Hector Cafuckingrrasco

The Angels have inked him to a two year deal worth roughly six million big ones. Not the end of the world, certainly, but not something the Angels needed to do, nor should have done. He's 36, which makes it much more likely that last year was a fluke, not a breakout, especially when you consider that he pitched in one of baseball's best pitchers parks. But why am I so down on this deal? Two words. Mark Petfuckingkovsek.

You remember Mark Petkovsek. Nice guy. Reliever. Pitched for the Angels. Came over in a trade for essentially nothing back in 1998. Pitched two years in Anaheim, one pretty good, one pretty OK. While not really a scrapheap guy, he was acquired for nothing, didn't make a ton of money (Carrasco will make slightly less from the Angels in his two years than Petkovsek made in his career). But he got the job done, then found a sucker team to sign him to a big deal, from which he was cut before his first season in Texas was over. In the meantime, the Angels got solid season from previous no-names like Brendan Donnelly, Al Levine, Lou Pote, Ben Weber, and Scot Shields. The moral of the story? Signing middle relievers to big deals is for dipshits, because they're volatile from year to year, unreliable, and no guarantee to outperform whatever journeymen flotsam and jetsam you may have in your minor leagues, or who may be available for free. That is a lesson that EVERY team should have learned from watching the Angels over the last five years. I guess it's too much to ask that for the Angels to figure it out for themselves.

Multi-year deals for middle relievers with shaky track records are foolish. It's the type of move that makes me lose a lot of faith (or least what's left of my faith) in Stoneman.

On the plus side, I'm going to take this opportunity to be the first member of the Halosphere to start calling him Pipo! I suggest the rest of you do the same.

**UPDATE**

Then again, maybe he won't be relieving. The OC Register reports the worst news of the off-season. The Angels are officially out of the Paul Byrd chase. They have withdrawn their offer. This would not be particular bad news if not for the word that Carrasco could be taking his starting role. He's started all of six games in his career. Hell, why not take the Konerko money and go after AJ Burnett if that's the case. I officially call this whole thing "stupid".

Embarrassing

Or at least, it would have been if anyone actually went to Blackhawks game. There was hardly anybody there. Walked up and paid $10 for my ticket (less than I paid for parking) and met up with an old CSHA nemesis to take in the game.

Wow, this team can really be awful at times. No life, no jump, a complete inability to string passes together, a non-existent power play, a horribly developed penalty kill (sag back, let them set it up, and hope they somehow miss just doesn't really cut it). As bad as they were against the Wings, they were worse tonight. At least the Wings are good. The Blackhawks flat out suck.

I question the logic behind playing Tambellini on the point on the power play. I realize that might be a role he fits into down the road, and I realize that they need to do something to shake up the power play, but asking a forward to take a defensive role in his first ever NHL game is a bit much. It almost burned them tonight.

The Kings have lost two games in a row for the first time this season, and it just gets tougher from here. Three more road games against three very good teams. This could be a very ugly road trip.

Konerk-No

Thank the good lord that the Angels didn't go nuts and try to top the White Sox offer. From the way it sounds, the Sox let Konerko set the market with some other teams, with an agreement in place that the Sox would then match years and dollars to an extent. Now, let's cross our fingers and hope the Angels don't do something stupid like trading Kotchman for Sweeney.

It's real simple. The Angels could improve at three positions by making none, zero, nada roster moves. Kotchman to first, Erstad to center, Rivera to left, Anderson to DH, with Figgins shuttling around the diamond to give days off here and there. This would a marked improvement offensively and defensively over what the Angels were throwing out there last season. And let me make this clear: if it takes a trade or signing to move Erstad away from first and into center, that doesn't make it a good deal. This is a move that should be patently obvious, and if the Angels brass is too stupid to realize it, that doesn't mean that we should hope for a deal to be made that forces it to happen.

