Going back to the 52 shots on goal that the San Jose Sharks recorded in Game 5, that’s a big number, but not one that’s atypical for a Kings-Sharks game and not one that particularly seemed to bother Terry Murray. So far in this series, the Sharks have totaled 45, 34, 36, 27 and 52 shots, respectively. In the regular season, the Kings allowed an average of 27.9 shots on goal per game, the third-lowest average in the NHL. The Kings, though, are more concerned with the quality of the shots, as opposed to the quantity. After a game, coaches break down all the shots and put them into categories, with “grade-A” being the most dangerous, “grade-B” being less dangerous, and so on. Coaches also — and rightfully so — often question the accuracy of the stat-sheet numbers. So how did Murray view Game 5?
MURRAY: “I don’t even look at the 52 shots very long. I know it was there, but it’s not a number that I’m concerned about. We always break those numbers down to smaller areas. It’s the grade-A quality chances that are the ones that I really focus in on. That number was not too bad. Quick was called on to play very well. The plays that were inside of home plate were, you’re probably look at 12 to 15, maybe 15. That number is a little high from what our average is over the course of the year, but when you’re looking at a powerhouse of a team like that, and the number of power plays that they had, the number was not too bad.”
Any of the things Quick ate, drank, or did during the course of Saturday should be repeated today as we need quick as sharp as he was then. Also the defense needs to step up a little so we dont have so many shots as before. GO KINGS GO!
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the one stat you dont see here or on the Kings broadcast is scoring chanches that would be nice to know
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Krusher Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:33 am
@neil, I am still yet to completely understand what constitutes a scoring chance.
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Brownkingsfan Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:34 am
@neil, That’s a good point. I often hear the “scoring chances” stat from Bob Miller or Jim Fox, but it doesn’t seem like I hear about it anywhere else. My big dilemma, which jersey should I wear tonight? Away jersey or home jersey? I’m staying away from the shield jersey, hasn’t been good luck so far!
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Jgomez Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:39 am
@Brownkingsfan, Haha your like me. Both games I went to, they lost. Now, I plan to stay at home all the way to the cup. Once there, I will attend one game but thats it! I swear! haha
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Brownkingsfan Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:41 am
@Jgomez, Make sure it’s an “away” game! =)
KFII Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
@Brownkingsfan, I’m wearing purple. LOL
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We won Game 5 because of Quick. He cannot do that night after night. We need far better D zone puck handling and control than we had on Saturday night if we are going to send this to Game 7.
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Capt Jam Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:30 am
@rick,
Agreed. We need a team shutout tonight, not a one-man shutout.
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Jay GoLAKings Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:52 am
@rick, completly agree
Shot block like mad.
We need more Greeners out there!! make them pay the price in the “home plate area”
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Dan H. Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:00 am
@Jay GoLAKings,
Minus the two stupid high stick calls the last two games.
I love how aggressive he is but no need for EITHER of those penalties.
Keep the sharks off the PP and the Kings have a great shot tonight.
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Just win!
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btw i hate that game……..52 card pick up!!! thanks rich for reminding me lol
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if Quick can save see it and save it with easy..then i dont care as long as it open ice passes to make a one timer to score that will suck
Kings Fan deserve to see the Kings win
Go Kings GO
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I may be mistaken, but isn’t it pretty normal to give up a ton of shots if you are up 3-0 early? So, 52 sounds like a lot, but given the type of game, it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable to me.
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
@scvking, Yeah, especially low-risk shots. The team that’s behind has been instructed to get shots on net, so they take low-percentage opportunities. That’s the way I see it, anyway. It’s definitely the ones that would be labeled “chances” you’ve got to be concerned about, and the Sharks didn’t get many of those until late in the game.
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scvking Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?,
Or as they now refer to them, “Grade-A Chances”.
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Pesus Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
@scvking,
You are right but remember what happened to quick after his 51 saves in detroit? He got shelled, I hope history doesnt repeat itself tonight
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Where’s our History Will Be Made: Quick commercial? They better make one… making 51 saves against SJ in a clutch game and setting a franchise record… come on NHL show some love.
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Derek Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:37 am
@Lime, Kings don’t exist as NHL is concerned.. Did you see the recap of the game on NHL network? the focus was on Sharks losing, not Kings winning.
