Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown have been attached at the hip since Kopitar came into the league. Brown gave Kopitar a steady hand to feed the puck to, while Kopitar seemed to elevate Brown's game from that of a third-line grinder to a top line power forward. Both guys owe much of their success to one another and it's hard to imagine the two of them on different lines. But is it time to break them up, just to see what happens?
Dustin Brown's game has evolved these past two seasons. Kopitar used to be the dynamic playmaker of the two, but Brown has taken it upon himself to carry the puck a lot more this season; that's good, but Kopitar has looked a little lost when he's not the one carrying the puck into the zone. It's like two best friends in middle school, but one came to high school with breasts grown over the summer. It might be better off to throw Brown with Stoll and Frolov, giving that line a guy that can finish his chances, while putting Patrick O'Sullivan and Oscar Moller with Kopitar. The latter line managed to score both goals against the Oilers on Wednesday despite not actually playing together. Sully and Moller give Kopitar 2 players that can shoot well while still keeping the puck on his stick. Brown and Kopitar have been great, but it may be time to break them up.
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The Blackhawks have lost both California games (against San Jose and Anaheim) this weekend. Let's make it one more so Earl has to bust out the ol' rape graphic again.
Prediction: Kings win, 4-3. Goals by Quincey, Kopitar, Stoll and Handzus.
Tonight is Russian Heritage Night at Staples Center, which is a great idea because it gets all of them in one spot so we can capture them. I stopped paying attention to politics in 1989, so I don't know too much, but I do know that commies are bad and I hate them. They tried to trick me with that whole Glasnost thing, but I know what's up: Russians, having failed to take over the world economically, are now trying to take over through hockey. They've infiltrated our nation's capital, led by their furry leader, Alex Ovechkin. His comrades Alex Semin (hehe) and Sergei Fedorov are probably "out" tonight, but I'm pretty sure it's all a ruse for some sort of un-American activity.* Standing in their way? The good, solid, American squad of Los Angeles Kings, led by Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Erik Ersberg. The Kings are the only thing standing in the way of a Russian invasion, and I'll be damned if they're going to fail. "Wolverines!"
*We really should start some sort of committee to investigate all these Un-American activities. I think the House of Representatives should get on this.
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As part of Russian Heritage Night, the Kings are offering a ticket that allows you to get two free vodka drinks. Does that seem offensive to anyone else? Are they going to have a African-American heritage night and offer Kool-Aid? I don't get why we as a society let stuff like that slide and yet when I offer my penis to the girls' soccer team I'm the asshole. Geez, you've never seen 10 year-olds create such a commotion.
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As promised, here's your chance to vote on a new nickname for the Patrick O'Sullivan-Anze Kopitar-Dustin Brown line. I vow to call this line whatever nickname you pick for the rest of the season or until I get bored. The popular option in the comments was Danzick O'Brownitar, and commenter Reeces came up with this picture (I think he used Kopitar's eyes):
Weird that you can take three ugly guys, combine them, and the result is James Marsden.
Terry Murray has reunited the Patrick O'Sullivan-Anze Kopitar-Dustin Brown line that was such a surprising success in the 2nd half of last season. If that sentence sounds familiar it's because I wrote it about 3 weeks ago the first time Murray did this; then they played one game together and Murray put O'Sullivan on the 4th line. Now O'Sullivan is seemingly back and I think it's time the line deserved a name. because I had this all set up before Murray dicked them (and me around). Here's a few options I came up with, and then I'll take a few good suggestions in the comments and have a vote tomorrow. Hooray for democracy!
Option A: LAPD, Central Division- This option evokes memories of the old LAPD line (Allison-Palffy-Deadmarsh), but it has the added bonus of being a little bit more rough 'n tumble than the old line. The name works because their names work (Anze-Patrick-Dustin) and it's similar to the older incarnation because all three had a niche that complimented the other two. The downside to this name is obviously the fact that all three LAPD members were out of hockey 4 years after they first hooked up. Also, the name isn't entirely original.
