Thursday, November 1, 2007

Kings 1, Columbus 4

Last night's game was frustrating. Columbus played with a lot of energy and grit. Even on the PK they were in the Kings' faces and were very successful in clogging up the neutral zone and making it very difficult for us to connect 2 or 3 passes in a row. The Kings didn't play very well in the first half of the game during which they looked sluggish and panicky. By the time the Kings got their act together they were down 3-0 and could only manage to get one goal past Leclaire during the remainder of the game. The third goal started on a bad play by LaBarbera, but he still managed to make two saves before the third shot went in...and that was how the game was last night. But it wasn't as if we didn't have our chances...it's just that nothing was going in. We got one lucky bounce, Calder's goal, and that was it. We had a 5-on-3 for over a minute and I was convinced we were going to score at least one goal beacuse we were able to keep possession of the puck, cycle it around, gets shots off, pounce on the rebounds, etc...Oh my goodness!! I wanted to rip my hair out! No, no, wait...I really wanted to rip my hair out in the third period when we bombarded Columbus with shot after shot, we crashed the net, we got Leclaire out of position, and yet we still couldn't get another goal! When we pulled LaBarbera for the extra attacker even the BF said, "this isn't going to end well" and I finished his sentence by saying, "because nothing has been able to get past Leclaire." We didn't that great of a job in the final minutes but I was stunned at how nothing seemed to go our way. Sure, we dug ourselves a pretty deep hole early in the game but we fought back to no avail.

I have to hand it to Columbus for sticking with their playing style that is obviously working. I was surprised at how different they are compared to last season. I also want to give cheers to Ladislav Nagy who played his heart out last night. He was getting pushed around a lot on the ice but he never gave up. I was half expecting him to get in a fight because he was playing with so much determination and genuinely looked liked he was pissed off at the entire Columbus squad. The BF and I were really pulling for him last night hoping he would get a goal to rub in Columbus' face. I'm beginning to like Nagy...watch out O'Sullivan, you might lose the #1 spot on my list.

So the last time we lost a game, we bounced back and won 4 in a row. The first loss before that game started a 5 game slide. At least we're consistent. November could really suck or be really awesome seeing how all of our games this month are against Division rivals: 4 against San Jose, 3 against Anaheim, 2 against Dallas, and 2 against Phoenix. These schedules suck.

Go Kings!!

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