the king is dead and stuff..

playoff hockey for the los angeles kings

dude.. 

if not dead then dying a slow painful gonna miss the post-season  death..

the los angeles kings have been about a month behind themselves this season.. think about it..

1. drew donuts holds out,  misses all of training camp, and eventually signs the same contract the kings offered him in late july..  
2. should have parted ways with terry murray after last seasons playoff fail but waited until after this years all star break to pull the trigger and hire a sutter brother.. bitter-beer-face notwithstanding, the team has responded to darryls style and system.. 
3. couldnt didnt make the jeff carter for jack johnson trade until a few days before the deadline.. 
4. with simone gange essentially concussed into early retirement, the kings have had to rely on dustin pancakes in that crucial left wing position.. a role not really suited to an over-paid under-performing has been never was that should have been waived in january.. hes a ufa in july neway.. let him go already.. 
5. waited until february and brought up king and nolan and basically benched drewiske and richardson.. 
6. have looked like a mens rec league pick up team all season.. 

if they do make it to the post season at all it will be sometime in may.. fail..  its a shame too cause lately they have been playing some good ok not terrible hockey.. too little too late.. 

praying over the helmet of whichever sedin is injured.. what.. no golden calf?

and you thought that praying to over holy hockey relics were a catholic thing... 

apparently in vancouver your team can be gay for play and born again.. at least one of the owners can be born again.. just dont get all butt-hurt and burn down the city when the canucks ch.. ch.. ch.. choke outta the post-season yet again.. fail..

having just read a couple of interesting blogs about the new nhl playoff marketing campaign geared to the casual fan - "because its the cup" - i have a couple number few many of cromulent observations..

1. if nbc wants to attract the casual fan it needs to be sure that this marketing campaign runs during other sporting events no matter what "network" is showing the said events.. 
2. nbc has hinted that the playoffs will be aired "across the nbc family of channels".. what exactly does that mean? msnb.. usa network.. cnbc.. telemundo..  univsion.. nbc/universal..   dont expect casual fans to root around the remote trying to find the games.. apparently after all these years on nbc and oln versus nbc sports net people still cant find the games.. and good luck convincing your local sports barkeep to "put the hockey on" the one and only tv in the place not tuned to the nba playoffs durring march/april/may/june..
3. and what about the nhl network? im sorry, but fail.. if the games are gonna be there and not on nbc et al no one is gonna watch that doesnt already bleed (insert favorite nhl franchises color) blood already.. j/s
4. doesnt nbc usually "share first round coverage with the local /regional sports affliates that cover local hockey during the regular season? so what about that? fox sports.. root sports.. msg.. nesn.. altitude sports..  as far as i can tell, there is little if any cross-over advertising for the nhl on the "real" networks nbc.. abc.. cbs.. fox.. or the "sports" networks like the worldwide leader.. tbs.. tnt.. 
5.  if you live in a non-traditional hockey market that has no "local team but is grouped into the local sports market of the nearest big city" what are you supposed to do when the playoff game aired on nbcsn is blacked-out cause its also being aired over there on the "local affiliate" that your cable service provider dropped 2 months ago in favor of another 24/7infomercial channel? cox communications im looking at you... gives them the stink eye.. speed channel? hello? fssd isnt really.. its prime ticket + the padres and honestly, who gives two shits about the padres nemoar neway? it would matter if the ducks and the kings make the playoffs.. not. gonna. happen..
6. is nbc gonna do that 9:30 am and/or noon pdt regional coverage bullshit during the playoffs? im sorry, but if the choices are an atlantic division match-up (penguins/flyers) vs a pacific/central division match-up i dont want to be considered a part of phoenix or detroit.. of course thats silly because there is no choice.. 

~ cheers.. david