SoCal HockeyCast

The Kings came into Anaheim looking to play better than their last game where the Ducks embarrassed them 6-2. They achieved a little redemption by tying the Ducks with 2:03 left to play on a powerplay goal by Joe Corvo, but Los Angeles lost the game in overtime when Scott Niedermayer scored with a quick shot that beat Mathieu Garon. He ended the night with one goal and two assists.

The Ducks, inspired by Teemu Selanne's 1,000th career point, outplayed the Kings but not as badly as Saturday night. Although they outshot the Kings 45 to 32, Mathieu Garon was spectacular and kept the Kings in the game all night long. Anaheim got two goals from Selanne and one each from Niedermayer and Getzlaf. The Kings got goals from Brown, Armstrong, and Corvo. Selanne is the 70th player to reach 1,000 career points in the NHL, and he is the 7th European player to do achieve this milestone.

This was the first overtime win for the Ducks outside of a shootout. It was also the third win in a row for the team. Meanwhile, the Kings have now lost four straight games. The bright spot for Los Angeles is the fact that they were competitive for the majority of this game, and the players they recently got back from injury (Demitra, Frolov, and Belanger) all played stronger.

Our apologies for missing a few days of our "daily" blog. Life on the road is difficult when you're trying to find Internet connections outside of meeting areas... and typing your hockey blog during meetings isn't always acceptable. So, as always, thanks for your continued patience and support!

In our hockey news, the Kings scored the first and last goals of the game, but the Ducks scored the middle six to beat Los Angeles 6-2 at the Staples Center. Mike Cammalleri scored both goals for the Kings on the powerplay, and their 2-for-9 conversion rate was actually decent. However, the Kings blew it on a full two-minute 5-on-3 advantage that was in the middle of a 5-minute major powerplay.

The Ducks, to their credit, won the game with intensity, great skating, and cashing in on more of their opportunities. They went 4-for-10 with the man-advantage and got goals from Lupul, Perry (2), Getzlaf, Kunitz, and Niedermayer. Ducks' back-up goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov easily out-dueled both Garon and LaBarbera, making 30 of 32 saves compared to the Kings' tandem's 27 saves on 33 shots.

This was the second straight impressive win for the Ducks who beat the Sharks 2-0 on Thursday night. This was the third straight loss for the Kings who are now a full seven points behind the division-leading Stars. The Kings have received no boost whatsoever from the recent return of Pavol Demitra, Eric Belanger, Aaron Miller, and Lubomir Visnovsky.

When the Kings and Ducks meet, you can always count on having a spirited, competitive game. Riddled with injuries for the past two months, the Kings were able to come from behind to beat Anaheim 3-2 in the shootout. Mathieu Garon matched J.S. Giguere save for save throughout the game (33 saves to Giguere's 32) and out-dueled him in the shootout. The loss dropped the Ducks to 2-9 after regulation.

Defenseman Francois Beauchemin scored both goals for the Ducks and the Kings answered with goals by Frolov and Robitaille. The special teams played a big part of this game. One of Beauchemin's goals came on the powerplay and Frolov's was shorthanded. Robitaille continued sipping from the fountain of youth and scored the game-tying goal with 8:22 left in regulation.

After a scoreless overtime where the Kings failed to score on the powerplay (0-for-10 on the night), the stage was set for the shootout. Frolov and Robitaille both scored but were matched by McDonald and Selanne. In the fifth round of sudden death, Garon stopped Getzlaf and Corvo scored for the Kings.

The Kings, who have already played the most games in the NHL, continue their torrid pace and take on the San Jose Sharks tonight.

This week's enhanced Podcast is back to our regular format. We have the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, comments on the Nedved trade, Palffy's retirement, Luc Robitaille thoughts, and a big raspberry to Bryan Berard. Come and listen to our Ducks and Kings report! As always, we also talk about the hot teams and players. We also bring you an installment of our Pool Tips. This is a slightly shorter Podcast because we are recording on the road and needed to keep things brief. Just a bit of extra news, we are quickly approaching 3,000 total downloads for all our episodes. Thanks for making us so successful... and to think, we began this Podcast just to have fun together as a family and talk about Hockey!

As always, please feel free to contact us with questions or comments to technologyted@mac.com or call us at 206-600-6216.

