Kings-Sharks: Exhale

Thoughts from tonight's ridiculous exercise:

-It's funny how a win like this can be viewed by different people.  If you're a Kings fan, are you happy that your team won, no matter what?  Are you upset the Kings almost blew a 4-0 lead?  If you're a Sharks fan, are you upset the Sharks were so terrible 5-on-5?  Or happy the power play looked so good?  If you're me, you just kinda wanna go to bed.

-Jonathan Quick has a 5.00 GAA and a 83SV%.  Jonathan Quick hasn't played that bad.  It's been a weird season so far.

-The Kings forward lines looked really good tonight, as they greatly reduced the 4th line's ice time and pretty much rolled 3 lines all night.  Fro-Hand-Meat got the main assignment against the Joe Thornton line, with Kopitar's line getting the assignment when the Sharks tried to double-shift Thornton.  The result?  Kings 3, Sharks 0 when those lines were on the ice.

-Kopitar made a great play at the end of the game where he beat out Marc-Edouard Vlasic on an icing call and put helped put the game on ice.  He has looked great and is doing a great job around the front of the net.  I don't want to get excited, but Anze Kopitar is the greatest player in the world.

-Of course, Thornton still ended up with 3 assists tonight because the Sharks destroyed the Kings while on the power play.  The Kings finished 7th last season in penalty killing last season but have thus far been pretty terrible when down a man.  They didn't have a problem with their penalty kill during the preseason so it could just be a small sample size issue (and San Jose's power play unit is truly exceptional) but it's something the Kings need to work on.

-The Kings need Sean O'Donnell back.  He's a pretty important cog in the Kings defense, as he allows Matt Greene to play a smaller role and more importantly pushes Peter Harrold* and Alec Martinez out of the line-up. I can't wait to see the old goat back.

*Peter Harrold didn't play bad tonight.

-Raitis Ivanans: HOLY SHIT.  That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my entire life and I once saw Earl's balls.  He beat the shit out of Jody Shelley and I don't think anyone was expecting that.  I've never seen Ivanans fight like that.  It was like... it was like... fuck, I don't even know.  It was like awesome.  Jesus Raitis, play like that all the time.

-I'm not going to say that this game was a big character builder or a game we'll point to as a turning point for this team.  The Kings should have won that game without difficulty and they don't get brownie points for almost blowing a game.  Still, that was a game they had to win.  More importantly, it was a game they really wanted to win.  It was the kind of win that has been missing in LA for a while.  Luck?  New purpose?  I don't know, but it was a helluva thing to watch.

-God, I'm so tired and I didn't even do anything.