Watching Chicago play on TV and in looking at their place in the standings, you get the sense that they’re this “team on the rise” (thanks MSM); but when they get to Staples Center, something happens and they forget what it’s like to play hockey. For this reason, I went to Staples with a bit of confidence that the Kings could come out with a win. Not too surprisingly, they dominated the Hawks in a 5 to 2 victory last night and now the Kings are on a modest three-game winning streak, but this could completely fall apart on this upcoming road trip that begins in Montreal on Saturday.

Jarret Stoll continues to impress by winning 15 faceoffs and only losing two (88%). Derek Armstrong has also been strong here and in this game he won 5 and lost one. I’ve been pretty happy with Army with every game he’s played in this season, and he didn’t disappoint in this game either. Actually, come to think of it, I wasn’t really disappointed with anyone’s play; although, there was one player who made very noticable errors, but I let them slide due to the rest of the team’s play. The kid I’m talking about was Jack Johnson; basically, he is totally awesome but (at the same time) really rusty right now. Granted, this was his third or fourth game back and you can tell he’ll need a couple more games to get back into it. The errors he made were pretty painful in that he just couldn’t connect the blade to the puck in key situations and subsequently lost the momentum of the shift. The whifs and missed passes were hilariously bad, but it’s not like I’m chastising him or anything. His spin-o-rama move at the beginning of the game was momentous, and I’m not mad in any way. Side note: it was a bit odd when we didn’t see Drew Doughty out for every other shift; Jack had 22:49 of TOI but Doughty still had 22:04. I definitely appreciated the sheer potential this D core will get to.

One gripe that I had was concerning the three stars at the end of the game. I would like to know how in the world the media thought Brian Campbell deserved the 3rd star of the game. The only thing I remember him doing all game was making error after error after error. At one point, he slipped on the wet ice and I looked at Marie and asked her how much the Blackhawks just paid him to fall right there. I don’t think he deserved the third star and that’s that.

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