Congrats Jason, but what the hell?

A hearty congratulations is in order for one Mr. Jason LaBarbera of the Vancouver Canucks for earning his first win in his debut in the blue and green. He stopped 31 shots from a struggling Nashville team and earned NHL's second star of the night. With Ovechkin trailing just behind, earning third star rewards for his goal and pair of assists, only Jiri Hudler could top LaBarbera's .969 save percentage with his pair of goals and single assist at the Winter Classic earlier this morning.

I don't want to appear mean or bitter-salty in any way, but what the hell? I will first direct that toward Canuck followers; one in particular that wrote an introductory article about LaBarbera that is not as provocative as its title makes it to be: Jason LaBarbera Leaves Kings for Canucks.

Hold the phone, here. Is this implying that he just decided to leave and that management in Los Angeles had no choice in the matter? It sure as shit sounds like it. I don't want to turn this into some "She's All That" teen scene but, let's not forget who dropped the other. If Jason LaBarbera had a record powerful enough to just let him decide where and when he wanted to go, the Kings would have gotten more than a seventh round draft pick in the 2009 NHL Draft.

I would next like to direct that question toward the NHL (yeah, you read right; nothing is safe or too sacred) and in specific, the people in charge of the NHL website. Quick recorded 2 shutouts in 3 games. The one game left over? He let in 2 goals. That bumps him completely back to third? I just don't find that sort of scale of talent to be fair, moral or to include common sense. No offense, but I'm just saying...

Lastly, I would like to direct that towards all of Vancouver, Canuck fans, and all others unfamiliar with Jason LaBarbera up until this game. As much as I would like to think that the Vancouver Canucks would have been lost without the mighty saving abilities of LaBarbera, things should be put into perspective. For starters, the Vancouver defense had saved his ass on more than one occasion. Next, the Predators have not been playing very well at all.

The last time that Jason had been in net against Nashville was October 25, 2008. It was the second game of a back-to-back in which he had the shutout against the St. Luis Blues, with the Kings winning 4-0, the night before. After letting in 3 goals in a span of 3:16, he was replaced with net minder Erik Ersberg at 12:48 of the first period. In the previous seven games, the Predators had gone 3-4-0 (collecting 6 out of a possible 14 points) and averaged 3.4 goals per game as well as 28.3 shots on goal. However, the Predators also (in that seven game span) averaged 3.86 goals against per game as well as 25.1 shots against.

This meeting between Nashville and LaBarbera would not turn out to be so gruesome. In the seven games before this one, the Predators had again collected 6 out of a possible 14 points with a 3-4-0 record. Their average shots on goal had gone from 28.3 to 30.1, but their average goals scored per game went from the previously listed 3.4 to a lowly 1.7; as their average shots against per game went from 25.1 to 30.6 which conflicts with the average goals scored against per game dropping from 3.86 to 2.43.

This might not mean much (other than the fact that I have a gift for crunching numbers to make them look relevant) to most people, but I see this as a clear sign that, going into this game, Nashville was ever-so-slightly splitting at the seams and as a team, they were at a most vulnerable point. I am not saying this to discredit the victory of the Nucks over Preds; I am just saying that before LaBarbera is showered with praise and glory (like the kind that comes from one win rocketing you to NHL's second star) we might just want to wait until he plays a more challenging opponent or maybe until....a game goes into a shootout.

Congratulations, Babs. I honestly hope that everything works out. I would love to hear the Cinderella story of the goalie whose talent seemed to shy away from every team but his hometown's. Cheers to you LaBarbera, because if it weren't for you, who knows how many starts Cloutier would have received. Oh, yea, if you could just pass a sarcastic "thanks" to those in Vancouver for Dan, that little gem, that would be great.

Remember 2008? You probably don't want to...

