An open letter to the unclassy

 Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings, NHL  6 Responses »
Feb 282013
 

Dear LA Kings,

Your presence on social media started out as witty banter between other NHL teams. Eventually you moved on and started trolling other teams’ fans. In the past few months your tweets have become semi offensive. They were funny yet bordering on rude and uncalled for. I let a lot of the mockery go because you were in an epic bromance with the Blue Jackets twitter. Today, though, you have reached an all-time low. I’m disgusted by your classless antics on Instagram. What kind of organization allows their social media to be a source of bullying, harassment, and hatred. How dare you make fun of an event that raises money for the fight against pediatric cancer. Do you think this event was a joke? Do you honestly find little kids fighting for their lives to be funny? The Columbus Blue Jackets are doing a good thing. They might not have the best record or even a playoff win but they have class. They have big hearts. They try to do the right thing and that’s why we love them.

I don’t want just an apology from your organization. I want you to match every dollar raised at the CBJ Black Tie Affair. Maybe then I’ll consider forgiving you.

Sincerely,

No longer finds you charming or funny

Elaine Grace

 

 

 Posted by Elaine Shircliff at 6:08 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Blackhawks ruin the Kings banner raising. Carcillo injured.

 Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes  2 Responses »
Jan 192013
 

 

 

It was a great game played by the Chicago Blackhawks today in the first game of the NHL regular season, defeating the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings 5-2.

Patrick Kane scored the first goal of the year and added an assist later in the game. Jonathan Toews, coming off a bout with the flu, was arguably the best player on the ice which is incredible considering the lingering after effects having the flu. Toews also added a goal and an assist. Marian Hossa, in his first game back from his concussion, had a great game adding two goals and one assist. The highly criticized Michael Frolik got off to a good start by scoring for the Hawks, too.

Another often criticized player is goaltender Corey Crawford. Crawford played extremely well. Goals scored against him were basically unstoppable, the first goal he was screened on and the second goal he was pushed over in his crease. Crawford was always in position, square to the puck at all times and his movement was very fast. This is what we want to see from Corey from now on and with it only being one game after his sub-par season, he’s definitely on the right track.

There was some bad news with the Blackhawks victory tonight. Dan Carcillo was caught in a “collision” as a lot are saying with Kings star D-man Drew Doughty and ended up injuring his leg in the process. Head coach Joel Quenneville expects Carcillo to be out for a lengthy period of time.

How do the Hawks replace Carcillo? It’ll be tough as Carcillo was out there as a player who could protect superstars Toews and Hossa. With “Carbomb’s” presence it allows Toews and Hossa to do more freewheeling on the ice, as seen in today’s game, plus he can actually play not too bad compared to a lot of so-called “goons” out there.

It sounds like rookie Brandon Saad will replace Carcillo on a line with Toews and Hossa. Saad is an unproven rookie with big upside (which we’ve seen with many young Hawk players); he notched eight goals and twenty one assists in Rockford and has played two games with the Blackhawks last season before being sent down. One can understand the excitement for Saad to play but people need to remember he’s just a rookie and he may not blow people away like Andrew Shaw did last season. Saad also doesn’t add much of a “toughness” factor so we could very well see “open game” on Toews and Hossa as early as tomorrow night against the Phoenix Coyotes.

All in all it was a great start for the Chicago Blackhawks and it’ll be a tough test tomorrow night against the chippy and defensive Phoenix Coyotes.

Thanks to Zimbio.com for the photos.

 Posted by TK0N at 7:08 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sports media using Twitter should follow in the footsteps of @LAKings

 Los Angeles Kings, NHL  No Responses »
Apr 162012
 

On April 11th following the opening game in the series between the Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks, the Kings’ official twitter account tweeted “To everyone in Canada outside of BC, you’re welcome” . That one single tweet caused a jubilant celebration and at the same time pure insanity across Twitter nation, and still is.

Now if that tweet was a chirp towards the Canucks and their fans or just a gem tweet of gamesmanship, or both, it really doesn’t matter. The fact is that it’s very refreshing to see an official account or some upper echelon of a twitter account, whatever you want to call it, that actually has a personality.

