Kuzmenko hasn't scored yet, but the Kings are 2-0 with him in the lineup, having somehow gotten the overtime win (Kings still suck after 60:00, now at 3-6 in OT and 1-3 in Shootouts) against St.Louis in a very dull low-event game on Saturday night, and turned around and scored all night long in Vegas, building multiple multiple-goal leads that David Rittich could never completely blow and picking up the 6-5 road win on Sunday.
I do like Kuzy's eagerness to dig the puck out of scrums in front of the goalie and his facility for blind spinning backhand passes to open teammates (there's no reason Kempe shouldn't have converted the one on Saturday where he fed it from the goal line on the left side across the slot to a wide-open Kempe in the right circle). And both Kopitar and Kempe are scoring, which not only lends credence to the idea that Alex Turcotte was what was holding the top line down, but also suggests that Kuzmenko is at least drawing defensive attention.
Nick Nickson raised the possibility of referring to Kuzmenko-Kopitar-Kempe as the "Special K" line. I don't know; it's certainly better than some other ways to show that you have three guys with "K" names, but perhaps the concept shouldn't be noted at all? We could call them "the Euro line" or some such (1 Russian, 1 Slovene, 1 Swede) but that feels weird, given that Kopitar has been a King for over half his life at this point. Meh.
(When discussing Taylor Swift's romantic life, I have no trouble referring to Karlie Kloss Kushner as "KKK", but she
chose that monogram. This is different, I feel.)
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Nick Nickson is retiring at season's end, after 44 years with the broadcast team. (I think part of him wanted to tie Bob Miller's mark, but not break it, since it was Bob who gave him his start, after all.)
This certainly opens the door to bringing back Alex Faust, who's done some Rangers TV and some Bruins radio, but doesn't yet have a permanent spot. (He's still doing TNT games, as well. The Bruins bumped up their existing radio man, Judd Sirott, to replace Jack Edwards.). I'm a bit worried the Kings might turn to Jeremy Schaefer, who does the radio for AHL Ontario and whom the Kings used for a 2-game road trip earlier in the season. Schaefer was…acceptable, but nothing special, and perhaps it's good news that Nickson has made every road trip since.
But I want Alex! [/tantrum]
(Have you gotten used to having Maniscalco as the pbp guy yet,
Cobra? It still weirds me a bit to catch a Kraken replay and hear Forslund there, rather than on the 'Cane-casts. Life must be a bit dull without your regular dose of "That's hockey, baby!" and "Hey-hey, what do you say?", I'd Imagine.)
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The other change that the Kings have made is going back to Mikey Anderson (hand injury healed) and Doughty as the #1 defensive pair, with Gavrikov going back to LD2 and being paired with Brandt Clarke, and Joel Edmundson and Jordan Spence as the 3rd pair. Mikey and Vlad-Gav had done fine as the lead pair, and Edmundson was having a surprisingly strong season as a 2nd pair D (with Edmundson and Warren Foegele having the top 2 +/- ratings on the entire team, I guess I need to apologize to Rob Blake for my criticism of his off-season decisions), but this creates 3 right shot/left-shot pairs and removes the need for Kyle Burroughs or whomever as the 7th D.
(I do feel a bit bad for Jacob Moverare, who had been a decent 3rd pair with Spence and is now consigned to the press box, but hopefully Mo-Mo will get mo' chances in the future.)
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Kuzmenko is wearing his traditional #96, as that is when he was born. Of course, Brandt Clarke is wearing #92, but he's not four years older than Kuzy, so what's that deal about?
I don't know for certain, but I imagine it went something like this:
Quote:
KINGS EXECUTIVE: Welcome to the team, kid! Do you have a preferred jersey number?
BRANDT CLARKE: Well, Anze Kopitar wears #11 since he was the 11th pick in his draft, and I was the 8th pick, so #8, perhaps?
EXEC: Sorry, that's Drew Doughty's number and when he retires, the number will be retired, as well.
CLARKE: Oh, good point. Well, maybe I'll be twice as good as Doughty! Give me #16.
EXEC: Can't help you there. it's already retired, for Marcel Dionne.
CLARKE: Oops. Well, I can be at least half as good as Doughty! #4, please.
EXEC: Retired. In honor of Rob Blake, the guy who drafted you, the guy who signs your paychecks…
CLARKE: Oh, yeah, right. (Thinks). Maybe just stick a 1 in front of the 8, and give me 18?
EXEC: Dave Taylor. The guy who played 1111 games as a King and drafted Kopitar with that #11 pick.
CLARKE: Good grief. Er…8 from 100 is 92. Can I get that?
EXEC: Sold! Here you go, kid.
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I mean, I rather hate the Yankees and the Celtics, so I don't know why I enjoy the "we're running out of numbers" scenario with my Kings, but I do. Huh.