Coming off of a big shootout win against the Senators, the Ducks continued to play strong and beat the Florida Panthers 1-0. The heroes of the night were Chris Kunitz and J.S. Giguere. Rookie Kunitz, playing impressively the last few games, scored the lone goal for the night. The other big story on the night was the Goalies' Duel with both goalies making 30 saves. The difference was that Giguere was perfect and Luongo allowed one.

The win gave the Ducks their second straight win and five out of six points for the past week. Playing solid team defense, Anaheim was able to hold Olli Jokinen in check. Giguere turned aside all six of his shots.

The Ducks continue to hold onto third in the Pacific Division and are five points out of the last playoff spot. They face their rivals the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night.

The Kings continued to have difficulty playing consistently without their injured players. In their 4-3 overtime loss to the Sharks, the Kings led 2-0 and 3-2 before giving up the game-tying goal with 29 seconds left to play in the third period and the winning goal with nine seconds left in OT. These late meltdowns were the result of inexperienced players making mistakes.

San Jose easily neutralized Craig Conroy who again played without Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov. The scoring was left to Parros, Cowan, and Corvo. The Kings played hard throughout most of the game, but got into penalty trouble, allowing three Sharks' powerplay goals. Garon did all he could, but allowed four goals on 33 shots.

Even with the overtime loss, the point put the Kings one point behind the Pacific Division leading Dallas Stars. The Kings hope to regroup against their highway rivals, the Mighty Ducks, on Monday night.

It was a wild night at the Staples Center. To report that the Kings won 8-6 over the Thrashers would only scratch the surface of how strange the game was. The Kings led 2-0 and 3-2 before falling behind 3-5, rallying to go up 6-5, getting tied up at 6-6, and finally taking the lead for good at 7-6. Hard-working forward Jeff Giuliano had two goals for the night... tripling his season output. The Kings got an injured player back (Lubomir Visnovsky) and nobody else left the game injured. Jason LaBarbera got a rare start and won his first game since November 5th. "Defensive" defenseman Mattias Norstrom netted a shorthanded goal (the second of his career) and four assists for five points. The Atlanta Thrashers, with the fourth best powerplay in the league, were blanked with the man-advantage. Luc Robitaille, criticized throughout his career for his lack of speed, had a breakaway. In fact, Robitaille's hat trick to surpass Marcel Dionne for the most goals in a Kings' uniform was actually relatively normal... monumental but normal.

Giuliano got the game-winner in a true battle of teams playing the new style of the NHL. LaBarbera was average, making 33 saves on 39 shots and had moments of looking lost scattered with a greater number of times where he looked very good. The Thrasher super-trio of Hossa, Kovalchuk, and Savard were "held" to three goals and one assist and were a collective -5. In fact, the checkers assigned to neutralize the Kovalchuk line actually outscored them.

However, the night belonged to Robitaille. He now leads all Kings' goal scorers with 552. Marcel Dionne (L.A.'s first hockey superstar) had 550 as a King. Robitaille, the league's highest scoring leftwinger in history, now has 663 goals, 723 assists, and 1386 points in 1401 career games. In three stints with Los Angeles, Robitaille has played 14 seasons with the Kings and calls it home... making this accomplishment even sweeter. He got the record, and, more importantly to Luc, it was meaningful because it helped the Kings win a big game.

The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim outplayed the mighty Ottawa Senators on the road! Teemu Selanne returned to the team and scored his team-leading 20th goal, and the Ducks won just their second game in extra time. To say that the win was unexpected would be an understatement. With under two and a half minutes to play, the Senators scored a shorthanded goal to tie the game at three, and it looked like the writing was on the wall for a comeback by Ottawa that would result in a mighty disappointing loss for Anaheim... afterall, the Senators are one of the best teams in the league, right? And they know how to close out a game.

The Ducks limited the Senators to only one shot on goal in the overtime period and forced a shootout. J.S. Giguere, shakey in the shootouts this year, had to match skills with legendary goalie Dominik Hasek. Giguere faced Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Patrick Eaves, and blanked all three of them. Meanwhile, Chris Kunitz, one of many pleasant surprises for the Ducks this year, scored the lone goal and won the game for Anaheim. Giguere made 33 saves on 36 shots for the night.

Although they lost their previous game in overtime to Boston, the Ducks come out of this two-game roadtrip with three out of a possible four points and have to be proud of that. In their next game, they face Florida back at home on Saturday.