People need to realize there’s no official code on twitter, just because a person(s) wants to use his/her/its twitter account to actually communicate with other people or have some fun with it, well, it’s not wrong.

If you haven’t noticed yet, most of these media types have followed one of the original media tweeters, Sir Bob McKenzie. Initially, in my opinion, Bob basically used twitter to promote his work and also inform people of NHL or hockey related news in a much faster form compared to what it used to be which was television. You rarely saw any interaction with fans from him back then and it seems the other similar media types followed in his footsteps. The interactions people did see was his clique of other media types conversing to each other only.

Now, Bob has replied to fans when he can and to be fair he has a ton of followers now so it’s not that easy. Heck, he’s even shown some emotion of late because apparently some of his followers were hacking on him. Obviously this is not how we want anyone to bring out personality because of moronic people tweeting abominable tweets but if you’re using a social networking website, well, it comes with the territory.

The irritating part for many people is you get certain media types with 300 followers, for example, and they don’t bother responding to questions from fans or readers. Here’s a tip for you media twitter users, follow in the footsteps of the Los Angeles Kings twitter account and show some personality. We know you have it in you, we think. It will grow your follower count and help promote your work or whatever it is that you use your twitter account for.

No, I don’t own twitter and I don’t have a million followers. It’s just this guy’s humble opinion that it would be nice to see some personality and interaction for once. Trust me, you may not see it, but a lot of your loyal followers complain about this a lot.

I wrote a much more in-depth piece on this topic a while back. Please, if you will, take a gander when you have time. You can read it here

If you don’t already, you can follow the Los Angeles Kings official twitter account here

 

Thanks for reading as always,

FingerBlabbin…err TK0N

 Posted by TK0N at 5:20 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Battle of the Pacific

 San Jose Sharks  No Responses »
Apr 052012
 

It was almost one year ago when San Jose Sharks Captain Joe Thornton trounced the Los Angeles Kings’ Stanley Cup aspirations.

Trailing 3-2 in 2011 Western Conference Quarterfinals, the underdog Kings faced a “win or stay home” game six at the Staples Center. After 60 minutes, the scoresheet was knotted at three and–for the third time in the best of seven series–the outcome would again be decided by sudden death overtime.

Although Los Angeles began the extra session with 1:37 of power play time stemming from a Jamie McGinn 5-minute major and game misconduct, the Kings could not muster a single shot on goaltender Antti Niemi. Following the unprecedented kill, Sharks coach Todd McClellan wisely deployed his top line of Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Devin Setoguchi; the rest, as they say, is history.

Thornton’s series winning, “Are you not entertained!” ovation turned backslide over the the Kings’ center ice emblem did not sit well with the Los Angeles faithful and the noticeably peeved head coach Terry Murray, who spurned the customary post series-handshake.

345 days later, on the final weekend of the 2011-2012 NHL regular season, Los Angeles and San Jose will endure a final two game, home-and-home series to determine Pacific Division supremacy and Western Conference playoff seeding.

After beating the Dallas Stars 5-2 onTuesday night, the Sharks improved to 92 points and remained in the West’s top-eight, three points ahead of the ninth-place Stars. Los Angeles, meanwhile, blanked the Edmonton Oilers 2-0 on Monday, and currently sit atop the Pacific Division (third in the West) with 93 points, holding the tie-breaker over seventh-place Phoenix Coyotes and one point lead cushion on San Jose. All four Pacific Division contenders have two games remaining.

Barring back-to-back regulation losses to the Kings and two culminating Stars victories, the Sharks are an odds on favorite to, at worst, secure the West’s eighth seed, according to Sports Club Stats.

But, after last season’s abbreviated playoff run, Los Angeles is looking forward to an opportunity to send the Sharks golfing.

“I think even in the first game this year we all knew we had San Jose back-to-back at the end of the year,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said during a Wednesday interview with CSN Bay Area’s Kevin Kurz. “We didn’t want it to come down to these last two games like it’s going to, but we knew it would be two big games. We definitely want to do whatever we can to knock them out of the playoff picture. We want third place, and that’s what we’re going to play for.”

