Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Kings 3; Wild 2 (OT)

For the first time since 2002, the Kings have won five games in a row. With 18 games to play, they sit in sixth place, five points clear of the ninth place Sucks. If they take care of business against their rivals, they ought to make the playoffs this year, which would also happen for the first time since 2002. Three of those five wins have come without their two most talented forwards, Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov, and they've come while trade rumors have swirled around goaltender Matthieu Garon, who was excellent in last night's game.

Honestly, I saw this one via my DVR. We had a bye this week in my floor hockey league, so a couple of us got together to have a couple of drinks. When the Kings got down 2-0, I pretty much fast forwarded until the Kings got their second goal, and watched from there. Brilliant play by Derek Armstrong to set up Lubo for the game winner, but one of the nicest plays that may not have looked like it at first was the goal by Kostopolous. He had to reach behind him a bit to corrall the pass, and he quickly pulled it in and ripped the shot home. I praised him the other night, but he really has been playing well since the break.

Once again, they aren't showing major improvement in one or even two areas, but they're showing some improvement in ALL areas, and that's been enough to push them to three straight wins after the Olympic break. Always good to open a road trip with two points, and every point from here on out is absolutely crucial. If they could steal a point or two in Detroit, that would be huge.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, Parrish & Sopel aren't too bad. Losing Grebs is okay, not so sure about Tambellini, though, if Parrish leaves at the end of the year.

Not sold on Garon as a Stanley Cup caliber goaltender, but throwing the farm at FLA for Luongo is iffy. (Not that Taylor would actually make a good move for once...).

Ironcheffie said...

You now have Brent "Mullet man" Sopel on your team.

I feel your pain.