The good news for the Kings is that the Dallas Stars were beaten by the Atlanta Thrashers 5-2. The bad news is that the Thrashers, who are riding an extremely hot streak (five straight wins and 13-2-3 in their last 18) will visit the injury-depleted Kings tonight. Los Angeles may get Garon and Visnovsky back, but they will still be without leading scorer Pavol Demitra, and they continue to resemble the Manchester Monarchs more than the Kings lineup that began the season. Kara Yorio of the Sporting News wrote a nice article on the Kings injury woes and how well they've fared... all things considered. You can find her article here.

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks take on the powerful Ottawa Senators on the road. Like the Kings, they've been playing without their leading scorer as well, Teemu Selanne, who has a groin strain. They hope to break out of a recent slump that has seen them lose four of the last five games (three in overtime). They'll need to play perfectly against the division leading Senators (2nd overall in the Eastern Conference and league).

Meanwhile, in other NHL news, Penguins' star Ziggy Palffy, who had 42 points in 42 games this season, has hung up his skates after 12 years in the league. The 33-year-old right winger cited a shoulder injury as one of the reasons for his retirement. Best wishes to Palffy! We really enjoyed his skills and play in his five years in Los Angeles. Here is the Pens' press release.

Here it is, hockey fans... The Mid-Season Report! This enhanced Podcast is a little longer than usual because it has in-depth mid-season reports on the Kings and the Ducks as well as our Award Predictions. Based on the accomplishments thus far, our analysts make the predictions for the Rocket Richard, Hart, Vezina, Norris, Jack Adams, President's, and Lady Byng Trophies. We also give out a couple of "special" awards to predict some of the worst things we've seen this season. Come and listen to Zoe, Genevieve, and Technology Ted as they take a close look at how the season has gone so far.

This Podcast was created with the new Podcast Studio in GarageBand 3. Let us know what you think! Email technologyted@mac.com or call 206-600-6216. Have a great week of hockey!

The Kings desperately try to stay afloat as they lose another game. This one was to the Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The 4-1 loss was disappointing, but the even worse news on the night was the loss of #1 goalie Mathieu Garon who was hit on the collar bone by a puck. Already playing the game without Pavol Demitra, Eric Belanger, Aaron Miller, Alexander Frolov, Lubomir Visnovsky, Jeremy Roenick, Ryan Flinn, and Valeri Bure, the Kings had good effort, but were sorely overmatched by the talented Lightning.

One of the few bright spots was play of Dustin Brown. Like the last game, he played hard and got on the scoresheet for Los Angeles. Up next for the Kings are the Atlanta Thrashers this Thursday night.

The visiting Ducks were able to overcome 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to tie the Bruins in regulation only to lose the game 4-3 in overtime. It seems like a mantra, this Achilles' Heel of the Ducks. They have won only one one game in the extra period, compared to nine losses.

Ilya Bryzgalov was ordinary in goal, only stopping 24 of 28 shots, and the Ducks didn't show up to play in the first period (getting outshot 12-5). They outshot the Bruins 23-10 in the final two periods, but it wasn't enough to overcome the strong play of Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas who preserved the tie to go into overtime.

The Ducks got goals from Scott Niedermayer, Chris Kunitz, and Ryan Getzlaf, but it was all for naught when Patrice Bergeron scored at 1:55 of overtime.

The Kings return home to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight. Los Angeles is coming off of a horrendous road trip that saw them lose three of four with the final game a 10-1 blowout to the Buffalo Sabres

Apologies for the lateness of our podcast. We have had human and technical difficulties. We're trying out the new (and totally wonderful) Podcast Studio in GarageBand 3, and we're also trying to learn how to use the M-Audio iControl and the Shuttle Xpress. Things are going well, but slower than normal because of the slight learning curve. It should be up in a day or so. Also, this Podcast is a big one! It's our First Annual Mid-Season Report!

Two nights after the Kings soundly defeated Boston 6-0 with a superlative effort, Los Angeles was thoroughly embarrassed by the Buffalo Sabres 10-1. That's right. 10-1. Kings' TV Play-By-Play Man Bob Miller said, "Burn your tape of this game," and that about summed it up. On a night that saw not one but two hat tricks, the Kings looked like a minor league team... a very bad minor league team. Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville both recorded hat tricks and Ryan Miller saved 32 of 33 shots.

