It’s amazing what a difference a couple of months can make in a team’s psyche. The last time Anaheim faced Nashville, the Ducks were a bottom-feeder, and people were waiting for the Preds to wake up/play up to their potential.
Brian Kennedy
Ovi, Gretzky, Points Totals, and Greatness
If only Alexander Ovechkin had scored five goals against Anaheim on Tuesday night, fans of the LA Kings could have been treated to a four-goal performance that tied and broke the all-time regular season goals record.
Rookie Sensation Emerges In Anaheim
Which sounds better: The Anaheim Ducks stood pat at the NHL Trading Deadline, or the Anaheim Ducks did nothing at the NHL Trading Deadline? Doing nothing, in fact, seems to be their GM’s modus operandi. And to look at him, you would have to say that he’s quite confident in his decisions.
Kuzmenko Joins the Kings
Coach Jim Hiller wasted no time in declaring his intentions for new acquisition Andrei Kuzmenko, added just before the bell sounded to indicate that all horse trading must cease in the run up to the end of the season and playoffs.
Ducks Talking Playoffs
Suddenly, the Anaheim Ducks are surging. A few weeks ago, we were talking about them like their chances of the playoffs were over. Too many teams to crawl over. Too inconsistent. But in the ten games prior to Thursday, when Vancouver was in Anaheim, they were 7-2-1.
Skate for LA Strong
In the long, slow process of recovering from tragedy, small steps matter. But so do large ones, and on Sunday in Los Angeles, a huge leap was made in the effort to help Eaton Fire/Palisades Fire victims. Through cooperation between the LA Kings hockey club and that National Hockey League, a hockey game was held, but not just any game…
Fiala and Kings Top Utah Despite Hayton Hat Trick
Listening to the chatter on NHL Network radio and other outlets in the day and a half since Canada won the Four Nations trophy, one thought was often shared: Folks think that it would be super-cool if the Utah Hockey Club could somehow make a push for the playoffs, and maybe even make it into the round of 16.
Drew Doughty Makes Home Debut
You want news? About hockey? The LA Kings finally started to score some goals on the weekend, dumping the Hurricanes in Carolina 4-2. They backed up that performance Wednesday night at the start of a three-home-games-in-four-nights string with Montreal in town. Against Montreal, the Kings doubled up the numbers with a 6-3 win, prompting their coach, Jim Hiller, to offer a simple answer as to what’s changed: “We can score.”
Playoffs? The Ducks? What?
No matter how much they might hope otherwise, the Anaheim Ducks are not in the “mushy middle” in the NHL with nearly two-thirds of the season gone. To say they are, and be sincere about it, you would have to believe that they have a chance to make the playoffs.
Playing the Stanley Cup Champs
LA Kings coach Jim Hiller, talking about what his team would do after a dispirited effort against the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday, said something to the effect that they would retreat and get ready to face the defending Stanley Cup champions. That’s Florida, and they arrive in LA on Thursday. Makes you wonder—do the Champs have to prove themselves anew each game?
What’s Normal, These Days?
On a night when the fires in LA are starting to be long-term issues rather than immediate threats, the LA Kings played their first home game since two weeks ago, when they had a game versus Calgary postponed due to the tragedy. Despite an emphasis on returning to the “normal,” the team didn’t forget, not by a long shot.
What’s New In Anaheim?
What’s new with the Ducks? Last we checked, they were beating some teams they weren’t supposed to beat, making a little noise way out west. John Gibson was holding forth in net, backed up more than capably by Lukas Dostal. And Frank Vatrano signed an 18-million-dollar contract extension which will keep him in Anaheim for three more years…
Hiller’s Eleven-and-Seven
As he is prone to do, LA Kings coach Jim Hiller went with an eleven-and-seven (forwards/defensemen) lineup against the New Jersey Devils. This was at least the third time in a row he’s done this. One reporter I spoke to said that he had tracked the practice back to last season, and of the games the Kings played with this lineup configuration, they had won 17 of 20 dating back to last season.
Kings’ Home Win Streak Continues
Kings coach Jim Hiller seems like the kind of steady hand who would not let his players have any excuses in mind as they came into the second game of back-to-backs. And indeed, the Kings came out flying on Sunday at an odd-for-LA 6pm start time. They even opened a...
Grit or Skill?