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gralx Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:21 am
@Derek, It’s worse than that! Being out of market, I have had to watch the Sharts feed on Vs for every game! And, when leaving the overtime recap and heading to the Kings game the other night, the Vs announcer said, “and now we will take you to the SHARKS game”. I have payed the price for the NHL package and and still forced to watch the Vs feed, which seems more than a little slanted do to the fact that I have not seen or heard Bob Miller during the whole series. Kinda ticks me off! (ok, really ticks me off)
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
@gralx, Yeah, what’s with that anyway? You’d think if they gave a crap about the viewer, they’d license (or whatever pigopolists do) the TSN feed, not a partisan feed. That, or they’d pick a rule, like piping the feed for the home team (or maybe the visiting team is more interesting.) Anyway, to force fans to listen to the same homers over and over is just crap.
Incidentally, if you have the sports package, you can watch/record the FSN/PT replay of the game, but they shop out portions to make it fit into an annoying little block. I don’t see why they can’t reserve a larger period of time and butcher whatever portion necessary of the intermission fluff to make it fit the block.
Once again, as long as they’ve got you watching the right commercials, the pigopolists are happy. It wouldn’t tick me off so much if you could pay to see the whole thing, but they even do this to the people who go to the trouble to pay for everything. First you had to pay for the sports package, then you had to pay for Center Ice, then you had to pay for Center Ice AND the Sports Package, and now even if you do that you’re not guaranteed to see the whole game–and these are playoff games, a couple games at the beginning of the season.
They’re just a bunch of venal SOBs.
/rant
Brownkingsfan Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:43 am
@Lime, When any good movie comes out, they never reveal the climax in the trailer. Let Quick reveal it through the playoffs! Go Kingd go!
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370455VinSD Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
@Lime, Not sure if you would want that anyway. They showed the Miracle on Manchester History Will Be Made commercial before game 3 and that didn’t turn out too well.
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Paul M. Hedberg Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
@370455VinSD, I heard they showed it during the 1st Int…almost on cue.Funny how it’s mentioned/shown 30 years(almost)later but on NHL Vault only gm 4 is available.YouTube has the old ch.9 road feeds.League will NEVER get over the fact that JP Kelly & Korab advanced that yr & Gretzky & Co. didn’t.
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370455VinSD Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
@Paul M. Hedberg, Yeah, there is a great youtube clip of Bob doing the recap of that game before the next broadcast. Still gives me goosebumps.
Does anything bother Terry Murray? 52 shots? Nah, that’s fine. If (and that’s a huge if) they happened to have good puck management, he’d blame Simmonds for not moving his feet well enough. But 52 shots? All good.
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Bluecoconuts Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:41 am
@Scaught, TM has a great poker face. I wouldn’t play against him, that’s for sure.
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Dan Sandonkey Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:58 am
@Bluecoconuts, It is not a poker face. It is a sleepy face.
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Sebastian Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:42 am
@Scaught, it all good if you win the game…and they did. so who cares how many shots they had.
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Scaught Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
@Sebastian, you won’t win too many games giving up that total.
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The Sharks have been known for their style of just putting pucks to the net and driving towards the goal mouth. When the opposing team collapses, they always have a guy in the high slot just sitting there waiting to get a pass back when the puck inevitably comes out and take a shot. When the goalie has 9 bodies in front of and around him, the percentages to score obviously go up. Their skilled guys with hands can routinely find the open man.
Things that will help:
*Simply push everything to the outside as much as possible.
*When we collapse, leave a guy about 10 feet above the crease that can stay free to handle any trailers in the high slot.
*When attacking players cut to the middle, the d-man on the other side (Who should have his man in the corner) should come up to help. THis usually forces a pass to the corner which gives a d-man time to recover.
*When the Sharks are set up in our zone, ALWAYS have a guy in the slot to cover backdoor passes. We did this really well in game 2. In other words, like TM has said, don’t chase the puck.
*Quick just needs to kick butt. When he’s focused, he’s a wall.
On top of all that…CHASE NIEMI! Play as much of Richie, Simmer and Cliffy as possible the first 20. For whatever reason, that matchup has Todd McClellan baffled. He’s tried a bunch of different combos to contain them with very little luck. I believe this is where matchups become important and TM could exploit this.
Defense first. Game 7 will come.
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Brownkingsfan Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:45 am
@Cynic, All good observations. Agreed and agreed!
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Michael J. Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:50 am
@Cynic,
Also, keep cycling the puck. The Kings got away from the cycle a bit too much on Saturday when they went up 3-0. When the Kings cycle it down low the Sharks have a very difficult time defending it.
