Los Angeles Kings Gameday: Straight Trippin'

Journeying through New York (and other bordering states that start with "New") can be a costly endeavor. The Kings know first hand. They lost Jonathan Quick for about a month, Jeff Carter was announced to have a broken foot, Kyle Clifford is mysteriously out, and Matt Greene is suddenly out of action for a lot longer than I think anyone really anticipated. Of course since Quick went down the Kings have won three straight. But they got banged up, and you can bet they are glad to be done traveling for a few days. Four games in six days is a pretty condensed schedule.

I myself know of the perils of traveling around New York. A few years back I had my own epic quest, featuring the great metropolis known as Ithaca. It was kind of like the Odyssey. In that Odysseus's home he was trying to get back to was Ithaca also. The Greek one though. No way he would have survived New York. I did however, but barely. One evening during May I managed to drink about eight or so Pabst Blue Ribbons and stumbled out of a bar at closing time, which in New York is a very early 1 AM. So after rambling to whoever would listen that PBR is the greatest beer known to America because it is red, white, and blue in a AmeriCAN I then wandered off. I lived about a block away from the bar I frequented so it wasn't a big deal. Except I woke up face down in a park, with cuts on my head and knees. I had walked three miles in the wrong direction. Thankfully I flagged a cab because I was too stupid to use a phone and try and figure things out. I returned home a bloody mess, down 25 bucks from an emergency cab ride, and four hours later than if I had just walked in the right direction.

The point of this story? New York is an evil, evil state. Especially Upstate. You get banged up and wind up exhausted. In return, you get some fleeting memory of making out with some girl that you knew you could do better then. Or in the Kings case, points from teams in nail-bitters even though they are clearly statistically inferior. I think I had fun. I think the rookies being on the Kings' roster currently is good. Would the Kings still be better if they had Quick and Carter back? Yeah. Would I have been better served if I just stopped at the beers and didn't slam shots of sake' from a crappy sushi place? Probably. I got my Master's degree the following afternoon. Hooray for college.

For a four game road trip, seven points isn't too bad. Except that the missed point came against the Sabres, who the Kings thoroughly dominated (outside of the score, which is pretty important it turns out). The Kings have had some god awful periods of hockey sprinkled in lately. Notably the second period against the Islanders. If Los Angeles minimizes their wild swings of playing ability they can hang with just about any team in the league. Which includes the East leading Lightning. Tampa trounced the Kings earlier this season when the Kings were in a stretch of awfulness. However, the Kings have been finding ways to win lately, versus how things looked at the start of the year. That was more of, "cool, a win. Too bad we sucked all game and won a shootout." The Lightning don't have Steven Stamkos either. Of course I've already highlighted all the Kings that are out. Soooo yeah.

Prediction: Ben Scrivens is proven to be human and the Kings lose 3-1. Everyone finally panics about the lack of offense.

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