GDT: Los Angeles @ Carolina: The King(s) and Eye(s)? edition

[Carolinas Identity*]

Last nite's win was unacceptable in the Connor McEichelnafin sweepstakes, so I will channel all the hatred, darkness and despair I have from ECU losing to Temple (Seriously, ***ing Temple??!) into a virtual guarantee of a loss tonite against the Los Angeleses.

WHO:

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WHAT:

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Click to read more...

 

[Wolfpuck]

Kings are 0-2-2 on the road so far, so naturally, they will put the hurt on the Hurricanes.

5-1 loss

 

[w e l o s t b o y s]

 

[Blueline Bomber]

"Cam Ward got a shutout in yesterday's game. Care to explain what you did differently in the process to bring about that success?"

"OK...Well, how about the decision to scratch Alex Semin? How do you think that might have effected the team?"

"Finally, with the 1-6-2 start, is the plan still to aim for the playoffs, or can Canes fans start researching their favorite prospects that the Hurricanes will inevitably miss out on?"

 

[Brock Anton]

5 1/2 - 1 win

 

[A Star is Burns]

If Cam starts again, I'm worried. I like that his confidence will be high, and maybe having a goalie secure such a great win will be too tempting to pass up, but I don't like the same goalie in back to backs.

Either way, it'd be nice to win again.

 

[What the Faulk]

It should be Khudobin agreed, but I disagree with your other post. I think Ward played well and bailed out the defense a few times (who were better, but still not very good).

I don't think this game is going to be too close, whoever plays. 3-1 LA with the Kings dominating even more than that.

 

[DaveG]

Yep. Ward was flat out sharp last night, this wasn't a total dominance game by the Canes like the Isles one a few years back where we outshot them something like 61-9 or whatever it was. Yotes had some high quality chances and he shut them down nicely. One big mistake but it didn't result in a goal against so no harm no foul.

I'd want to go back to Khudobin here if I were Peters, but after last night I'd also ask Ward "how you feelin today?". Dude says he's good to go he's in the pipes, that simple.

 

[AD Skinner]

I'm not a doctor but if it were up to me I'd start khudobin today regardless of how ward played. This is an early start game so he'll have had hardly any time to rest. The last thing anyone needs is ward throwing out his back again.

I think the bigger question is what do they do with Semin? I'm thinking 3rd line with rask and terry/boychuk, IF he plays which he might not...

 

[What the Faulk]

Sounds a lot like Semin is sitting again based on Peters' post-game comments

 

[Novacane]

Sounds a lot like Semin is sitting again based on Peters' post-game comments

 

[bleedgreen]

Well you can't mess with the streak.

Hopefully the Kings out us back on our appropriate path. If we beat them someone will undoubtedly start mentioning the word playoffs, which will lead to a "playoffs?!?" YouTube embedding.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

They need to let Semin play. 1 game is enough. Sitting him for multiple games would be nonsense.

Don't be surprised if Semin asks for a trade.

 

[Wild Caniac]

5-1 loss. I usually go to the LA/CAR games here but not this time.

 

[What the Faulk]

Are we really crediting wins/losses on the presence of a right winger who plays not even 1/3 of the game?

 

[The Stranger]

Are we really crediting wins/losses on the presence of a right winger who plays not even 1/3 of the game?

Through the first 8 games, Semin had the most PP time of anyone on the team and the 2nd most ES time of any forward.

The performance of any player put in this position will be a significant variable in determining wins/losses.

If you hold everything else constant, how many more wins/points would a team get in an 82 game season with a great performance from this position above a poor performance from this position?

 

[tarheelhockey]

I expect this to be a serious beat-down, regardless who plays and who sits.

Enjoy the afterglow of last night's win, it won't last long.

 

[nobuddy]

*AHEM AHEM AHEM CI*

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=332570218

 

[What the Faulk]

1100 tickets on stubhub with the vast majority under $50. I still think we'll see 12kish since it's LA.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

Well you can't mess with the streak.

Hopefully the Kings out us back on our appropriate path. If we beat them someone will undoubtedly start mentioning the word playoffs, which will lead to a "playoffs?!?" YouTube embedding.

I just hope we can win a game...

Oh wait.. what? We already did?

Carry on then.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I really hope we don't pick 8th overall next year...

 

[TheOllieC]

Sitting him one game to get him going is whatever. Sitting him twice, on a back to back, against the defending cup champs is ignorant.

Unless they're trying to purposely get smacked and in that case...bring it on.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

The Kings have McBain

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Sitting or starting Semin won't have an effect on the end result of the game. This team isn't good enough to worry about who is or isn't on the roster. There's no "optimized roster" that will turn this team into a playoff contender. Any win we get will likely be the result of a particularly good game by one or two players rather than a combined team effort.

Getting bent out of shape if Peters decides to scratch Semin again is complaining for the sake of it.

 

[What the Faulk]

By that logic, why not just put every name into a hat for every position? Who doesn't want to see Jeff Skinner as a goaltender or Anton Khudobin as Semin's Ovechkin?