Illinois 68; UNC 64 and UCLA 73; Albany 65

First of all, Nike, what the fuck. Those are the stupidest goddamn uniforms I've ever seen. I'm really getting sick of this crap where individual teams give up part of their individuality so that they can wear some stupid-ass jersey that Nike designs to look like every other Nike school. The guy from uni-watch said it best (regarding those lamed assed mismatching sleeves that some football teams wore):

The problem with all this -- aside from, y'know, its looking really, really stupid -- is that it creates an aesthetic connection between the mismatched-sleeve schools, so they all look as though they're playing for Team Nike instead of for themselves (just like all the teams that wear the wraparound rear bib, another Nike "innovation"). This not only waters down and cheapens the individual schools' visual identities but also perpetuates Nike's patently bogus notion that its own brand is more important than the teams' brands. Memo to Phil Knight: The swoosh draws its legitimacy from the teams that wear it, not the other way around.

Now that I have that off my chest, it's about seven months too late, but the Illini finally beat North Carolina. This is really the first game I've seen this year, so here are my impressions of the 2005-2006 Illini:

• Sean Pruitt is a big dude. He really looks like he's bulked up since last season. Also, he gives them versatility by allowing them to move Augie to PF and Randle to small forward if they want to go big.
• Randle is indeed a freak. Terrific athletic ability, but he can also shoot. He hit two big threes in the second half, and if he can step out and stroke it, they can field a small lineup of Brown, Jamar Smith, McBride, and Randle, giving them four shooter on the floor. Damn, I wish we'd had him last season.
  
• Marcus Arnold didn't get a lot of time, but I think he looked pretty good in the first half. More front court depth. That's going to be very important at some point this season. Mark my words, at some point, a couple of Pruitt, Augie, and Randall will foul out, and Arnold will make a big shot to win a game.
  
• Once again, it looks like the guy that everyone is touting as the best player will be overshadowed. Last year it was Dee who was outplayed by Deron. This year it looks like Augie is going to rise above Dee's hype, which is fine by me. They need his rebounding and scoring inside, and so far he's providing it.
• McBride looks a lot more active this season, and he shot the ball pretty well tonight. I'm not really worried about him, but he needs to play a big role this season.

This was a pretty sloppy game. I think the freshmen were a little awed by the bright lights of national television. They'd better get used to it. Frazier didn't really handle the ball well at all tonight. Smith missed a big free throw, although the Illini came away with a clutch rebound. In his defense, he had just come back into the game and wasn't really in rythm. This Carolina team is going to be very good in a couple of years, and they'll be pretty solid this year despite all of the player losses. Still, the Illini did lead by 14 at one point, and if this game had been in Champaign or on a neutral floor, I think the final margin would have been a little closer to that.

Still, it's weird not having the same level of intensity watching this team compared to last year. Even when we weren't #1 last year, every game was so important. I remember living and dying with every possession in the Wake Forest game last year knowing that a #1 ranking could be on the line, and that stayed around all season. We're ranked fairly high this year, but no one in their right mind believes the Illini can do anything close to what they did last season. I'm able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the game. That, of course, will all change once conference season begins.
__________________________________________________________

In Westwood, I fortunately changed the channel and watched some of the Simpsons (the episode where Homer goes to space) instead of watching the last few minutes of the first half. Albany went on a 14 point run in that span to tighten the game at the end of the half, and UCLA never pulled away until a lucky possession ended in a Luc Richard Mbah-A Mute offensive rebound and basket that more or less sealed the game. Just another in a long line of lackluster non-conference performances by the Bruins against weak opponents.

The big news, of course, is that Jordan Farmar could miss up to six weeks with a stress fracture. Darren Collison will get big minutes in his absence, which ultimately will be a good thing. It can only help his development. But this will be a very different team at the end of the year, as Farmar, Josh Shipp, and Alfred Aboya return to full health.

Speaking of full health, I've been impressed, yet not surprised, with what Ced Bozeman has given the Bruins this season. Over the first three years, the guy couldn't shoot. That's a problem when you're the point guard, because teams don't have to defend you on the perimeter. Also, he couldn't shoot free throws, which means putting the ball in his hands at the end of the game was a questionable strategy. The only way to improve one's shooting is through volume. You just have to get in the gym and shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. If there's one thing you can do while recovering from a knee injury, it's shoot. It looks like he worked very hard on it over the course of his recovery. In addition to his excellent ballhandling and athletic ability, he's become an outside threat, and a solid performer at the line. This is a major addition to the Bruins' versatility, and by the end of the season, he may be the most valuable, if not necessarily the best, player on the team.

