Hockey

After starting the series in a dramatic and controversial fashion, the Kings have now witnessed their two game lead evaporate after some really crappy play. But that's not important right now. We apologize for the tweets that came from a guest of our organization. They were inappropriate and do not reflect the LA Kings.— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 22, 2013 You may find yourself wondering what this is all about. You may find yourself thinking, "Where is this tweet made by said guest?" Well, it got deleted. Fortunately, everyone copied it, because, well, it gives us shit to talk about. "Galiardi gets a penalty for running over Quick. Power play Kings. Kopitar just got sexually assaulted in front of Niemi." The guest tweeting for the Kings would be Mr. Kevin of Kevin and Bean, KROQ's morning radio show. Back when I was a working chump before I retired to a a career of satirical hockey blogging, I used to listen to Kevin and Bean quite a bit. So I wasn't shocked Kevin made a joke regarding sex, in this case forced sexual actions along the lines of rape, which is always a pretty sensitive subject. However, running it on a twitter account other than his own...yeah, that didn't go over very well. None of you care about my opinion on this specific matter, nor do I blame you. In any case, since it was on the Kings' twitter feed, shit blew up faster than Hiroshima in 1945. It got me thinking that we should really clean up our act here at Battle of California. Did you know BoC has 21 posts referring to Nazis? We mention child abuse 5 times, "bitch" is in 168 posts, and the act of murder is brought up on 91 separate occasions. This is reprehensible. All you have to do is search these terms. Really, just go crazy. Anything offensive. Just type it in the search bar. I guarantee you'll get a hit. The Hall of Fame is essentially a shrine to offensiveness. I have a whole post dedicated to disgusting Ohio based sexual acts. We have posts for drug abuse, senior abuse, stereotypes,laughing at those with mental disorders, homophobia, racism, blasphemy, and, yes, even rape. For the love of God, a Mississippi hot pocket. And that was just this season. I ran a series long (until I got bored with it) "Fuck count". No more State Rape either. From now on we will only have this: Awwwww. Now we can all be happy peace loving pussies while Canada is ran by the rainbow-loving sodomites that are developing a gigantic bird to attack North Dakota. And the Great Lakes are exploding. Guess that wraps up the Chicago-Detroit series. Thanks, Kevin and Bean. Next Game San Jose Sharks @ Los Angeles Kings Thursday, May 23, 2013, 7:30 PM PDT Staples Center Complete Coverage >. Los Angeles Kings tickets are no laughing matter 2-2 now. God dammit. The Kings are doing an inverse of last year, and are now having a god awful post-season string of performances after a pretty impressive regular season. Even though the series is tied at two, I have hit a point of disenchantment so bad it feels like 2007 again. Just instead of finishing dead last, the Kings are fighting it out in the second round of the playoffs. Life sucks. Lose two more games so I can go on break forever, like Jer. Prediction: The Kings win because I don't really care anymore. Or at least I say I don't. I don't know anymore.

Additionally, the Chicago will play Detroit and the Kings will host Sharks.

Note: Reminder that if any Stanley Cup Playoff games go to overtime, we will be having our #ICOTpool contest. Similar to the #ICGWG contest in that you pick one player (total) from either team and @ tweet us (@illegalcurve) with your selection as well as the hashtag #ICOTpool. Winner gets IC Gear. Note II:  Stay tuned to Illegal Curve as we celebrate Winnipeg Jets Contract Week all week long.  Richard will be breaking down some of the contracts and decisions that GM Kevin Cheveldayoff will need to make as he figures out his roster for the 2013-14 season.  Third up, RFA Blake Wheeler at 10 AM CST. Jets, prospect and World Championship news: Winnipeg Sun:  Available Vigneault has to be tempting for Winnipeg Jets.  Perhaps after the firing in Vancouver there isn’t as much joy in Coach Noel’s joyland these days.  While Alain Vigneault is a known commodity to the True North organization, would they jump at the chance to renew this relationship if it meant discarding coach Noel? Winnipeg Sun:  Change of scenery might be good for Alex Burmistrov, Winnipeg Jets.  There doesn’t appear to be a more polarizing figure amongst Jets fans these days than the young Russian centre.  Some point to his strong defensive play and lack of quality linemates while others suggest his east/west style of game is all sizzle with little substance.  Sounds like Burmistrov himself was surprised to see the headline proclaiming he wanted out of Winnipeg as he took to instragram and wrote “Ne, ne slyshal” which roughly translates to “no, he hadn’t heard”. Contract Week: RFA Bryan Little RFA Zach Bogosian Stanley Cup news: Scores:  Penguins 7 Senators 3 Games: Bruins @ Rangers | Hawks @ Wings | Sharks @ Kings Penguins 7 Senators 3 (Pittsburgh leads series 3-1): Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  Things quickly turn out all right for Penguins. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  Brandon Sutter hoping faceoff slump is over. Pittsburgh Tribune:  It’s about time for these Penguins. Ottawa Citizen:  Alfredsson doesn’t like Senators’ chances. Ottawa Sun:  Back to reality for Spezza.

