Tonight will be the last chance for the Kings to earn points for a while. No matter what happens tonight against Calgary, the Kings will still be in a good position in the Western Conference going into their eight-day break, but therein lies the rub. While the Kings are practicing and relaxing, other teams will be playing games. Most other West teams play two or three games between now and Christmas, so there will be ample opportunity for West teams to close the gap on the Kings.
Terry Murray talked about the importance of finishing the first part of the schedule — 37 games, after tonight — with success…
MURRAY: “We talked about, from the start of the training camp, the importance of the schedule, to take advantage of it. We knew it was a pretty front-loaded schedule for us, and to get points now as it is after. After you get through the Olympic break, those points are very, very hard to come by, so we like where we’re at right now. We may be a little bit ahead of schedule, to be quite honest with you. We have set a pretty high bar, a standard, for ourselves, and with the number of people we have out of the lineup right now, we’re kind of mucking it through and finding a way to get points on the board.”
It’s really odd that the Kings get so many days off while other teams keep playing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that. Any idea why the schedule is like this?
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Plus, after the break, we have one five game road trip end of January, after that no more than two road games in a row for the rest of the season. To me, the schedule sets up perfectly from here on out…
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Ya, being in first place and having a good record is definitely a benefit for us, but we need to win tonight.. If we can have 49 points going into this huge 8 day break, it would be beautiful, then Ryan Smyth will be back, same for Jack Johnson.
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Two things come to mind: 1) With three games left in 09, the Kings only need 3 points to reach 50 points at the halfway mark. When was the last time the Kings had 50 points after 41 games? 2) We may have a few games in hand on other Western Conference teams, but it seems that even with the break the Kings will be in a great position since it doesn’t seem like anyone else in the Conference is tearing it up at the moment.
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I am just really glad the Kings made the most out of the amount of games played. Sure there are a couple games here and there that they probably should have won, but overall they have battled in almost every game and haven’t shown any quit. Its good to be a King’s fan right now!
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Rich, is this correct?
“We knew it was a pretty front-loaded schedule for us, and to get points now as it is after.”
It look like a chunk of text may be missing.
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I can not access NHL schedule at work (blocked by proxy server). Can anyone figure out the worst possible position the Kings can be in at the end of this 8 day break?
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The Kings arent the only ones with a weird schedule this year. The Leafs and Canucks have gone through similar 8 day breaks this season.
The Nucks have it the worst, they have a 14 GAME ROAD TRIP COMING UP THIS SEASON. The price you pay for the Olympics i suppose
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chicago plays:
friday the 18th
sunday the 20th
tuesday the 22nd
wed the 23rd
san jose plays:
tonight
monday the 21st
colorodo plays:
sat the 19th
monday the 21st
tues the 22nd
nashville plays:
tonight
sat the 19th
tues the 22nd
calgary plays:
tonight (go kings!)
sat the 19th
wed the 23rd
phoenix plays:
today
sat the 19th
monday the 21st
wed the 23rd
i believe that’s all that could come close…keep in mind we have games at hand on all these guys except the avs i believe…
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It’s finally time for Quick to grab that shutout. Tonight is going to be crazy tough with all the injuries and calgary’s skill.I’m excited to see how the kings and quick respond to their last game before 8 days off!
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At the end of the season ALL teams play the same amount of games. So if the Kings are in first or last right does not matter, OK, that is a lie. It matters but I think the break came at the best time considering the injuries. If the team was healthy I would not be singing the same tune.
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interesting..every team in the west is at least .500 while only the top eight in the east are at or above .500
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/standings?season=2010&group=conference&column=playoffs&order=false&seasontype=2&standType=standings
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This is the going to be the first time all season that I’ll be rooting for the Ducks. I hope they hand the Sharks a regulation loss.
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Our 1st place in the West position is helped by the number of games we have played compared to other teams. Because the standings are so tight and if we are not in 1st our best position is 4th, I expect us to be in the bottom half (5th or 6th) by the time we get back to playing again.
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When’s the last time the Sharks played? They seem to be on a pretty big break right now because I think last week they had played one more game than us, now we have played 3 more than them..
