Red Wings 4, Kings Uno

This was my first game at the Staples Center in 7 years. I can't say I was entirely surprised by their 4-1 loss. I mean, it's Detroit. They were good; their plays were solid, passing was spot on, and they were able to push the Kings aside like a bully on a playground. But what killed me was that they were making cross-ice shots in front of the net that were SO PREDICTABLE!! All you gotta do is block the passing lane! C'mon!! ARGH!!! How frustrating to watch!!

The only real positive to take from the game is the fact that the Kings only were held for two penalties. Not too shabby. The Chicken Wings were held for 6 penalties. The 5-on-3 for 20 seconds allowed Cammy to get the lone goal past Osgood. (Fro got an assist!) I kinda wanted to see Hasek in goal just to say that I've seen The Dominator play. But I was definitely stoked to see Bernier in goal for the game. I wouldn't have been too thrilled to see LaBarbara just because I haven't been impressed by him, not just this season but in general. But Bernier....is he ready for the NHL? I WANT to say yes, but I also don't want his GAA and save percentage to go to crap because I have him on one of my fantasy teams. =) But seriously, does he need to gain more experience before he can really hang with the big boys? But he's only 19 and would have to go back to the Juniors instead of the minors!! Marc Crawford, what are you gonna do?!?!

The Kings. They looked tired. Their back-checking looked unenthusiastic; their fore-checking looked almost nil. Anze saved them a little in that department, but how much can one guy do? The 5-on-5 play sometimes looked as if Detroit was on the PP! What the hell, guys?? Take control of the puck and finish your passes!! ARGH!! And another thing, the Kings were getting SHUT DOWN in the neutral zone. The Red Wings DOMINATED the neutral zone. They were stopping passes, stopping breaks... it wasn't pretty. What actually surprised me was how quiet the arena was and how there were audible cheers when the Red Wings scored. Dude, not cool. And Keith was right, there WERE a lot of red jerseys in the crowd. =/ Sigh. Ok, I'll end my recap there and just state that I HEART MY KINGS. I will never stray in my loyalty. Let's just hurry up and make those off-season trades worthwhile, ok?

Moving onto the personal experience, KMS2 and I got to Staples Center early and were able to sit by the glass for an hour or so at ice level to see the guys warm up and had our picture taken for the Kings fan photos website. The usher was super nice to us but she definitely forgot that it was a 5PM start and was referring to start times at 6:45 and 7:15 and stuff. I tried to tell her, “You mean, 4:45?” And she said, “Yeah, like 6:45.” Ok...you're nice and all, but are you even listening to what I'm saying????? It was nice to be by the ice for that long, which gave me a chance to take a shit ton of pictures of the Kings' warm up. I also took some of the Red Wings' side to try to catch Zetterburg and his flowing mane.

Note: The new projection system the Staples Center has is awesome. Instead of showing everything on the jumbo-tron above center ice, they now show clips on the ice surface. I give it a thumbs up. I bet Detroit doesn't have that going for them. But then again, I guess they have the upper hand anyways since they're actually winning games....yeah, about that...

Here's a picture from the warm ups. I like how Kopi is the only one in focus.




Here's to hoping Tuesday's game against Minnesota is better.