A couple of nights ago, with the Ducks trying to extend their six-game winning streak against Pittsburgh (they didn’t), IH made a promise and issued a warning. The promise was that we would fill you in on what was making the Ducks so good. The warning was that this might be a blip, and so nobody should get all that charged up about an early season bunch of wins.
There’s not one thing that you can pick out that accounts for the LA Kings’ success thus far. It’s not superstar scoring. It’s not a goalie standing on his head. It’s not a rock-solid defense. It’s all of those things, which is why Coach McLellan cited a single word in his comments about his team in advance of their game with Pittsburgh on Thursday night: “Depth.”
There’s a big difference between “Nothing to see here” and “Did you see that?”, as proved by the Anaheim Ducks over the past few weeks. The team has emerged as a real player despite the feeling of practically everyone in hockey that they would be mired in rebuild-tis for the year.
Halifax, NS—Let’s get two things straight from the outset: They are called the Halifax Mooseheads, plural, and they are not a Quebec team, despite being a competitor in the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). This is one third of the Major Junior trio of leagues which includes also the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL).
After getting beat in every area of the game to start their season against Colorado on Wednesday night, the LA Kings could be said to be expecting their “real” home opener on Saturday night with Carolina in town. They were looking to rectify their poor opening effort.
It’s all theory until they actually play the games. So it is that the LA Kings have to go out and prove that they are a better team than they were last year, when a third-place finish in the Pacific gave way to a one-round playoff exit versus the Edmonton Oilers in six games.
You might think you know where Leafs Nation is. Perhaps in the downtown arena where the team plays. Perhaps in Maple Leaf Square outside that rink, where fans congregate to watch away games on big screens. Maybe, even, it’s in Florida, where Toronto fans figured out how to get tickets despite a scheme by the Panthers to limit Canadian buyers’ access.
Toronto, ON—Sometimes real life interferes with the best-laid plans. Such is the case with the Los Angeles-Edmonton NHL series being played out this week. Inside Hockey happily reported on the third and fourth games, played in LA, bringing you on-the-spot coverage of the Kings as we have done for fifteen years and two Stanley Cups. I was all primed to do game six, happening a full three days off after the prior game, played Tuesday night in Edmonton.
Is talking about kryptonite still a thing? If so, here’s a question: Are the LA Kings Connor McDavid’s kryptonite? He had to be wondering it himself in advance of Sunday night’s 6pm contest in LA. Why else would he not have taken over the teams’ first-round series that coming into Sunday night saw the Edmonton team down by a game? They could have used his help.
The arena in Los Angeles was full Friday night. This is a departure from normal, where a full house includes a lot of ghosts in seats that are sold by license. That is, a good deal of the lower bowl—empty. However it happened, there were very few gaps for empty seat...
Tuning up or sliding in—which are the LA Kings doing as the post-season looms? There didn’t seem to be much of a sense of urgency as they wound their way through the last handful of regular-season games. Now, they ready themselves for the same opponent as last year, the Edmonton Oilers. In fact, even in playing the Edmonton team in late March and early April, they didn’t show much in 2-0 and 3-1 late-season losses.
You’ve seen him do it just as I have. The speed, the moves. The way he has of making everyone else on the ice look like they’re a step behind, because they are. Connor McDavid has that kind of presence on my TV. So can you blame me for wanting to see some of that goodness with my own eyes?
Anaheim, CA—In Anaheim, it’s more of the same: more shots by opponents, more goals by opponents, more highlight moves by Zegras, more pinpoint accuracy of the part of Troy Terry. And more and different players. Of late, Nikita Nesterenko has made his debut, getting into three games. He scored his first NHL goal on Saturday night versus the Blues.
Did the Anaheim Ducks get better or worse given what they did at the trade deadline? In case you didn’t hear, that was to trade away Dmitry Kulikov and John Klingberg, both of whom were sat earlier in the week to protect them from injury. So it was no surprise, and perhaps it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that newish GM Pat Verbeek was relatively inactive on trade deadline day. Wait—that’s not right, is it?
“It’s a business.” With the trade deadline approaching and trades happening, I’ve heard this from hockey people, and even a couple of players, over the past few days and weeks. The words are often accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders, because when a favored player is moved along, there’s a sense of loss. And helplessness. Of course someone new is coming in the door, so there’s expectation, too.
