Hounding the Competition

Ugly, ugly, ugly. Ugly jerseys, ugly camera angles and what an ugly game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Florida Panthers tonight. Imagine what the Kings could have done had they actually been interested in playing in this game. We haven't said it all that much at The Royal Half this season... but goaltender Jon Quick kept the lackluster Kings in this game. Man... did I mention those ugly uniforms?

Who thought this looked good?

Kings 4, Panthers of Florida 3

How about that Scott Parse, huh? That little guy banged his way all over the ice, especially in the first period. I really noticed him out there tonight and that wasn't just because he made his first NHL in-between periods interview.

No, I noticed Parse because of his crazy Vampire hockey teeth.

I've decided that Scott Parse, Dustin Brown and Jarret Stoll aren't really a hockey line but rather they are all the same hunched over, hyperactive skating, little person. Either that or Craig Conroy is back on the Kings.

This is pretty much what each of those 3 guys look like on the ice.

Tonight, the worst move by the Kings wasn't even on the ice... it was on Twitter... as the Kings PR department tried to force on us fans a horrible, just horrible nickname for Kings Insider™ Rich Hammond....

Yeah, I can already see the graphic being created for the intermission chat between Jim Fox and Rich Hammond. It will look like this... but with more "Foxy and the Hound."

Don't think Fox Sports West is better than this.
They've done it before.

Oh, what's that? Fox Sports West already has the graphic ready for this segment? Well let's roll that in...

Yeah, this is pretty much what happens on those cross-country plane trips.
I like to pretend that the owl is Drew Doughty.

Did I mention how ugly the Florida Panthers uniforms are?

Even this particular screengrab does not distract me from those ugly uniforms.

I mean... does anything look good in those goofy colors?

Oh... I see what you did there.

Jon Quick is the reason the Kings walked away from this game with 2 points. Even when the Kings were leading (you totally had a short-handed 3rd period goal from Randy Jones in your office pool, didn't you?) they looked like they could care less about this game. Quick's play was very steady... including a couple great saves in the 3rd when he stood up tall like everyone has been asking him to. When the Kings were trying so hard to give this game away (I'm looking at you Jack Johnson) Jon Quick kept his cool and pulled out a victory for this team.

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

I pretty much knew when Ryan Smyth took that awkward hip check that he was going to be out for the game. It's strange... when Justin Williams was out a week or two ago, I didn't notice as much... maybe because Wayne Simmonds did so well in his absence. But with Ryan Smyth out tonight... I felt like Alexander Frolov looked out of place on the 1st line and Brad Richardson looked downright scary on the 3rd line. Paging Teddy Purcell! What are you doing on Wednesday? Probably playing NHL hockey, that's what!