The bad news is that we'll have to wait until February to really see this team at full strength. The good news is that they could very well be at top form for March.

Wings a bunch; Kings not so much

God Damn this team really pisses me off sometimes. Like tonight for instance.

And I like the new rules and all, but I must have missed the part where they outlawed checking.

Kings 6: Blues 3

If I've said once before. I've said it a thousand times. It's bad news for the NHL when Mick "Mr. Magoo" McGeough referees games played on ice that has been re-made following a visit by a circus.

This was a pretty ugly game. One penalty was called when Derek Armstrong pretty much just checked one of the Blues. Jeremy Roenick was called for a penalty when Doug Weight grabbed on to his stick, then threw himself to the ice. There were whistles, whistles, and more whistles. And the bad ice really kept the game from ever finding a good flow. But once again, the Kings offense stepped to the fore, and in the end, the big guns were behind the damage yet again.

Joe Corvo got it started with his first of two goals, finishing a cross-ice pass from Pavol Demitra for his second goal of the season. After the Blues tied it up, Corvo added his third goal of the season, and shortly thereafter, Belanger tipped home a Demitra shot for a two goal lead. It was short lived, as St. Louis took advantage of some lucky bounces to tie it up before the second period ended.

In the third period, the Kings finally put the game away. Michael Cammalleri picked up a power play goal, Jeremy Roenick added another right after coming out of the box, and Frolov ended the scoring with an empty netter (the Kings first of the year if my memory is correct).

Right now, the Kings are making me look like a freaking genius. Prior to the season, I drafted Frolov, Demitra, and Visnovski, who have all been fanstastic. Roenick hasn't been as good, but he picked up a valuable PP goal for me tonight, and Avery, a mid-season pickup, garnered me a few more penalty minutes.

I said the other day that I'd be happy with 8 points in the next five games. Two down, six to go. 15-6-1, nine games over .500 just 22 games into the season. I thought the Kings would exceed everyone's low expectations, but I didn't think they'd be this good. They're entertaining, and they're solid. Two years ago the Kings led the division for much of the season, but with the lack of depth and the injuries, the brave faces concealed deep fears that it was all a mirage, and the bottom fell out late in the year. This team is different. This team is playing well, and they're good. I don't think they've reached their potential yet. This is gonna be a fun season.

Super Furry Animals w/ Caribou @ the Metro - November 20, 2005

I'll get Caribou out of the way quickly. I thought they were really good. I'll probably listen to some of their stuff on Rhapsody if it's available. All I knew about them going in was that their very popular among the Pitchfork crowd, and they used to be called Manitoba until, hell I don't know, the province made them change their name or something. Anyway, very untraditional, very good set. Check them out.

Now for the headliners. This is the fourth time I've seen SFA, and every show has been absolutely fantastic. This one started off OK. SFA are at the point where they have so many albums (seven, plus a collection of B-sides) that you're almost never going to hear them play everything you want to hear them play. That's a given. And when you like a band's back catalog as much as I like theirs, it's almost impossible to not walk out slightly disappointed. But this show was special. This show will go down among the 60-75 shows I've seen as the one with the greatest encore of all time.

SFA generally open their show with some theatrics, but they upped the bar tonight. SFA always play with a big screen showing videos or just images or colors in the background. Tonight they opened with a video of someone in a golf cart wearing a jumpsuit with green lights all over it. This was set to the music from Rocky (not the 'Gonna Fly Now' one, but the one with the horns). The golf cart drove around to various locations and picked up four other guys in matching jumpsuits. At some point, the music switched to the A-Team theme, then back to Rocky. Don't know why. So the cart pulls into what is supposed to be backstage, and moments later, out come Gruff, Huw, Guto, Cian, and Daffyd all in matching green-lit jumpsuits. Pretty cool, really. So with that, let's get to the Incomplete and Out of Order Setlist® (although I think this one is pretty complete):

• International Language of Screaming
• Zoom
• Run, Christian, Run
• Golden Retriever
• Hello Sunshine
• The Horn
• Ohio Heat
• Cloudberries
• Atomik Lust
• Receptacle for the Respectable
• Ice Hockey Hair
  

At this point, they left the stage. This opening set took about an hour or so. So right about now, I'm feeling slightly disappointed, as I figure the encore can't be more than three or four songs, and there's still a lot I want to hear, although Gruff did break out the celery for "Receptacle....", so that was cool. But that's when the first few bars of 'Slow Life' started up, and the band re-took the stage for an amazing 35 more minutes of music.