What are the Ducks doing? Sitting in second to last place in their conference despite have won three games straight coming into action Wednesday. Playing the Washington Capitals as if they actually had a chance to beat them. Nearly doing just that but getting a point anyway. Letting through a ton of shots as they do every night, then seeing John Gibson make a valiant effort and turn most of them away.
With the Ducks hosting the Kings for a Friday night encounter, it’s time to talk about what one team has and what the other does not in various categories, not as a way of saying who’s the better team(their points totals tell that tale pretty well) but as a way of getting a sense of the culture and potential of each squad. So here goes.
For Dustin Brown’s first NHL game, he didn’t know that there was player parking under the arena. So he found a spot in a nearby lot, paid the $20, and walked over to (then) Staples Center. Nobody on the way over knew who he was. Eighteen seasons later, he will never be invisible again, not the least because his #23 will forever hang in the rafters alongside a pantheon of LA Kings greats. For those who need a refresher, that’s Rob Blake’s #4, Luc Robitaille’s #20, Gretzky’s #99, Dave Taylor’s #18, Marcel Dione’s #16, and Rogie Vachon’s #30.
What’s doing with the LA Kings these days? They had two weeks off surrounding the All-Star game and by-week, and it was thought that they’d come back flat. In fact, the Kings came out and steadily dismantled the vaunted Penguins, whose best burst of life was in their attempt to break goalie Phoenix Copley’s shutout in the last minute of the game.
As you mourn the loss of another of hockey’s most prolific and well-known players with Bobby Hull having passed away, think of the larger pantheon of Chicago Blackhawks players who have been lost of late: Jim Pappin, Tony Esposito, Stan Makita. Pretty big holes in the memory to fill, eh?
What do you think about when you’re not thinking about the playoffs? Whatever that is, it’s exactly what the Anaheim Ducks are thinking right now, because they’ve been in the race for Connor Bedard for weeks now. Let’s try to make a few guesses.
What do Jonathan Bernier and Martin Jones have in common? They both won Stanley Cups on the bench in support of Jonathan Quick. Even saying that, there’s Quick, as you’d expect, dominating the near- and middle-term memories of Kings fans. But there’s a new person in town, and he’s rising (from the ashes, is the joke based on his name)—fast.
Remember when Roman Cechmanek was the LA Kings’ goalie? Of course you don’t, because Jonathan Quick’s outstanding performance in net, which stretches to nearly 15 seasons now, has erased memories—mostly bad ones—of almost every goalie who has put on the crown since, who? Kelly Hrudey in the 1980s and 90s? Rogie Vachon in the 1970s?
Is there any point in concentrating on bouncing back from a loss when you’re just as likely to lose again even if you win the present game? This has to be on the minds of the Anaheim Ducks a quarter of the way through what’s been a very topsy-turvy season.
It’s a legit question to ask if the Seattle Kraken are for real. After a disappointing first year that yielded them a record of 27-49-6 and 60 points, third-worst in the NHL, they started out their second campaign with four losses out of five games, and four points gained over the span. The early returns said to expect more of the same as last year. But then they started to roll, and now they’re 8-1-1 in their last ten games and winners of their last six games.
If the name Brady Tkachuk catches your ear, it’s for good reason. Call him the Baby-Faced Assassin, because Tkachuk puts it to the other team night after night.
The LA Kings might be a bit artificially high in their placement in the Pacific right now, having played as many as three games more than the teams which surround them. But they are on pace to make the playoffs, bolstered in part by their good home record, which stands at 6-4-0. Their last ten games, in addition, notch them at 5-3-2.
Where’d that guy come from? And that guy there? If you were watching the Ducks of late, you might well ask that question about two unfamiliar faces, Brett Leason and Glenn Gawdin (pictured). Both had sparkling careers in Junior hockey, and yet each is, at a young age, an attempted Ducks rejuvenation project.
The Mighty Panthers, winners of 58 games last year, losers of only 18, with a total record of 58-18-6, roared into the playoffs and then promptly won a series, after which they died. Meanwhile, the Kings went about their business methodically, dismantling opponents with their defense and not even having to resort to wildcard status. By many accounts, the Kings exceeded expectations in even making the playoffs, despite that they went out after a round.
Just because a roster of 25 doesn’t pencil out to be a good hockey team doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to their games. And not for mercy or pity, but because you never know what’s going to happen. Fans of the Ducks should have learned this lesson by now, but it was reinforced on the back of the antics of Trevor Zegras, with the Toronto Maple Leafs looking on.
