Back to Back to Quick

After sleeping through most of Friday nights loss against the Phoenix Coyotes, the Los Angeles Kings came flying out of the gate during Saturday's rematch, playing a near perfect game... an important victory if they want to keep any chance of making the playoffs alive. Again... boring hockey wins. There were a couple nice goals, some great breakouts and impressive penalty killing. But all in all... boring hockey. And I LOVE boring hockey.

Kings 4, Coyotes 0

How cool are back to back, home and away games? If the NHL really wants to build rivalries within a division, this is the way to do it. Make it best of 3 like baseball does. The Kings really bounced back tonight, something they have been able to do all season after a poor effort. That is the best measuring stick of a young teams progression.

The Phoenix Coyotes seem to be in the worst financial position of any NHL team. So much so that the NHL has started the bailout plans. Hockey in the desert seems to be on its last legs and even the Great One has found difficulty in selling it to Phoenix. The Coyotes are a young team on the rise, but their brand new rink was built in the wrong suburb of Phoenix, making it a pain to get out to games. It all spells to the relocation of this franchise in the soon to near future... maybe to Canada or Kansas City? I say shut it down this season... one less team to worry about for that 8th playoff spot.

I should have coached in Edmonton instead.

Sure it's only been 3 games, and those 3 games were against Columbus and Phoenix... but youngster Jonathan Quick is gaining some confidence in goal and the Kings are looking strong in front of him. In fact Quick is so cocky... he no longer needs to look at the puck to make a save:

Erik Ersberg traveled with the Kings to Phoenix and should be ready to dress for the next game. With the Christmas trading freeze ending Saturday at midnight... does Jason LaBarbera start packing his bags or are the Kings going to carry 3 goalies for a while? Is Dean Lombardi actually thinking of handing over the starting goaltending job to this guy? He looks like he's 12!

I'm pretty sure those headphones are attached to his new ipod.