A great day for Slovenia (Bridget Samuels/Flickr)

As always the Cup is making it’s way around the world, who wouldn’t want to spend a summer the way Lord Stanley does? This past weekend the Cup made it’s first trip to Jesenice, Slovenia with Kings Captain Anze Kopitar.

The Kings can continue to enjoy their summer worry free of losing any of their star players since they signed all of their free agents. Instead of going after the big fish, they took care of the guys that brought LA it’s first Stanley Cup.

So here is a brief update on what is happening with the other teams in the Pacific Division.

The San Jose Sharks – Were the #7 Seed in the West, and lost to the St. Louis Blues in the 1st Round.

On July 1st they lost free agent Torrey Mitchell to Minnesota (It seems everyone is losing their best free agents to Minnesota). The Sharks have multiple unsigned free agents most of whom will not return to San Jose next year. After a pretty pathetic run in the Playoffs this year, it doesn’t look that they are going to make a better showing this coming season. The big question on everyone’s mind is what are the Sharks going to do about it? They have yet to make a splash in the off season, something that might do it would be trading veteran Patrick Marleau. This could be a possibility, we will see.

The Dallas Stars – A disappointing end of the season saw the Stars barely miss the Playoffs.

The Stars have made a couple of interesting moves, the 1st of which was signing Ray Whitney, after a great run in the playoffs with the Phoenix Coyotes it was an interesting move to leave. The 2nd was signing Jaromir Jagr to a 4.55 Million, 1 year deal at the age of 40 he is first in goals, assists and points among active. Not a terrible veteran to add to your roster. The Stars also traded Steve Ott to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Derek Roy. They also added Defensemen Aaron Rome from the Vancouver Canucks as well.

Right now the Stars are making a lot of interesting changes adding a lot of veteran leadership to their line-up. Clearly someone doesn’t want the Stars to make the same mistakes as last year. 

The Anaheim Ducks – Finished last in the Pacific and were out of the playoff race before it even started.

Right now it doesn’t look like the Ducks are going to be any better off next season. They are most likely going to lose Bobby Ryan, who made some not very encouraging comments during the Draft. They have acquired veteran (D) Sheldon Souray from Dallas, (RW) Brad Staubitz from Montreal, and (D) Bryan Allen from Carolina. Despite adding these talented defensemen,  it just doesn’t seem like enough to pull them from the depths of the Pacific Division.

The Phoenix Coyotes – Were the #3 Seed in the West, and lost to the Kings in the Division Championship.

The big question for the Coyotes right now is Shane Doan, will he sign or will he leave? Doan is starting to look at his options and I think it is highly possible that he might not finish his career in Phoenix. In the mean time the Coyotes resigned Kyle Chipchura and acquired Steve Sullivan from Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, Ray Whitney signed with Dallas, so they lose a big part of the leadership of their team.

If Doan decides to leave Phoenix even with the great goaltending of Mike Smith the Coyotes will be in a bit of trouble.

I love saying it but right now it looks like the Kings are the clear front runner in the Pacific Division!

The Blues struck first, but it was the Kings that came out on top 3-1 after 60 minutes of play in St. Louis. Although the Kings were 0-5 on the power play, they got their game winner from Defensemen Matt Greene shorthanded. Great action tonight, this is going to be an amazing series!

Instead of recaping the game I am going to highlight my Key Kings for the 2nd Round:

1st: Defensemen Drew Doughty

Doughty helped get the Kings get on the board and put them in a position to win game 5. In order for the Kings to have success against the Blues, Doughty needs to continue to add just a hint of offense into the mix. He has been solid on the blue line, but if he and some of the other Kings defensemen add some offense then they become a big threat to the Blues.

2nd: Forward Anze Kopitar

Kopitar had a goal and 3 assists in the first round, but this is not close to his full potential. He is a real threat if he is firing on all cylinders. Not only is he a real threat in the offensive zone BUT he is always an important aspect of the Kings D-Zone. It is great that he is a two-way player, but in order for the Kings to defeat the Blues, Kopitar needs to have a bigger impact and presence in the offensive zone!