• Slow Life
• Juxtaposed With You
• Lazer Beam
• Rings Around the World
• Do or Die
• Calimero
• The Man Don't Give a Fuck

It was flat out awesome. Every song I was hoping they'd still play, they played. Honestly, after hearing Ice Hockey Hair (which I never thought I'd hear live), I wasn't going to leave too upset. But this encore was simply incredible. By far the best I've seen. The 'Juxtaposed/Lazer Beam' back to back was, well, just try to listen to those songs live and not feel the need to move to the beat. It was like they were sandbagging. Just patiently setting up a terrific encore.

In true SFA style, the closed the set with "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" set to the video montage of Stalin, Moussilini, and for the first time I can remember, Duh-bya. It was a crowd favorite. After leaving the stage, the video concluded with closing credits, identifying the band members and crew (although something happened with the video and we missed the introductions of Gruff, Cian, and Daffyd). Anyway, probably the best show of the year so far, definitely in the top three.

For the non-Fanboy version of this review, go here.

Kings 4; Avalanche 3

Going into the recently completed three game stretch against Nashville, Vancouver, and Colorado, the conventional wisdom was that if the Kings could take 4 points from those three games, it would go a long way toward establishing their legitimacy. Here we are a week later, and the Kings beat the Canucks and Avs, and should have at least gone to OT with Nashville. It's becoming clear that this is a team that can be competitive every night. They have solid goaltending, a mobile defense corps, and enough talent up front that their third line can dominate at times.

Pavol Demitra registered his first hat-trick as a King with one beautiful goal (a nifty move on a short handed breakaway), one lucky goal (a bad angle shot that went off an Avalanche defender), and a combination of the two (a blocked pass that landed right back on his stick with a wide open corner of the net at which to shoot). Added to that was one of the prettiest goals of the night. After Sean Avery had freed up the puck in the Oilers zone, he headed for the net where Eric Belanger slipped a nice pass right back to him. Avery was stopped on initial shot, but corralled the rebound, and with some nifty stickwork, was able to beat Aebischer to give the Kings their first lead. They're now 9-3 when their opponent scores first.

This team has also shown that they can be completely dominated at times, yet still find a way to answer and find the net. There were stretches last night where the Avs were all over the Kings, and the final shot totals bear that out. But all it takes in hockey is one intercepted pass, one blocked shot, one lucky bounce, and the game can turn that quickly. Kind of reminds of a couple of games we had in Garden Grove, one in which we were outshot 36-11 and won 5-4 in overtime, and another the same season, a semi-final game, in which we were outshot 40-7 (that's not a typo, it was really 40-7) and won 3-2 in overtime. You still have to be able to finish, and this team, with it's 79 goals (tied for second in the West and fourth in the league) can finish.

Three of the next five games figure to be wins against St. Louis and Chicago (twice), with games against Nashville and Detroit thrown in before the Kings head for their first trip to the East Coast. I'd be pretty happy with eight points in those ten games.

Kings 5; Canucks 4

That was a little nerve-wracking, wasn't it. You'd like to think that if you have a four goal lead with 12 or so minutes to go that you'll be able to hang on, and I guess they did, so I shouldn't be worried. But the Kings are going to need to finish a little better in games where they have a lead.

They almost let this one get away from the early when they had power play after power play without scoring. When you get four PP's in the early going, you know the game isn't going to be called even the rest of the way, so you dig a hole for yourself. But Visnovsky really scored a great goal on the two man advantage, completely taking advantage of the screen on Cloutier. Just I when I thought they were going to relax after getting that one, Lubo added another on the same power play for a 2-0 lead. Cammy scored an absolutely beautiful goal for the 3-0 lead with a really nifty move in the slot.

That's when things started to go south. After killing a two man advantage, the Kings lost any momentum and the Canucks took over. It carried over into the third period, but just as quickly as the Canucks took momentum, the Kings came back with two goals in 16 seconds. The Kings were somehow able to withstand a furious attack in the last ten minutes as the Canucks got back to within one goal.