Option B: Dawn of the Dead Line- A solid comedy option, the name works because the line is unyielding and relentless; also, all three of them look like zombies. I chose "Dawn" because they're all young and at the dawning of their career. (I'm clever.) This line could also be called the Sandman Line, although I'm starting to think that Dustin Brown should take that name for himself. The best part of this nickname: when they score, the entire arena could moan, "BRAAAIIIINNNSSS." It admittedly wouldn't make much sense, but it would be funny.
Option C: The Whew Line- "Shit, is that Kyle Calder? Oh, it's just Patrick O'Sullivan. Whew."
Option D: The Maxi-PAD Line- So called because their names line up (Patrick-Anze-Dustin) and because they give maximum effort on every shift. The downside is... actually, I can't think of one. Try to make fun of that name, pundits!
So there you go. Let me know if you have any good ideas in the comments. Something involving raccoons would be appreciated.
Update: This doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I'll be damned if it's not the most adorable thing I've ever seen:
Brown doesn't knock Robidas over the boards, he knocks him above the boards. That's one of the better board shots you're going to see.
Brown got a 5-minute boarding major for this one. Like I pointed out during the off-season, Brown hardly ever gets penalties as a result of his hits and I don't really think this should have been 5 minutes. At the same time, however, Brown hit a guy on the numbers and his face hit the boards, so it's definitely boarding. It was mostly an accident and a result of Ribeiro flinching away from contact, but I wouldn't be too surprised if Brown got a one-game suspension out of it. Morrow got a penalty for instigation and is supposed to get a one-game suspension and a fine, but I assume the league will rescind it after considering the score and the situation.
Ribeiro had a really nice shootout goal and followed it up with pointless showboating, first putting his hand to his pouty lips to silence the crowd and then skating by the Kings bench and mouthing off. I love the idea of a guy talking smack when not 5 minutes earlier he was lying crumpled on the ice, but I guess that's what the Dallas Stars are now. I feel kind of bad for Mike Modano and Segei Zubov: those guys have been class acts their whole careers and have led that team to so much glory and now their twilight years are being spent surrounded by a bunch of crowing jackasses. Oh well, I'm sure they'll have a lot to crow about today, seeing as how they're sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Division.
Do you guys remember when Patrick Marleau scored on his own net in overtime against the Sharks? I think he tried to stickhandle it and ended up shooting it right in. I was at the game in Anaheim and when Marleau scored I looked over at Meg and he had his head in his hands. It was hilarious.
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Icethetics (which I imagine is Sean Avery's favorite blog) has a new picture of the Kings' third jersey logo. Meh, we'll see how it looks on the jersey. At least it doesn't have purple.
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Sean Avery is a douche bag. Seriously, I can forgive a lot of things, but being bad teammate to a young player isn't one of them. I would hope Brown would crush Avery tonight but the reality is that Avery probably wouldn't have the puck long enough to get hit. I'm sure he'll goad Gauthier or someone like that into a fight and mask the fact that he took 2 bad penalties earlier in the game. Therein lies the essence of Sean Avery.
Prediction: Kings win, 4-1. Goals by O'Donnell, Harrold, Simmonds and Ersberg.
Los Angeles Kings(3-4-1) vs. Vancouver Canucks(4-5)
7:30 PST, Fox Sports West
Patrick O'Sullivan will skate with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar tonight, reuniting the Sandman Line* that was so effective in the 2nd half of last season. It's all well and good for those three because they love playing with one another, but the question I have is: why? Kopitar, Brown, and O'Sullivan are all playing over 18 minutes a game and they're all averaging about a point a game on separate lines. Kopitar and Brown have been effective though somewhat smothered by opposing defenses, while O'Sullivan has been the driving force on the third line** alongside Jarret Stoll and Oscar Moller. It seems like this is a move designed to end Kopitar's perceived struggles, but at the expense of the Kings' newfound offensive depth.
*I call them the Sandman Line because they put opponents to sleep. Actually, it's because they all look really tired.
**Can we end the whole charade that Alex Frolov is on the third line? He and Handzus are playing the 3rd and 4th minutes on the team among forwards. They're playing against the other teams top lines. And they're doing awesome. They're not the 3rd line.
