Burke's influence on Garon

Since Sean Burke was picked up from waivers by the Kings on 18 January (five weeks from now), he's revolutionized the confidence level that the D-men have in their netminder. And not only in Burke, but also in Mathieu Garon, for whatever it's worth now. The numbers don't show it yet (as Garon has played only three times since his comeback from injury) but the stability and steadiness that Sean brings is starting to rub over to Mathieu all of a sudden.

In the 10 game period with the Kings, Burke has allowed 4 GA only twice, breaking the standard for the Kings netminders this season. What is more, it's been six times (out of ten, mind you), that he allowed 2GA per game and fewer (including a SO and two game with 1 GA!). As of now, his GAA is at the level of 2.22 with .931 SV%. And we're talking about a guy *drafted* before Anze Kopitar was born! :)

Garon will be hard-pressed to get his GAA way lower than 2.6 for the season (he's currently sitting at 2.81) and his SV% higher than .915 (now .903), but if he continues to rock-and-roll between the pipes the way he did in his last two games (both close ones vs Anaheim and Vancouver), he might get himself a starter contract next year, in, say, Florida.

Kings extend Derek Armstrong

By now, you must have heard about the LA Kings extending the contract of center Derek Armstrong for another two years. My understanding is he will get 1.4 mln in the first year and 1.6 mln in the second year, which is not too much for a third line center.

Now, this begs a question - does the new contract at these numbers mean that the Kings brass have finally made their peace with Armstrong centering no higher than a third line? I certainly hope so, 'cause this means a number of things:

1. The first two line centers for the next and successive year must be Anze Kopitar and UFA star center (pray that it is either Gomez or Drury);

2. Armstrong moves Alyn McCauley to the fourth line center, which makes UFAs like Marty Murray and Jamie Lundmark expendable by the season's end (unless one wants to give Jamie a shot at the wing on the fourth line if Tom Kostopoulos was not coming back).

3. Third-line center money for Amstrong means that he's most likely to settle into this role smoothly in the next couple of years. Re-signing him is a good step at this price as long as he's nowehere nearer the scoring lines and first power play unit. In the role of the serviceable possession center, Armstrong should thrive. If only he won more faceoffs, on top of that...

Games 57-58: Kings @ Washington Capitals 3:4 OTL; Kings @ Nashville Predators 4:1

Game 57: @ Washington 3:4 OTL

LAK goals from: Anze Kopitar, Alex Frolov, Lubo Visnovsky
WSH goals from: Zubrus, Gordon, Clymer, Clark

Game report is here.

Game 58: @ Nashville 4:1

LAK goals from: Anze Kopitar (2), Brian Willsie, Michael Cammalleri
NSH goal from: Hamhuis

Game report is here.

That must have been a huge game for the Kings (I'm sorry I have not seen it, but I'm running late on my TV appointments ;)). Winning (or scoring points) away has not been a problem on this particular road trip, but any time you can beat a Conference leader and one of the best teams in the NHL - it's huge.

Kings in London - I'm buying tickets!

The last three times I tried, I visited LA (tapping away from an undisclosed Beverly Hills location now ;)) on days where the team played away from the Staples. While I understand that the scheduling (neither NHL's nor mine) was done in a such a way on purpose, I still think you have got to be hugely unlucky to miss a good hockey game in LA on three straight occasions.

OK, make it two - the very last time I was here was June and the Dodgers played the Phillies - my first ever trip to the baseball Mekka - the Chavez Ravine.

But still, March last year and February this year and no Kings in town (I'm hoping to be able to see the game at Carolina on TV later today)? That's why I'm jumping at the proposal that EJ Hradek reported recently.

And why not - it's not like the NHL hockey is hugely popular in the US, anyway. Why not try over in Europe? Perhaps I would not have chosen the UK as the launching pad (why not Sweden or Finland if you've already crossed the Atlantic?), but still - ice hockey is a top-5 sport in Scandinavia, Czech and Slovak republics, Russia and is making steady progress in places like Germany and Switzerland.

Given the relatively cheap airfare from my part of the world to London, England - I have already asked my fellow NHL craze-ders ;) over at forum.nhl.com.pl to sign up. If you're reading this and you're European and want to go with us, give me a shout either here in the comments section or over at the English-only forum. Looking forward to seeing these Kings games in the UK live in our timezone for a change :).

