For the first 50 minutes or so, this looked like a good team playing a great team. Despite the shots on goal, Detroit clearly looked like the superior team to me. They were getting to more loose pucks, they were getting more bounces, and they had a lot of very good scoring chances. But the Kings didn't give up. That's sort of becoming their M.O. this season. For the second straight game, they trailed by two in the third period and didn't give up. They stole a point tonight.
After the Wings opened the third period with a goal to make it 3-1, J.R. fired one past Manny Legace to bring the Kings to within one. Minutes later, Thomas Holmstrom banged home a Datsyuk pass to push the lead back to three. That's pretty much when I assumed it was over. But the Kings came right back with Conroy banging home a rebound of a Demitra shot to pull within one. Frolov netted the equalizer after stealing the puck from Jiri Fischer, then stickhandling past Legace, who had committed to the loose puck.
The overtime was pretty predictable. Whenever it looked like there was open ice throughout the game, the Wings were all over the place, and they created a lot of problems in the Kings zone. I had a bad feeling about the four on four, with the Wings able to exploit even more open ice. Sure enough, Robert Lang banged home a loose puck from Andreas Lilja to end it just a couple of minutes into the extra period.
It was former King night all over the NHL. Lang, Lilja, and Matt Schneider combined for a goal and three assists, and former King Manny Legace notched the win. Martin Straka and Olli Jokinen both scored in the Panthers-Rangers tilt. Fran Kaberle had a goal in Carolina. About the only former King who didn't have a good night was Ziggy, who had no points and was a -3 in the Pens game tonight.
The Kings come to my town on Friday to take on the Blackhawks at the United Center. The Blackhawks are simply not very good. Of course, now that I've written that, I'm sure the Hawks will somehow win. I'll be there, since the only way to see a Hawks home game is to actually go, thanks to dipshit owner, Bill Wirtz.
On a meta note, sometime over the last couple of days, this blog picked up hit number 10,000 since the beginning of May. Whoever the regular reader from Emory University is, congratulations. You win absolutely nothing but a hearty "Thank you".
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