The Throne Room

Ersberg Shines In SO Loss to Sharks

Back from San Jose today, where I followed the Kings to conclude their short West coast road trip. Friday night’s debacle in Vancouver wasn’t televised in Southern California except on Center Ice. I was already in the Bay Area and wasn’t able to watch the game. In short, the Kings fell behind 2-0 with a sloppy third period that included a bad puckhandling bounce for Jon Quick. The Kings scored twice in 26 seconds to tie the game in the third period and then Henrik Sedin scored twice in two minutes to give Vancouver a 4-2 win on their home ice.

I have been to many road games in Anaheim in previous years. It’s an hour closer to me than Staples and, up until 2007, those games were more like Kings home games than away…Kings’ fans almost always outnumbered Ducks supporters (few that they were before the bandwagon crowd) by a healthy margin. The Ducks’ organization stopped selling group tickets to Kings’ fans and instituted a security policy which includes permitting harassment of the road teams’ fans by ushers and other Honda Center personnel. When you add that to what the teams actual “fans” are like, you have some place that isn’t getting a penny of my money. Of course, as their franchise is on the decline and the bandwagon fans go away, they will have to resort to desperate measures to keep attendance figures at a satisfactory level, so we will probably see a kinder, gentler Honda Center in coming years. I digress…

This was my first trip to the HP Pavillion, otherwise known as the “Shark Tank”. It’s a nice facility, but it is quite different from Staples Center. It seats about 1,000 less and it’s concourses are a little but congested (a’ la the Forum back in the Gretzky days), however the smaller building translates to being very loud when it’s full of fans. While I’m not a fan of the “SUNDAY, SUNDAY!”, tractor pull variety of PA announcing in a lot of NHL buildings these days, and the whole “chomp” thing done for every power play is cheesy to the point of being humorous, I was treated quite well by the fans there. We struck up conversation about hockey and the contrast in regions in a friendly and amicable manner, a much different experience than one would have visiting Anaheim, where you’re likely to be challenged to a fight by someone with the hockey knowledge (or lack thereof) of a two year old. I encountered one person who was borderline rude but otherwise the experience was a good one. After all, Kings and Sharks fans have one thing in common - we both hate the Ducks!

The game itself couldn’t have been much more exciting. There were a lot of bitten-off fingernails during a game that took regulation, overtime, a 7 rounds of a shootout to decide. Erik Ersberg was outstanding in net for the Kings, and should’ve been the first star of the game. He was shunned for the honor in favor of San Jose’s Dan Boyle - who had a lone assist in the game. Definitely a head scratcher.

Sharks got on the board in the first period on a Milan Michalek deflection of a Joe Pavelski wrister from the faceoff circle. It was the only shot that would elude Ersberg for 65 minutes.

Kings came to life in the second period and tied the game at 1 on Wayne Simmonds’ 6th goal of the season. Alexander Frolov took a shot that Sharks’ goalie Evgeni Nabokov directed just to his left, where Simmonds was positioned for an easy goal. Simmonds was one of the best Kings on the ice Saturday night, and had a chance for a two goal game when he was denied by Nabokov on a shorthanded breakaway chance that frankly I thought should’ve been a penalty shot.

Both teams had chances to win the game in the third period and overtime. Ersberg saved the Kings repeatedly, whilst Nabokov made his share of saves at the other end. Nabokov got some help from the Kings’ offense, which flubbed some golden opportunities, including a 2 on 0 for Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. Instead of Brown driving a shot and forcing Nabokov to leave a far side rebound for Kopitar to bury in the Sharks’ net, Brown appeared to overthink the play and waited to pass the puck to Kopitar until he was too close to make anything happen. In overtime, Nabokov was unable to track down a rebound that lied in the crease for several seconds before he was able to corral it. Had Dustin Brown been in his normal house at the net, it could’ve been game over. For a game the Kings played so well in, there were a lot of “what ifs”.

In the shootout, Dan Boyle and Anze Kopitar failed to score in the first frame. Joe Pavelski scored for the Sharks in the second frame and Jack Johnson, the Kings’ most effective shootout player this season even the shooout at one. 8 more players failed to score before San Jose’s Jonathan Cheechoo would pot the eventual winner, freezing Ersberg for a split second with a head fake before shooting glove side high and beating Ersberg by a hair for what ended up being the winning goal. Teddy Purcell failed to score and the game was over.

The officiating in the game was truly weird. There were some calls that seemed to come from nowhere (a second period trip on Drew Doughty and a delay of game penalty against Nabokov), and a host of make-up calls in which the referees seemed to let play go in the face of obvious penalties and then call phantom infractions shortly thereafter to compensate for it. This happened at the behest of both teams Saturday night.

I thought Erik Ersberg deserved a better fate than the shootout loss. He played his best game of the season thus far - seems to always come to play against the Sharks (not well represented in his 1-1-1 record against them). He earned an additional start Monday against Nashville in LA with that performance, and, as previously mentioned, should’ve earned first star of the game.

As much as I approve of the job Terry Murray has done as Kings coach this season, sometimes I question his shootout logic. Wayne Simmonds was the best King on the ice Saturday night save Ersberg, and was conspicuously absent from the shootout lineup. I’d love to pick Terry Murray’s brain about why he chose to sat Simmonds, especially when he praised the young player after the game.

My experience at the Shark Tank and with the fans in San Jose was a good one. I’m going to make a point to get to at least one Kings game each season there.

As of Sunday night, the Kings sit 5 points out of the 8th spot in the west with 14 games remaining. It’s a long shot, for sure, but the Kings have a chance to pass Anaheim (by virtue of this season’s head-to-head) with a win against Nashville Monday night at Staples. The Predators have been a perennial thorn in the Kings’ side this season, a team who seems to match up well with LA. What happens in the next week will either keep the Kings’ playoff hopes afloat or put us out of reach with the Colorado’s and Phoenix’s of the world. Kings have won 3 straight at home but you can bet Nashville won’t be an easy task. Hopefully the Kings step up…

Because I can’t be the only one who thinks a Kings/Sharks matchup in the first round of the playoffs would be intruguing!

-JS