Wreaking of Desperation

Is it mid April yet?  It sure felt like it last night.  There was a finality to what happened last night that was akin to being numerically eliminated from the playoffs in early March.  The only difference, is that it was only the first of November, and there is far more suffering in store for Kings fans over the next five and a half months.  The Kings are the Raiders of the NHL, somehow completely inept despite having a roster full of very talented athletes.  Sadly, I expect the plug to get pulled at any moment.

I'm sure Stevens is already looking for work elsewhere.  "Chrysler plant, here I come."  It is a bit like picking low hanging fruit to call for the coaches head, but after watching last night, one has to come to the conclusion that this must be done.  The Kings, despite their talent are ineffective in almost every aspect of the game.

I watched one power play last night that was the worst power play I have seen this side of beer league.  While every team is allowed a miserable power play here and there, the Kings version happens to be among the leagues worst for the last month, and it is getting worse.  With a five on three, the Kings managed a couple of decent shots, but created no great scoring opportunities, and looked indecisive and lazy.  Lollygaggers.  The Flyers enjoyed a bunch of short handed opportunities and way too much time on the puck while down a man.  In addition, at times, one forechecker kept the Kings power play pinned in the defensive zone.  Players don't know what to do, they don't attack with speed and urgency, and other teams are teeing them up like a thirty year old multimillionaire tees up cougars at Javier's.

The power play isn't lonely.  At full strength the breakout is even worse.  It has reached a point of being a laughing stock of the entire league.  It is so bad that the NHL review comitee in Toronto made up some of the most asinine and scurrilous crap I have ever heard to allow a kicked in goal, in what can only be inferred as an attempt to further humiliate the Kings.  Every team in the NHL knows exactly how to attack the Kings breakout, and they do it night in and night out, fearlessly.   As a result, the Kings don't leave the zone, end up tired, or out of position, and give up an inordinate amount of very high quality chances.  And, so it goes.

The forecheck is non existent, as teams simply walk out of the zone with little or no effort.

Play through the neutral zone at times is decent, but turnovers leaving, or entering the zone often leave outnumbered chances or breakaways.  I stopped counting last night at three, and of course the big one came late in the third period and was given to Giroux.  Laughing all the way into the zone, he made short work of it by going bar in, and game over.

Finishing.  Considering the number of chances they are not creating, the Kings are finishing at a mediocre level.  Late in the third period, as a weak shot was lobbed in toward goal and Iaffalo almost tipped it on net, I could hear the crowd get excited.  I chuckled to myself.  That should have, and in any other building, would have been an insignificant play.  In our building, the desperation wreaks of a middle aged man stuck in a career he hates,and  married to a poorly aging, superficial, and bitter despot that views denial of her body as the coups de gras in her lifelong campaign to emasculate her mate.

The solutions are few.  Stevens can get fired, but if the right coach isn't available, this won't help, and will only slide the front office toward their own demise.  Of course not firing him will ensure it.  Another option is to make a trade, but that won't fix the issues with team play.  Maybe the best option is to just become Winnipeg fans.  At least then we could shout "True North" during the singing of the maple leaf rag.

What the fans are left with, is a team that is failing miserably in nearly all major facets of the game.  With the game winding down, a serious calm of fatal acceptance eased over me.  It occurred to me that this may be it.  The cup run has completely imploded, and the more talented members, when the rebuild comes, will likely opt to complete their careers with a contender.  At least maybe then, the East Coast media and fans will realize how great Kopi and Doughnut really are.