have to do better closing out games if anything good is to happen in the playoffs.

[Bluenoser]

For all the hard luck stories and arena problems that have plagued the Arizona Coyotes, last night was a nice "feel good" story for them.

Shane Doan who is the Face of the Coyotes, and now works for the Leafs in a front office role, was allowed to attend his sons NHL debut with the Coyotes.

What did son Josh do? Only scored 2 goals. Nice debut in front of Mom n Dad, and of course the 4600 fans that were in attendance had plenty to cheer about. The debut and 2 goals plus a win.

Congrats Josh on your debut, hope you have a gr8 career.

https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/ari-v.../26/2023021145

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...irst-nhl-goal/


_

[Cobra Mgr]

2 weeks ago the Panthers led the NHL in pts. Now they are 7th.