LA Hockey Underground

 Erick Lindros, Sydney Crosby, and Connor McDavid (often refferred to in this blog as McDouchebag) were sure things when drafted.  Sure things make the job of a General Manager or President of Hockey operations easier.  Sure things are rare though, and the first round of the NHL draft is littered with Jamarcus Russel type flops. The front office boys make or break their careers in the trenches, finding the not so sure things.  Maybe the greatest GM of all time in any sport, Jerry West,  left a little magic in Los Angeles.  Blakey and Lucky seem to have a bit of a nack for finding the diamonds in the rough.  The fact that most of these diamonds came from the Leafs makes me giggle just a bit inside.  Thats a lie.  I laugh heartily outloud at that thought.  Either way, the outcasts stepped up for the Kings this season. Trevor Moore came over in a move that was largely unpopular with Kings fans at the time.  Kyle Clifford was a consumat...

 Season Review Part 1 I attempted to write a single post as a season review.  I soon found myself glossing over important issues to try and fit everything in.  At the end of last season, I pretty much didn't want to write anything except, "I'm glad it's over."  This season is a different story.  This team was hugely successful, and stymied the self proclaimed great minds of NHL journalism all year long.   Part 1 starts with the four horsemen, the big boys, the guys that brought us two Stanley Cups and are leading the rebuild: Anze Kopitar (Kopi), Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown (Brownie), and Jonathan Quick (Quicky).  These four have been the heart of this team since the day they entered the league.  They will likely never know what it is like to play for another team in the NHL, and in today's NHL, that is truly something.  Despite their inflated ages, they still bring it, and are showing the puppies what it takes to be a champion. I have to...

 End of the Year Notes The Los Angeles Kings had an amazingly successful year.  Last season, I was rarely able to watch an entire game.  I could see what McLellan was trying to do, and largely was supportive of it, but the team just wasn't competitive.  This year, with some notable exceptions, the Kings were competitive for the entire season.  They showed skill, strength, growth, and character while making the playoffs, and taking the heavily favored Edmonton Oilers to a hard fought game seven.   One of the glaring negatives of this season doesn't even come from the team.  Over the summer, the hockey media, and I mean every single last person that writes or speaks about hockey, decided that the Pacific Conference was not even worth mentioning outside of Edmonton and Las Vegas.  Despite the glaring proof coming as early as November, the Kings were openly dismissed.  Any success they were having was a fluke.  This, of course, is a log...