Kings Lose To Ducks In Anaheim

I’m upset this morning so forgive me, in advance, for my tirade. I’m upset because the Los Angeles Kings lost to a team that is actually less consistent than them. The Anaheim Ducks were in a free-fall and a coaching change didn’t seem to be helping their cause. I’m upset because the “system” doesn’t appear to be a system at all. What it does appear to be is an old school coach trying desperately to generate something from players who have completely tuned him out. I’m upset because the Kings deserved to lose after being outplayed for 40 of the 60 minutes last night. I’m upset because Terry Murray made a great choice to take a timeout when he realized that there was nothing going on during a pivotal power play then followed that great decision with an extremely poor one by putting the Colin Fraser line on the ice with a minute to go (as pointed out by @ThisIsLARyan), ultimately leading to the end zone face-off which lead to the game-winning goal by Bobby Ryan. A domino effect of sorts which concluded with Rob Scuderi not picking up his man and Jonathan Quick not picking up the puck. I’m upset because I see people commenting on Twitter and claiming to be experts when all they’re doing is regurgitating things that other people have said and actually turning questions back on the people who ask them, a “Red Herring” tactic as Dean Lombardi would say. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just a guy who’s a fan and writes a blog. I’m no expert, by any means. My extent of hockey knowledge includes me watching the game for over 30 years and playing in a beer league for 8 years. That being said, even I can see something’s wrong with the coaching staff that we currently have. Provide a list of coaches that would make the Kings better? Don’t bite on that because the list of coaches that would make the Kings worse is a lot shorter. Take a good look at the photo above and you’ll see another reason why I’m upset.

It’s utterly ridiculous to think that this team, with this amount of talent, could possibly be dead last in the NHL in goals per game. Something has to change and “The Time Is Now“. The potential is there. We witnessed that, albeit briefly, last night when Slava Voynov and Justin Williams scored beautiful goals. That ever elusive third goal never came and the Kings end up losing 3-2 on a goal scored by the Ducks with 48 seconds to go in the third. If your timeline didn’t blow up at that exact moment, you’re just not following enough “Kings” people. Complete dejection by the fans, complete dejection by the players and everybody gets to chew on that for two days until we welcome in the Minnesota Wild for yet another 2 goal game. What I’m hoping for, as of now, is that the Kings can find a way to get the game into overtime and put Jarret Stoll on the ice for 3 consecutive shots (sarcasm, I know the rules) when the inevitable shootout rolls around. Outside of that, I’m fairly certain we can expect another 3-2 loss and another picture like the one above. Take another look just for good measure. My rant here is complete. Comment away!