3rd: Foward Dustin Penner

Penner had a goal in game 1 and then was relatively abscent from the last 4 games. BUT he is also a major offensive power, unfortunately he has been struggling all season. If he can pull himself out of this funk and add to the Kings offense, I honestly believe they have a definite shot to take this round from the Blues.

Tune in Monday for game 2 of this showdown, I will be wearing my lucky t-shirt (YES I have a lucky t-shirt that is a little tight in the arm pits but who cares it’s lucky!).

The Los Angeles Kings took the first of 3 games against the San Jose Sharks last night, winning 5-2!!! BOOM ROASTED! This was a big win fans not that I need to remind you about the extremely tight race we are in with hmmm 5 teams in the Western conference!!

Let’s talk about some of the good things that happened last night… Kings win! The Kings are now sitting on the correct side of the line in 8th place, but don’t jump for joy just yet we are still tied with the Phoenix Coyotes. Which also means the Kings and Coyotes only trail the Division leading Dallas Stars by 1 point. Unfortunately I think I jinxed the games yesterday because both the Colorado Avalanche vs Calgary Flames and Coyotes vs Stars went into OT last night. OH and the Chicago Blackhawks won… What the heck! Despite everything going wrong with the other games in the Conference, the Kings did everything right! Let’s focus on that shall we…

PLAY BIG! (Bridget Samuels/Flickr)

Mike Richards started the scoring with a short handed snipe! BUT the celebration was short lived as Marty Havlat came right back down and converted on the PP for the Sharks. The Kings played a very physical 1st period and continued just buzzing the Sharks in the 2nd. Which lead to Alec Martinez breaking the tie sending the Kings into the locker room ahead heading into the 3rd. In my opinion this was the key goal for the Kings they really worked hard and wore down the Sharks and they really needed to get something out of that. Martinez’s goal was just what the Doctor ordered.

Anze Kopitar had another fabulous game with a goal and 2 assists, he now has 7 points in the last 4 games! Dustin Penner also added an insurance goal with 4:06 left in the 3rd, giving the Kings some breathing room! The Kings are playing great hockey right now from top to bottom. The added offense provided by Jeff Carter is really an important addition to the Kings, it has taken the pressure off the top line and allowed them to play their game.

The Kings have a night to rest tonight before taking on the St. Louis Blues @ Home Thursday night. NO Stressing tonight fans, let’s save that for Thursday!

The Los Angeles Kings fire back in a big way with a  5-2  win tonight, against the Detroit Red Wings! The scoring nearly started with Jarret Stoll when he split the D and tried to put the puck low past Jimmy Howard, unfortunately Howard was there to make the save. A few minutes later Howard shut the door again when he stacked the pads on a Jeff Carter attempt. The Kings continued to buzz the net and it paid of when Dustin Brown got the puck to Drew Doughty who was able to get the puck on net so that Justin Williams could bang it home!

STAT ALERT: Brown has extended his point streak to 9 games!

Everyone pitches in (Bridget Samuels/Flickr)

Minutes later during a Wings power play Anze Kopitar catches Howard slightly off his angle and snipes. Adding to another impressive Kings statistic they have successfully killed 32 consecutive penalties. Go Defense! The Wings took advantage of a neutral zone mistake by Williams and made it a 2-1 game. Henrik Zetterberg made a great move selling the shot to Jonathan Quick giving Jiri Hudler a great look at the net for the score.

Mike Richards goal at 9:03 of the 2nd period was HUGE the Kings were running around and needed to get the control back and Richards goal did that. I truly believe that a 2 goal lead is the worst in hockey, but I would much rather go into the 3rd 3-1 than 2-1! For good measure Slava Voynov added a power play goal, but if fans learned anything from the last Kings vs Wings game is that it’s not over until the fat lady sings… Johan Franzen tried to bring the Wings within striking distance, but it just was not enough. The Kings killed off key penalties, scored big goals and kept their composure in the 3rd period. All in all it was a great night at the Staples Center!

The Kings are now in a 4 way tie for 8th place! More playoff updates to come tomorrow!!