Most LA Kings fans probably would never believe they could say this, but Thursday night in LA seemed like no big deal, despite the playoffs’ beginning at 7:30pm versus San Jose. I mean, it’s not like the team is Montreal, with 24 Stanley Cup wins and who knows how...
Assessing a team’s performance is difficult based on a small sample. You might not be seeing their best on a given night. You might be uninformed about the larger picture regarding what they’re trying to do, seeing the team on days when that isn’t working. I get all...
The Kings were better than the Ducks in period one of their game Monday night at Staples Center. They outshot the Anaheim team 9-5 in the first, a reflection of the fact that they had the puck most of the time. They still exited the period down a goal, scored by...
Think about this: you play however you want, no defense, score your a$$ off all season long, then with about ten games to go, you switch up to a more defensive style and lock down your playoff fortunes, then go into the post-season with that same attitude. You’d be in...
Dallas is a bit of a scrappy team. They hack at the other side’s goalie. They aren’t afraid to get in his face, even knock him down. That was evident from early on in the Saturday afternoon tilt of the Stars and Kings. It started with a high stick, delivered by...
If I were heading to the NHL playoffs like the Anaheim Ducks are, I’d be using the last few games of the season to send some messages. What would they be? That we’re a tough team that won’t be pushed around. That we have a plan to counter whatever you throw at us....
WonderCon. It’s like ComicCon, but not held in San Diego. If that makes sense to you, you probably have a Wonder Woman or Batman costume in your closet. Leave it there. This is about hockey. So why mention it? Because it was going on next door to Staples Center on...
The Ducks roared out to a lead so quick that Phil Hulett didn’t get one goal call made when the crowd in Honda Center erupted in a cheer that drowned him out. It was about four minutes gone, and the Ducks were up 2-0. These teams don’t see each other often, and so you...
Don’t count out the New York Rangers. That’s the message that they sent without even having to say it on Thursday night versus LA. They had come off a night-prior 2-1 win in Anaheim, and thus ought to have been tired. No dice. They didn’t charge out of the gate, by...
The LA Kings should have been energized entering their Saturday evening game against New Jersey. The Devils aren’t playing all that well, sitting seventh in their conference and fifth in the East’s wildcard race and being losers of five of their last seven games and...
I am sure I’ve referenced the following scene before: Scut Farcas terrorizes his school. His crummy little toadie, Grover Dill, can be counted on to do the same. One day, they throw a snowball at “four-eyes” Ralphie Parker, and tease him verbally. He snaps, rushes...
The Habs actually held the Ducks close on Wednesday before losing in the shootout, and then they got in a bus, got on the 5, and landed in LA. There, they scratched a guy (Sven Andrighetto) and swapped a goalie (Condon out and Scrivens in) and proceeded to get in a...
Maybe it’s just me, but when I watch Montreal play hockey, I want the names on the sweaters to be the history-making ones. I want Lafleur, Robinson, Dryden. I know it can’t be that way, but come on: today’s Montreal roster is full of nobodies. Ever heard of any of...
It sure felt like the playoffs at Honda Center on Sunday evening with the LA Kings in town. For one thing, the place was full and raucous from the warm-up. Maybe it was the unfamiliar 6pm start (Anaheim games usually go at 5pm on Sundays) or the fact that the arena...
Stop paying attention for a couple of weeks and what happens? The team that looked to be on the brink of firing its coach and declaring its latest rebuild a bust ends up challenging for the Pacific Division lead. That’s right, friends. The Anaheim Ducks are back on...
The Kings and Colorado faced off in LA on Wednesday night—weird for the LA team but necessary to be on US national TV—and this gave IH a chance to reflect on a couple of things. First, the Avs seem lost in a way, their roster made up of nearly unrecognizable...
The Kings have once again shifted their lines around, but it’s more a matter of maximizing what they have than punishing anyone. After all, the team has won two games (coming into Thursday, when the Wild came to town) since losing to the Senators and enduring the...
Ducks fans aren’t typically an incredibly noisy bunch. That’s not a knock. They just like to enjoy their hockey with a little bit of a demure demeanor. But when the Kings come to town, look out. Take Sunday night. Iven though the arena in Anaheim wasn’t full when the...
The big news in LA, the news that trumps all other news: we finally have a football team. Wait. This is Inside Hockey, so you probably don’t care about that. Me neither. No, it was this: number 11 is now and likely forever will be an LA King. You know the guy—the...
The Ducks exploded for three goals in a few minutes near the end of their Wednesday game to beat Ottawa. The explosion continued on Friday with the high-scoring (and high-goal-allowing) Dallas Stars on the first night of a California roadtrip that will take them...
The Ducks have five fewer points that the Ottawa Senators, but they sit one spot in their division higher than the Sens sit in theirs. Ottawa was 6th in the Atlantic with 46 coming into Wednesday. The Ducks were fifth in the Pacific with 41. They were just three...
The Ducks have three issues on defense. Cam Fowler is out. Simon Despres is just back from concussion, skating but not playing yet. And Stoner is back, but he’s been off for three games with a lower body injury. Not that the team has done poorly for these...
I don’t know what Dean Lombardi got for Christmas, but it’s the time for new toys, so it’s perhaps not surprising that in the week after New Years’, he unwrapped a couple of good ones called Vincent Lecavalier and Luke Schenn. It wasn’t that the Kings didn’t need...
There was magic in the Pittsburgh offense versus LA Saturday afternoon, but two things made it fail: not enough of it, and a goalie in Jonathan Quick who was better than the shooters the Penguins offered. Witness this: at one point in the game, the Pens had just 3...
It’s definitely a glass-half-empty, glass-half-full being an Anaheim Ducks fan right now. On the one hand, they’ve had a historically bad start, though it’s hardly sensible to talk about starting when the NHL season very rapidly approaches its midpoint with the Ducks...
What’s up with LA? Not the people, nor the city—the hockey team. Coming into Tuesday, they’ve won two of the last three and gained a point in the other. They lost two before that, but back to mid-November, they’ve won five of eight and had one OT point. So that’s 11...
Black Friday was good to the Blackhawks. It took Chicago just 1:14 to dismantle the Anaheim Ducks Friday afternoon. That’s the span of time between their two goals, scored late in the going to tie the game at two apiece and send it to OT, which the Blackhawks won. LA...
The first year you live in California, assuming you move there as an adult, is weird. The calendar says “Thanksgiving,” and people are acting like it’s late November. But you’re driving around with your car’s air conditioning on, and the only difference in the weather...
Rickard Rakell played on a line with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf for the first time in his career on Wednesday night. The former two guys were responsible for two goals and two assists respectively, though the first of those was on the power play. This is a...
The LA Kings lost at home Tuesday night 3-2, beaten by a veteran who used to play for them, Brad Richardson, but really defeated by what their coach indicated was a soft effort on defense. In fact, he was so disappointed about what happened, he got mixed up about it....
