Kings Gameday: Arr?

Los Angeles Kings (3-5-1) vs. Calgary Cammalleris (6-3-1)

7:00 PST, Fox Sports West

This are the lines for tonight's game:

Moulson-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Moller(?)-Calder
O'Sullivan-Handzus-Simmonds
Stoll(???)-Boyle-Ivanans


Me and Mutton (the name I gave the dog in the picture) are confused. It was just the game prior that the Kings reunited Patrick O'Sullivan with Anze Kopitar and now the lines have been changed again. Basically the Kings have replaced Alexander Frolov with Patrick O'Sullivan on the stopper line (don't know why), moved Moller to center (don't know why), and moved Stoll from 2nd line center to 4th line winger (haven't a clue). Weird. That 2nd line looks pretty terrible, so hopefully they're not playing big minutes. Should be an interesting game to watch. What would I like to see?

Moulson-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Handzus-Moller
O'Sullivan-Stoll-Purcell
Richardson-Boyle-Armstrong

***

The Kings' biggest problem this season has been their 3rd defensive pairing. Tom Preissing and Peter Harrold are the Kings' best options for that position but they play pretty much the same game. Denis Gauthier brings a physical element but that's about it and he's been killing the team with his defensive play. The Kings need to look into bringing someone up for Gauthier, I reckon. (Reckon?)

***

Mike Cammalleri is 2nd on the Flames with 11 points in 10 games. He's a fast starter and will probably cool off a little bit, but good for him so far. Todd Bertuzzi is tied for the team lead in goals with 6. He can go fuck himself.


Prediction: Kings win, 5-4 (so). Every goal by Kyle Calder, who then comes to my house and beats me up. Can't say I blame him.

Patrick O'Sullivan Signed

Rich Hammond is reporting that Patrick O'Sullivan has signed a three-year deal. No word on numbers yet.

"I shot him with a small revolver I keep near my balls."

I'm starting to wonder if Oscar Moller is being treated like Robert Downey, Jr.'s character in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. In the movie, Downey is brought to LA and shown off at a lot of parties by a movie producer to bring down the number on Colin Farrell. The same thing may be happening here. I think the Kings are hoping Ted Purcell and Patrick O'Sullivan see Oscar Moller taking their spots and start working a little harder to improve their game. Then, after 10 games, Moller can go down to Junior feeling better about himself and Purcell and O'Sullivan can join the team properly motivated. Is it a crazy theory? Yeah. Hey, you don't pay for this stuff, pipe down.


Awesome Update:

The numbers average out to $2.95 million dollars a season over 3 years but will pay him $4 million this year to help the Kings out with their cash budget.

Fuck. Yes.

I mean, I always hope that the term will be a little longer but overall this is pretty great. The Kings get 3 solid years of Patrick O'Sullivan up through his age 26 season. O'Sullivan gets paid and the Kings get a good deal to see how the team shakes out. By the time O'Sullivan's deal is up, guys like Doughty, Moller and Simmonds will be up as well. Some people may think that's a bad idea, but I actually prefer because it allows the GM to make decisions all at once and not get cornered by previous deals.

I don't know when O'Sullivan will be in game shape or on what line he'll play on, but hopefully he'll be ready to go sooner rather than later. He gives the Kings a lot of different options because he can play all three positions and can line up on the power play and penalty kill. I imagine the Kings will work him in slowly and then replace Moller with O'Sullivan when Moller has to go back to Junior. Not to toot my own horn, but I said before camp that I liked a Moulson-Kopitar-Brown line with a Frolov-Stoll-O'Sullivan line, and it seems we might get just that. Toot.

Lombardi got Patrick O'Sullivan signed for less than Andrei Kotsistyn's deal. Man, O'Sullivan signs and Rise Against's new CD comes out on the same day. Everything's comin' up Rudy!

Kings Make Final Cuts

The Kings have made their final cuts of training camp. The big winners were Wayne Simmonds, Oscar Moller and Erik Ersberg. Simmonds and Moller were expected to come up, get a pat on the head and then travel to their respective minor league teams but both were highly praised all camp and definitely earned this opportunity. I think Moller will play with Kopitar, but he may get slotted alongside Frolov and Stoll. Or Simmonds could. Who the fuck knows. Ersberg ended up beating out Jonathan Quick for the back-up job, which was to be expected. It's more important for Quick to play at this time and Ersberg can hold place until one of the young guys demands attention.

The big loser at training camp was Ted Purcell, who was shockingly sent down to Manchester. I guess the Kings felt the rest of his game needed rounding out (or maybe they wanted him to practice left wing, since the Kings currently have a logjam on the right side), but it still has to be a pretty big blow to him. Hopefully he takes it the right way and continues to improve.

The Kings ended up keeping only 22 players. If you're an optimist, you assume this is because Patrick O'Sullivan is on the verge of signing. If you're a pessimist, you assume this is because John Zeiler is about to come off the DL. Also, the injuries to Cliche, Clune, and Zeiler put the Kings over the cap. I think. I don't think anyone really knows.

The Chances of Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds

One interesting aspect of this whole Patrick O'Sullivan holdout thing is that it opens up one more spot on the roster for a little while. If O'Sullivan were to wait another couple weeks to sign, he'd probably miss the first few games while he got in game shape. In the meantime, prospects Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds have impressed in training camp, leading some to wonder if they can earn a spot. In reality, it was extremely unlikely they were going to beat out someone like Ted Purcell or Kyle Calder, but with O'Sullivan gone they may have a chance to stay up and get in a few games.

You need to clear that puck or we'll all gonna die!

Oscar Moller is the more skilled of the two and has more hockey sense; though small, Moller is pretty tenacious and works well in the corners. Also, he looks like Captain America from Generation Kill. Last night Moller scored a goal and 2 assists in only 12 minutes of action. The problem with Moller is that he's a little small and probably couldn't hang for a full NHL season quite yet, but the Kings may decide to keep him up for the 10-game limit before sending him back to Chilliwack of the WHL.

Feel the rhythm/feel the rhyme/get on up/it's ass-kicking time!

Wayne Simmonds, on the other hand, is what my roommate in college would call a CAB (Cool Ass Brother).* Simmonds probably doesn't have the hockey sense to hang in the NHL, but he does not quit and would definitely make an impact for the Kings. Plus, the crowd would fall in love with him in about .4 seconds because he's cool and I'm already in love with him because he looks like the main guy from Cool Runnings. (In my head he's starring in a real life sequel.) He had a goal, a fight, and a game misconduct last night in Kansas City. Simmonds will be headed to Manchester this season to work on his defense and to get bigger, but he could end up staying if the Kings replace O'Sullivan's minutes with a current roster player. I have to admit, I really want to give Simmonds a shot because I think he has earned it.

*I'd stumble over my words and then whisper that he's African-Canadian.

What's that old saying, when someone closes a door they open a window? That doesn't make sense, because why would you close a door and then immediately open a window and what if you have a cat, but it works for the Kings' purposes. The Kings seem to have gotten lucky with Moller and Simmonds and they could use O'Sullivan's holdout as an opportunity to reward them for their hard work.

Also, Jarret Stoll had 3 hooking penalties last night. Uh oh.