There were a few more shifts in the line-up worth mentioning. Well, they're not, but I'm going to anyway. Kyle Calder has joined Jarret Stoll (I keep writing "Stool" instead) and Oscar Moller on the 3rd line. It'll be interesting to see how this line does: will Stoll and Moller be able to create offense on their own, or will Calder drag them down? The answers are, in order, "no" and "yes."
Matt Moulson also rejoins the lineup tonight in place of Brad Richardson. The move is designed to provide a little defensive responsibility. Of course, the defensive problem on that line is not Richardson but instead Ivanans and Armstrong. I dont' know why the Kings don't sit Ivanans for a game because he's been sucking and not fighting lately, but who the hell knows. I think Richardon, Boyle and Moulson should all play one game, just to see how the Kings do with 4 legit lines. Oh well. No one really cares, I guess. Hey look, a duck.
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The Vancouver Luongos come into town tonight, led by their resolute captain. A lot of people made a big deal out of Luongo being named captain, but why the fuck not? He's their best player, he's probably the best athlete on the team, and he's a pretty outgoing guy. It's not like the past where goalies were dangerous lunatics that couldn't be reasoned with. As a goaltender myself, I am tired of the blatant stereotypes perpetuated upon my race. If a black man can become president, a goalie can become captain. Now that's change I can believe in.
Prediction: Kings win, 3-2. Goals by O'Sullivan, Kopitar, and Brown. Well, they better score, anyway; it's not like anyone else is going to now.
-He puts Frolov, Brown and Kopitar on the penalty kill when they haven't played in a while and paired them for a shift when Frolov got out of the box
-He's trusting his young guys and giving them playing time in important situations: Doughty is playing 20 minutes a game, Moller is getting regular time on the power play, and Simmonds is getting regular minutes with Alex Frolov
-He seems to have instilled a team commitment to defense that is actually working and players are actually sticking up for one another
A few random thoughts about last night's game:
-Patrick O'Sullivan was again excellent. Since the Kings only have 2 games in the next 9 days, I imagine the Kings will work O'Sullivan in with one of the top 2 lines.
-Dustin Brown has been asserting himself a lot more carrying the puck, but I don't think Kopitar is comfortable moving without the puck. And Brown pasted Sammy Pahlsson in one of the best hits you're going to see.
-Tom Preissing and Michal Handzus are still overpaid but actually look pretty good out there.
-Jarret Stoll has a shot.
-Jason Labarbera is playing pretty well. Sure, he still gives up a few bad rebounds and he's not a great scrambler, but he's stands big in the net and gives his defensemen confidence.
-What the hell has gotten into Derek Armstrong? He's really mad all the time. I hope everything's okay at home.
(Scroll down past this post if you want to see one of Earl's crazy charts. Yeah, I wouldn't either.)
I was lying in bed trying to think of how I'd integrate Patrick O'Sullivan back into the lineup and I came up with this:
The first game, I'd bench him. I'd take him to my office and explain that there are 22 other guys in the locker room that worked hard the past 2 weeks to get a chance to play in the NHL and I was going to reward him for that. Plus, he's still a little out of game shape and I don't want him getting hurt.
The second game, I'd suit him up. I'd let his name get announced in front of the Staples Center crowd and let him experience a big ovation to let him know that the fans welcome him back and everything's okay. I'd only play him maybe 4 or 5 minutes, though, and scratch Ivanans. Let Calder skate on the 4th line and use Patty sparingly.
I'd sit him the 3rd game against Anaheim so he can work on his conditioning and then play him against Carolina, this time on the 3rd line in Brad Richardson's place. Let him slowly work his way up like he did last year and give him a little penalty kill time if he's earned it.
He will probably be feeling pretty good by this point so I'd let him play in the Kings' 5th game and then one of the back-to-back games that weekend. I'd keep him in the same role and encourage him to prove that he belongs in a scoring role again.
