Opening Night Recap

You Know It's Opening Night When All 20 Kings Are Standing On The Blue Line For The National Anthem

The hockey season doesn't officially start for me until the home opener.  It's always fun to get reacquainted with the Kings equipment managers and training staff.  I didn't get there early enough for all the pregame fun outside of Staples Center but Chris Kontos over at The Royal Half did.  Kings won 3-1.

I didn't get there early enough to shoot photos of the Kings during warmups but there wasn't anyone watching the Thrashers so I walked over there.  Got lucky enough to shoot some pictures of the game too from some decent seats.  Check out some of my favorites at the bottom of this post and check out the rest on my Flickr page.

I was pretty disappointed that the Kings didn't have any of the new retro jerseys for sale.  I want the Edge-cut jersey; Team LA is trying to get away with selling the same vintage CCM jersey that's been available for years.

Kings pulled out all the stops with their pre-game ceremony this year.  Laser show, cheesy early 90's CG video introduction, and the National Anthem performed by Slash (sidenote: I've now seen Slash perform the Anthem at a Clippers, Dodgers, and Kings game). 

• There was good energy from the crowd early but it seemed like the Kings went through the motions for the first two periods. 
• Three goals in the third period made up for their lackluster effort in the first two.
• Ryan Smyth shut up all his doubters with a three-point night (2 G, 1 A). 
• Jonathan Quick had another strong performance stopping 31 of 32 Atlanta shots.  Alot of fans seem to be jumping on the Bernier bandwagon and with good reason but Quick won 39 games for the Kings last season and he's not going to give up the #1 job without a fight.
• The Smyth-Stoll-Williams had a strong showing.  
• The Rookies: Loktionov, Schenn, and Muzzin all looked comfortable.  Loktionov got over 17 minutes of ice-time.  Schenn received only nine minutes; about six minutes less than the 14 minutes he received in the previous two games.
• Jack Johnson gave fans another reason to doubt his hockey IQ by taking a penalty for closing his hand on the puck in the first period.

Your 2010-11 Equipment Managers, Trainers, Coaching Staff, & Healthy Scratches!

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