The Kings rarely did more than stand around and watch the fast-skating, clean-passing Sabres. Denis Grebeshkov, one of the worst Kings in the game, was -5 for the night and gave up the puck for a few of Buffalo's goals. With this defeat, they went 1-3 on their four-game road trip, and they displayed how much they truly miss the recently injured Pavol Demitra. Lubomir Visnovsky also missed the game due to flu-like symptoms. Even Mathieu Garon, normally steady in net, looked out of place for two of the four goals he allowed (on only ten shots). Adam Hauser, playing in his first NHL game, was filling in for Jason LaBarbera who is on a minor-league conditioning assignment. Hauser also faced several quality chances due to the Kings' "matador defense." He ended up allowing six more goals on 24 shots.

Possibly the only bright spot for the Kings was recently returned forward Dustin Brown who played over 16 minutes, had an assist, and was the only L.A. player with a + rating on the night.

Every team has a lopsided defeat now and then. Afterall, one game does not a season make... so the sky is not falling, but the Kings do have to question the utter lack of effort they displayed in this embarrassment. The good teams rebound from it and display good effort the next game. The Kings, as injured as they are, need to show their mettle by coming back and demonstrating why they deserve their reputation as a "hard-working" team.

For the eighth time in nine tries, the Ducks fell in overtime. This time, on the strength of a hat trick by Alexander the Great, the Ducks lost 3-2 to the lowly Washington Capitals. Anaheim got goals from Lupul and Moen, but lost it in overtime when Ovechkin scored his 30th goal of the season. The Ducks outshot the Caps 34 to 26, but Brent Johnson outplayed J.S. Giguere and earned his third win of the season. The Ducks travel to Boston to face the struggling Bruins on Monday night.

The Kings end their four-game road trip tonight by taking on the strong Buffalo Sabres. The Kings, 6-0 winners in their last game, are 1-2 on this road trip. Alexander Frolov broke out of a 21-game slump with a hat trick against the Bruins. Their injury woes continue, though, as Lubomir Visnovsky left the Boston game early with flu-like symptoms. He returned to L.A. to be examined for possible post-concussion symptoms. This would be a huge blow for the Kings who have had to endure recent losses to key contributors Pavol Demitra and Eric Belanger. The Sabres have played well most of this season, but have struggled with three losses in the last four games of their six-game homestand. They are led by their two quality goalies Ryan Miller and Martin Biron.

The NHL returns to NBC today with three different regional games being televised. Depending on the region, viewers may get to see Colorado vs. Philadelphia, Dallas vs. Boston, or Detroit vs. New York Rangers. These are the first of six Saturday telecasts that NBC will air this season. They will also air 14 nights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Los Angeles and Boston were both coming off embarrassing 6-2 losses, but the Kings were the ones who came out looking like they wanted to prove something. The 6-0 shutout victory over the Bruins was one of the Kings best performances for this season. Alexander Frolov had his best game in the last 22, scoring a hat trick in the third period. His goals included a waist-level deflection of a Dempsey point shot, a penalty shot, and a breakaway.

From the beginning, they skated hard, battled for loose pucks, and helped each other out. The stagnant defense that stood around watching the Ducks were particularly active, always pouncing on any rebound that Garon might have left out... not that there were many. Garon looked superb, turning aside all 30 shots that he faced and looking sharp in the first and second when the Bruins showed little bits of pressure.

The offense was provided by Joe Corvo, Mike Cammalleri, Dustin Brown, and Frolov. Brown scored in his first game back from injury - good news for the Kings. Unfortunately, the game also saw both Visnovsky (flu) and Avery (hit by shot) leave before the final buzzer. Hopefully both will be well for the Kings' next game against the tough Buffalo Sabres.

Our next Podcast will be the mid-year report with our reflections and award predictions.

The Kings, looking to rebound from two straight losses, will face the Boston Bruins tonight in Beantown. The Kings have been able to survive the majority of their injuries, but the most recent to leading scorer Pavol Demitra exposed their lack of game-breaking scorers. Although he isn't a replacement for Demitra, the return of Dustin Brown will give the Kings someone who's willing to skate hard, hit anything that moves, crash the net, and possibly contribute a goal.

In other big news, Mike Milbury has agreed to resign as GM once he and owner Charles Wang find a replacement. Milbury made some daring moves that paid off, but he has assembled a team this year that lacks leadership and effort.

