Kings come home, avoid the First Game Back blues, and get a relatively-comfortable 6-3 win over Montreal. (That's 8 in a row over Les Habs, which is impressive in that the Kings used to be lucky to beat Montreal 8 times in a decade, if that.) Two goals for Fiala and even Trevor Moore scored an ENG. (Perhaps that will get him going?)

This pushes the home mark to an NHL-best 16-3-1. Of course, even with the win at Carolina, the road record is still a distinctly mediocre 12-14-5, but now the schedule turns, and we're finally done with all the long trips. (Two 7-game jaunts early on, and back-to-back 5-game trips since the fires started.)

So can we get home ice AND avoid the Oilers? Tough to tell. I'd rather have the points than need the points, obviously.

I still also want more offense, too. Come on, Buffalo…Tage Thompson for Byfield plus scraps? You know you want it…you save $1.2 mn on the contract and QB is 5 years younger (22 v. 27) and has more time left on his deal. Y'all are in last for a reason; time to blow it up? (Please?)

Mikey Anderson is still out and Lewis still doesn't have his Silver Stick (see above). I guess they really are saving it for the Utah game after the break. Okay, then.

IS PK Subban trying to look like Don Cherry the Pimp?

The NHL will find a way to **** it up, because that is what they do.

But that four Nations tournament was so good.

I am not sure how they incentivized the players to give a ****, but it worked.

Just make it so there is no best on best international hockey competition happening for over 9 (nine!) strait years, then call the tournament among four countries that can ice complete rosters built with NHL only players. That alone was already enough. Sprinkle a bit of orange schizoid dust on top - and there you have it. Really simple.

You know, that "edit" button does wonders for removing unnecessary political content from your posts^. Just saying…

Posts? You make it sound as if there is more than one made by me on OOTP boards. I sincerely hope it's just an honest mistake (typo), in which case "edit" button might help you wonderfully to correct what is not true. Thanks.

Good for Canada. I am glad for them.

"Posts" as in "any applicable posts". I haven't checked all 107 of your posts to see if you included unnecessarily-political content in all of them; I do know that the post I pointed at could use some editing, and I was pointing out that if others also needed some attention, you could do the same on those.

The larger point still stands. If you'd like to talk about hockey (rather than partisan horse-hockey), I would welcome that.

This "Skate for L.A. Strong" celebrity/alumni charity game is pretty cool, not gonna lie. Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor, Smallville) must have laid out some "donations" to get on a line with Mark Messier and Theo Fleury; they're just dominating, even though the opponents have Rob Blake on defense.

But I'm still miffed that we never got a charity concert for the L.A. fires. Not only do such shows give us classic performances, but they can capture a moment in time. A little disappointing, but that's an old complaint.

https://fireaidla.org/

There was one
You must of missed it

Dang, and I went searching. Perhaps I relied too much on AI, but still. Well, it's good to know it happened (and it looked that it had a good lineup) so I hope it helped.

And perhaps it's online, so I can check it out. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrEKrBs1LVQ

Almost six hours

There were some surprise guests as well.
All of the members of Nirvana (besides the obvious one) came back and had a cast of rotating female lead singers and did four of their songs.
The crowd hit the roof for that one.

And they did well, I think over $110 million was raised.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...Rw&oe=67C6958E

Annual "Whalers" game is tonight vs the Sabres. Once more, the G.O.A.T. of sports logos is back.

May the sounds of "Brass Bonanza" ring loud and clear!!

After making a big splash acquiring Ratanen, the Canes have traded him to Dallas for 2 1sts, 2 2nds and a player. I can't tell you how embarrassingly incompetent the Hurricanes front office looks right now. They obviously didn't do their homework and jumped the gun. Word kept repeating Mikko was shocked by the trade and needed time to sign an extension. That is why he hadn't agreed to a deal even though Carolina gave him a"max" offer. Then overnight he agrees to one with Dallas. It is obvious he didn't want to be here in Raleigh and now the organization looks like fools.

Forgot the link. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...ngent-new-deal

Kings are pretty much falling apart at the moment, with their 5 game losing streak and terrible road trip last week. We even reached the point where Jim Hiller tried the "break-up Kopitar and Kempe" plan that failed multiple times last season and just as it did for Todd McLellan "lasts exactly five periods", as Jim Fox cheerfully reported last year.

("Five periods" meaning "one loss, and on the way to a second one before coach sobers up" as makes logical sense.)

So did the Kings, desperate for offense, bring in Tage Thompson, as I dared dream? Bring home Tyler Toffoli, as I nostalgically hoped? Acquire Teemu Terravainen, as I whimsically wished?

Nope, nope and nope. Not a single player with the initials T.T. Tough titty, alas.

But we did get Andrei Kuzmenko from Philly for a future 3rd-rounder (and they retained half his salary). Kuzmenko, a 27-year-old rookie sensation in Vancouver only two years ago, struggled in his sophomore season, was dealt to Calgary, stank out all of Alberta, was dumped on the Flyers, where he played seven decent games and now gets flipped to a contender. (Semi.) He's a UFA at year's end, so we will see if he's got a decent audition in him, I suppose.

Much more importantly, this GETS ALEX TURCOTTE OFF OF THE FIRST LINE. I'm in favor of anything that accomplishes that, up to bomb threats and possibly a plague of locusts. Begone, ye bust!

Scouting reports on Kuzmenko claim he's too slow and lazy on defence. Not caring! Still better than Turcotte.

(Alex Turcotte's dad, Alfie Turcotte, was a #1 pick of Montreal in the late 1970s. He sucked, too.)

So bring on Kuzmenko! I grant you, I'd be willing to play Jerry Koosman over Turcotte, but still.

Brad Marchand sent to Florida. Panthers got more hateable

Marchand and Matt Tkachuk on the same team. I had no idea that Florida had joined the WWE.

Just bring in Tom Wilson and my loathing will reach critical mass.

(Meanwhile, the Lightning brought Yanni Gourde home. Which probably won't make much difference, but the fanbase will like to dream that it will, so that's nice.)