Los Angeles Kings are Finally Able To Smother Calgary Flames

Life In HockeywoodDec 8, 2009

Game 31: Kings 2, Flames 1

Much has been said about the Kings and their supposed rivalries with teams like the Ducks, Red Wings and Oilers. I would like to add the Calgary Flames for consideration as strong rivals.

The Kings haven't beaten the Flames since before my son was born. And if that doesn't seem like a long time to you, let me put it another way. The amount of diapers I have changed in the past year makes it feel like we haven't beaten Calgary since 1996. In fact, the Kings' recent performance against the Flames is oddly reminiscent of loaded Pampers.

But that's all changed now that we have Scott Mother Lovin' Parse! Seriously, I doubt a lot of love will be given to No. 63 by the national media for his acrobatic shot that deked Miikka Kiprusoff out of his jock and dazzled the crowd. The only thing that was wrong with his shot was the camera angle. Skating away from the corner with the camera, getting blocked by the ref, facing away from the camera. This is Hockeywood, Scotty. Love the camera! You need to work on your on-screen presence, dude.

You would think that there were no other photos taken last night. I could've used a number of decent pictures as my main shot, like Jarret Stoll tallying the game-winner. But I decided on the obligatory one of SuperParse flying through the air. I also could have used one of Jonny (Don't Call Me Jonathon) Quick, who was a monster. In fact, I might just have to give Quick the moniker of Iron Man, because the dude's a workhorse. There's a stretch of 11 games coming up where coach Terry Murray might have to give Ersberg a chance to scrape the splinters out of his butt.

"Seven games in 11 days is a lot of work for one guy," Kings coach Terry Murray said, "so I'm prepared to make a change. I don't want to push it too far, with a compressed schedule, but on the other side, Ersberg has been better. He's working hard."

Allow me to translate, since I talk Murray. "Quicker's has played 11 games in a row for us, and I'm gonna keep running him out there every game on the roadie. I will give Quicker a Christmas gift and let Ersberg get one start against the Oilers. It's the least I can do, and will allow me to give Quicker ample time to recoop for the stretch run."

Speaking of diapers, look who's back with the club? That's right, everyone's favorite huggable Swedish player, Oscar Moller, is back. He played mostly on the fourth line with Brad Richardson and Raitis Ivanans. Seriously, Moller and Ivanans together looks like Max and Carol from Where the Wild Things Are . Turns out, Moller will stick with the club "at least for a while," according to Dean Lombardi, via Rich "The News Hound" Hammond. Moller did sport a nifty-looking beard, which made him look 17.

Also back with the Kings is their Scud Missile, Rob Scuderi, who's been out with the dreaded "upper/lower/try to guess where injury" since before Thanksgiving. Scuds played primarily with Drew Doughty and was solid as usual. After the game, Scuderi broke it down as only a wily vet can.

"When you have a lead, I think it’s a case of not beating yourself," he said. "You don’t want to ever just sit back and wait for them to come at you. Starting to get the pucks deep, cycling down in their end and make them come 200 feet."

The Kings played beautiful defensive hockey, clamping down on Jarome Iginla, who lit them up for a hat trick the last time these two times played. The Kings only mustered a season-low 16 shots, but outhit the Flames. Stoll was masterful in the faceoff dots once again, and were able to shut out the Flames power play. The Kings are no longer at the bottom in PK percentage, so there's that.

So a solid win starting off the week makes the cold weather almost not matter. And by cold, I mean 50 degrees. Seriously, I want to buy one of these Rink Rat toques, available over at RiverCitySports.com . Wait, what's that? No Kings toque?!? There's a Duck one ... Apparently, it never gets cold west of the 57 Freeway. Bah!

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