We've all heard the reasoning - taking defensemen too early in the first round is a bad idea because they take so much longer to develop and have a higher likelihood of being a bust. But is this really true? When you take a defenseman early, what sort of player are you likely to get? To answer these questions, I decided to conduct a study on the top 10 picks from the past 10 drafts. With technology changing how scouting is done, I didn't want to go too far back, and besides, stopping at 2003 meant that all the defensemen in question made their debut in the post-lockout NHL. By limiting the study in this way, I removed a number of variables while still providing an adequate sample size. Excluded Players Since 2003, there have been 33 defensemen drafted in the top 10. Of those, 9 have yet to play in an NHL game. Year Pick Name Team League '10 10 Dylan McIlrath NYR WHL '12 2 Ryan Murray CBJ WHL '12 4 Griffin Reinhart NYI WHL '12 5 Morgan Rielly TOR WHL '12 6 Hampus Lindholm ANA SEL-Jr. '12 7 Mathew Dumba MIN WHL '12 8 Derrick Pouliot PIT WHL '12 9 Jacob Trouba WPG USHL '12 10 Slater Koekkoek TBL OHL Of the 24 defensemen that remain, three were busts. It should be noted that Hickey is currently playing for NYI, so perhaps calling him a bust is premature, but he was a waiver-wire pickup who took 6 years to make the NHL and is only being given limited minutes. The other two no longer play in the league. Year Pick Name Draft League GP G A Pts '04 10 Boris Valabik ATL OHL 80 0 7 7 '05 10 Luc Bourdon VAN QMJHL 36 2 0 2 '07 4 Thomas Hickey LAK WHL 39 1 3 4 That narrows the field to the 21 serviceable defensemen who will be the focus of this study. Study Data The charts are sortable. Just click on the words in the blue box, and the table will sort to that column. Draft and Team Information: Year Pick Name League Entry D. Yrs. Draft Current Same '03 7 Ryan Suter USDP '05 2 NSH MIN N '03 8 Braydon Coburn WHL '06 3 ATL PHI N '03 9 Dion Phaneuf WHL '05 2 CGY TOR N '04 3 Cam Barker WHL '06 2 CHI VAN N '04 9 Ladislav Smid ELH '06 2 ANA EDM N '05 3 Jack Johnson USDP '07 2 CAR CBJ N '05 9 Brian Lee HS-MN '08 3 OTT TBL N '06 1 Erik Johnson USDP '07 1 STL COL N '07 5 Karl Alzner WHL '08 1 WSH WSH Y '07 10 Keaton Ellerby WHL '09 2 FLA LAK N '08 2 Drew Doughty OHL '08 0 LAK LAK Y '08 3 Zach Bogosian OHL '08 0 ATL WPG Y '08 4 Alex Pietrangelo OHL '10 2 STL STL Y '08 5 Luke Schenn WHL '08 0 TOR PHI N '09 2 Victor Hedman SEL '09 0 TBL TBL Y '09 6 Oliver Ekman-Larsson SEL-Jr. '10 1 PHX PHX Y '09 9 Jared Cowen WHL '11 2 OTT OTT Y '10 3 Erik Gudbranson OHL '11 1 FLA FLA Y '11 4 Adam Larsson SEL '11 0 NJD NJD Y '11 9 Dougie Hamilton OHL '12 1 BOS BOS Y '11 10 Jonas Brodin SEL '12 1 MIN MIN Y Entry = First year the player had over 10GP in the NHL. For example, " '05 " means the 2005-'06 season. D. Yrs. = "Development Years", or full seasons played at a minor league level before making the NHL full-time. Same = Indicates if player is still with his draft team or if he has been traded/signed elsewhere. One of the things that stands out is how few defensemen taken prior to 2007 are still on their draft teams. Perhaps these players just have had more time to be traded, but the fact that none of them are where they started implies that their organizations either lost patience with their development or were forced to move them somewhere along the way. None of these players (except perhaps

