Winnipeg Coyotes @ LA Kings – LIVE BLOG

A day after a big win in San Jose, Terry Murray, in anticipation of needing some serious blue line depth to compensate for the speed of the young Jets Coyotes, has scratched enforcer Raitis Ivanans and re-inserted Davis Drewiske as a 7th defenseman, likely to line up as a left wing on a 4th line of Brad Richardson and Oscar Möller.  Phoenix comes into LA having won five straight, and LA has a 7-1-1 record against Pacific Division opponents so far this season, which is to say, this is the best matchup in the league tonight.

I’ll be posting updates and other things as the game goes on…

1st period

5:14 GOAL OSCAR MÖLLER, 1-0 KINGS: Wayne Simmonds took the puck hard from the right side around the back of the net and fed Möller out in front in the slot while the Phoenix defensemen had all eyes on Simmer--Möller chipped the puck over Ilya Bryzgalov’s left shoulder and it fluttered in.  I’m not even sure if the Kings were changing lines and Simmonds was just trying to keep the puck in deep or what… adding 8-9 minutes of Ivanans ice time to a Möller or a Richardson or even Drewiske is really quite potent.

So anyway, Jonathan Quick is back in goal for LA and Ed Jovanovski is suspended for Phoenix, who comes in 18-11-1, good for 6th in the Western Conference behind the Kings’ 4th at 19-10-3.

7:10 Shane Doan nearly ties the game after taking the puck from the left boards to the slot, completely faking out the Kings, and just failing to find any daylight to shoot the puck through--Doan is another one of those guys like Jarome Iginla that is so good that I can’t even pretend to not like him because he’s not a King.  Dude’s a machine.

8:32 Teddy Purcell sets up Jarret Stoll for a one-timer in the Phoenix slot but the shot is high and wide--nice scoring chance and it is clear that someone responsible for advance scouting has seen something in the Coyotes’ defense suggesting that they are getting turned around easily and losing track of the high forward and/or activated defensemen…

9:55 Alexander Frolov makes a sweet move down the left wing, putting the puck through his own legs and almost getting the puck to trickle through Bryzgalov’s pads--Frolov thought it was in, hands up, and Kopitar was trailing to poke in the puck but it never emerged from under Ilya’s butt.  Frolov was hooked on the play and the Kings go on the man advantage.

11:53 Phoenix back to full strength…Doan nearly ties it again.  Kings outshooting Phoenix 7-6 so far tonight.

12:20 Former King draft pick Robert Lang shoots over the crossbar on a breakaway.  Lang was not in the default starting lineup of NHL 95 despite having at least 90 in all of his critical stats.  I subbed him in and won the Cup instead of studying for organic chemistry.  Oh my god that was fifteen years ago what am I doing with my life?

13:37 GOAL JACK JOHNSON, 2-0 KINGS…Dustin Brown found Jack Johnson alone in the high slot after skating behind the net…Johnson hit the crossbar with his first shot and the ricochet carried the puck right back to him for a one-timer that knuckled past Bryzgalov, possibly having taken a deflection of a Coyote.  LEET goal at 13:37.  Bwaaaaaahahaha JMFJ is 1337 pux0rz.

16:55 GOAL SCOTTIE UPSHALL, 2-1 KINGS…LA over-pursued in the offensive zone as Drew Doughty pinched on the right boards but didn’t win the puck…Phoenix had an immediate 2v1 break and Upshall beat the outstretched pad of Quick inside the right post.  I like the aggression from Doughty but there has to be a conservative mindset against a team with Phoenix’s speed--it’s not the situation that dictates the decision, I don’t think he should be careful just because the Kings are up two goals--it’s that the Coyotes shit rocket fuel and skate downhill.  Upshall’s 9th of the year from Lombardi and Mueller.

18:20 Robert Lang hit the goalpost after blazing through center ice into the Kings zone--he tried to get Quick to move to his right as he cut toward the slot so that he could sneak the puck in short side, but the iron was kind.

