[A] Kings (17-14-5) VS Blackhawks (23-9-4) - 12/28 - 7:30 PM

[bierboy]

I wouldn't say this game rivaled the SJ game we lost 1-0. We played much better in that game, but in this game the goaltending by Crow was better. Officiating sucked balls the whole game and I agree how in the heck Scott gets that penalty is beyond me. Scott had no business playing last night against such a quick (pun intended) team. It was painfully obvious how slow he was.



Oh, and Bickell-berg sucks....

 

[Variable]

LA will have an interesting choice to make with their goalies at the end of next season with Quick and Bernier up for new contracts.

 

[R K]

Jimmy Hayes UP, Pirri Down.

 

[LordKOTL]

Ya know, the officiating might have been worse than a fart bubble in vomit, but I don't like how Q handled it. He sounded almost as bad as Gillis or Vignault.



Listen, yeah, calls were blown, Scott should have never been pigged with 2, Craw might have been interefered with and Leddy slew-footed, but the fact always remains that good teams win *in spite* of the tedious interference of the refs.



The simple reason we lost: We took our foot off of the acellerator after Sharp got the double minor and didn't put it back on until about midway through the third. Crawford did what he could.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Hayes!!!!



6'5" 220



28 GP

5g

13a

18pts

11PIMs



That's his currrent stats with rockford this year.

 

[the canadian dream]

LA will have an interesting choice to make with their goalies at the end of next season with Quick and Bernier up for new contracts.

Bernier hasn't proven much at the NHL level (no fault of his own he isn't getting proper ice time). Quick has at least been their true #1 for the last 2 seasons and is constantly in the top 10 in the league as far as stats go and in the top 5 with shut outs. He is also a fan favorite in L.A. Should be a no brainer for the Kings in my opinion. Not saying Bernier still isn't NHL material but it would probably be best for Bernier to go somewhere where he will get ice time. He isn't going to get it in LA by the looks of things. Kings sort of wasted Bernier but at the same time what were they supposed to do while Quick is proving he is an NHL goalie.



Who knows maybe Bernier is happy waiting it out ala Schneider in Vancouver. There are a few teams out there with aging goalies who could use a youth shot in that position and who really don't have much on the farm. If I am a team like Tampa I would be interested in a guy like Bernier or Schneider.

 

[R K]

Ya know, the officiating might have been worse than a fart bubble in vomit, but I don't like how Q handled it. He sounded almost as bad as Gillis or Vignault.



Listen, yeah, calls were blown, Scott should have never been pigged with 2, Craw might have been interefered with and Leddy slew-footed, but the fact always remains that good teams win *in spite* of the tedious interference of the refs.



The simple reason we lost: We took our foot off of the acellerator after Sharp got the double minor and didn't put it back on until about midway through the third. Crawford did what he could.

I disagree, unlike the two you mention Q RARELY if ever comments on the officiating. If he commented, like he did, it was REALLY bad. No question about it.



And I disagree they took their foot off the pedal. They killed 6 minutes in a row of penalties. they had 38 SOG.





And usually when those bad calls result directly into the puck going in your net, you lose. Specially when it not only happens once, but twice.



Neither goal should have counted.

 

[fanof19]

You're not going to win every game, whether it's due to illness, injury, coaching or bad officiating. Sometimes it appears the officials intentionally call games against a team for whatever reason. So they lost this one....they're still in 1st place.......

 

[R K]

Yup. And they didn't play poorly. Only the 3rd loss in regulation at home all year. Tomorrow will be a huge test.

 

[the canadian dream]

You're not going to win every game, whether it's due to illness, injury, coaching or bad officiating. Sometimes it appears the officials intentionally call games against a team for whatever reason. So they lost this one....they're still in 1st place.......

I don't think last night was an intentional officiating **** up I just think it was flat out a bad night of officiating. The Scott call, a few important missed calls and the call on Toews was also bad (although i can see how they missed that one..instant replay is nice for us fans but it I can see how that call was missed). Hey Hawks have had some calls go their way before also.



I agree with you though 19. Outside of the officiating my real own concern about last night was 15 on the top line again. Just never works. I know being a couple men short really effects this club esp when one is a LW and one is a center. Two positions where we really can't afford injury. I just think when we are in situations like this you have to put Stalberg up on the top line and I don't care how disliked he is by some fans. RK was right top line is built for speed and skill. When you have an option btw Brunette and Stalberg you have to pick the faster guy. I know Stalberg has been playing well on the 3rd also so it's hard to break it up but when a goalie is hot as shit like Quick wa last night you have to stack lines not balance them.



Just my opinion.

 

[LordKOTL]

I disagree, unlike the two you mention Q RARELY if ever comments on the officiating. If he commented, like he did, it was REALLY bad. No question about it.



And I disagree they took their foot off the pedal. They killed 6 minutes in a row of penalties. they had 38 SOG.





And usually when those bad calls result directly into the puck going in your net, you lose. Specially when it not only happens once, but twice.



Neither goal should have counted.

I'm not saying they played poorly, but they did look off from Sharp's penalty until in the third. Not bad, but off. Bug? Who knows. Just from the TV it looked like right after Sharp took it they went from pressing hard to disorganization.