As I have previously mentioned, I live in the greater (in size, not in quality) Los Angeles area. I don't spend very much time in the city itself, because it is so very horrible and unpleasant, but circumstances recently conspired against me and I found myself spending a few hours walking around downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. Here are some observations from my harrowing journey: #1 The LA Metro subway system is full of some of the weirdest people you'll ever see. I am convinced that some of these subway riders have never visited the Earth's surface, and live and die down there amongst the trains and tunnels. #2 There is not enough hand sanitizer in the world to make you feel clean after spending some time riding the LA subway. #3 The Hollywood Walk of Fame is total bullshit. All the stars are covered in stains and grime and 90% of them are dedicated to losers nobody alive cares about and you have to pay a ton of money to get a star so nobody cool does it anymore and fucking Pat Boone has TWO separate stars and that's just insane. #4 Right near Union Station, LA City Hall, and the courthouse there is this weird semi-underground mall that has a collection of shitty stores and restaurants which I guess are only open during the week because when I went there on a Saturday it was a super-creepy ghost mall. I took a picture: Beautiful, isn't it? #5 Everything in downtown LA and Hollywood smells like fucking shit and pee and it's gross. Say what you want about San Jose, I guarantee it smells a hell of a lot better than Los Angeles. Next Game San Jose Sharks @ Los Angeles Kings Thursday, May 23, 2013, 7:30 PM PDT Staples Center Buy San Jose Sharks Tickets ! Complete Coverage > There's only one highlight you need from game four: If you take a close look at this replay, you can see that the official clearly made a mistake by blowing the whistle early, and his actions unfairly robbed the Kings of a goal. But if you take an even CLOSER look, you can see that it's totally hilarious. Haha fuck you Penner. Prediction: Sharks win 4-1 after Jonathan Quick gets thrown out of the game for punching a ref in the face.

May 18, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane (right) celebrates with center Patrick Sharp (left) after scoring a goal against the Detroit Red Wings in the first period of game two of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports The Blackhawks face Detroit in Game #4 down 2 games to one in their building which would suggest the Hawks are in trouble.  The Hawks are in need of a win to tie up the series and with a win the world would be put back in order.  Here are my top five  reasons why the Hawks win tonight. 1. Jonathan Toews Period.  This is the longest playoff drought of his great young career and after getting pushed around in Game #2 he was close several times in Game #3 including a goal post to scoring his first goal of the playoffs.  The Captain is the reason the Hawks had such a great regular season and he is the reason the Hawks are going to win Game #4.  He may not score a hat trick tonight, but the former Conn Smythe trophy winner will finally announce his arrival and turn the tide back in favor of the Blackhawks with a huge productive game tonight. 2. The Bounces will Even Out.  The bounces have not gone the way of the Hawks.  It almost feels like someone at Buffalo Wild Wings is hitting the extend button to make sure this was a long series (maybe NBC)  Bounces and goal posts have a way of evening out in a seven game series that’s why the Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy to win.  This isn’t March Madness when it’s one and done.  The bounces and bad calls can’t go against the Hawks for seven games.  The Hawks hit three posts and deflected out that won’t happen again tonight. 3. The March to the box ended Monday night.  The Hawks will not take another stupid penalty again this series.  Yes, there will be penalties on the Hawks but there will not be anymore Andrew Shaw stupidity in Game #4.  The Hawks have been a very disciplined team that avoided the box during the season and after two days off with the coaching staff in their ears,  they know they cannot kill momentum in Game #4 by continuing to take stupid penalties. There is no award at the end of the playoffs for most penalty kills so let’s stop looking at how many in a row we have killed off and just stay out of the box. 4. Sense of Urgency Will Be Skyhigh. The Blackhawks with their backs to the wall can be the most exciting team in the NHL to watch.  During the streak a couple of times they played at a fever pitch and came out on top with their urgency at an all time high. One of those times was the game against Detroit down 1-0 late in the third and with everyone playing fast Viktor Stalberg stole the puck and got it to Patrick Kane for the tying goal.  This team needed adversity to see what it was made of and in Game #4 with their backs to the wall for really the first time all season long they will come out with an all-time amount of urgency and be  flying all over the ice to notch the victory. 5. Patrick Kane always rises to the top when the chips are down.  As much as I think the Captain will break out tonight, Patrick Kane is on a two game goal streak and is always dangerous when the chips are down for the Hawks.  In 2010 when it looked like the Nashville Predators where about to take a 3-2 series lead to Nashville he scored the game tying goal to tie the game and get it to overtime for the eventual Marian Hossa winner.  In the Cup clincher, the Hawks gave up a late 3rd period goal and the momentum was with the Philadelphia Flyers when in overtime Kane scored the greatest Hawks goal in my lifetime.  Kane has magic on his stick when it looks like things are at its worst for the Hawks and he always seems to do something unforgettable.  It is the first time it’s look grim at all this season for the Hawks so look for Kane to become a superhero again tonight. The Red Wings are not going to lay down tonight, but the H

