In Stanley Cup Form – Kings Blast Avalanche 4-1

Mike Richards. Jeff Carter. Carter and Richards…Richards and Carter. That pass Mike Richards made to Carter was perfect. Backhand, in the wheelhouse. As much as I loved the pass, Jeff Carter’s wrist shot is one of the best I have seen. Varlamov may not have picked up that shot until it passed him and that is saying a lot considering Carter released that shot from well above the top of the left circle. My buddies and I used to call the kind of chemistry we saw between Richards and Carter today, “dick, glass”. I will explain some other time.

Doughty, Voynov, Muzzin hitting and separating Colorado forwards from the puck. Each of our defensemen need to be better with the puck (and take more care with their breakout passes) but, away from the puck, we were great…although Keaton Ellerby makes me nervous.

Pucks to the middle, one timers (and a wicked one from Dustin Brown on the first goal), strong forecheck with an aggressive F2 and the F3 in immediate proximity and supportive role, offensive zone time was not wasted. We entered the zone and looked to create high percentage scoring opportunities and we did just that.

Sure, you can call Trevor Lewis’ goal a bad one for Varlamov to give up but I think I know what happened. Lewis was showing pass until the last moment. When he released the puck, Varlomov’s head was thinking “pass” while he was positioned for a “shot”. For a goaltender, that kind of divided head and body positioning = disaster. In this case, a beautiful one.

After Lewis scored, I asked the Hockey Gods to let our fourth goal be Anze’s. Thank you, Hockey Gods.

Jarret Stoll…dude, love you and all but let’s not pull a Lappy face save on Lappy night. I held my breath and didn’t breathe out until he skated off without a trail of blood. Where did that puck hit him? Shoulder? Chest?

Speaking of Lappy, miss him. I would so take an Ian in his prime on this L.A. Kings team. He was part of some brutal L.A. Kings teams. On this team, Clifford-Stoll-Lappy. Dig it.

This was the L.A. Kings we saw in last season’s playoffs.

This was the L.A. Kings moving into 8th place and a playoff spot.

This was three in a row…and three is a prelude to four.

GO KINGS!