I refer to the Shark's goal in the 3rd. Jiri Hudler was prevented from getting to the puck. The announcers even praised the Shark for impeding him. Hello? Two refs on the ice, and it happened in the crease. It's not like they weren't looking.

I found this in my scrap heap, a post, started before round one, that I never posted.

1. Will the Kings' power play wake up in time to stop costing them games?
2. Will Justin Williams be healthy enough to make a difference, or will it be a replay of 2010, when he came back too soon? 
3. Will Scott Parse play his first game in five months? Is there any chance he can contribute after so long on the shelf?
4. Will we see Jonathan Bernier?
5. Will Saskatoon's season end before the Kings' season ends? If Brayden Schenn becomes available, does Dean Lombardi recall him, or send him to Manchester?
6. How many games does Kevin Westgarth play? 
7. Will it be possible to avoid Jeremy Roenick's opinions?
8. Will the Kings slam the door on the score-a-goal-let-them-get-it-right-back plan that's worked so well thus far?

Let's see. That would be:

1. Yes and (5 minute major in 3rd/OT of game six) no.
2. Yes (game one) and no. 
3. Yes and no.
4. No, and that was fine. 
5. Yes and no.
6. All of them, and he almost won game one in OT, or did I dream that?
7. Yes, for me anyway. 
8. Yes, but they replaced it with score-four-let-them-get-them-all-back, which worked even better. 

The Kings successfully defended the Fragile Psyche Cup, needing only one round to win it for the second time in as many years. The Sharks competed valiantly, taking numerous stupid penalties and spotting the Kings' early (theoretically insurmountable) leads in multiple games, but were overmatched by the Kings' impenetrable and ruthlessly efficient lead-blowing assault. The Sharks repeatedly started and pulled confused goaltender Antti Niemi in an attempt to force a game seven, but in the end, the law of averages finally caught up with the them. Two-time Cloutier Award (Fragile Psyche Cup MVP) winner Joe Thornton inadvertently scored his first career OT goal, crushing his team's hopes for a record fifth cup. The timing could not have been worse. San Jose can still save face if they fall apart in round two, but for many in the fan base, it's already too late. 

Kings exploit Sharks biggest weakness - Lets Go Sharks

So much for home ice advantage. So much for avenging Ian White. So much for Jarret Stoll's suspension. The Sharks flat out missed the bus to their Game 2 match up with the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.[..] the Sharks failure to mount much of a fight can be attributed to everyone up and down the lineup. Ten Shark players were a combined -10 +/-, and goaltender Antti Niemi could only stop 19 of 23 shots.

The Sharks need to figure out how to rebound from what may have arguably been one of their worst playoff performances in team history. [...]  The series is now a best of five affair, but the Sharks will need to figure out what hit them first.

Los Angeles finished the evening 2-of-6 on the power play, San Jose a distant 0-for-5. [...]  Ryane Clowe didn't get the memo regarding the Sharks penalty killing issues and decided to exact a little revenge by throwing an elbow at Drew Doughty a minute after the Johnson goal.[...] Sharks captain Joe Thornton helped the [Kings'] cause by deciding to hold on to a puck at his own blueline, rather than clear it. The Kings stripped the centerman and worked the puck in the Sharks zone before Doughty converted his first of the playoffs. Clowe's decision making got even more suspect when he laid out Doughty with a cross check in front of the Sharks net. [...] San Jose's power play unit was as effective as the penalty kill, wasting the opportunity with two minutes of perimeter passing that got the puck nowhere near Quick. [...]  The wheels completely came off [...] when Clifford bagged a goal from the Sharks doorstep. Thornton fell asleep while parked at the top of the crease, allowing a Brad Richardson pass to slip past him as he lost track of Clifford. [...]

The Sharks [...] have three days to figure out what went wrong and patch up the gaping holes that allowed Doughty and company to run roughshod on HP Pavilion ice.  

Road win energizes Los Angeles Kings - San Jose Mercury News

Ryan Smyth has seen plenty in his 16 NHL seasons. And before Saturday night's [game], he spoke calmly about [the Kings' chances]. "Good teams find a way through adversity," Smyth said. And that's what the Kings were on this night, thoroughly whipping the Sharks 4-0 at HP Pavilion to even the first-round playoff series at one game each. "It's about the will to win," Smyth said in a happy Kings locker room afterward. "You have to dig deep, and everybody stepped up, collectively. A series doesn't really start until somebody wins on the road."

Consider this one officially under way as the teams head to Staples Center for Games 3 and 4. [...]

The Kings played like hockey royalty, and the undisciplined Sharks did everything possible to beat themselves with seven penalties and lackluster play. [...] The Kings' special-teams play also was extra special. Their penalty kill zapped all five of the Sharks' power-play opportunities. (San Jose now is scoreless in seven power plays in the opening two games.) The Los Angeles power play, ranked only 21st in the NHL during the regular season, converted twice in six attempts Saturday. "We were moving the puck well," Doughty said. "We studied their PK closely, found their tendencies, and we exploited them." 

