LA Kings Blog:Despite loss to Sharks, not all is bad in LA

J.R. Reed
2008-03-19 03:23:29

The LA Kings are in one of those good news/bad news situations right now.  The bad news is that their last nine games of the season are all against their four Pacific Division foes—three of which are a lock for the playoffs (San Jose, Anaheim and Dallas) and the fourth (Phoenix) fighting for the eighth spot.  The good news?  Although the Kings are out of the playoff hunt, they can at least get a little satisfaction out of playing spoiler for someone.

They hosted a hungry San Jose Sharks team on Tuesday night.  The Sharks had their 11 game win streak halted on Sunday by the Edmonton Oilers and the Sharks were hot to get back in the win column as they try to catch the Detroit Red Wings and take control of a very wild West.  San Jose won the game 2-1, but didn’t look anything like the team that streaked to those 11 wins.

While there is certainly a lot of negative press directed towards the Kings right now, not all is bad in L.A.  The Kings are 15th in the league in goals with 200 and they do have one of the best young forward lines in the NHL, featuring Anze Kopitar (29/40/69), Patrick O Sullivan ((19/26/45) and Dustin Brown (30/23/53).  When you add in young blueliner Jack Johnson, goalie prospect Jonathan Bernier and the chance at Steven Stamkos in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, you can see that the Kings potentially have a very bright future.

The L.A. power play (17.6%) looked no better against the Sharks as San Jose cleared the zone with ease against the Kings defense and the Sharks even had a breakaway of their own on goalie Dan Cloutier.  Cloutier did show some chutzpah* during the game, however.  When the teams broke for a TV time out with 8:16 remaining in the second period the goalie made a brief stop at the San Jose bench to have a few words with whomever would listen to him.  The referee had to come over and escort Cloutier to the proper bench. 

The Kings held San Jose to a pair of goals, but in all fairness, the Sharks did not look like the dominating team that rattled off 11 in a row before falling to the Oilers on Sunday night. 

L.A. finally got on the board at the 15:13 mark of the third period when Derek Armstrong set up behind Brian Boucher and fed Lubomir Visnovsky at the top of the circle for a one-timer over the shoulder of the San Jose netminder.  The goal seemed to give the Kings some life and they somehow found another gear and they spent a big chunk of the remaining time in front of Boucher, who is now 2-0 on the season. 

*Yiddish term for bravery bordering on arrogance.

Jason Reed has covered the NHL, WCHL and ECHL since 1999-2000 and currently hosts three sports radio shows on KLBC in Long Beach, CA.  He also writes a column for Hockeytalk.biz—J.R.’s Rink Rants and has been featured regularly in Face Off across Europe plus OC Metro and more than 20 magazines and newspapers across North America.