Heading In The Right Direction: Ducks 1, Kings 0 (OT)

On election day my Los Angeles Kings faced the dreaded Anaheim Ducks. Freeway Faceoff? Please. The Kings went into this game on a 4-game losing streak and the Ducks have been doing... well (boo), but the latter did not leave with two points easily won. The Kings fought and grinded and did their best to get any pucks past JS Giguere's mattress pads; alas, after 61 minutes, the game was done. Overall, the boys stood up to the Ducks and did a commendable job. I was definitely wary at the start of the game since the Ducks were doing everything they could to clog up the neutral zone, which caused the Kings to take the first half of the first period trying to get their legs under them. It was honestly getting a bit boring with the Kings not being able to get across the offensive blueline without chipping in the puck and chasing after it. The puck possession was a little questionable since the passes were going all over the place.

I forgot to check the stats sheet last night, so no numbers for this post.

Things I didn’t like:

• Matt Moulson being reassigned to the Manchester Monarchs. What the eff!
• Peter Harrold skating as a forward.
• Brian Boyle on a line with Peter Harrold.
• Patrick O’Sullivan having to skate with these two yahoos.

First, Erik Ersberg looked solid. This isn’t to say that I think he’s leaps and bounds better than Jason LaBarbera. I just thought that the Swede was square on almost all of the shots that came his way. That being said, there were some tense moments when he was flopping around when a rebound was snagged by a Duck, but, other than that, he looked good. But one game isn’t going to convince me; I basically won’t have full confidence in Ersberg unless he pulls a Ty Conklin from last year. I need to know that he can stand up to teams who are prepared to face him in the net. If other teams know his tendencies in net and he can STILL shut them down, then I’ll give him my full vote of confidence. But, of course, I’ll be cheering for him to be successful for every game. I’m obviously not going to turn on him if he has one bad game.

Second, the goal to end the game in overtime basically sickened me; a slapper from Chris Pronger with a screen in front of Ersberg. Vomit inducing indeed. It was such a shock when it went in; it felt like it just happened way too quickly. But no clichés here, the Ducks scored and the Kings grabbed a point. They’re still last in the standings and, of course, the Western Conference, but by no means are they out of the race. It’s the beginning of November for Christ’s sake! I’m so focused on the Kings working on their consistency that I haven’t even been watching the standings all that much.

In conclusion: keys for Thursday's game against Florida? Umm, win?