I'll leave you with a reasonable, but entirely inaccurate, quote from the comment section of Fearthefin:

Kings stomp Sharks 4-0 to knot the series at one headed back to Los Angeles - Fear The Fin

The way I see it No one expected the Sharks to win in 4 games, myself included. So a loss is a loss. This is just a minor bump on the way to winning in 5, 6, or 7. "

teal_and_orange on Apr 17, 2011 11:16 AM PDT 

Reasonable because the idea of the Sharks sweeping was always more or less absurd. Inaccurate because, despite Teal-and-orange's -- and my -- conviction that this was going to be a long series, nearly everyone on the planet (by which I mean pundits, and, as was pointed out by someone else in the fearthefin comments, many Kings' commenters) had the Sharks closing out this "easy" series in four or five games. 

• April 6, 1968 - Kings 2, Minnesota North Stars 0 (Terry Sawchuk)
• April 8, 1976 - Kings 1, Atlanta Flames, 0 (Rogie Vachon)
• May 4, 2001 - Kings 1, Colorado Avalanche 0 (Felix Potvin)
• May 6, 2001 - Kings 1, Colorado Avalanche 0 (2OT) (Felix Potvin)
• April 25, 2002 - Kings 1, Colorado Avalanche 0 (OT) (Felix Potvin)
• April 16, 2011 - Kings 4, San Jose Sharks 0 (Jonathan Quick)

‘I think I’ll be back pretty soon,’ says Ian White — and some nice things to say about Jarret Stoll | Working the Corners

As for Stoll, who will be serving his one-game suspension, White flat out delcared, "He’s not a dirty player."

"Obviously, 99 percent of the guys in the league don’t intentionally try to hurt anyone and I know he’s one of those guys," he said. "Just kind of the wrong place at the wrong time for both of us.

"He got me square in the head with his forearm and I know he feels bad about it," the defenseman said. "I don’t hold anything against him." How does he know how Stoll feels? "He sent me a message," White said, "and we had some correspondence over the phone." 

[...T]here are at least a couple people in the Sharks organization, it’s safe to say, who know enough about Jarret Stoll to know that what happened on the ice in that one moment isn’t a reflection of who he is as a person. At the NHL All-Star break, Stoll passed on the chance to for some time in Vegas or Cabo or Mammoth or wherever it is that players spend their four days if they aren’t in the event. Instead he flew back to his roots in Saskatoon, where a longtime friend was in the final days of his battle with cancer. That friend was Chad Martin, Todd McLellan’s brother-in-law who died March 12.

[...] Stoll also has been running a charity golf tournament for three years that has raised about $750,000 for Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital.

[...] I also asked Stoll about that extra time he spent staring at White right after the hit. "I knew he hit his face on the dasher," Stoll said. "I was trying to maybe hold him up or hope he was all right. It wasn’t my intent to lay him into the boards. I slowed up and tried to pin him. That was my intention."

In addition to being an apparently stand-up guy, he also has shoulders like Sonny Corleone.

Laying the groundwork for a coming post:

Penalty Killing

Kings 85.5% (4th)

Sharks 79.4% (24th)

PK Goals-Against

LAK 40 (1st)

SJS 56 (23rd)

Shots-Against per Game

LAK 27.9 (3rd)

SJS 28.9 (8th)

GAA

LAK 2.39 (6th)

SJS 2.54 (10th)

Win% in one goal games

LAK .595 (5th)

SJS .538 (13th)

First Round - Letsgosharks

Speaking of injuries, forward Ryane Clowe was given a clean bill of health heading into Game 1. The Sharks forward missed the last two games of the regular season. He skated for the first time in a week on Monday and met with reporters after practice.  

No word on Anze Kopitar, but when he broke his ankle four weeks ago, the prognosis was a six week return at the earliest.

If only that were still the case. Note to Sharks fans living on the moon: Kopitar is done till next year.

The Sharks have announced that after a team vote, they will wear their black jerseys for all home games during the playoffs. Kings marketing theme this post season: "Back in Black".

Oh my god that's so stupid. Both parts. I am so sick of black uniforms. 

[...] No word from the Kings on if they will ask fans to refrain from sucker-punching anyone wearing teal in the back of the head when the series shifts to Southern California next Tuesday for Game 3. It's advised that all Sharks fans attending the game at Staples Center wear their hockey helmets to the game. Visors are optional.

Not sure what this is a reference to. Any ideas? [UPDATE: Oh. I guess it's kind of obvious, or would have been, had I been thinking along the lines of "attempted murder" rather than "Sharks fans think Kings fans are dicks." There's a link to this sickening story in the comments, for anyone else who missed the reference.]

The Sharks have five former Cup winners on their roster (Antti Niemi, Ben Eager, Niclas Wallin, Dan Boyle, and Kent Huskins). The Kings only have two (Rob Scuderi and Dustin Penner).

Justin Williams (with Carolina). 

Not to jinx things, but every "expert" contributor on ESPN.com picks the Sharks to take the opening round series. None of the eight contributors is picking a sweep, and only John Buccigross thinks the series will go seven games. 

Jinx.