Pens Rout Sens 7-3This recap from CBC via the AP. The Canucks are giving head coach Alain Vigneault his walking papersWonder if ol' Nonis is going to kick the tires on Vigneault. Backhand Shelf PodcastThe latest instalment. Flyers’ forward Jakub Voracek is fine after a car accident, but his Ferrari is most certainly notPretty incredible, judging by the photo. Story from Justin Bourne. How You Play the GameEllen Etchingham on luck, and why we keep coming back anyway. 2013 Calder Cup: What went wrong in Marlies third-period collapse to Griffins3rd period collapse in a game 7? The Marlies and Leafs really are keeping their coaching strategies consistent. From Kyle Cicerella. Kings' assistant Bill Ranford cites Corsi to TSN's Ryan RishaugCorsi numbers, by the way, were originally invented to measure how much work goaltenders do, but I guess it's still cool to hear. Cam Charron points this out at NHL Numbers. Likely top pick Seth Jones projects as complete packageAwkward title, but I figured I'd link the article anyway. From Mike G. Morreale at NHL.com. Pavel Datsyuk’s Top 10 goals will melt your brain with their awesomenessI'm sure you've all seen these clips, but they don't really get old, anyway. From Wyshynski. Open Thread: Angling for young forwardsCam Charron resurrects an old Burke metaphor with an eye on a trade. My Year as a Florida Panthers Season Ticket Holder"Well hell, I can't afford it in Vancouver, so I bought season tickets for the Florida Panthers. Despite my geographic location, it made total sense." Leafs fan loses bet to Bruins fan, wears his shame on sandwich board (Photos)What a shock, a Bruins fan used presumed homosexuality as an insult. Who Will Win in the Battle Between Ottawa's Hopes and Dreams and Reality? (Spoiler: Reality.)The Sens-Pens broken down

So I'm not sure how many of you have been paying attention to the Memorial Cup (the Canadian Junior Hockey Championship) but the round-robin games are over and the field is set for the playoffs. These aren't even on TV, which is lame as hell. They were last year, great job expanding your coverage NHL network, you assholes. Anyways, tonight the host team the Saskatoon Blades play the London Knights. Tomorrow, the winner of that game plays Seth Jones and the Portland Winterhawks. Sunday, the winner of that game plays the Halifax Mooseheads for the Memorial Cup. There aren't many Bruins prospects playing in this tournament, but nobody wants to talk about what went down in Providence last night so we're talking about this. Or tonight's game, whatever. Your choice. It's a morning skate. Work with the space. Bemoan the Pens beating Ottawa by about a billion to 3 and Alfie giving a juicy quote. Alfie can't catch a break. "I guarantee we'll win the cup" is met with laughter, and now "I don't know if we can beat them, they have too much depth" is met with the same. If Ottawa was slightly more likable, I might feel bad for him. But screw that. We've taken what we can from them. But I digress. What's on tap?

