Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Five Thoughts: Sharks-Kings game makes history the right way

San Jose Sharks v Los Angeles Kings - Game Three

in game three of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Staples Center on April 19, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

Harry How

1. If you went to bed early on the east coast and opted to skip out on Game 3 between San Jose and Los Angeles, our sympathies are not with you. It’s playoff season and you need to be devoted to this no matter what. Failing that pseudo rallying cry, just know this: The type of hockey being played in this series is the sort of thing those of us that grew up with the firewagon hockey of the 80s often like to wag our finger at you and tell you that you missed it all. San Jose’s unbelievable comeback from being down 4-0 to beat L.A. 6-5 in overtime is the kind of thing that makes fans like us believe that those days aren’t totally dead. What a game.

2. We’ve been kind of ignoring how L.A.'s Dustin Penner has been a bust for the Kings. After last night’s poor showing by Penner in which his slow backcheck turned into the game-winning goal for San Jose in overtime, expect the Kings to do what they can about moving him in the offseason. Sound crazy? Not really. Penner has one year left after this one at $4.25 million against the cap and his time in L.A. has been awful. Last night’s failure by Penner to keep up with Devin Setoguchi will be the cherry on the sundae of Penner’s bad highlight reel.

3. Don’t expect that Antti Niemi’s bad night against the Kings will be held against him at all. Yes he was lit up early by the Kings, but this is part of the package deal with Niemi. Sometimes you’ll get bad outings like this but he doesn’t let them keep him down. Niemi should be back in Game 4 against a beaten down and demotivated Kings team that is still reeling after their historic collapse in Game 3.

4. It was high time the Blackhawks showed a sense of pride at all. After hitting posts and being skunked by Vancouver’s defense, Chicago finally looked like a team that gave a damn about defending their title beating Vancouver 7-2 in Game 4. Winning a game in such an emphatic way shows the great sense of pride the Blackhawks have and that’s a good thing for them because now they can keep that momentum going into Game 5. They’re not out of the woods by any means and are still one loss away from elimination but it’s a start. It’s the exact sort of game Chicago needed to show Vancouver they can still win and win convincingly.

5. Of course there was the Raffi Torres side show that came to pass in such a blowout game. With these two teams already hating on each other, the third period blew up into a penalty filed affair that saw every get their shots physically and verball in on Raffi Torres including both Torres and John Scott getting 10-minute misconducts late in the game as they were busy chirping each other before a face off.

Letting Scott or even Duncan Keith whoop up on Torres wasn’t going to help Brent Seabrook get back in the lineup but perhaps letting these teams settle that score rather than continue to have it linger would be a good idea. After all, the NHL made that bed by not suspending Torres, the least they can do is let these teams get it out of their system before things get really out of hand later on. Chicago used that motivation well in Game 4, they’re hoping it can carry over further.