That next week the Kings have their 8th, 9th, and 10th games of the season and I would expect O'Sullivan should be back in game shape. At that point I'd make a decision on Oscar Moller; if he's ready for a full NHL season I'd put O'Sullivan up with Kopitar and Brown and put Matt Moulson with Richardson/Simmonds and Handzus, and if he's not then I'd send him down and skate O'Sullivan-Stoll-Frolov. Either way, I'm ready to roll two good scoring lines and Patrick O'Sullivan is back and ready to rock.
What do you guys think? Should the Kings "punish" O'Sullivan for holding out? Should they give him his old job back? Should I get a hobby? Let everyone know in the comments.
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Dustin Brown is the new captain of the Los Angeles Kings. He's the 12th captain in Kings' history, 13th if you want to count Blake's two stints separately. Take a look at the past few captains:
Dave Taylor, 85-89 Wayne Gretzky, 89-96 Luc Robitaille, 92-93 (Gretzky was out most of the year with a bad back) Rob Blake, 96-01 Mattias Norstrom, 01-07 Rob Blake, 07-08
Those are some big shoes to fill, but I think Brown is a good guy and should be able to fill them easily. It's going to be fun watching him for at least the next 6 years.
Anze Kopitar and Matt Greene were named assistant captains. Kopitar was expected because he's definitely the on-ice leader of the team but Greene is a little bit of a surprise. He's supposed to be pretty funny so maybe he's assuming goof duties from now on. One thing I like is that the Kings didn't pick any veteran for a leadership role. I think if they had picked one of Jarrett Stoll, Sean O'Donnell, Michal Handzus or Alex Frolov it would have sent a message that the others weren't worthy. By picking all younger guys the Kings are giving the veterans in the room a message where the Kings are headed and what is expected of them as old guys. That doesn't really make sense I'm too lazy to change it. It's gonzo blogging!
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Jeff Zatkoff has been sent down to the Ontario Reign to assume goaltending duties. We'd all like to see a Bernier/Zatkoff duo curbstomp the competition in Manchester, but this is good for a few reasons:
-This will probably allow both Zatkoff and Bernier an opportunity to experience a full professional season. Zatkoff's career high games played is 36 and Bernier's is 54. Placing both of them in a unchallenged starter's role will allow them to adjust to the grueling minor league schedule.
-This gives the Kings options if either Labarbera or Ersberg get hurt. If one of the two were to get hurt a few hours before the game, the Kings can just call up Jeff Zatkoff as an emergency fill-in. No more will the Kings undergo travesties like last season, when Jonathan Quick had to fly between Reading to start and Los Angeles to back up Erik Ersberg.
-I get to watch Zatkoff play. I plan on going to a Reign game or two and I don't want to root for some fat oaf. Now the Kings just need to assign Wayne Simmonds, Alec Martinez and Anze Kopitar to Ontario and I'll be all set. Also, when Ontario scores, are they going to play "Make it Rain" by Fat Joe? I would chuckle.
It will be interesting to see how the Kings handle the other goaltenders in the pipeline. It's been made clear that Jonathan Bernier, Jeff Zatkoff and Jonathan Quick are the three stars of the goaltending group and Daniel Taylor, for whatever reason, does not belong. Do the Kings keep Taylor in Manchester and give Bernier most of the starts, or do they let Quick and Bernier share responsibilities in Manchester and place Taylor in Ontario or Reading?* It's something you can watch for, or at least forget about until I remind you in a few days. The things I do for you people.
*I guess the Kings are still affiliated with the Royals in that they can send players down if they're wanted. I imagine they wouldn't mind having one of our goaltenders.
Over at Kings Vision(the multimedia arm of LAKings.com) there are interviews with Dustin Brown and Alex Frolov, discussing what they have been doing to improve their fitness during the off-season. Brownie has been doing a lot of sled runs over at the roller rink at Toyota Sports Complex along with a little muscle building*, while Frolov has been doing a lot of plyometric exercises and joke cracking. It's kind of cool if you are interested in that sort of thing.
*The dude looks pretty built. He was listed at 200 lbs. last year but there's no way he weighs that little this season.
Rod Brind'amour's totally on steroids, right?