End of the 1st period:  Phoenix really controlled the last half of the period in terms of possession through the neutral zone, holding the Kings to only two shots in the last 9:54, one of which of course was JMFJ’s goal.  I think that period took about seven minutes total…were there even any whistles besides the three goals and the hooking penalty?  Oscar Möller, who otherwise looks 11, has a pretty sweet Nordic blond deathmetal beard and goatee--enough of which is gray to really make me question just what the hell is going on up in Manchester.

A really disturbing TobaccoFreeCA.com commercial features clips of a little dreadlocked black kid huffing on a sissy whistle an albuterol asthma inhaler interspersed with his mother taking drags from a sweet sweet nicotine cigarette cancer stick.  As a dreadlocked black adult who still huffs the occasional flaming chemical legal prescription-only emergency brochodilator, I am reminded of the awesome air quality in South Bay growing up.

What did I say I was going to go on about tonight?  Oh, armchair GM’s…well…I have done my fair share of playing armchair trade wizard in the past, so this is going to end up coming straight from the department of extreme hypocrisy, but, let me first back up a bit.  I abhor fantasy sports with the hate of a thousand mixed metaphors suns (obviously strikethrough is my chewtoy tonight, hopefully I’ll be over it by the second intermission).  The idea of having some fake team of players that forces you into rooting for INDIVIDUALS TO PERFORM WELL WHEN THEY ARE PLAYING AGAINST YOUR REAL LIFE FAVORITE TEAM is the stupidest concept ever, and I pity the fool what gets involved in such a conflict of interest.  What’s worse, a couple of seasons of idiotic fantasy whatever sport usually leaves you convinced that you can grok the anatomy of every transaction a team might make…I’m going to get back to this after the second period.

2nd period

1:03 Taylor Dayne Pyatt had a shot saved after a giveaway in the Kings zone gave the Coyotes a great opportunity to tie the game…

1:57 Oscar Möller comes close to adding his second of the night off of a feed from Frolov, who gets first crack at a LW double-shift.

2:40 JMFJ makes a sweet move on the right wing but firew a shot wide; Michal Handzus had alertly backtracked to prevent a transition outnumbered attack while Johnson recovered from having gone in pretty deep.

5:46 For what I think is only the second whistle of the period, we have a delay while the referees tend to Quick’s mask, which may have been mildly remodeled by a shot.

Finally a TV timeout so I can blather on about another pet peeve…why do linesmen verbalize “GOOD!” to let a player know that he has not gone offside?  If he goes offside, you blow the whistle, or if it’s a delayed offside, you yell offside and they try to touch up, right?  What does yelling “GOOD!” accomplish?  It’s not like the skater was going to stop and check if he stayed onside, and the linesman is offering critical reassurance…

And we’re back.

8:33 The Kopitar and Handzus lines generated a series of decent scoring chances, the latest of which started from a Jack Johnson point shot designed to and successfully provoking a Scott Parse deflection in the slot…Bryzgalov made the stop and covered up before ‘Zus could do anything with the rebound.

11:30 Brown found Frolov with a long pass out of his own zone and Fro made a slick move to elude the defender and gain the zone with a lot of daylight between him and Bryzgalov, but he couldn’t pull the trigger on a shot before the other trailing Coyote closed the lane.  Frolov tried a little spin move and fired on goal anyway, but chances are Ilya saw video of Brownie’s game winner from last night and was ready for the chicanery.

12:03 Jarret Stoll takes a tripping penalty, which sucks because winning the faceoffs in the defensive zone kinda helps with the kill.  On cue, Lang beats Handzus and facilitates the setup.

14:24 Kings kill after some really fantastic Coyote puck movement.  Can you believe that Philly sent Scottie Upshall AND a pick for the cantankerous Daniel Carcillo?  I think both of those players are great but would have expected the pick to go the other way.  I am ok with the whole “adding toughness” thing but…really?

18:00 Back and forth, back and forth.

19:03 Simmonds ices after picking up a loose puck in the Kings’ zone…Coyotes controlled the shift and had the Kings’ skaters gassed, but unlike last night, no timeout from Murray.  At this rate, he’ll need to save it for the same situation in the third period.