I was going to have an extensive post about the transitional year that was 2008. I was going to write about the breakout season for offense at the tail of the 07-08 season, ask if a house fell on Dan Cloutier yet, discuss the flushing away of all leadership on the team over a summer, examine the hits and misses of Kings Hockey advertising. When I went to the Kings' website for references, however, I had noticed that they had done everything for me. I scrolled and reminisced about the happier times; when seasons only lasted until January and we had that one guy on the team- what's his name? Jake Jonestown or something. I don't know, he played defense and was pretty good from what I remember. I must applaud LAKings.com for doing such a great job on summing up the year. So I highly, highly, highly, highly recommend you check it out.

2008 Los Angeles Kings Part I
2008 Los Angeles Kings Part II

While you are at it, you might as well read what the best have to say about the NHL-wide roundup of 2008. So do yourself a favor and check out:

2008: A year in PuckDaddy
Yahoo's top 10 NHL stories of 2008
THN's Adam Proteau unleashes on the 2008 NHL
Slap Shot provides a look into the 2009 NHL season
Not into reading? Fox makes an '08 slideshow
TSN's Craig Custance talks top headlines
Jeff Mackie recalls more to 2008 than Avery
A small review by Matt Eichel @ Bleacher Report

I will warn you (a bit too late, perhaps?) that most of the articles (with the exception of the brilliantly done Hockey News article by Adam Proteau) are all the same headlines and comments.

In a nut shell: Alexander Ovechkin must be heaven-sent, Sidney Crosby cannot grow facial hair, Sean Avery= Douchey Wiener Mouth, Tampa Bay is up shit creek, and guess who won the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in eleven years? Nope, it's not even close to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

So there is the NHL in 2008. If you checked out a couple links (hopefully the Kings ones first) I am sure that you have received a good sense as to where the sport is as well as is headed. All that I really didn't have to do anything. This feels illegal...

Jason LaBarbera traded

It looks as though the Kings are in no mood for goalie busts as they have traded 6'3'', 225 pound (give him credit, he lost weight over the summer) to the Vancouver Canucks for a seventh round draft pick in the 2009 NHL draft.

It looks as though Jonathan Quick impressed more than I thought. I was assuming that he would get a pat on the back as he was ushered back to Manchester while little Erik redeemed his place in net as Babs sat on the bench and sang along every time "Fuel" was played in Staples. However, the Kings were not so laissez-faire about the whole scenario. It seems to have gone a little more the route of: Jason is bad. Jonathan is good.

I am not disagreeing with the move, but I don't think that so much trust should have been put on Quick so soon. I would have like to see his work in the shootout. Hell, I would have at least like to see his work against a team that, I don't know, is good? I'd like to see him take a shootout against Detroit and then we will see who is in L.A. My guess is that Bernier will be here in less than 2 months*.
*Then again, that is probably when the Kings will be out of playoff contention and they are giving everyone NHL samples (see last year).

The bigger questions are in the rest of the trade agreement. The seventh round pick and Vancouver Canuck recipient threw me for a loop more than anything. Was the best offer management could get for Babs really just a seventh round pick? I would have said fourth; no better, no worse. On top of that, is Luongo's injury really so serious as to need another goaltender? With the only loss being the lowly draft pick, it couldn't hurt (unless they loss his 6 starts in a row; too personal?) but if I were a Vancouver fan (ew) I would be worried.

Kings 0, Blue Jackets 1

What kind of crap was that?

Wrapping up December

Today is the last game of December for L.A. and it is against the Columbus Blue Jackets. I am not going to assume a win because that is usually the kiss of the death for the team. So I will just see how they have done so far this month.

Things are in a bit of a hectic state for the team right now. They had to throw a couple of rookies into the mix with the World Juniors taking our little Oscar, Brad Richardson splitting stitches in practice and San Jose being 2 for 3 in taking out a player when they face the Kings. So far, things haven't gone completely to the birds.

The Kings are 5-6-3 this December with 2 of the 5 wins coming courtesy of the Columbus Blue Jackets themselves; not just wins, mind you, but shutouts. The questionable thing is how Columbus will come out tonight. It is a home game for the Kings, who seem to do significantly better there then on the road (10-7-6 at home, 5-8-0 on the road) but with these points being so significant to the team and assuming Columbus is tired of losing, one can only hope that L.A. doesn't play on their heels to a vengeful Columbus.