After the loss to Nasville, and with the Colorado game coming up, this was really a game the Kings needed to win, and despite some spotty play at times, they got it done. Nice night for the CPA line with about another 10 points. The Belanger line was flying all over the ice again. The Kings could use a little production out of the Roenick line. And it's not just him, but Cammy and Brown need to pick up the offense a little bit at even strength. The other lines are playing so well, though, that I'm not worried about them at this point.

Two more points closer to a playoff spot. Let's go get Colorado.

Nice yield from the farm

The Angels place three players on the Arizona Fall League All-Star Team. To no one's surprise, the Surprize Scorpions entire infield made the team, including Angels farmhands Brandon Wood with a .307/.375/.711 line and a league record 14 home runs (he tied last season's leading total of 8 within the first six games, Howie Kendrick (.380/.405/.603 with 5 homers and 10 doubles), and Kendry Morales (.380/.444/.598). Wouldn't have figured that Morales would outslug Kendrick with the same batting average, but whatever. Both Wood and Morales showed some decent plate patience, and I'm sure there's some things in that Kendrick line that get Rob all riled up. Jered Weaver was less than impressive, going 1-3 with a 5.47 ERA, but he did strike out 35 in just under 25 innings. This isn't a pitchers' league, and the ball carries well out there if you're a fly ball pitcher, which Weaver is at this point. He'll need to work on a sinker of some sort to even those numbers out.

Fairly successful Fall for these guys, as they pretty much did everything as expected. Let's hope the Angels don't get stupid. These guys should be in the starting lineup in a couple of years.

Well, that was fun. Kings 8; Blue Jackets 2

This one was pretty much over a few minutes after it started. The Kings got three goals in the first five minutes and they didn't stop there. I guess they learned their lesson after opening day. Couple of hat tricks between Frolov and Conroy, Cammy with a sniper like goal from the slot, and for the second straight game, Belanger was rewarded for his hard work with another goal. He's been the unsung hero for this team so far.

Garon looked solid again, starting in place of LaBarbera who left to attend to faily business.

I'm starting to get a pretty good feeling about this team. They're beating the teams they need to beat, minus the occasional Phoenix. And they don't seem to be doing because there's a sense of urgency. They're doing it just because they're flat out better. They don't outplay their opponents for 60 minutes, but nobody does. What they do is finish. In years past, they've generated plenty of opportunities, but unless Ziggy was at the end of it, the puck probably wasn't going in the net. They now have a line with three guys who can finish, and they have finishers on the other lines as well, not including the Giuliano, Cowan, Parros line, and two of those guys are playing because of injuries to Robitaille and Armstrong, who can both score. For one of the first times in recent memory, the defense is very solid. I really like the pairings, but the key is that they are all mobile. When Miller and Norstrom are your worst skaters along the blue line, you have a pretty mobile defense corps.

This is a Kings team that can play and skate with anyone, and it's the first time it's really been that way since the second half of the 2000-2001 season. Because of this, they may be able to get by with a fairly mediocre power play, though I would imagine that this unit will pick it up as they become more familiar with one another. As we get further into the season and the players adjust to the way the games are being called, special teams may take on a little less importance. And their PK, which has been very good so far, allows them to be a little more agressive at even strength.

We're only 18 games in, and there's a lot of season left, but so far, so good.

Kings 4; Blackhawks 2

This was probably the largest crowd I've ever seen at a Hawks game, which means the place was more than half full. For those that don't know, a tradition at Blackhawks games is to cheer through the national anthem. The only problem is that usually you can't tell people are cheering because there's nobody there. A little more energy through the anthem last night.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much more energy than that. As was noted by my seat neighbor, the Hawks don't do a very good job of selling the game. They do their little spiel before the players take the ice at the beginning, but there's no anouncement of the players entering the ice before the second and third periods. They rarely prompt the crowd to make noise. It can just seem kind of lifeless. Most of that is probably because the Hawks have been so bad for so long. The girls who skate around picking up the snow at the TV time outs are pretty hot, though.