End of second period, 2-1 Kings.  No scoring in that frame but the ‘yotes seemed to really have the better of the chances, especially in the last five minutes.  The Kings started to get a little bit scrambled but Quick was equal to the shots that actually made it through and the Kings’ forwards were able to recover possession of the puck and clear when they needed to.  Once again, the Kings will test that perfect-when-leading-after-two-periods record, which stands at 13-0 so far this season.

Patrick O’Neal’s IQ drops by about 75 points when he’s sharing a segment with Heidi Androl.  I can’t say I’d fare any better.

So anyway, I hate fantasy sports.  But I do like speculating on real life transactions.  But to do so, there’s a lot of information that is out there that can help.  First and foremost, you want to have a good grasp of the Collective Bargaining Agreement rules on salary structures and cap calculations.  The CBA (available as a pdf here) is long but incredibly well-written and not at all the tome of dense, obtuse legalese that one would expect.  Second, there are a few websites that track the teams’ salary structures and all of the players’ contracts, but in my opinion, the best of these is NHL Numbers--check out the Kings’ salaries here and enjoy a really well-designed site.  Third, keeping track of the movement of draft picks and conditional pick swaps as parts of trades is sufficient to boggle my mind, but, Pro Sports Transactions maintains what appears to be the most up-to-date and complete outline of which picks are headed where and why.

3rd period

1:15 Rob Scuderi takes a hold/hook/something after impeding Radim Vrbata behind his own net.  Phoenix cycled after a Doughty turnover…Coyotes have failed on their last nineteen power play attempts.

1:45 Brad Richardson and Jarret Stoll work a 2-on-1 shorthanded and Stoll’s shot gets deflected off of the crossbar--Richardson was hooked at center ice before breaking into the zone but there was no call.

3:12 GOAL MARTIN HANZAL, 2-2.  After Handzus was ejected from the faceoff circle with only a few ticks remaining on the penalty to Scuderi, Richardson lost the draw to Prucha, who got the puck to the point.  The Coyotes got a shot that Quick stopped but Hanzal fished the loose puck from between his puck and chipped it over his right pad for Vrbata to tap in.  Phoenix needs a player named Gretel so that I can keep my 4.0 in easy jokes.

Fourth, and perhaps most frequently and inexplicably overlooked are teams’ minor league affiliates in the AHL.  Some assets are virtual, some are real live humans, and those humans are riding charter buses between cities like Manchester, Worcester, Albany and Hershey, hoping to get that call-up from the GM.

7:03 Simmonds steals a puck at center ice and gets a shot on the break that’s stopped by Bryzgalov but maintains possession--Handzus and Frolov come in support and eventually Simmonds is tripped by Pyatt along the boards for a Kings power play.

9:30 Pyatt nearly had a breakaway out of the box but Handzus was back to harass him.

10:35 Quick, spread-eagle and face down but for a raised glove, makes three saves in as many split seconds as Phoenix looked to have a wide open net to shoot at…the last save was Jim Vandermeer failing to raise the puck above Quick’s right pad.  Merciful TV timeout.

13:39 Scott Parse unleashes a wrister that seems to handcuff Bryzgalov, who nonetheless makes the save.  This whole game has been played at a blistering pace.  Detroit and San Jose and New Jersey and other comparatively dinosaurish teams wouldn’t be able to sustain this for a period, let alone three.

16:00 Under four to go now, no sign of this thing slowing down.  Richardson has put together a couple of solid shifts but had a pair of shots blocked by Zbynek Michalek, who has had a strong defensive game.

18:10 Simmonds has a fruitful forecheck and works the puck around until support arrives. Parse tries to feed Simmonds in the slot from behind the net but the shot is blocked in front.  Good chance.

19:36 Frolov gains possession on the forecheck after getting great body position on Vandermeer; he then snaked his way into the slot and took a backhand shot that was saved and before either Kopitar could get to the rebound, Williams was checked into the right post, knocking the net off its moorings.  Faceoff stayed in the zone…

…but we’re going to OT.  At least one point in the books for each team, and another three-point divisional game has to be driving Dallas and San Jose insane.