In a not-too-surprising turn of events, Steve Stirling was fired by the struggling Islanders. New York posted an 18-22-2 record in their first 42 games, good for fourth in the division and twelfth in the conference. Although not the most talented of teams, the Islanders have a balanced team with several stars, solid scorers, mobile defenseman, and able goalies. Some of their brighter stars, like Jason Blake, have had injury problems.

However, their inconsistent, often un-inspiring play cost Stirling his job. The next coach can only hope that he will be that leader who can finally motivate and bring consistentcy to players like Yashin, Satan, Kvasha, and DiPietro. With this move, Mike Milbury, the Isles' very un-popular GM, is trying to look like he's actually doing something about his poor team. If the owner is smart, he'll fire Milbury as well.

In happier New York news, the Rangers will retire Mark Messier's number. In what will be an emotional ceremony, Messier's number will be raised to the rafters at Madison Square Garden while friends, family, and fans watch on. Messier, an integral part of the Oilers' Dynasty, came to Broadway in 1991 and helped the Rangers win their first Stanley Cup in 54 years in 1994.

Messier was a competitor, team player, clutch scorer, power forward, and the ultimate hockey leader. He had announced his retirement prior to the start of this season. Thanks for the memories, "Moose."

The battle-weary, injury-riddled, Los Angeles Kings lost their second game in a row as the Mighty Ducks pounced on LA and beat them 6-2 in Anaheim. The Kings out-shot the Ducks on paper, but that seemed to be the only "advantage" the Kings had all night. The Ducks fought for loose pucks, skated well, and buried their chances. Mathieu Garon let in some questionable goals, but was rarely supported when Anaheim went on the attack. The Monarch Call-ups were unable to keep pace with the high-flying Ducks.

Mighty Ducks' scoring was led by Jonathan Hedstrom's hat trick, but they also got contribution from Getzlaf, McDonald, and Kunitz. L.A.'s goals were scored by Conroy and Visnovsky... two of the few non-injured Kings who continue to produce. The Duck's team defense and forechecking kept the front of the net clear, and Giguere made 41 saves, mostly from the perimenter. The Kings lead this season's rivalry 2-1 (with one win on the shootout). The Ducks face Washington on Friday while the Kings continue their roadtrip in Boston.

Our latest Podcast features an expanded "Good" Section with coverage of the Players of the Month and Week. We also salute the Canadian Junior Team and the Philadelphia Flyers, the first team to 60 points.

Listen for some big news with a trade as well as our take on the BAD Chicago Blackhawks and Ugly World Junior Americans.

We also have a return of our rotational feature on Pool Tips. Please don't forget to email or call with questions or comments to technologyted@mac.com or 206-600-6216.

The Mighty Ducks look to give the Los Angeles Kings a chilly reception tonight in Anaheim. The Kings have many question marks for tonight's game. The only certainty is that tonight's game will be played with the intensity only befitting a cross-freeway rivalry. Among the questions for tonight are...

How will the Ducks react to the recent trade of Petr Sykora? Will the Kings lose more players to injury? Can J.S. Giguere gain some consistency? Will the Kings get any of their injured players back (they had ten regulars missing from their last game against the Sharks)? Will the Ducks learn to play some solid team defense for 60 minutes? Can the Manchester Monarch's additions to the Kings line-up continue to keep the parent club in the game?

All this and more will be answered tonight in Anaheim. Our next podcast will be up later tonight.

It was the "other" Thornton (cousin Scott, not superstar Joe) that took advantage of the Kings' defensive lapses by scoring two goals - including the game-winner - enroute to the Sharks 3-2 victory over the Kings. The injury-plagued Los Angeles Kings played with decent intensity and speed for the first ten minutes of the game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead, until the San Jose regulars began playing better and took advantage of mistakes by the patchwork L.A. team. All three San Jose goals were the result of Kings' players not picking up their assignment quickly.

The game also featured a true rarity: Mathieu Garon was beaten cleanly by a good hard shot that took him by surprise. The un-screened shot by Thornton was the game-winner and capped off a three-goal comeback by the Sharks. With ten players injured for Los Angeles (leading scorer Pavol Demitra being the latest), the Kings have had to rely on key contributions from players who began the season in the minor leagues. The Kings will continue their current four-game road trip in Anaheim on Monday night.