Met up with a couple of guys I used to play against in Garden Grove and Duarte way back when, one of who is also a Chicago resident. Back in the mid-90's, our street team (Sloths/Gunners) had a pretty big rivalry with a team called "the Studs". It was mostly harmless, but they had a few guys I really hated, and I'm sure the feeling was mutual. The first season in which we played them, we finished 7-2, with both losses coming to the Studs (who were like 6-3 or something). We met up again in the finals and swept both games, winning game one 5-4 and game 2 3-2 in overtime. We seemed to meet up every season after that. They always had a great goaltender, but because we cut out teeth practicing against one of the best in the league, we were never intimidated by him. Anyway, one of their players now lives in Chicago and is now a Kings viewing partner.

One of the reasons that the place was so lifeless last night is because after the first 15 minutes or so, the Kings really led the whole way. Belanger's goal came kind of quickly, and quite frankly, I didn't really see it until it was in the net. Cammy's goal, however, was a true thing to behold from our seats in the upper deck near center ice. Dustin Brown, who played a great game, weaved beautifully into the zone before sliding what looked like a north/south pass to Cammalleri, who tipped it home. The next two Kings goals were both sort of similar, as Frolov and Conroy both found themselves on the doorstep with wide open nets.

Garon played a terrific game, as the Hawks were buzzing all night, and really had a lot more scoring chances than they should have had. He was under heavy fire much of the night. But he did an excellent job making the first save and controlling rebounds. This would be a legitimate goalie controversy if either guy seemed egotistical enough to worry about being the number 1.

Second place in the West as the road trip heads to Columbus. It's a tough stretch this month, so these games against bad teams take on that much more importance. When you're playing Nashville three times, Detroit twice, Colorado, and Vancouver all in the same month, you need to beat the Chicagos, St. Louises, and Columbi of league.

There's a doin's transpirin' in the Halosphere

Welcome to the group new Angels bloggers Jim Scully over at Haloville, and Chone Smith over Anaheim Angels All the Way. Someone needs to remind Chone what the official name of the team is. I'm pretty sure this is the "Rally Monkey" Sean Smith (for whom I can't find a BTF profile), as opposed to the Purgatory Sean Smith. The more the merrier.

And damn you, Chone, for stealing my template!

Red Wings 5; Kings 4 (OT)

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".

Laziness

There will be more here, I swear. I'm just slacking at the moment. What did I miss? UCLA getting their asses kicked, and the Kings playing one of the most entertaining third periods of the year, PLUS a shootout. Also, the fucking Blackhawks deprived me of my first in-person shout-out by scoring with 38 seconds left in OT on Sunday night.

For any Chicagoland readers, which is probably about two of you, if anyone wants to go to the Hawks game on Friday, let me know. I'm just going to buy tickets there. I'll be rooting for the Kings, so I could use some protection. Po, there might be a few beers in it for you. And I'm obnoxious like certain Red Sox fans.

There was no game tonight

Let's just pretend this one didn't happen, and never speak of it again.

Kings 3; Stars 3; Lubo 3

Pretty ugly game, really. Too many penalties in the first two periods, and too many penalties on what were really non-penalties. But the worst game the Kings win is better than the best game the Kings lose, and this was far from their worst game.

LaBarbera continues to impress, and I think it's fairly clear at this point that the number one job is his. Garon will continue to play fairly often. I don't think it will be a typical 1-2 setup, but expect LaBarbera to get the bulk of the action until Garon takes it from him, or LaBarbera gives it up. He wasn't giving up much tonight, only getting beat on a breakaway and a freak deflection while the game was still doubt. His 1.70 GAA coming into the game led the league. Looks like a pretty good signing so far.

The offense got rolling on the power play tonight, getting two goals officially, and a third that went in just as time expired on another. Avery showed that he's not all penalty minutes and lightweight fights (something we've known for a while) by burying a pass from Frolov after Johan Hedberg and Phillipe Boucher got tangled up. Norstrom almost got his first goal of the year, but according to the box score, it went to Jeff Cowan, who honestly deserved it after throwing the hit in front of the net that got the play rolling. Demitra capped the scoring for the Kings in the third, as the CAP line continued to stay hot.