I still don't think Q should have Canuck'ed about the refs. Yes, they were that bad, I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm not disagreeing with the fact that neither goal should have counted, but I don't think Q should have mentioned it in the presser. I think if anything, now the officials will have us under the microscope for awhile and not a single call will go our way because you know how they operate: "How Dare Q question us!!!!"

 

[R K]

I'm ok with him doing what he did. I do agree with you but, it was just that bad. He hardly ever does it, so that said there's no comparission to the Canucks IMO.



I'm moving on lol. Man what a frustrating game that was!

 

[the canadian dream]

Yah moving on. Got the big game tomorrow.

 

[LordKOTL]

Agreed. Moving on and hopefully we'll down the Red Wings.

 

[Tater]

I'm not saying they played poorly, but they did look off from Sharp's penalty until in the third. Not bad, but off. Bug? Who knows. Just from the TV it looked like right after Sharp took it they went from pressing hard to disorganization.



I still don't think Q should have Canuck'ed about the refs. Yes, they were that bad, I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm not disagreeing with the fact that neither goal should have counted, but I don't think Q should have mentioned it in the presser. I think if anything, now the officials will have us under the microscope for awhile and not a single call will go our way because you know how they operate: "How Dare Q question us!!!!"

 

[Variable]

Bernier hasn't proven much at the NHL level (no fault of his own he isn't getting proper ice time). Quick has at least been their true #1 for the last 2 seasons and is constantly in the top 10 in the league as far as stats go and in the top 5 with shut outs. He is also a fan favorite in L.A. Should be a no brainer for the Kings in my opinion. Not saying Bernier still isn't NHL material but it would probably be best for Bernier to go somewhere where he will get ice time. He isn't going to get it in LA by the looks of things. Kings sort of wasted Bernier but at the same time what were they supposed to do while Quick is proving he is an NHL goalie.

I'd agree that right now, yeah Quick is the number 1. But is that from true talent or from more of an opportunity? Is he better or just more developed because of playing time? Hot starts probably make too much of an impact on goalie decisions. Since 08-09, during the first month of the season, Quick has been nearly unbeatable, with almost a .930 save %. But during the rest of those seasons, he's been almost completely league average at around .910.



And his PK save % is off the charts, which leads me to think he's gotten very lucky, it's pretty much unsustainable to keep improving as he has in that aspect. Unless he really is that good, but which is contradictory to how he's played the majority of the seasons of his career.Either way, a tough situation for Bernier to be in, because even if he shows to be good, it'll be in limited playing time, he probably won't even win enough to get playing time away from Quick, unless an injury happens, whereas Quick was in competition with Erik Ersberg and LaBarbera, both of whom were never more than back up goalies to begin with. It only took 5 games with Quick in net for the Kings to decide to deal Labarbera and more or less anoint Quick as starter.

 

[klemmer]

I'd agree that right now, yeah Quick is the number 1. But is that from true talent or from more of an opportunity? Is he better or just more developed because of playing time? Hot starts probably make too much of an impact on goalie decisions. Since 08-09, during the first month of the season, Quick has been nearly unbeatable, with almost a .930 save %. But during the rest of those seasons, he's been almost completely league average at around .910.



And his PK save % is off the charts, which leads me to think he's gotten very lucky, it's pretty much unsustainable to keep improving as he has in that aspect. Unless he really is that good, but which is contradictory to how he's played the majority of the seasons of his career.Either way, a tough situation for Bernier to be in, because even if he shows to be good, it'll be in limited playing time, he probably won't even win enough to get playing time away from Quick, unless an injury happens, whereas Quick was in competition with Erik Ersberg and LaBarbera, both of whom were never more than back up goalies to begin with. It only took 5 games with Quick in net for the Kings to decide to deal Labarbera and more or less anoint Quick as starter.

Terry Murray was going to give Bernier more starts this year to save Quick for the playoffs..



Saw Bernier against the Pens in preseason, where he lost in a shootout after making about 40 stops in the game and he looked to have the goods to play in the NHL, so the comparisons to Schneider are valid.



I'm just pissed I sat him against the Hawks last night.

 

[howcho]

As I said previously I did not see the game but I did watch the highlites just now. I did not see a problem on the Kings first goal, bit of a mash-up but those are OK. I agree that the second goal should have been a penalty before the puck went in.



What are the thoughts of Toews pushing the guy on the Break Away? I can see that it looks like a penalty, but why should it be? It is a legal check, no? I thought it fairly brilliant actually.

 

[dlrob315]

As I said previously I did not see the game but I did watch the highlites just now. I did not see a problem on the Kings first goal, bit of a mash-up but those are OK. I agree that the second goal should have been a penalty before the puck went in.



What are the thoughts of Toews pushing the guy on the Break Away? I can see that it looks like a penalty, but why should it be? It is a legal check, no? I thought it fairly brilliant actually.

Toews was called for tripping on that penalty, it was a bad call and actually a toe pick by the Kings player.

 

[R K]

As I said previously I did not see the game but I did watch the highlites just now. I did not see a problem on the Kings first goal, bit of a mash-up but those are OK. I agree that the second goal should have been a penalty before the puck went in.



What are the thoughts of Toews pushing the guy on the Break Away? I can see that it looks like a penalty, but why should it be? It is a legal check, no? I thought it fairly brilliant actually.

technically Clifford prevented Crawford from getting to the puck while in the crease. They've been called GTI all year. Except last night of course.