Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Kings Gameday: You Could See it Coming

Los Angeles Kings (blargh!) @ Edmonton Oilers (21-21-4, 13th in West)

6:00 PST, FSN West?*

[Earl has a post below about how Pronger and Niedermayer are douche bags or something. I don't know, I just kind of skimmed. Also, do the Ducks ever not play? Jesus.]


Last year, in one of my early posts as your humble Kings correspondent, I wrote this about Mathieu Garon:

"I can already see Garon, in an interview with The Hockey News this time next year, discussing how great it is to be playing good hockey again after all the injuries with the Kings the two previous years. That’ll be the same day that Jason LaBarbera pulls a Shaun Livingston on both knees and when I’ll be sentenced for Dan Cloutier’s murder." [Author's note: Consider yourself lucky, Dan, that you were sent down to Manchester. Yes, very lucky.]

Flash forward to last week, where this was written in something called Canada East Online:

"Garon went 13-10-6 with a 2.66 GAA and .907 save percentage [last year], but it became obvious he'd have to look elsewhere for his opportunity. Enter the Oilers.

'I thought going to LA would be my chance,' Garon said. 'They changed the coach and the GM. I was not the guy any more. I knew I would not get a chance, so it was best for me to get out of there.'"


That's the worst part: I knew this would happen. Mathieu Garon is a very good goalie who tended to get hurt at inopportune times. If we had just re-signed him instead of "Je m'appelle Suck" Aubin, the Kings would be in much better shape. Part of me is happy for Garon because he seems like a good guy, but another part of me wants to just fucking strangle Dave Taylor for that trade 3 summers ago. To recap:

-Kings trade Radek Bonk and Cristobal Huet for Mathieu Garon

-Garon gets two seasons to prove himself, gets hurt twice when he has the starting job wrapped up, and is then let go for nothing

-Huet wins 50 games for the Canadiens and becomes the toast of the town

-Bonk scores 62 points

-Rudy Kelly throws himself off a bridge

***

Don’t expect too much from either Purcell or Harrold tonight (if they play). Remember that they both have a fairly limited upside and they shouldn’t be expected to win games by themselves. Both are older than Kopitar, Johnson, Brown, and O’Sullivan, and there is a reason they’re just getting their shot now. I know, I think they’ll be productive members of the Los Angeles Kings for a few years to come as well, but it may be two years before we see it. Don’t get too excited just yet.

***

Holy shit:



Prediction: Garon plays awesomely and the Kings lose, 3-1. After the game, Garon separates his shoulder lifting his bag and never reclaims the starting job. Goal by O’Sullivan.



*I guess Bob and Jimmy said in their last telecast that they won't be making the Western Canada swing and it's not showing a Kings game on FSN West on my TV's program guide, so the game might not be on local TV tonight. NHL.com, however, says the game will be on. Will the game be on tonight? Dun-dun-dun!

17 comments:

Earl Sleek said...

Also, do the Ducks ever not play? Jesus.

Back-to-back games later this week. You'd think they were trying to set some kind of record.

Anonymous said...

reminds me I need to load up on booze.....this week..heavy with us playing the boring ass stars and wild

p.s. the kings used to have ollie joiken(however u spell it) jason blake (though he sucks this year) huet as mentioned...joe corvo (hes plus 15 22 points)...im probally missing some more...help me out rudy...sorry just had to rub more salt in the wound after that douchebags comment

RudyKelly said...

Umm... Robert Lang, Stephen Reinprecht, Darryl Sydor, Alexei Zhitnik, Philippe Boucher, Glenn Murray, Anson Carter (14 games, 1 point)... it's a veritable who's who of assholes who went on to bigger and better things once they left the Kings.

RudyKelly said...

Oh, and Tom Glavine.

Anonymous said...

our list isnt stellar...im sure earl can fill in the blanks..most of our guys got worse (lupul edmonton years..visheski-rucchin)or the same (lupul this year..martin gerber-he was decent with us too)..

only maybe

fire crotch mike commadore
and
matt cullen

got better..

p.s. yikes..should have kept Stephen Reinprecht

p.s.s. what happen to aki berg or patrick stefan hahaha

Black Dog said...

rudy - great stuff as always but you sound like me a couple of weeks ago; things must be bad - no slamming Edmonton?

what's the deal with Stuart? has he been brutal?

I think longterm you guys will be fine - at least you have your first round pick this year!

Marie said...

Of course FSN showed the Ducks game tonight...can't they just solely show Ducks games on that shitty public broadcast channel? Bryan Hayward doesn't deserve to be on FSN.

Unknown said...

I wish they'd show more games on KDOC. For me its that channels sole purpose for existance. Alas...

And I've even heard Hayward comment positively on opposing players, so look out for wings on pigs.

Ingmar "W" Bergman said...

That was one hell of a game by LaBarbera.

A question: Is the man haunted by demons? Looking at his eyes (through his mask) he looked mental.

Anonymous said...

"Bryan Hayward doesn't deserve to be on FSN." Apparently they actually think the Kings don't deserve to be on FSN. Even if they are on a winning streak. Go Kings!

Anonymous said...

"They" are right you know.... They really don't.

But if you are that hell bent on watching mediocre hockey, get NHL Center Ice. There is a ton of it in there.

Anonymous said...

Please, please get rid of Wilsie and keep Purcell up. He was great last night. The first time he touched the puck I thought, how can they justify having Wilsie play over this guy. Hopefully Bertuzzi will be summoned by Crawford and really take a bat to him.

If the Kings could only switch there defense with the Ducks Defense.

Marie said...

I'm not sure why Dallman and Willsie are still on the team. Too bad no other teams would want them because they need to go! Hopefully Purcell will still be with the team next week so I'll actually have the opportunity to watch him play.

I just don't understand why away games are not televised. Considering the TV schedule is created before the season starts (my assumption since my Kings calendar has all TV listings) you'd think the asshats would at least let Kings fans watch away games. Not counting the next two games, there are 5 more away games (one is against the Ducks, but maybe it'll be on KDOC!! yay!) and 1 home game that won't be televised

Earl Sleek said...

(one is against the Ducks, but maybe it'll be on KDOC!! yay!)

Hey, don't take it out on us; Ducks fans don't make the Kings' TV schedule.

That game will be televised; they've been having the home team air the telecasts for a while now--this shouldn't be new.

Marie said...

That game will be televised;

You're right. My calendar didn't have it listed, I should have double checked. It just means I'll have to listen to watch the game but listen to the radio.

Earl Sleek said...

watch the game but listen to the radio

Fair warning: The way the Ducks have been playing of late, you probably won't want to watch either.

Anonymous said...

i was hoping for a funny "EARL" post to lighten my boring day (work is boring and no ducks or lakers tonite)...but this funny comment will do

almost spit up my diet coke on my keyboard