LA KINGS OUTSIDER 2.0

Clearly, I’m a Jarome Iginla fanboy and I’ll share the reason why.  I was at an Anaheim Angels game back in 1998.  In line for concessions, 12-year-old me is contemplating nachos or Red Vines.  As I’m deep in thought, Jarome Iginla just paid for two ice creams and is walking right past me in line back to his seats.  I can’t believe it!   As he walked by, all I could blurt out is, “Are you Jarome Iginla???”  He smiled and seemed pretty surprised that anyone recognized him at a baseball game (The Flames were in town to play the Ducks in a preseason game the following night).  I asked if I could get his autograph; he said of course and I went running to the nearest usher for a pen.  When I handed him the pen and ticket stub; he handed me his ice creams to hold.  It was a pretty surreal moment to be getting an autograph of one of your hockey heroes.   He personalized the autograph AND spelled my name right???   It was lon...

Jonathan Quick is the best goaltender in this series. The Western Conference will feature the two hottest goaltenders in the playoffs: Jonathan Quick for Los Angeles and Mike Smith for Phoenix. Quick’s postseason #’s: 8-1, 1.55 GAA, .949 SV%. Smith’s #’s: 8-3, 1.77 GAA, .948 SV%. Their nearly identical SV%’s are the highest of any goaltenders still in the postseason. Their head-to-head numbers during the regular season are nearly identical as well. Quick was 3-1-2 with a 1.79 GAA and .932 SV% with two shutouts in six starts. In five starts, Smith was 3-1-1 with a 1.76 GAA and .938 SV% with one shutout. Quick is a first-time Vezina Trophy nominee coming off his third 35+ win season. To contrast, Mike Smith was on waivers last season and went unclaimed. Credit his reclamation to reuniting with Dave Tippett, his former head coach in Dallas, and his system? Credit to working with Los Angeles Kings Legend/Coyotes Goalie Coach Sean Burke? Mike Smith has been great this sea...

The Kings and Blues are the same team.  Terrific defensively.  Struggle offensively.  Fantastic goaltending.  Mid-season coaching changes that turned their seasons around.  Rosters built through the draft.  The comparisons can go on forever.  So here are three reasons to be worried and three reasons to be confident going into tonight... REASONS TO BE WORRIED... 1.   JEFF CARTER .  After his epic pass of the skate to Dustin Penner on the Kings game-winning goal, Carter disappeared of the scoresheet. It’s easy to speculate that his ankle is still bothering him. Hopefully, the week off helped his rehab along a bit more because the Kings will need Carter to contribute in the goal column vs. St. Louis. 2.   GIVEAWAYS . Obviously the statistic varies from arena to arena but the Kings had 58 giveaways to 36 takeaways. There were times in the series where the defense was unable to clear the zone that lead to scoring opportunities for Va...