Kings 6, Coyotes 4 (this season is going to be miserable)

Preseason games. What can you do? It was a pretty awkward game, with there being only about a hundred fans -- there were 3, 382 more fans at the game in Kansas City. At least the hundred that were here got to see an entertaining game. I think that the players on both teams have had a rubber band tied around their balls for the past five months because there was quite a bit of violence going on in the first period alone, about five....altercations. I can't really remember anyone having a type of spectacular performance that made me feel should lead them to a spot on the team. Calder seemed more proactive; I don't know if it was because it was just a preseason game, because he felt like the cool kid with half the team away, or because he could grow a beard if he so chose -- maybe all of the above -- but it was noticeable. He even got into a fight. It was kind of just a roughing thing, but that's only because the refs and linesmen broke it up. I do have a complaint about a goal that he cheated us out of because he has the quick release of a rusty slinky, but hey, it's Calder, as long as that's the best complaint, that's not bad.

There were three alternate captains for the Kings tonight: Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, and Matt Greene. At this point I am wondering if that kind of thing is a gift or curse for the Kings players that have it adorn their jerseys. It's kind of the scarlet letter of the franchise; after that 'A' goes on your chest, it's all downhill from there, everything changes.

This is what I found hilarious, and shrugged off with a "Wudja luka tha? Pffft... preseason..."* :

*My speech is horrible during post season.

Goals
Period 1:
12:05 -- #58 Meckler; #71 Boyle*
09:19 -- #7 Armstrong; #51 Moller, #41 Ivanans

Period 2:
17:52 -- #71 Boyle; #51 Moller, #76 Voinov*
12:42 -- #7 Armstrong; #21 Gauthier, #19 Calder

Period 3:
01:17 -- #51 Moller; #58 Meckler, #49 Harrold*
00:01 -- #58 Meckler; #2 Greene, #11 Kopitar (empty net)

*Power play goal

Armstrong was the superstar? Oh, and Babs was out after the second period. You may argue that he was just out because they wanted to give Taylor a little ice time, see how he performs and you may humor yourself as long as you can. He let, in my opinion, two very bad goals in. Two out of four is not a comforting number. Okay, hold on, I'm not done. I will agree that maybe one of the two was because of a faulty defense, although the argument could go either way.

I will have to have a post about the fighting tomorrow, I have a few snappy lines in my arsenal. That makes things pretty difficult. The chippy playing was pretty much the only thing the game had going for it. Other than that, there were a bunch of disconnected passes, people were falling down more than they should have, sloppy checks, tons of broken sticks, lack of communication, and bumbling plays. Now, I guess I could shrug this off with a "Wudja luka tha? Pffft... preseason..." , but what worries me is that in about 3 weeks, the season starts and the team looks like crap. I know, we were playing with half a team, but we had the good half! What are we missing? Handzus and Zeiler? Are Matt Ellis and Drew Doughty really going to make that big of a difference? I have a feeling that this season is going to be miserable.