Flyers Gameday: The Kings

After last nights thrilling shoot-out win, the Flyers get right back at it with a game against the LA Kings. Terry Murray, the long-time Flyers coach, is behind the bench of the young Kings, and the Flyers will look to keep the road-streak going. The Kings are jam-packed-stocked-loaded with talent. Taking a look at thier roster, you can see a team that is so close to becoming a stud in the West. Kopitar, Frolov, O'Sullivan, Doughty, Johnson, Brown, Armstrong, Moller, Quincey....I mean this team isn't far off. Ron Hextall is doing a good job out west as assistant GM, yet his opinion on goaltenders isn't faring so well. Thanks to a diehard Kings fan in the FGSB office, we know all too well about LA's goalie frustrations.

This is the team that took Roman Checkmanek from us....and they used to have a man-boner for Dan Cloutier. Just saying that name in my head makes me giggle a bit. Right now they have Erik Ersberg and Jonathan Quick as their netminders. Not exactly frightening to anybody. They sent their #1 goalie at the beginning of the year in Jason Labarbera to Vancouver for a 7th round pick. Yes, you read that correctly, a "#1" for a 7th rounder. Or, a Mike Richards for a Wendy's Baconator with a small Coke. Until the Kings can get a solid #1 goalie, they won't be doing much but fishing for lottery picks. Now, if they can package together a little bit of prospects for a Khabibulin-type, well, I wouldn't be the only one who thinks the Kings would be a serious contender in the West.

If the Flyers can get pucks on the net and apply a solid powerplay to the Kings young defense, they should be able to generate alot of opportunites for their top lines. It won't be easy as LA plays a tough style of defense. That, along with playing a physical game last night against Anaheim, means that the Flyers need to come out and withstand a up-tempo start from LA. If they can keep it close, the game is theirs. I seriously think tonight is the night that Giroux gets his first goal of the season. The kid has been flying the last two games, and it seems like he's getting more and more confident playing with #18. I'd also look for Carter to show up tonight as he wasn't really in-synch last night. Cote and/or Gratton should be man-dancing with Ivanans at some point tonight. Ivanans is a big tough dude, and loves fighting at home. Cote usually doesn't like to punch people two days in a row, but you're only young and dumb once, my guess is that they go early on. Winable games like this one are what lead to the playoffs. Flyers should beat LA, and they'd be wise to put them out early. Let's Go Flyers.

BTW, Check out Crosby from this afternoon. Unreal. Hope someone on Florida remembers this for their next meeting. It makes me laugh to think of someone like Richards jumping someone. It would never happen. While you have to like Crosby trying to rally his shitty troops, you can't inspire them too much by jumping an unwilling fighters. Crosby is teh suck.