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Sorry, two games….
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Paki -
Not actually true. A shootout or overtime loss is still a loss, so really there is only 9 teams at .500 or above in the West…
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Found my own answer for the Sharks. From Dec 13-21 they only play one game, tonight. So basically that 4 days off, game, then another 4 days off…
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tantrum – By the letter of the law you are right, but based on the ‘idea’ that a game is 2 pts, a ‘.500′ record would mean having at least as many points as games played, which EVERY team in the West has at this point. In fact, the average game this season has been worth almost 2.3 points, meaning about 1 game out of every 3 or 4 has been a 3pt game. It’s like if a baseball game goes into extra innings, crediting the losing team with half a win – it’s stupid. Make a regulation win worth 3 pts or a loss always worth NO points and get some sanity into it.
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I think they should do away with the 4 on 4 since it’s pretty useless go straight to the shootout winner gets 2 points loser gets none
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Straight to shootout?? You are crazy, the 4 on 4 is the best part of extra time. They should make it 20 Minutes of OT at 4 on 4 before they go to shootout.
And then yes, NO points for the loser!
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Go Monarchs Go!!
If we can beat the flames tonight it will be huge.
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I kind of agree with you in thinking the game would be best if it went to 4on4 til someone won, but come on the 4 0n 4 for 5 min has become pointless, both teams just play keep away unti l the shoot out
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bbb7,
I agree. I think it should be 3 points for a win, 2 for a win in OT and 1 for a win in the shootout. 0 points for loss in OT and shootout loss.
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Matt, I like the idea of making the regulation wins more intense, even like the declining scale of value the longer it takes a team to win, but the problem is then the games are worth 1,2 or 3 points depending on when it’s won… all the games need to be worth the same amount of points, regardless of OT/SO or whatever. I agree make the OT 10 min, tho, but something needs to be done to give incentive to win in regulation.
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This “.500″ stuff is really deceptive. Half the available points isn’t the same as .500, since you get two points for winning in overtime/shootout and 1 for losing in overtime/shootout. IMO “over .500″ should be where wins outnumber both types of losses, or conceivably, a formula that properly weights overtime wins against overtime losses.
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4-on-4 does make it easy to play a puck possession game if holding on for a point is important to you. 10 minute overtime, 5-on-5, ending in a tie if no one scores.
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The point set-up now is good. Purests would even eliminate the shoot-out, but it’s been exciting.
But a shoot-out win is NOT the same as a win and should NOT mean the team gets NOTHING out of the game, after playing exactly even during REAL game time.
The Kings last year were losing a lot of shoot-outs, and to get nothing would’ve been hard.
To have more categories of types of wins makes it too complicated for many to look at and figure out a team’s record. They tried having four categories of types of wins/losses/ties a few years ago and it was awkward.
Just leave it the way it is.
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Another consequence of the current way the league awards wins and points is this:
Teams accumulate more wins and less regular losses because of overtime. This makes it look like more teams are playing above .500. It think this is a good thing!
Many fans lose interest in their team if they play way below .500. At least with the current method it looks like their team is playing well, and actually, if they are getting any points out of game, they are not doing too badly anyway. THIS METHOD OF CALCULATING POINTS IS AN INGENIOUS MARKETING TECHNIQUE!
I think some teams would do worse in attendance if it looked like their team was totally out of it. Only Carolina’s record looks bad now. Every other team is in the hunt. This boosts fan excitement (and players too) and promotes the league. I’d rather be doing this than just wins and losses so a team would have a 9 and 26 record (9-26) like maybe in basketball, and fans would lose hope. In hockey their record might be 9-10-7, which is much better!
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Sorry, my 9-26 record example is wrong. It should be 9-17, so that the hockey record of 9-10-7 works.
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And clarifying:
But a shoot-out win is NOT the same as a win and should NOT mean the losing team gets NOTHING out of the game, after playing exactly even during REAL game time.
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So how about OT loss=no points and a shoot out loss=1 point?
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I think that would almost guarantee an overtime that ends without scoring, VKF.
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