Game Thread: G27 16-6-4 Kings @ Krakheads 12/16/23

[PuckinUgly57]

Game day again, hoping the Kings can turn this around with a win tonight. The Kraken have struggled to score this season, Beniers seems to be hitting the sophomore slump and they have Burakovsky (IR) and Schwartz (LTIR) out. Grubauer is also out so they have injuries all around.

They made a trade yesterday with Colorado, acquiring Tatar for I think a 5th round pick in 2024. Tatar is generally an offensive driver and has scored 20+ goals 7 times in his career so he may be able to spark some offense in their M6. It wasn't working out in Denver, he saw his ATOI reduced, was taken off PP1 and even healthy scratched recently. Colorado shed $1.5 million too so they just got some additional cap space for the TDL.

The Kings have played the least number of games in the West at 26, Vegas has played 31 and Vancouver 29 so it'll even out at the end but Vegas is starting to pull away in the division. Edmonton is only 6 points back of LA, Vancouver doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon so the Kings must start getting some points here. The Kraken have smaller forwards too so hopefully the LA defense keeps them away from Talbot tonight.

Speaking of, he needs to right his play too. Been seeing a few suspect GA the last few games, stuff he was stopping prior to this 3 game skid. Copley did not make the trip and Rittich will be backing up tonight. Personally I would have liked to see him in this game just to see what the Kings have vs Copley, but McLellan needs to get his #1 back on track too. This would be a great opponent for PLD to bust out, I hope he's pissed after seeing what the The Legend did against LA on Wednesday.

Game time is 7pm, should be able to catch it today. Also forgot NFL games are played on Saturdays in mid December going towards the POs so there's sports all over today. My G Men pulled a good one out on MNF, I need to get me a Tommy Cutlets T shirt - great story about him. He isn't starting material but in a lost season he's been a nice highlight. They have the Saints tomorrow morning, I'm thinking DeVito takes a loss.

Let's Go Kings!

PS - YTTV sucks, move Sunday Ticket back to DTV. Canceling everything after tomorrow's game, this season cost me $600 vs $300 for a lesser quality experience.

 

[Kings4OT]

5-1 Kings, Moore with 2PLD uneventful again


Im usually way wrong, so that sucks

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Law of averages my man, you just know PLD is due. Even Laferriere got his lucky third goal against the Jets on Wednesday.

 

[Kings4OT]

I hope so, Kings need some wins and points coming from him.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

The good news is they have been winning without him being an impact player.

I also think his wingers need to be taken into consideration, you go from playing with Connor and Scheifele to either Arty Retardy/Grundstrom and Laferriere. One guy is mostly a PP threat/inconsistent, one guy is a fourth liner and one guy is a first year pro with very little AHL experience and starting his NHL career. Not exactly top flight threats and I believe someone hit that on the PLD at 25 thread.

But that's where he needs to be a pro and lift that line and drive it offensively. Still waiting for that consistently, he has shown flashes especially when he decides to take the bull by the horns.

He can definitely be a game changer and you can see it.

 

[Kings4OT]

Hes played a lot with Fiala i believe. Make that much and you should drive with anyone....or make less

 

[davnlaguna]

Got home and found the game (channel 9 really) just in time to see the Kraken goal
Do they even have a shot on goal?

 

[CaptHowdy00]

Speaking of games played, according to Fox the Kings will be playing every other day in January.
That being the case, these guys are going to be winded and probably will accumulate more losses.

 

[CaptHowdy00]

Whatever happened to Patrick O’Neal? Is he still with the Kings?

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Hes played a lot with Fiala i believe. Make that much and you should drive with anyone....or make less

That was maybe the first 10 games and there wasn't a lot of chemistry. Fiala is a lot like Kopitar, there aren't a lot of guys who can play with him because he's so unpredictable.

Once Fiala was moved with Dunno and Moore it's been a good fit, but that leaves those 3 I mentioned as PLDs wings. I'm hoping they revisit the Fiala/PLD experiment, you'd think once they click it'll be something to watch.

But I also agree, at that price point you have to be a difference maker and not in a bad way.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Got home and found the game (channel 9 really) just in time to see the Kraken goal
Do they even have a shot on goal?

That was a weird play but I don't know how Talbot lost track of that one or at the very least where his stick was, that puck went right through everyone and straight between his legs.

Not good for the SP% but the Kings pretty much dominated that period. Need to get some goals here in the second and keep putting the pressure on.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Speaking of games played, according to Fox the Kings will be playing every other day in January.
That being the case, these guys are going to be winded and probably will accumulate more losses.

Then the Kings better start racking those points up. I'm pretty sure they'll be OK, this first 25 game schedule is the anomaly with so many days between games, thus the 5 games in hand already on Vegas.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Whatever happened to Patrick O’Neal? Is he still with the Kings?

Pretty sure he may be on bereavement leave, his father/actor Ryan O'Neal passed away about a week ago.

I'm trying to figure out who this Erica chick is?

 

[CaptHowdy00]

Pretty sure he may be on bereavement leave, his father/actor Ryan O'Neal passed away about a week ago.

I'm trying to figure out who this Erica chick is?

I looked her up and she mainly covers the Angels the way Carrlyn Bathe used to.

 

[CaptHowdy00]

Why do I keep hearing a child squealing? And before that it was a woman yelling and talking.

 

[CaptHowdy00]

Nice hit by Anderson. And he draws a penalty.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I looked her up and she mainly covers the Angels the way Carrlyn Bathe used to.

More my speed on the eye candy factor vs Bathe, I can't get over her eyebrows. She seems knowledgeable but hard to tell. I assumed Hextall would be considering her bloodline and she was awful so....

I'm sure O'Neal will be back soon.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Why do I keep hearing a child squealing? And before that it was a woman yelling and talking.

All kinds of technical issues tonight. My feed cut off multiple times and flashed a TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES banner, my buddy called so I was on the horn with him and had the TV on mute but saw another banner saying we apologize for the audio difficulties. Obviously a bunch of issues tonight.

They kind of took this Climate Pledge thing a bit too literally...

 

[davnlaguna]

Quiet game sound went out
Without looking the stats got to be lopsided to the Kings. If not for the softy to start the game Kings should have won .
Going to give Byfield credit on the Kopitar goal. Great pass.
Grunderson in the shootout “ I have no move. I don’t do this. Just going to shoot and hope it doesn’t go wide”

 

[PuckinUgly57]

This game was a lot closer than it seemed, Kings were fortunate to pull out a win. I'm not sure what has crept into their game but there's still things to clean up.

Nice goal by Kopitar, nice pass from Buster. All set up by Kempe, great read seeing 2 guys by him creating an outnumbered attack down low.

Haven't seen a 9+ round SO in a while, that's was entertaining.