haroldsnepsts

As happy as I am the Kings will get a 4 minute power play, I hate that rule. A guy bleeding has almost nothing to do with the severity of the high stick. It's so friggin random.

Two softies by Niemi. Willie MItchell scoring a playoff goal happens about as often as well... Salei scoring a playoff goal.

Kunitz gets one game per Bob McKenzie. What a joke of a suspension. It was as flagrant of an elbow to the head as you could ask for. He wasn't even trying to hit Gagne. He just threw his elbow out to his head. http://twitter.com/tsnbobmckenzie The last angle gives the best look at it.

Very strange.... I'm trying not to worry that he's injured or something.

So who would you want to replace him with? Big E's been solid.

Babcock: It's a race to 4. Why play more games than you have to?

Wow. Another longball let in by Bryzgalov.

If Salei scores, I'm liking our chances.

Honestly getting crushed by Jersey in the Finals in 95 hurt worse to me. After all the years of trying they finally get there, and then you realize how much further they still have to go.

I don't like the Ducks, but Selanne is a stud. He whines to much to the press in his old age, but he's a stud.

That's the surprising thing though, the Sharks are actually faster. Marleau, Setoguchi, Couture. The Kings have just been playing their great grinding defensive system, and the Sharks have looked like they can't be bothered to go get the puck. The downside of the Kings system is the puck spends tons of time in the offensive zone, but behind the net and in the corners. Hardly anyone except Justin Williams (and Kopitar) takes it to the middle. Three of their goals last night came from D men at the blueline. If the Kings beat the Sharks while missing Kopitar, to me it's a big upset. But there's still a lot of hockey to play.

Am I the only one who thinks that was a boring game? I felt like I was watching an AHL game. Lots of hitting, but also a lot of missed passes, whacking at the puck, not many quality scoring chances, and general spotty play.

Let's go Kings! ******* A. The Sharks definitely looked mortal tonight. And Joe Thornton has been garbage these last two games. The only time he wasn't invisible was his terrible coverage in front of his own net on Clifford's goal. I can't believe this team scored four tonight. Wow. Thornton played almost 23 minutes tonight. 1 SOG. -1. And like I said, standing there doing nothing when Clifford scored. Setoguchi, Couture and Pavelski have by far been their biggest offensive threats. the Kings hardly have offensive threats, which is why I still can't believe they won 4-0.

Sure those are two easy calls to make. They could've made similar calls 5 to 10 other times in that game but didn't. I don't think there's any conspiracy here, there's just zero consistency from the refs as to what constitutes a penalty. A good ref would actually set the tone early as to what he's going to call and let go, then try to maintain that standard through the course of the game. These refs seemed to change shift to shift. Franzen's was a crosscheck, but worse had happened and not been called, and he could've just as easily taken both of them. And the Helm interference could've been called on nearly every defensive zone faceoff for either team. Add to that Hanzal actually was holding Helm's arm under his own, which was partly responsible for the takedown. Call it that way all game, that's all I'm saying.

Very weird. Ericsson, who also kills penalties, had almost no time on the PK. But Stu and Kronner had massive PK time, partly from the 5 on 3.

I noticed that too. I know Nick's getting up there in years, but it's still surprising. Maybe he was taking a lot fewer shifts when the Wings were up by a few goals? I was surprised how few minutes Salei played. He had an okay game overall, but also a couple inexplicable moves, like not taking one more stride to gain center ice before firing the puck in the Coyotes zone, instead handing the Wings an icing late in the game. Someone who's been in the league as long as he has should know better. Maybe Babs is just really confident in the Wings chances and is saving Nick for a long playoff run.

Ryan gets 2 game suspension per Bob McKenzie: http://twitter.com/tsnbobmckenzie

Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there. Not just the penalty, but Jovanovski was clearly pissed about it too. Wondering if there's something I missed?

Doan didn't try to take out Mule. Like I said, I hate Doan, but that was just an awkward fall while being hit. On another note, Pavel ******* Datsyuk!!! Wow.

NIce defensive play by Raf there on Whitney.

Just an awkward fall while being hit. I hate Doan, but that's not on him. And honestly with Mule I can never tell how serious the injury is. He's not exactly the toughest player so it could be anywhere from a cut lip to a concussion. Let's hope it's the former.

Here's the video for those who didn't see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MEmL6EqOs&feature=player_embedded He doesn't have the history pronger does, and Pronger got 8 games for stomping on Kesler, but that's about as intentional a stomp as you'll see. Extremely dirty play by Ryan.

Uh, isn't this the same arena where they wanted to charge Red Wings fans extra for tickets to the game?

Damn. so close for the Kings. After getting off to an awful start they recovered well. Heartbreaking when they almost stole a win. This team has almost no one that can carry the puck through the middle with Kopitar gone. And what a ballsy performance by Justin Williams back a couple weeks after a serious shoulder injury. There's no way he's even close to 100% but had a goal and an assist. Doughty still has some growing up to do. He's trying to do too much and creating defensive breakdowns. Was Thornton in the lineup that game? EDIT: also, holy hell does San Jose have a lot of speed.

Quite the dive by Subban. In front of his own net with the puck on his stick no less. Wow. Then the makeup call to even things out.