For the second consecutive night, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were out-worked and out-played, losing 4-1 to the stingy Minnesota Wild. The Ducks lone goal was scored by Todd Fedoruk. Minnesota's Manny Fernandez made 22 saves enroute to his sixth straight victory. The Ducks, who blew a three-goal lead in Dallas the night before, ended this road trip 2-2-1.

The sieve-like Ducks defense allowed the offensively-anemic Wild four goals on 36 shots and never looked like they were in the game. The inconsistent Ducks have struggled to stay above .500 as they try to find a way to go on a winning streak to get into the playoffs. With this loss, Anaheim drops to 10th in the conference but face dropping further if they continue their poor play. Phoenix is one point behind them and San Jose is only two points back.

To turn things around, they will need to take advantage of the injury-plagued Los Angeles Kings on Monday night in Anaheim.

A few nights after an inspiring come-from-behind victory against Nashville, the Mighty Ducks went ahead three goals agains the Stars but allowed Dallas to comeback and win 4-3 in overtime. The shootout loss was the seventh in eight times for the Ducks this season.

Tonight they get another chance to make amends as Anaheim takes on the Wild in Minnesota. The last place Wild are led by goalie of the week Manny Fernandez and their leading scorer Brian Rolston. The Wild continues to play solid defensive hockey and have allowed the third least in the NHL.

Meanwhile, the Kings will faceoff against the Sharks in San Jose. Los Angeles has been flying high despite numerous injuries to many regulars. Led by Mathieu Garon, the Kings have not had a regulation loss since December 23rd in Edmonton. San Jose has won two straight games and has responded well to the new line change that put Nils Ekman on the top unit with Jonathon Cheechoo and Joe Thornton.

Mathieu Garon and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 at the Staples Center. Except for a few rare instances, the Kings dominated from start to finish with Garon making several spectacular saves to maintain the shutout. Garon challenged the Phoenix shooters and stymied them time and time again.

The Kings got two goals from Luc Robitaille who is now only two goals away from surpassing Marcel Dionne for most goals as a King. Los Angeles also got goals from Corvo and Conroy. They continued to get contribution on the powerplay (they were 1-for-7) and their penalty killing was perfect.

Robitaille, who had previously been benched for three straight games, was involved in many key plays and seemed to be finding the openings he has been accustomed to over his career. The Kings also got a boost from the return of Sean Avery who was skating hard, making hits, and seeing the ice well.

With this win, the Kings have won three straight and lead the Dallas Stars by four points again. They are only one point behind the Detroit Red Wings for best in the Western Conference.

For the second year in a row, the Canadian Men's National Junior Team won a Gold Medal at the annual World Junior Championship. The Canadians defeated the Russians in the Gold Medal Game 5-0. Just like the rest of their games this tournament, Canada did it with great goaltending from Justin Pogge, solid team defense (they never surrendered more than three goals in a game during the whole tournament), and dedication to the team system developed by coach Brent Sutter.

Unlike U.S.A. and Russia who both had many returning players to this tournament, Canada had a team filled with newbies for a national tournament of this size. Even in their "rebuilding" year, Canada showed the world that they have plenty of talent and, more importantly, a great deal more heart and coaching talent.

The U.S. team left extremely disappointed, as they turned in another less-than-adequate effort and lost the Bronze Medal Game to Finland 4-2. The favored U.S. team again failed to get any medal in a tournament they have the talent to win.

The reasons for Canada's success are the exact same causes of the U.S. downfall. For the whole tournament, they did not play like a team, did not get stellar goaltending at all times, and did not get a coaching system that the players followed. Walt Kyle is a good coach, but it was apparent that the Canadian squad had much more "buy-in" to Coach Sutter's system. Much like the U.S. Men's Olympic Squad of 2002, the star-studded line-up played like skating prima donnas instead of working together... for fans of the U.S. Junior Team, we can only hope that "next year" they can show better effort.

The Los Angeles Kings and Mathieu Garon, December Defensive Player of the Month, look to continue their winning ways against the Phoenix Coyotes tonight at the Staples Center. The Kings are 8-1-1 in their last ten games with their most recent loss (in overtime) coming against the Coyotes. Their recent spurt has put them two points ahead of the Dallas Stars for first in the Pacific Division.