Me? I'm not worried. Columbus couldn't even beat Dan Cloutier last year. In a shoot out.

By the look of things, Jonathan Quick is going to be in net tonight. It would not be a surprise, seeing as he was the one to notch the shutout last against the Jackets. He also got the shutout against a streaking, Bryzgalov-laden Phoenix that had previously gone 6-0 versus the team. Plus, he was named one of the NHL's three stars of the week! The world is looking grim for Babs.

One of the saves that he was actually looking at.

It just goes to show you, though. A guy gets two shut outs in three games, lets in only 2 goals in the other and he still only gets to play third fiddle to Alex Ovechkin.

Decem-diagram: A Comparing and Contrasting of Decembers

It would have sounded better if I were talking about November, because then I could have said Novem-diagram and that sounds more similar to Venn diagram. Instead, it turned into a play on words that I had to explain and that's just stupid.

Just to fill you in, my computer apparently is a bear because it went into hibernation (I know that it's a setting, but it's ironic because it was just before the temperature really started dropping). So now I have missed an entire month of the highs and Lows (Angeles). Here is just a quick (not actually quick and not referring to the goalie situation) over view of this December and why Kings fans really shouldn't be too upset.

Any Kings fan who lived through last December still gets a chill that runs up their spines when it is mentioned. I wonder why it could have that effect? Let me take you back.

December can't get to you under there, Aubin

Let's go back to a time when Marc Crawford was coach and LaBarbera was heaven-sent. An innocent time when Frolov was sidelined by an injury and we saw lines like Cammallieri-Kopitar-Brown (granted Cammy had virtually stopped scoring at this point): this was December. It was when Calder and Preissing weren't looked upon because I was too busy disgusted with the likes of Willsie and Stuart.

December 1, 2007
Colorado Avalanche 5, Los Angeles Kings 2


This game was the catalyst that turned that December into what it was. At the time, the management and fans were already rubbing their temples over Dan "good call Crawford" Cloutier (little did we know, we had only seen the tip of the iceberg*) and Jason LaBarbera had finally come to play for the Kings after having a superior season in the AHL. Remember? This was when we all thought Babs was so good that we couldn't risk going through the red tape of his contract and someone snagging him when we try to bring him up. Remember, he had record-setting success; there were no signs that he wouldn't be able to handle being a number one goaltender in the NHL. I guess in the AHL they don't have answers for his patented "fling and sprawl" move.
*Not intended to be a foreshadowing of Ersberg coming into the season and later replacing Jason LaBarbera.

He's so close to understanding butterfly goaltending

He has his weaknesses here and there, but when a player doesn't have dramatic flaws, they get overshadowed by the ones that do (and this team always has a player with a dramatic flaw). Even if he were as bad last year as he has been this year (which he probably was), the Kings would just try to stick with him because when it came down to it, the decision-making idea was "it's either this or Cloutier."

Entering the game, Ryan Smyth was in a bit of a scoring pickle because he had tallied one goal in all of 13 games. He was determined to change that in this game. How? He would take out the one thing that is in the way (Kings had horrible defense that year, so he didn't have to worry about them) and that was the goaltender. With 14:40 remaining in the game, Ryan Smyth stabbed Jason LaBarbera in the ribs (I was there and I am fairly confident that it was a switchblade, but I will have to re-check my sources) and he was replaced by J.S. Aubin. He was quoted after the game talking about what I can only assume is the stabbing of LaBarbera.

"I got my opportunities and took full advantage of it. I've been talking about trying to get to the net a little bit more, and it was just a matter of going out and doing it."

It seems he was planning this for quite some time. I have always hated Colorado, but the douchebaggery has really gotten out of hand. This was the eventual beginning of the end for the 2007-2008 Los Angeles Kings as they would eliminate themselves from playoff contention with a December record of 4-11-1, earning them 9 points out of a possible 32.

