It's not going to do any good right now. I think you guys should just write what you saw. If you write what you saw, you'll see why people get frustrated. You know, the players -- I mean, there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into this. There's a lot of emotion in the game. It is what it is. LA played well. Early in the series, they played very well. Ultimately, the last two games I thought were our best games, but they were too late.

LA beat us. That's what should be remembered, not the refereeing.

Thanks, Dave.

From a coaching standpoint, he is right. Just like Vancouver (who waited a few games before they focused on just playing hockey), the Coyotes found out the hard way that you have to be ready to play the right way from game one. The nastiness and sideshow stuff (Who tripped who? Who slashed what? Who peed in my cornflakes?) is going to happen, but you can't use that as a main tactic to bully the other team into playing the way you want them too. Especially a team that was the second largest team in the NHL before they added Carter, Nolan, and King.

The Coyotes did play the Kings to a very close game last night, and had they started the series that way, this series would have gone back and forth faster than a ping-pong match.

The Coyotes made adjustments after Game 3. They started out-numbering the Kings along the half walls to stop the Kings from chipping the puck out. They succeeded in Game 4 with a wicked forecheck that pressured them in a different way than the Kings were ready for defensively.

We'll breakdown the coaches' interviews after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Turn the music up in the headphones!

Since we last tangled with the Phoenix Coyotes...

IN: Defenseman David Schlemko

OUT: Adrian Aucoin (lower body) Paul Bissonnette, Gilbert Brule (Coyotes); Kyle Clifford, Andrei Loktionov (Kings).

Enemy Reading: Five For Howling

Lineups:

Whitney-Hanzal-Vrbata
Boedker-Vermette-Doan
Korpikoski-Langkow-Pyatt
Chipchura-Gordon-Pouliot

Yandle-Morris
Larsson-Rozsival
Klesla-Aucoin

Smith

Kings lineup:

Continue reading this post »

(SB Nation) - The NHL has released the 2012 Stanley Cup Final schedule, and it will begin on Wednesday, May 30 in either Newark, N.J. or Manhattan. The Eastern Conference finalist New Jersey Devils or New York Rangers wil host the Western Conference finalist Los Angeles Kings or Phoenix Coyotes.

Home ice in the Final is determined by regular season points totals. The Rangers finished the season atop the East with 109 points while the Devils finished the season with 102 points, good for the No. 6 seed. The Coyotes finished the season with 97 points, good for the No. 3 seed in the West as Pacific Division champs, while the Kings finished with 95 points, good for the No. 8 seed.

The full schedule:

Continue reading this post »

The Los Angeles Kings have been around since 1967. The talking heads on our local TV shows? Well, they're still figuring it out.

First, the local NBC station posted a logo for the Sacramento Kings basketball team in place of our beloved hockey club's. (Basketball is not only a completely different sport -- who'd believe Sacramento would still be in the playoffs?) Not to be outdone, CBS LA represented our mascot Bailey as the inferior Sacramento lion. But the biggest information trainwreck came courtesy of Fox Channel 11, whose cue-card mangling reporter wins the award for most cringeworthy gaffes per minute. Try to watch this without laughing:

That "Anze Kopidor" scored a really sweet touchdown! It sure is great when the Kings have the ball! But the best part of the match is when #8, Brad Doty, says "Not Tonight!" to Shane Doan. That showed him!

Since some people still need to grasp the basics of this "ice ball" stuff, the LA Kings media relations team sprung into action and created a handy informational guide. When they're not enraging an entire province of Canada with their cheeky jokes, or giving Dwight Schrute his tickets encased in jell-o, they're pretty great educators.

View the full infographic here. We even learn what a puck is. Tremendous work.

Want to know more about Kopidor, Doty, Trey Lew, Ignatio Quick, and their stalwart captain Braun? Check out Rudy's guide at Battle of Kalidornia.

Game 4 seemed like a flight delay before a long awaited vacation. You had the feeling this was going to happen eventually. Mike Smith was going to have a game where the idea of scoring a goal would seem futile. After the first goal, this one had "Coyote Ugly" written all over it.

This wasn't for a lack of effort on the Kings part. They had their most dominant puck possession performance since Game 1 (although to be fair some of that was to due with the Coyotes jumping out to a lead and the Kings having to play catch up).

Let's see how the numbers brokedown:

Continue reading this post »

Tuesday May 22nd, 2012 at 6PM PST the Kings will be taking on the Phoenix Coyotes for game 5 in the Western Conference finals.

Gather round Kings fans, and let's celebrate together. Win, or lose, this run has been a blast. Legends has everything you need to make it a great night. Good food, drinks, atmosphere, and a Massive 29 ft projection screen with HD flat screens surrounding the entire bar. The seating capacity is about 250-275, and after that it is standing room only so come early to reserve seating, drink, eat, talk Kings hockey, and watch the pregame analysis.

Happy hour, and drink specials like $1.00 off draft beers are from 3-6 pm. Entree, and food specials will be going on as well. Local bus lines run after midnight with links to anywhere in LA, and Orange county so don't drink and drive. $1.25 could save someones life.

Legends sports Bar-Belmont Shore

5236 East 2nd Street, Long Beach, CA 90803

(562) 433-5743 ‎

Click for directions: How the hell do I get there?

Not all of us in LA county are fortunate enough to take the time off, or even spend the money to be with the Kings in Arizona. Let's watch history being made in an atmosphere dominated by Kings fans here!

GO KINGS!