Overtime

1:48 Quick saves and dishes to Kopitar for a rush…

3:20 Doughty has a shot from the right point saved after Simmonds and co. dominated a shift…

3:45 Quick makes two saves on Mueller…

4:34 Vrbata, Hanzal, and Michalek enter the Kings’ zone and pull their best Harlem Globetrotters weave before getting a shot saved by Quick…

End of OT--Kings looked to have more life in the OT than they’d had since the first half of the first period, finishing the extra frame with a flurry that looked dangerous in front of Bryzgalov but the puck just couldn’t find the opening…and we’re going to a shootout.

Shootout

Kings:  Kopitar, Johnson, Brown

Coyotes: Vrbata, Mueller, Doan

0-0 LAK Kopitar MISS tried to go over Bryzgalov’s right pad but shoots wide.

0-0 PHO Vrbata SAVE dekes to the forehand and tries to go over Quick’s pad, but Quick ignores the deke and eats the shot with his glove.

1-0 LAK Johnson GOAL Holy crap.  Deke to backhand and water bottle.  Sick.

1-1 PHO Mueller GOAL went in fast, somehow slipped it under Quick’s pad.

1-1 LAK Brown SAVE changed his speeds and tried to go five-hole but didn’t get good wood on it and found Bryzgalov’s stick.

1-1 PHO Doan SAVE not really sure what he was going for here, perhaps high glove side, but Quick was all over it.

1-1 LAK Simmonds SAVE cut in on the left, tried to get the pads open but couldn’t get it through.

1-1 PHO Korpikoski MISS dude trucked in fast and hit the post trying to go between Quick’s pad and blocker; poke check might have rushed the shot.

2-1 LAK Handzus GOAL sweet snap over the shoulder into the upper right corner…

2-2 PHO Prucha GOAL lost the puck which screwed up Quick’s poke-check…Quick ended up kicking it in himself.

2-2 LAK Parse SAVE not even close on the five-hole, are these guys watching?  Didn’t work for Brown or Simmonds, meanwhile, high glove works.

2-2 PHO Lombardi SAVE again, failure to get five hole open, Quick munches it up.

3-2 LAK Doughty GOAL you guessed it, high over the glove.  Really shook his stuff on the way in too.

3-3 PHO Lang GOAL beautiful deke to the backhand and lift over Quick’s pad…wow.

4-3 LAK Williams GOAL finally five-hole works, but barely…just squirted through the pads…actually on second look he lifted it and I’m not sure how it ended up in…

4-3 PHO Upshall SAVE KINGS WIN…Quick…didn’t even move, and the shot found him.  I’m not even sure he knew he made the stop.  KINGS WIN!  If you have the ability to check the replay, watch Stoll yelling at Upshall from the bench on the way in…now I don’t want to hear linesmen yelling “GOOD!” but I would definitely listen to more banter between the players, especially if it’s Stoll giving Upshall the Brian Bellows treatment (see below, NSFW or kids, I suppose)…

Three Stars:

3rd Star: Jonathan Quick (solid game)

2nd Star: Zbynek Michalek (great choice!)

1st Star: Jack Johnson (also a great choice!)

The Kings, winners of 6 of their last 7, improve to 20-10-3, first team in the WC to twenty wins (wow), just one point behind San Jose in the Pacific.  Longest shootout in Kings history.  Snapped Phoenix’s 5-game winning streak.  14-0 when leading after two periods.  Last night, picked up two points against Rob Blake, who I went an entire blog without declaring my hatred for, two tonight against Dave Tippett, and will try to pick up two against Mark Crawford and the Dallas Stars on Saturday to complete the week’s trifecta of ex-Kings…though at least Tippett was really cool and a great coach.  Blake and Crawford?  Not so popular at Staples.  Anyway, another great win for LA, who didn’t miss the beef of Ivanans at all and still really had some trouble with the speed of the Coyotes--not that there’s a team in the league that wouldn’t have trouble with their wheels, with the exception of maybe Chicago.  It’s been fun folks.  Until next time, I leave you with this public service announcement from Brian Trottier and Kevin Stevens.