And, get the puck deep every time. No fancy plays at the blue line guys. If you cannot skate it in yourself and nobody is open just make the right dump in where your mates can go and get it. Keep the puck behind their goal and they cannot score.
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Cynic Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:53 am
@Michael J., Yep. Absolutely right. In the O-Zone, we should be doing as much of this as possible. Great point.
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vplaza Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:53 am
@Cynic,
Don’t forget another important one….win more faceoffs. Good things come when you do this, such as not needing to expend too much energy to get he puck away from them in your zone and to force them to expend their energy in their zone when you get your cycle going.
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Stuart Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:56 am
@vplaza, there’s one place Bunghole Joe has been dominating. And he wins so many so clean, too. I hate that man and his redbeard. Ok, not hate, but some serious dislike.
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Tonight I expect the Kings to lock it down a lot more than on Saturday. San Jose will come out with a fury at the beginning again looking to knock the Kings out. If the Kings play their game, remain patient, calm, and focused on their own jobs, they will win tonight.
The Sharks know their reputation and will be desperate tonight. I expect them to play only three lines, again, which should play into the King’s favort toward the end of the game tonight.
Go Kings Go!
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
@Michael J., That’s exactly what’s happened in the more typical instance where the Kings are playing their game against the Sharts. The Sharts put about 15 shots on goal in the first period, and give a goal or two to the Kings, but don’t score. Then the Kings cycle the crap out of them and maintain a goal or two lead. That’s exactly what needs to happen tonight.
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I thought our D played well – Allowed Quick to see the shots coming. Open the shooting lanes and controlling rebounds. Not to take away from Quick, he obviously won us that game.
Was also pleased with the team not getting into a run-n-gun situation like we did when we had the 4-0 lead. We can’t do that against the Sharks…
After Penners nice goal, I wasn’t even couting on a win after what we have all seen so far in this series. I actually in fact, was like, Oh God, please not this again.
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Brownkingsfan Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 10:54 am
@KingsGuy, After 3 goals, I was worried too. We did a pretty good job slowing the game after that IMO, but the Sharks are one if the premeir offensive teams in the NHL. Saturday they were living by the “just get the puck to the front of the net” mentality, which is why they put 52 SOG’s. Shut them down defensively, and their 3 lines will wear out late in the game!
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KingsGuy Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:35 am
@Brownkingsfan, As much as I dislike the Sharks, you are right, they have some killer offensive lines.
Hopefully we get an early goal tonight… I am thinkning about going to the game, but would hate to “pay” to see them lose live. Its a 4 Hr drive for me… LOL. Wonder if I should go.
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
@All, When a team gets down by a few goals–especially a run’n'gun team–all they can really hope for is that the game opens up, and chance swings in their favor. The Kings have a two or three goal lead and actually play their game as if it’s a 1-goal lead or tied, it’ll bore the crap out of the other team and their fans, and that’s all she wrote.
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KingsGuy Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, Yup, agreed – If we got the lead on an away game, make it as boring as possible and take the fans out of the game.
Defense first is right! I really think the Kings’ best game beats SJ’s best. Collapse around Quick and head the other way. I can see Simmonds flying up the ice as I type this. Go Kings!!!
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Charlotte, NC checking in……Go Kings Go!
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fsd1 Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:02 am
@Carolina Kings Fan, Clarksville, TN Checking in…..
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Pili Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
@fsd1, It’s interesting to see how many of the bloggers don’t live in the L.A. area. The Kings have quite a natinal following! Springfield, MO here.
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Pili Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
@Pili, national….I can spell but I don’t type well.
What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
@Pili, I’m betting a great number of us grew up in LA. I did. Jim Rome used to (probably still does) complain about the east coast fans moving to LA and bringing their fandom for east coast teams with them. I suspect a lot of us on here are doing the opposite (at least with the Kings–they’re the only LA team I still follow as a real fan, though I’ll probably watch a few Lakers games if they get to the deeper rounds of the playoffs and the Kings aren’t still playing.)
Pili Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, I grew up in Mar Vista. I still pick up Vin Scully on the internet, miss Chick Hearn like a family member and yes, live and die with the Kings, my all time favorite sports team.
What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
@Pili, You know, I never spent much time in your digs (you probably didn’t in mine, either), but from what I remember, it must have been a nice place to grow up. As for Chick, still miss him (feel the same way about Bill King, BTW), and already it hurts to think how much I’m going to miss Bob.
