This Smells Rank

The NHL's leading scorer. Front page articles on NHL.com. A victory over last season's NHL champion. A nationally televised game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Wow... the Los Angeles Kings really have been making quite an impression on the mainstream media, huh?

Whoops.

See it here for yourself at Fox Sports. It turns out that Power Rankings author Robert Picarello somehow missed the coverage of the Ryan Smyth trade... 4 months ago. Here is a full screen shot since this will totally be changed in a few minutes.

Does this mean the Av's and Kings are sharing Smyth's salary this season?

If so, great move Dean Lombardi.

So with all the hoopla that has surrounded the Kings during this still young NHL season... it remains hoopla that doesn't leave the greater Los Angeles area. The rest of the hockey world still doesn't know how to pronounce Anze Kopitar... they still don't know what a great defensive forward Wayne Simmonds has turned into... and apparently they don't know that Ryan Smyth was traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the Los Angeles Kings over the summer. And how would they? It was barely covered in the news.

Yup, pretty sure that is Kings' purple.

And with the Los Angeles Kings playing like absolute shite the last 2 games... can you blame Kings' fans for not wanting the rest of the NHL to notice?

Kings 1, The Better Up and Coming Team 4

#3 in a series of... "Opposing team happy... Kings sad."

and... #4.

Thankfully the game against the Chicago Blackhawks last night was only broadcast on Versus... this way most of America wasn't able to see how shitty the Kings played in that 3rd period. It was eerily similar to the way the team played last season. Keeping up with a better overall opponent over 2 periods... only to implode during the final 20 minutes. With the first game of a 5 game road trip a loss, Coach Murray has got to figure out a way to get the Kings back on track. Hopefully the Wednesday game against the winless in 12 games Carolina Hurricanes will be just the fix. This Carolina team has been in a spiral all season and they just lost their goaltender to the dreaded "lower body skate blade" injury. This should be an easy game against some nameless goalie that the Kings will just murder... right?

Ugh, really? Manny Legace? Wasn't Curtis Joseph available?

Legace is by no means an NHL elite goaltender anymore... but for some reason the Kings have always seemed to struggle against him the last few seasons. This would be a great opportunity for the Hurricanes to rally around their new goaltender and end their awful losing streak. Thankfully, the Kings will be back on their rightful home, Fox Sports West HD. And I'll finally be able to watch a Kings game at home for the first time in 2 games. I just hope it's not another loss to a team they should beat.