Kings Win Kings Win!

Great Win and no need to get into the excitement and enthusiasm as most can feel it....Here are some thoughts.

Id heard rumors of the douche-baggery of Canuck fans but never investigated first hand until last night. Some of them are rational and knowledgable-the rest honestly seem no better then know nothing Duck fans who always feel there team can do no wrong and anything that goes against them is a conspiracy. Sadly-I expect more from Canadian fans then Duck fans. I can expect idiocy from a fan base who learned the game from Brian Hayward....whats the Canucks fans excuse?

All of the whining over officiating is comical. When Kelly Hrudey goes over the slow mo on the HNIC post game and shows it was a good call...you know you have no leg to stand on. I thought the call a no brainer personally and maybe this is complete self flagellation but I couldnt imagine if the roles were reversed Kings fan blaming anyone but A)Terry Murray or B)the offending player. Them arguing this call would be like us arguing the stick rule in 1993.

Listening to Canucks fans youd think we got away with robbery. Robbery IMO-would be the officiating in the Montreal game of last season or the Avs game years ago which actually saw Stu Nahan write an open letter to the LA Times about the game. I can understand the frustration with the Smyth High Stick-but why no debate about O'Brian roughing Brown in the 2nd? Brown follows up his shot-stands in front of Luongo as he covers the puck, Obrian comes in and grabs brown by the head. Somehow in the ensuing Fracas Moding and Erhoff get the only penalties. The non calls for Goalie Interference? Comical.

What really surprised me is out the numerous post game threads I read from the Nucks boards not one of them mentioned the injury to Kesler at the end of the game? he looked as bad as Vanek trying to get off the ice at the end of the game. Odd that officiation would garner several 40 plus page threads but an injury to their best checking center and emotional catalyst warrants nary a mention. Seriously, I want an update a kesler if anyone has one. What I wouldnt give to see an all american line of Kesler, Brown, and Backes one day.

The benching of Jones and Williams was the right move. As others mentioned-I wouldnt be surprised to see Williams back sometime....Jones maybe not so much.

Vignier(sp) vs TM- If post game comments effect the future officiating of the series I like our chances. Vignier complains about the officiating and points fingers will not bode well. Refs arent supposed to be biased and not let post game comments effect the game but-its not too different then the player who dives all of the time not getting the calls even when legitimate. Contrast to TM whose stoic demeanor rarely sees him blaming outside factors. Heck even when Bobby Ryan ran Moller- TM defended Ryan and said there should be no suspension. How many other NHL coaches would have said that?

I though Harrold play decent enough-he still made some of the mistakes that Jones may have made but showed the effort and gumption to not like those mistakes end of as goals. I was cringing at the multiple icings late in the 3rd though.

Quick-without question he is back on his game. The 2nd goal was iffy but as others have mentioned, he showed mega character but not letting him it affect him the rest of the game. That said-how sweet will next season be a Bernier/Quick tandem?

Forwards-Thought all of the forwards played very well. I like being able to roll all 4 lines. You can see the inexperience of Parse and Clune though. The flaw in Parses game is always going to be neutral zone decision making and we saw that once or twice. Clune had good speed but was having some troubles deciding whether to go in the forecheck in aggresive attack mode vs being responsible defensively. To Clunes credit he is a good enough skater where that hesitation stands out like a turd in a punchbowl like it would with Ivanans. Simmonds was solid and Modin and Halpern for that matter show the value of getting vets a playoff run.

Dmen- Jack Johnson played a whale of a game and Doughty is a god. Scuderi and ODonnell bring tons of experience...Scuderi in particular plays a playoff type game where he can generally always be counted on to make the right play. A pretty good combination on the D core.

I would like to think this may be the turning of the tide as far as momentum goes. As bad as they played in Game1 to think they almost won that is a very positive sign. And to think 2 of the 3 goals allowed were basically 2 bad plays made solely by a couple of players-it wasnt as if the goals were complete team breakdowns as much as it was a comedy of errors caused by each player is once again a great sign.

Wont go into fist pumping yet as its a long series with a long way to go but lets make some noise on monday and just keep the wheels rolling. Very proud of the team so far in both games quite frankly.

Some other NHL thoughts- Please let the Caps play the Pens sometime this playoffs....I really want to see Ovie and Crosby do battle for 7 games. On that same Caps related note-Green has been horrible and got called out by Keith Jones. Green looked like Randy Jones out there-bad enough play where I do not think he will be nominated for Norris. Oh yeah-I know post season awards are based on regular season play but thats a rumor...they say that simply to keep fans for non playoff teams interested. Bob Mackenzies tweets about Doughty can serve as exhibit A.

Cant wait to watch the Devs Flyers....watching Kovalchuk play physically and putting it on the line is really what the NHL is all about.

Pitt-Ottawa has been a brutal series as well that is turning into a must watch series. if only Pitt still had Gary Roberts to challenge the entire Sens team.

Mega Props to Mark Recchi-42 years old and still bring it!
You have to think how hard it is to play in the NHL or NFL for that matter...by the time you are in your mid 30s those are hard, hard years that physically take a huge toll. My hat goes off to anyone who can still play after 35 years of age in either of those sports.