Notes

The next night, the Kings played Garon and the rest of the Oilers. It went to a shootout and the Kings lost, of course, because Garon has faced their shots more than anyone else in the league. He was quoted about wanted to leave L.A. because he had felt that he wasn't needed. Boy, was he off the mark on this one:

"I think it started the summer before last season when they got (Dan Cloutier. By that time, I knew I was not really part of the plan anymore. I think I had a good season last year, but I knew I was not their guy. Obviously, I didn't want to spend another season like that, and that's why I decided to take a different path."

The Kings had their ever-so-pleasant eight game losing streak in that month which lasted from December 12-26 in which they lost eight games in regulation to: Chicago, Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado, Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, and San Jose.

On the 6th of that December, Jonathan Quick (there because of an injury to Aubin) celebrated his first NHL win in his NHL debut as the Kings beat the Sabres 8-2 in Staples Center. Goals came from Camalleri, Brown (2), Preissing (2), Modry, Handzus (SH) and Armstrong. In that game, 11 of the 18 Kings skaters earned a point.

By the end of December of last season, Anze Kopitar had 16 goals. In that month he had a six game point streak and carried over a stat 10 points in 11 games that started at the end of November. That would be 7 goals and 2 assists.

The L.A. Kings had 12 games in 21 days that month (16 total) and 4 back-to-back games with 7 of 8 being away games.

The Point

In the end, take from the comparison what you will. Celebration can be made that our December record this year doesn't look a little like: 4-11-1 or rioting can ensue on the grounds that while the Kings are clawing to the .500 mark, a healthy, "best shape of my life" Babs is doing similar damage as an injured Mr. Stay Puft '08. Ok, how about the fact that we are still in the playoff run? If anything than look at the December that the Islanders and Blues* are having (yikes!).
*Suck it Murray!
Now that we have come and gone from that lagoon of loss that is December 2007, let us look at all the beautiful and positive changes that have occurred in the time in between. Now let's try to figure out how Quick and Zeiler made it into both Decembers. I honestly have no idea why John Zeiler is still associated with this franchise.

Major congratulations are in hand for a Mr. Jon Quick. Here on an emergency call-up and he records 2 shutouts in 3 games. The NHL did not recognize him for his tremendous efforts, but Kings fans sure as hell do. He is the reason (not the sole reason*, but a huge one) that this team finally has beaten Phoenix when that damn Bryzgalov was in net.
*Another contributing factor, of course, being the fact that they were wearing their third jerseys.

Christmas Wishes

Dear Santa,

I know that you probably would like to receive Christmas mail via postage, the way I've been contacting you up until now, but I figured that this would do just as well.

I don't want to waste your time because I know that you have a lot of business to take care of, especially so late in the year, so I will get to the point. All I want for Christmas this year is to beat Colorado tonight in regulation. It's not much, and I didn't want to go overboard and ask for playoff contention or to win the Freezeway Faceoff, even though it has crossed my mind many a-times.

I am not saying that I didn't like your previous gifts; that sweater was heaven and if it ever gets to be cold enough along California's coast, I will definitely wear it. It is just that this year, we have not been able to beat Colorado and there is really no reason for it; they truly are douche bags. So I figured that if they couldn't win on their own, maybe you could help them; if ever they needed it, this is the time. You see, Zeiler is rumored to be going back in and Ersberg is having trouble and it is in Denver and with the two points, we could leapfrog over them in the standings.

I am sorry for yelling at the Detroit fan that sat behind me, and questioning the parenting skills of that man with the little girl in the Ducks hat (I was kidding!), and saying that Kyle Calder is a waste of sperm and egg (I wasn't kidding!), and laughing at that older lady that fell off her motor chair when she went over a bump (she couldn't hear me). If you could find it in your heart to make my Christmas wish come true after all of the things that I just told you, I would be the happiest Kings fan in the whole world.

If on the other hand, you can't find a way to help me out (liar!), I will have to tell Mrs. Claus about what held you out late last year.

You don't need to know sources, give them a damn win!