It's kind of funny when you watch that sort of thing because you kind of forget that hockey players are such good athletes. I tend to think that there's 2 kinds of strength: there's the ability to lift shit and then there's endurance. Hockey players are probably the best fusion between the two, but we never really notice it. We don't notice it because hockey players wear long sleeves (so you don't notice that they're actually ripped) and because skating doesn't look hard. (Also, I think a lot of people assume hockey players aren't good athletes because they're not black, but that's another argument for another day.) I have friends that wonder why hockey players are only out on the ice for 50 seconds at a time and they just refuse to believe that the guys are basically sprinting out there for the half their shift. It's good for us to remember that these guys are great athletes.
Earlier I covered how Anze Kopitar rates among the young forwards in the NHL. Today I thought we'd take a look at how Ryan Getzlaf rates among the, uh, older young players in the league. Eric Staal (he of the newly minted $8.25/7 year deal*) gets a lot of press because scored over 100 points as a 20 year-old, Mike Richards gets acclaim because he plays on the East Coast, and Paul Stastny looks like the Predator without his mask on, but there have to be some out there who would take Getzlaf over all of them. Not me, because Getzlaf takes too many penalties, but someone else. Also, there's something about Getzlaf that strike me as sinister. He looks like he should be in the back of the Bang Bus, not the team bus. Anyway, here's ten players that are around 23 years old. Rate them how you see fit.
*Should Kings' fans start hoping Kopitar gets hurt this season? Nothing career-threatening, but maybe a broken foot or something. At this point I have my fingers crossed that we can sign him for under $7 million.
Dustin Brown led the league with 311 hits, which is all very cool. More important, however, was the fact that Brown led the league in hits while still being remarkably clean. I was bored so I took a look at the top 3 leaders in hits (Brown, Mike Komisarek and Brenden Morrow) to see how many "aggression penalties" (elbowing, roughing, charging, etc.) each guy got. The result? Brown's worth is enhanced by the fact that he gets his hits without taking additional penalties. As a bonus, he hardly ever takes himself out of the game through fighting and often goads the other fighter into additional penalties.
Dustin Brown
311 hits 55 PIM 3 Fights
Dustin Brown only had 6 minutes of "aggression penalties," 2 roughs and 1 elbow. He had 3 fights:
-against Eric Brewer, who fought Brown because Brown clicked him with a high stick -against DaymondLangkow, who received a 2-minute roughing penalty (and got his ass kicked) -against Brent Seabrook, who got an instigator penalty for rightly fighting Brown after Dustin elbowed Jonathan Toews
Brown's other penalties were for hooks and trips and the like. That's pretty remarkable that he can get that many hits without getting many penalties. It says to me that Brown is looking for the play, not the hit. He could cut down on his other penalties, but that negative effect is likely outweighed by his excellent ability to draw penalties.
Mike Komisarek
266 hits 101 PIM 5 fights
Mike Komisarek had 12 minutes in aggression penalties: 5 roughs and an instigation. He had 5 fights and didn't goad an additional penalty in any of them. In the playoffs, Komisarek had 10 aggression penalty minutes in 12 games. I guess he got a little excited. Overall, Komisarek is getting the job done with his hitting but he needs to reign it in a little bit to cause more impact. Plus, the dude could stand to stop taking so many penalties period. He is his team's best penalty killer but he's usually the one in the box.
Brenden Morrow
260 hits 105 PIM 5 fights
Morrow had 18 aggression penalty minutes: 4 roughs, 2 elbows, 2 charges, and a knee. Eclectic. Morrow had 5 fights and took an additional penalty in one of them while goading an instigator in one. The problem with Morrow, at least to me, is who he fought: Steve Bernier, Aaron Voros, Nathan McIver, Adam Burish, Ryan Suter. Morrow is way too valuable to the Stars to be wasting his time in the penalty box with Aaron Voros.
(The guy really needs to calm down when he's playing the Ducks. He had 18 minutes in penalty in the 8 regular season games against them, a lot of them while battling Francois Beauchemin. That kind of makes me laugh. I mean, of all the people on the Ducks, you hate Beauchemin?)