Like all NHL teams, the LA Kings have to face their nemesis at some point during the season; in fact, several times. Who is that? Why, the Edmonton Oilers, of course. The teams played the first of four contests for the year on Saturday in LA, with eyes looking back towards the playoffs of last spring and forward to the ones to come in a few months.
Ducks Lose Game, Zegras
Are the Anaheim Ducks almost good enough? Not to contend, but to be in most games they play. Their last ten games, they’re 6-3-1, which is a .650 points pace. In other words, they get two-thirds of the points they contend for. Do this all year, and you’d have over one hundred standings points, far and away enough to make the playoffs.
Low Event Win for Kings
After a 1-0 loss Wednesday and lots of time to think about it, both before and after, this being their only game in the work week, the LA Kings faced off against the Seattle Kraken, who had an equal amount of time to think about a 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators.
Detroit Drops the Double
Come off the first half of a back-to-back, switch out your goalie. That’s the plan almost universally followed in this era when stats rule and the numbers say that goaltending drops off significantly in the second game. And that was the plan followed by the Detroit Red Wings…
Gibson Strong Once More
John Gibson, long-suffering goaltender for the somewhat hapless Anaheim Ducks, was rumored to be on the trading block last spring. It wasn’t lack of performance by the player or interest by the team that got him there, but rather desire in a positive sense. His desire was to win, finally…
Zegras Versus Bedard (Part 2)
The experiment of the weekend: Trevor versus Connor, not head-to-head, but how would each perform in similar circumstances? Yesterday afternoon, it was Bedard’s chance to impress, and he had a game with a couple of late flashes but that was otherwise routine.
Zegras Versus Bedard (Part One)
One was born in 2001, one in 2005. One is Canadian, one is American. One was drafted first overall, a spot seemingly appointed for him from when he was a pre-teen. The other came onto the radar a little bit later, and ended up going to his NHL team in round one, but not first overall — ninth. Now both are in the NHL…
Don’t Trust Your Tablet
The LA Kings came into the second game in a back-to-back trying to put a tempest in a teapot behind them.
Third Line’s the Charm
Sometimes, the chemistry of a forward line just clicks, on no particular effort of coaching. Such is the case with the Kings’ current third line. The trio gave the Kings two goals in a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks Thursday evening in Los Angeles. The line carried the play.
Ducks Are Just Too Slow
The fans were buzzing. The action was immediate. The teams traded leads as the game went on. You think I’m talking about Kings versus Ducks, the game that took place on Sunday at 5pm in Anaheim? Not a chance. I’m hyping the Mets-Dodgers game that more than a few in Honda Center were keeping track of on their phones. At the very least, that other game, 25 miles or so up the road, featured offense. The one in Anaheim, not so much.
Ducks Open the Season Strong
What’s new? Ask that of most people, and you’ll get a “not much” in response. Ask it in the Anaheim Ducks’ orbit, and you’ll get a little more, from player news to news off the ice.
Elite or Very Good?
So what is the EIHL anyway? It’s tempting to call it the English Ice Hockey League, except that they have a more grandiose name for themselves, with the first “E” standing for “Elite.”
Each Time, They Cheered
The day I left Winnipeg after being on the spot for the introduction of Jets 2.0, in 2009, every section of the local paper had a story on the team. Every one, not just sports. On Saturday, April 20th, when I opened the British papers expecting to find something about the EIHL (Elite Ice Hockey League) Playoff weekend, I found exactly nothing.
The (Kings’) Kids Are All Right
The LA Kings are hurting, which is to say, they have some key players on IR. Primary amongst those were day-to-day Adrian Kempe and Mikey Anderson on Thursday night, with Ottawa having made their way up the freeway from a game in Anaheim the night before.
There Is A Reason to Bother
The Ducks’ and Kings’ arenas are maybe 30 miles apart, though nobody speaks of miles here. Rather, it’s time. On the weekends, it’s possible for me to get from downtown LA, where I reported on the LA-New Jersey game, to Anaheim, with a stop at home to walk the dog, all in time for the twin Canadian-American national anthems, sung just past 5pm at Honda Center.
Who Beat the Devils?
Beware the backhand. In another day, one’s father would not allow the purchase of a curved stick because it was a sure way to weaken the backhand. If my dad had talked to Cam Talbot fifteen seconds into the game against New Jersey in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, he would have had all the proof he needed for his theory.
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