Games 55-56: Kings @ Florida Panthers 7:0, Kings @ Tampa Bay Lightning 2:3 OT/Sh

Game 55: Pasting of the Panthers

Probably the happiest-go-lucky game of the season. I've only seen the highlights and goals, but from that perspective it seemed as if everything clicked pretty easily on offense, to the extent where some skills were being shown off with the game being over early.

Game 56: Kings keep the point streak alive in the sunny state

My understanding of the drawback of having Sean Burke between the pipes during the shootout against his former team is that these guys used to practise against him and presumably know his moves better than any other team. Regardless, I'll take one point and hope the Kings keep on rolling in Washington, DC.

Musings on what the Conroy and Avery trades brought

To start things off, I'm relatively happy with what the Kings received by shipping away Craig Conroy to the Calgary Flames and Sean Avery to the New York Rangers.

Common knowledge was that both of these players struggled somewhat this season under Lombardi/Crawford regime. Conroy was moved to third line defense-first duty and his production took an expected major blow. Which is understandable when you're surrounded by guys like Willsie/Thornton/Ivanans and/or Kostopoulos.

Avery seemed to get his act together in the beginning of the season, when he tamed his tongue and avoided stupid penalties (including the ones for fighting), however things have gone progressively wrong as of late. I do not buy into this "clubhouse cancer", though, but still it was quite obvious that taking unnecessary penalties that somehow turned out to hurt the team, got Sean the ticket out of town.

I think that moving both Conroy and Avery to the best-suited locations (Craig loved Calgary, while Sean's show-business career can take a twist to the better in Big Apple), shows how classy our management is :).

What we got for both of them is a mix of third-line plug-ins (Jason Ward and Jamie Lundmark) who can't be expected to stick around when next year reels in, two promising prospects (high-to-middle end in Marc-Andre Cliche, and mid-level in Czech Jan Marek). There are also two draft picks from the Conroy deal (one this year and one - next).

Overall, the trades compliment the direction that the management has taken since the beginning of the season. Move larger contracts to acquire expiring ones, prospects with future and/or shot at NHL and draft picks. On the scale of 1 to 10, I would have given the Conroy deal a 7, and the Avery deal an 8. And you?

Game 53-54: Kings @ Calgary Flames 1:4; Kings vs Chicago Blackhawks 2:3 OT

Game 53: The Craig Conroy bite-in-the-ass game.

You will find the recap by clicking on the link up here, as I'm sorry, but can't see any point in doing game recaps any more. They just seem to take up too much of my time, which I'd rather devote to writing out my thoughts about players, moves and tendencies on the Kings this year.

Therefore, the game recaps to come will be a matter of simple cut and paste from various sources, I hope you understand :).

Game 54: Overtime loss to fellow cellar-dwellers net just one point

New AEG arena in Ontario, CA

[thanks to PuckHead27 for letting me know]


Great arena, and honestly, another reason to move my family to SoCal once they put a Kings affiliate there. At this point, regardless how much I'd love it to, there is no reason to move the Monarchs from Manchester, NH to Ontario, CA. The AHL schedule burden put on these guys will be just too grueling...

But, if the new arena was populated by the ECHL former Reading Royals? Not a bad idea, as there are some ECHL teams already in the immediate viscinity.

The venue is to open in late 2008, and by this time, it might as well be graced by the likes of Jonathan Bernier and Trevor Lewis in "Kings" uniforms ;).

Games 51-52: Kings @ Vancouver Canucks 3:2 OT, Kings @ Edmonton Oilers 3:4

Game 51 @ Vancouver:

LA goals from: Alexander Frolov (2), Patrick O'Sullivan

VAN goals from: Salo, Linden

Instead of the regular pros and cons, I'd have to link you up to the Yahoo game report(s). I apologize, but due to some other things on my mind (no link yet :)), I was unable to watch the games off the torrents.

Two things that come to mind, having read the first hand reports are Sean Burke outduelling the great Roberto Luongo and Patrick O'Sullivan scoring his first goal on the come-back trail from the Monarchs (second on the season).

Game 52 @ Edmonton:

LA goals from: Michael Cammalleri, Patrick O'Sullivan, Brian Willsie

EDM goals from: R. Smyth, Hemsky, Horcoff

Another link, my apologies. If only it hadn't been for that fatal third period, the Kings might have been a surprising two-for-two on the North-Western road trip. Oh well, not that the two points at the Oilers would have changed the fate of this season...

Seriously, I'm still here

Just haven't got enough sleep lately, let alone time to update my blog.

Even as I'm typing this, I'm thinking how to buy time to get the thing rolling.

Don't give up hope, Kings fans!