If the Kings want to end the Sharks’ streak of eight consecutive playoff appearances, they will have to do so without one of their leading scorers. Recently acquired center Jeff Carter remains day-t0-day with a deep bone bruise in his ankle.  Carter, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in a trade-deadline deal in late February, has missed the past three games and has yet to participate in a full practice since sustaining the injury.

Conversely, if the Sharks want to extend their streak of four straight Pacific Division titles, they will not only need some help from the Coyotes, but they will also need to hurriedly reverse their road woes. Since Jan. 15, San Jose is just 5-13-4 in road games and they have yet to defeat the Kings at Staples Center this year.

San Jose’s last victory in LA was the result of Thornton’s game six, series clinching overtime winner; Big Joe and the boys will attempt to repeat history tonight.

For a more comprehensive–and somewhat nauseating–look at San Jose’s potential playoff clinching scenarios, check out CSN Bay Area.

 Posted by TK0N at 6:20 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

Is it time to say farewell to the Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman?

 Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators, NHL, St. Louis Blues  3 Responses »
Feb 252012
 

  Chicago Blackhawks fans are getting anxious with the NHL trade deadline only two days away and rightly so. The Blackhawks have a big game in which the entire NHL will be tuning in to watch and more so for the debut of newly acquired Jeff Carter by the Los Angeles Kings who is reunited with center Mike Richards from their days playing together with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Chicago currently sits sixth in the Western Conference with 73 points and a plus 10 goals for and goals against differential. Last season, at this time, the Blackhawks sat in 9th position in the Western Conference with 72 points and a plus 32 goal differential. What does this tell you? Well, it tells you that in comparison to last season the Blackhawks have not improved and if anything they’ve regressed, to some extent.

The Blackhawks are sitting three spots higher in the standings in comparison to last year; however, a lot has to do with eight teams not having 70 points in comparison to last season when there were only four after 62 games. There are additional teams this year that are weaker; there are teams this year that are much stronger; for example, the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators. What does this mean for Chicago? It means that they’re once again fighting for a playoff spot and if they want to get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, well, they will have to go on quite a sick winning streak. Blackhawks nation are hoping they don’t lose their way in to the playoffs like they did last year when they were sitting and hoping that the Dallas Stars would lose their final game of the year, luckily for them, they did.

Looking at the trade front, it’s no doubt that the Blackhawks fans, media and undoubtedly some of the players are hoping that something gets done to bolster this team into a true Stanley Cup contender because at this point they are not a legit contender. General manager Stan Bowman has to be feeling the heat, unlike last season, he has the cap space, prospects, draft picks and players to make some significant moves so basically there are no excuses. Sure, there are not a ton of pieces that seem to be available but there are some noteworthy candidates that would make an immediate impact for Chicago that are available such as a Derek Roy or Paul Gaustad from the Buffalo Sabres.

The pressure on Bowman to make a move has increased immensely considering that Steve Montador is more than likely gone for the season, Niklas Hjalmarsson has concussion like symptoms, Jonathan Toews injury is being downplayed but many feel it is also concussion related, and agitator Dan Carcillo is also done for the season. Brendan Morrison is not going to do the trick especially being a healthy scratch many times since he was acquired from the Calgary Flames.

It’s no secret that the Blackhawks have had holes since the beginning of the season and little has been done to help find a solution to adjust those holes. Just recently, the Blackhawks coaching staff finally implemented a better defensive system along with a new penalty kill structure. The Blackhawks management’s lackadaisical and seemingly non urgent attitude to strengthen the team’s weaknesses are frustrating a lot of people.

It has only been two years since the dismantling of the Stanley Cup team and it’s understandable that it takes time to rebuild, however, with the Blackhawks core and many pieces to use as trade bait plus a plethora of cap space there are no excuses for Stan Bowman. It’s now or never for Mr. Bowman, he’d better improve the team or he will most certainly be on the NHL unemployment line sooner than later.

Let’s see if he does something to impress…. then perhaps we will take a look at this again.

I’m sure most don’t want to hear “we were unable to do anything by or at the trade deadline, teams were just not willing to deal”

Thanks for reading as always,

TK0N

 Posted by TK0N at 2:43 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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