Kings lose again

Actually, the title isn't completely fair, as they at least managed a point, but man, they played easily their best game of the season tonight, completely outplaying the undefeated Minnesota Wild, but it still wasn't enough, as former King Pavol Demitra got a gift bounce against a goaltender who refuses to poke check and banked it in for the game winner in OT.

Despite the final result, there were a lot of positives. As I said, they played their best game of the season. They had a ton of pressure, a ton of shots, and simply couldn't find the net. They lack a lot of things right now, but chief among them seems to be an ability to finish. Among the "goal scorers", for lack of a better word, the only guy I can really pin blame on right now is Frolov. He's been an offensive black hole for more than half a season now, and he's the one that they really need to find the net. Kopitar, O'Sullivan, and even Cammy and Avery, their goals are going to come (that's right, I said Avery). But Frolov has had a number of years to develop, and it seems like he just stopped about two months into last season and, if anything, has regressed.

Congratulations to O'Sullivan, who picked up his first goal tonight. Although it sure looked to me like it was kicked by Willsie and probably shouldn't have counted. But who among us hasn't collected his fair share of garbage goals. Hell, I practically made a living out of it.

I can't really single anyone out as having a bad game tonight. Even Cloutier played well, although both goals can be attributed to his own misplays. On Rolston's goal, he should have gloved a shot he saw clearly all the way in. The subsequent rebound led to a scramble that ended with the puck on Rolston's stick with a wide open net. The OT goal by Demitra could have been avoided with a simple poke check.

But we'll take out positives where we can get them, and the Kings did everything right except for putting the puck in the net. Baby steps. I actually see them as being a team that will struggle for four months, then hit their stride sometime in February. It will be too late to make the playoffs, but they'll be a fashionable pick for the playoffs next year, and in 2008-2009, they'll be legitimate contenders.