The Coyotes are 2-1 since the return of head coach Wayne Gretzky and have been playing inspired hockey. Meanwhile, the Kings have been playing very well and are led by Garon, a steady team defense, and an awakening powerplay (10-for-35 in the last five games). They will need all three of these positives to continue winning. Los Angeles has nine players who are listed as day-to-day or on injured reserve. Forwards Sean Avery and Dustin Brown are the latest two to miss games with "upper body" injuries.

Phil Kessel, Cory Schneider, Bobby Ryan, Chris Bourque, and the rest of the U.S. Junior Team lost to Russia 5-1. Their hopes of winning a Gold Medal at the World Junior Championships are over. The best they can do now is a Bronze Medal when they face the Finnish team (4-0 losers to Canada in the other semi-final match-up).

For the second straight year, a strong U.S. team, favored to win, will leave the tournament disappointed. Meanwhile, Canada, supposedly in a rebuilding year, have had a great tournament, boosted by the home crowd. They hope to win their second straight World Junior Championship in a match against the equally impressive Russian Team.

In other hockey news, Mathieu Garon of the Los Angeles Kings was named the Defensive Player of the Month for December. We knew that Garon and the Kings were doing well. Now the rest of the league has acknowledged it. Jaromir Jagr was named the Offensive Player of the Month. More on that in our next Podcast!

We're Back! Despite hard drive failures, we're back to report on ice hockey around the NHL! Join us for our Kings and Ducks Report as well as three of the hottest teams in the league. Our special feature this week is a report on the World Junior Championships.

Thanks for all your loyal support and encouragement during our recent absence from the airwaves.

The Kings gave a warm welcome to the visiting Dallas Stars by spotting them a two-goal lead. The welcome mat was pulled out from under Dallas as the Kings scored three powerplay goals enroute to a huge come-from-behind victory over their rival for first place in the Pacific Division.

Mathieu Garon and Lubomir Visnovsky had stellar nights. Garon stopped 31 of 33 shots, shutout the Stars for the last half of the game, and assisted on the game-winning goal by Mattias Norstrom. Visnovsky scored two goals and had an assist on the game-winner as well. His first goal was scored with less than one second left in the second period while the Kings had a two-man advantage. His second goal, the game-tying goal, came with 27 seconds left in the game with Garon pulled for the extra attacker. The Kings now lead the Pacific Division by four points.

In other big news, the U.S. National Junior Team defeated the Czech Republic 2-1 in quarterfinal action at the World Junior Championships. Phil Kessel and Chris Bourque scored for the U.S. team while Cory Schneider made 30 saves on 31 shots. The U.S. Team faces Russia next in the semifinal round. Canada will face-off against Finland (1-0 winners against Sweden).

Happy New Year!!!!

Mathieu Garon turned aside 38 of 40 shots to lead the Kings to another road win over Dallas 3-2. Los Angeles celebrated New Year's Eve by dominating the first two periods with goals by Frolov, Armstrong, and Kostopoulos (the game-winner).

Down 3-0, the Stars came back in the third period, out-shooting the Kings 17-1 in the period. Garon made several stellar saves and was able to shut down the Stars after Mike Modano's second powerplay goal at 6:52 of the third period. Although the Kings allowed several shots and were out-played by the Stars in the third period, many of Dallas' chances were from the perimeter. The Kings held onto the win with great goaltending and more disciplined play, only taking one more penalty in the period.

With this win, the Kings have beaten the Stars three times on the road and currently hold first in the Pacific Division by three points. The two teams will meet again on Monday at the Staples Center.

In other SoCal Hockey News, the Ducks managed to hang onto a win against the lowly St. Louis Blues. Anaheim trailed 1-0 after only 30 seconds, but they fought hard and held leads of 3-1 and 4-2 (with a very strange goal scored by the Blues' Dean McAmmond on his own net), before allowing the Blues to battle back to tie the game at 10:51 of the third period. After a scoreless overtime, the Ducks were able to win outside of regulation for the first time in seven tries. Chris Kunitz scored two goals for the night and also had the only shootout goal for either team as J.S. Giguere proved that he can handle the overtime pressure.

The Ducks have been trying to find a little consistency in their play so that they are in a position to be in the playoffs, but they wound up winning another sloppy game with mistakes at both ends. The best news on the night was the fact that they did end up with a win with a shootout. Hopefully this first OT win will give the team and #1 netminder Giguere a boost of confidence.