Hits are like stolen bases in baseball. Sure, it's nice number, but you have to understand that there is risk associated with it. It's great if a guy steals 50 bases, but if he's getting thrown out a third of the time then it's kind of worthless. In the same way, Brenden Morrow's positive impact is likely countered by his penalties that take him off the ice completely. Aggression is great, but only if it's controlled and dedicated towards winning the game. Guys like Komisarek and Morrow are BJ Upton; Dustin Brown is Ichiro.
*I expected the difference in aggression penalties to be a little more extreme, to be honest. It looks like amount of aggression penalties you take is proportional to the amount of other penalties you get. That might invalidate this whole thing, I don't know, but I spent the time looking this up so I'm throwing it out there. It's possible that guys like Brenden Morrow don't care about the number of penalties they take because they think the stuff they get away with makes up for it. Maybe?
Rudy’s away on his “get pissed at nature” outing, so I guess it’s up to me to pass along this rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of the Kings’, uh, equipment.
Isn't Battle of California above this sort of junior-high-level immaturity? Not on Fridays!
[EARL EDIT: As you may know, Rudy is off traveling the world, but he has left some Kings post for me to post to help us pass the time. I'm still on my blog break until the cup finals are over, but I'll note that my distractions are coming to a close: I've passed all the story missions in GTA4 and am ready to start Season Three in Battlestar Galactica. In the meantime, here's a PuckToon to prove that I'm still alive and watching hockey. Anyway, here's Rudy...]
78 GP, 33 G, 27 A, 60 pts, -13, 55 PIM, 311 hits
Grade: A
Nicknames: Spike, Sawed Off
Last Season: In terms of overall achievements, Dustin Brown probably had the best year of any player in the NHL not named Alexander Ovechkin. Coming into the year, much was expected of Brown.He had played on L.A.’s top line the previous season and had shown a sign of progress.Still, much of his success could be attributed to the stunning debut of Anze Kopitar and not Brown himself.At the end of that season, however, Kopitar had gotten hurt and Brown had responded by actually improving his play, tallying 11 points in 11 games.Brown continued to progress his play this season, setting a career high in points and leading the league in hits.It wasn’t so much the raw totals that impressed me, though; it was the way he got them.
Brown has always been known as an impressive and devastating hitter.My favorite memory of Dustin thus far has been a game he had against Anaheim.Chris Pronger had the puck and came out of the corner where he was met by Brown, who promptly knocked him flat.Pronger hacked him in the leg (at least he didn’t step on him) and said some unkind words.A few shifts later, Pronger had the puck along the boards and Brown knocked him off the puck, took it into the slot and scored a goal.Brown is a quiet guy* but he definitely has a little bit of asshole in him that helps make him a better player.
*Brown’s wife talked way more than he did on his In My Own Words special. Also, she was kind of a nag to him.You'd think a woman named Nicole Brown would show a little more deference to her L.A-based, professional athlete husband.
This season, though, Brown was able to focus his hitting a little better.The big difference this season is that he didn’t try to make a hit to affect the play; he tried to affect the play by making a hit.It seems like semantics, but there is a difference.Brown didn’t go out of his way to make a hit, but instead made the hit that was available to him.He didn’t have as many giant hits as you’d expect, but he had hits that affected games.That made him a much, much more effective player than he was the previous year.
Another difference in Brown’s game was that he became a much better diver.I’m not talking about the kind of diving that Corey Perry does, where you flop where there is no call.I’m talking about the type of flopping that Shaq does, where he flops because otherwise a penalty would go unnoticed.Brown is so strong* and so balanced that opposing players would be able to hook and hold him with impunity.According to On the Forecheck, Brown ended up drawing 65 penalties this season, tops in the league and directly in front of Crosby, Ovechkin and Datsyuk. His penalty plus/minus was also tops in the league. Of course, Crosby didn't play the whole season, but he's also a whiny bitch so fuck 'im. The ability draw penalties is a very important and underrated part of the game, and it's a part of the game Brown excels at.
So, to recap: Brown led the set career-highs in goals and points, led the league in hits and penalties drawn, signed a 6-year, team-friendly deal, and had his first child.He’ll probably become the captain of this team in a few years and was a major contributor on a young and improving U.S. National team.Nice year.