But the hero of the night was Lubomir Visnovsky, who recorded his first hat trick. The first one came on a 5 on 3, with Lubo pulling the trigger from the high slot. Hedberg got a piece, but it wasn't enough. His second goal came about 90 seconds later, as Pavol Demitra walked in from the right point before sliding the puck cross ice to Lubo, who settled it down before banging it home from a sharp angle. His third also came on the power play, this time cleanly burying a slap shot from just inside the right circle. Lubo's 18 points on 6 goals and 12 assists leads the Kings, and leads all NHL defensemen. In the new NHL, defensemen seem to be a bit vulnerable, but nimble skaters can still avoid a fair amount of punishment. Lubo needs to stay nimble and stay healthy for the Kings to be successful this season.

Don't look now, LGKers, but Joe Corvo is a +7. Yes, some of that is because he's been paired with Lubo, but most of that is because he's played very, very well this season.

What a crappy way to start the day

The Angels plan to offer new contracts to television broadcasters Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler and radio announcers Rory Markas and Terry Smith, club spokesman Tim Mead said. Their contracts had expired at the end of the season.

With the terrific John Rooney on the market, the Angels re-commit to Phys and Hud. So goes another season. On the other side, I'm actually glad that Rory and Terry are back, as I like both, even though I rarely listen to games on the radio anymore, what with extra innings, MLBTV, and the difficulties in strapping my entire computer to my back if I want to listen to a game remotely (and yes, I know I can get satellite radio).

Hmm. Secret Admirer.

I received this email on Friday to the gmail account that this blog links to.

Subject: I love you

I do.. I work with you, you have no idea who I am. But I want you sooo bad. I love your personality, and deep down inside, you know who I am.

Interesting. No links or pictures of naked chicks or anything. It's understandable, really. I mean, I am pretty fucking awesome. I don't think it was the 'I love you' virus thing, because there was no attachment (other than emotional attachment to me, of course). But hey, if there's one thing I don't talk about here, it's work. This place is big enough to troll around for people badmouthing them on the web, and I certainly don't need that headache.

Anyway, it beats getting trollish comments from the likes of Poleski (deleted) and Faley (who somehow managed to avoid deletion).

And no, deep down I couldn't even fathom who it could possibly be. Probably Capt. Trollypants.

Kings 5; Blues 2

Very important for the Kings to come out and take care of a struggling St. Louis team, especially after a lackluster homestand that has included two losses. Tonight's game was a little like a boxing match between two fighters, one a fair amount better than the other. For the first couple of rounds, the two exchanged some jabs, and the underdog landed a couple of punches, even outfought the favorite for stretches. But as the bout wore on, the favorite wore down the dog, andn landed a couple of knockout blows.

If the Kings are going to have a successful season, then the big guns are going to have to come through. And as much as people might want to believe that means Robitaille and Roenick, it doesn't. It means Demitra, and it mean Frolov. Tonight, the big guns fired, with each getting two goals. For the second straight night, the Kings have batted pucks into the net from mid-air, tonight's coming from Frolov who knocked home the rebound of a Dustin Brown deflection of a Mike Cammalleri shot from the blue line. The Kings are playing, to borrow a phrase from basketball, above the ice. Frolov's other goal came on a nifty bit of stick work as he pulled the puck from behind the goal line and banged it home in one motion.

The power play was fairly uninspiring for most of the night, but it did produce two goals in 8 opportunities, so I shouldn't complain. LaBarbera settled down after giving up a goal on the first shot he faced. Perhaps the best goal of the night came from one of the little guns. After Craig Conroy had come out of the penalty box in the second period, the Kings worked a 3 on 2 that ended with Conroy making a quick little move to get the puck to Eric Belanger camped out on the right post. Belanger very calmly lifted the puck over Reinhart Divos, who was sprawled at that post and couldn't cover the top corner. Although the Kings were forced to run a little ragged at time, they eventually got the game under control and made Belanger's goal stand up.

Through 12 games, the Kings are 8-4, and they're playing like a top team, if not an elite team. There are still a lot of new parts that they're working in, which is true across the league. I predict that there will be a few teams that will be a lot better when those parts gel than they are now. I think the Kings can be one of those team, especially back on the blue line. If the top guys on offense are going to bring it the way they did tonight, it's going to make it easier for those defensemen.