What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
That didn’t fully say it. Radio is probably the most “personal” mass medium, because someone else’s voice is inside your head and you have to draw the picture for yourself, so it’s more interactive on a mental level. Add to that the “personal” nature that fans have with their team, and it explains how losing a play-by-play announcer you’ve listened to for decades is like losing a close member of the family.
Gee, I didn’t want to get all melancholy, especially while we still have Bob, and he’s in good health. I just hope everyone appreciates him as much as they should.
or good luck get rid of that black 3rd jersey, seems to be bad luck in the playoffs and use the proven good luck regular home jersey!
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All I know is that I feel more nervous today than I did on Saturday.
This elimination weekend was SICK!!! I was glued to the couch this weekend!!! I love playoff times, more so when our Kings are in the thick of it!!!
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IwantTheCup Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:34 am
@Stuart, I know! My husband and I didn’t move from the couch all weekend either! Great games! Especially seeing the Ducks gets knocked out! Proud of the Preds! Good for them! Looking forward to Flyers game 7 AND OUR GAME 7! GO KINGS!
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Here’s what I’m waiting for:
Sharks goalie (either one) covers/catches puck shot by Clifford, Richardson or Simmonds.
Clifford casually cruises by the goalie and gives him that dread “Stink Eye” look.
Game over.
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
@IceGuy, Poor Cliffy seems to have a permanent stink eye.
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The Sharks fan forum is very quiet this morning….Shhhhh….
I smell nervousness, anxiety and acute autoashphyxiation caused by their own hands grasping their throats in a choking manner.
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Dave's a Killer Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 11:39 am
@Capt Jam, Agree! The last thing the Sharks want to see is a game 7. As a Kings fan living in Shark-infested waters, I can tell you that, if (when!) the Sharks lose to the Kings, there will be rioting in the streets. I just can’t imagine the horror! Their fans can’t imagine our joy!
GKG
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kinglouie Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
@Dave’s a Killer, Or what about the collective Heimlich maneuvering in Vancouver right now. They will riot in the streets there just for sake of rioting when they lose in classic choking style to Chicago. At least we will be rid of those two green canker sores that infest GM Place in Vancouver and the organ-eye-zation that supports such rudeness. GKG!!!!
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
@Dave’s a Killer, A seven-game series is what it takes to get this rivalry going!
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Rich-
One of the previous posts just gave me a thought: How about a thread just to see whare people are blogging from? Those 2 from NC & TN just ‘Checking in’ have the right idea.
Just a thread that says ‘Where are you blogging from’. I’d be curious to see how scattered the ‘Insiderites’ are. (Is that even a word?) Maybe that’s a 2nd thread: Name the bloggers on this site (Legion of Hammond, Hammamaniacs (Whatcha gonna dooooo when the Hammer writes all about YOUUU! Brother…), Insiderites).
Alright, back to work…
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Pili Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
@Cynic, Nice…I replied to that post. Good thought, Cynic!
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370455VinSD Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
@Cynic, San Diego checking in (and not watching, stupid Prime Ticket)
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
@Cynic, There’s a few mapping widgets on the interwebz, and I think they’re the kind of thing that could be done free and easily (I’m not a web guy, so I don’t know much about it.) It would be cool to do the map thingy with the pins in it and link it to the blog.
I’m following from Colorado, southwest of metro Denver, within walking distance of the Rocky Mountains. It’s comfortably suburban, maybe sorta like Glendora was in the 1960s.
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Central Coast King Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
@Cynic, Northern Santa Barbara County checking in also. !Wear The White! GKG
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Just a tiny niggle. 52 shots may not be unheard of between the Kings and Sharks, but I wouldn’t say it’s not atypical. 35-40 is altogether too typical, though.
The good news about the close-in shots, in my opinion, is that they were really close in, like hand-to-hand combat, and Quicker handles those really well. The close-in shots he doesn’t (and probably most don’t) are the ones in the slot.
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Kings need to stick to the “System” tonight and stay even keel emotionally. Home game worries me because the crowd gets them jacked up and that’s when they start running around trying to do to much and blowing coverages. Greene needs to play his game but stay out of the box. If we take penalties tonight it could be a long night. We win tonight were taking the series. Go Kings Go!
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Stay out of the box & move your feet…the right way.Stay hot BKW line.Burger King need’s to get a hold of that & come up w/a new sammitch,or Jack/Box can.In the immortal words of Dan Patrick:you can’t stop Kyle Clifford,you can only hope to contain him.
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Pili Reply:
April 25th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
@Paul M. Hedberg, lol on the Dan Patrick comment!
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