*Kevin & Bean would classify him as “retard strong.”He should hang out with Eli Manning.
Next Year:Brown will turn 24 next year and continue his development.He’s managed to find a nice balance between getting to the front of the net and creating space for Kopitar and also creating his own play when Kopitar is tied up.What would I like to see Brown work on for next year?I’d like to see him become more of a force in front on the power play.This is just anecdotal evidence, but it seemed to me that the Kings had far fewer tipped goals than other teams we played.If Brown can become a power forward who can also get those garbage goals in front, he’d really open our power play and give Kopitar and Visnovsky more space to create opportunities.Other than that, he just needs to keep getting better.In a season full of negatives, Brown was definitely a positive.
Dustin Brown oomfed Jussin Jokinen at the World Championships right as the final horn sounded. It was probably unnecessary and rude and all that stuff, but it wasn't against a King so I don't really care. The real story was after the hit (around the 2:00 minute mark), when Teemu Selanne came out of nowhere to throw his fists in Brown's face. Brown did not take kindly to it and repaid Selanne a little bit later in the clip. Should make next year a little more interesting. This means that the only Pacific team that has not been involved in an international incident so far is Dallas, for obvious reasons... although, I guess Jokinen used to play for them. Screw it, that counts. The Pacific Division: More Harmful to International Relations Than the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand!
Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan made Team USA!
Other Kings who will likely play in the World Championships include Anze Kopitar and Alex Frolov. Mike Cammalleri has a pretty good track record in international play, so Canada may pick him up despite his sub-standard play this season. Hopefully Handzus and Lubo sit this one out, since they seem like they could use the rest.
Now, what the hell are the "play-offs" everyone keeps talking about?
So the Kings actually beat the Red Wings last night. It wasn't one of those, "Got a few lucky breaks and then shut down defensively" games either; the Kings were the ones catching the bad breaks, what with Jason Labarbera pulling his best Dan Cloutier impression last night.* The Kings entered the third down, 3-1, and I had pretty much chalked it up as another game the Kings should have won but didn't. Earl had a great line in the Ice Sheet over at the Fanhouse: "In Biblical fashion, though, David forgot to die." An even better analogy would have been, "In Biblical fashion, after David had to find his slingshot because his idiot friend Jason lost it, David kicked Goliath's ass."
*You know when you're playing in a rec league and your goalie can't make it? You ask the goalies coming off the rink but they can't play so you have to borrow the rink's stuff and that random guy on your team has to play goal? That's what Labarbera looked like last night.
This game was pretty much all about Alex Frolov. He was out there for all 4 third-period goals and I would say pretty much dominated. For one night at least, he played better than Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. I'd say he's relatively healthy (no hockey player is completely healthy this time of year) for the first time this season and we're starting to see how good he can be.
Having Frolov and Kopitar on the same line isn't really fair, is it? I love the Brown/Kopitar connection (these two should have a nickname), but Frolov and Kopitar out there at the same time is insane. Look at tonight: Handzus' line played well but they're not really a scoring line, Moulson was invisible, Boyle had a few opportunities but couldn't close, and Derek Armstrong is awful, yet we still beat the Red Wings on the strength of that one line and our power play. Hmm...
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What's crazier, that Dion Phaneuf signed a 6-year, $39.5 million dollar contract as a 22-year old or that Calgary fans were praising him for taking a hometown discount, just like Iginla ($7 mil/yr) and Kiprusoff ($5.83 mil/yr)? They better hope Kristian Huselius and Daymond Langkow really love being a Flame, because otherwise they're pretty fucked.
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Dustin Brown had a son and will be back for Saturday's game. He couldn't have made it back tonight? Not to be insensitive, but is a baby really that much to look at? He could have come back, played tonight, and then seen the kid when the Kings come back in a week. That way, the wife has had a little time to get back in shape (That's how long it takes, right? A week?) and the baby wouldn't be all covered in slime. But hey, what do I know, I just care about this team.
(No seriously, congratulations. I think the baby's first word should be, "Anze.")