Cody Hodgson #19 / Center / Buffalo Sabres Height: 6-0 Weight: 194 Born: Feb 18, 1990 GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG GTG SOG PCT 2012 - Cody Hodgson 48 15 19 34 -4 20 3 1 1 114 Contract: $1.66 million this season, RFA this summer Report Card Grade in 2012: 6 our of 10 Introduction:Cody Hodgson will forever be linked to Zach Kassian thanks to a trade involving the two players and the Vancouver Canucks. He entered this season as the Sabres de facto #1 center, and thanks to a very strong sophomore outing, Buffalo looks to have come out on top of that trade, at leas for now. But just how good was Hodgson's second campaign? Let's find out. Key Stat: Hodgson finished first among all NHL second year players in goals with 15. His offensive ceiling will determine whether he can be a true #1 center or just a Derek Roy-esque very good #2, but this season was a promising improvement on the last. You can't do any better than top of the class, but the Sabres need Hodgson to keep improving in order to maximize his scoring potential, especially considering his currently weak defensive play. Let's hope another summer with Gary Roberts does for him what it's done for other Roberts proteges James Neal and Steven Stamkos. Thumbs Up:The Sabres new #1 center finished second on the team in goals, assists, points, power play goals, shooting percentage (among regular forwards), and third in shots and GWG, as well as ice time (for regular forwards). Hodgson scored the majority of his goals in the third period, which is certainly a good period to score them in, and scored 9 of his 15 while the Sabres were down (though to be fair, that was more often than not this season.) Thumbs...Sideways? I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, but it sure is interesting: Hodgson was far better away from the FNC than he was at home, scoring twice as many goals on the road as he did in Buffalo. The boos! They come back to haunt us again. Thumbs Down: Defense. Just...all of his defense. Hodgson was routinely plagued this season with poor awareness of both his and his opponents positioning, not backchecking hard enough, and losing his man. He did get better as the season progressed, but as of now he's still very much a one-way center. Hodgson also didn't register many hits, and had more giveaways than takeaways. Additionally, he wasn't great in the dot, only winning 46.8% of his faceoffs. Hodgson also faced relatively weak competition among Sabres forwards, despite playing with a high quality of teammates. If he's to become a true #1 center, Ron Rolston will need to be able to trust him to play against anyone, not just the weaker opponents, but again, his defensive ability holds him back here. Voting: Using the good old grade school system of A, B, C, D, F, with a A representing a great season, C an average season, and F a very poor season, grade Cody Hodgson on his performance this year according to the expectations you had for him. Poll What grade would you give Cody Hodgson for his 2012-13 season? A B C D F 7 votes | Results

Shane McColgan scores (CHL/WHL Images) The talk about the final round robin game at the 2013 Memorial Cup isn't about the Portland Winterhawk's 4-2 win over the Saskatoon Blades but rather the really suspect hit that Saskatoon's Dalton Thrower hit Portland's Taylor Leier with. Before I go any further I want to make it clear that I do like hard hitting hockey and if you took the time to watch the video before reading then you saw what a really clean hard hit looks like when Saskatoon's Michael Ferland hit Keegan Iverson at the start of the clip. (Sorry I had to remove the clip because it was causing all sorts of conflicts with the blog) That said the biggest problem facing hockey as a whole is going to be hits to the head, yes they aren't supposed to happen but if Thrower and Saskatoon say that there wasn't intent to aim for the head and they will say Leier turned into the check. I say that because as much as I dislike the hit itself that I would be surprised if the NHL Operations department suspends Thrower. I know Portland fans aren't going to like reading this and I don't blame them but if you have a decent sized monitor (mine is a 22 inch) then take the youtube version of this hit, blow it up to full screen then run it using your mouse frame by frame, The hit starts at the :03 second mark and frame by frame slowly you do see Thrower's shoulder not his elbow hitting Leier smack dab in the chin. Should it be a penalty? Yes by all means these are the kind of hits that hockey needs to remove from the game but the thing is that it is in the follow through that makes the hit look really dirty. The follow through has Thrower's leg leave the ice and his elbow swing out wildly which is where anyone watching in real time would believe that Thrower left his feet and use his elbow to hit Leier. The harsh truth is neither happened and that I suspect is part of why neither Jean-Philippe Sylvain from the QMJHL or Reagan Vetter from the WHL (and both linesmen were also WHL officials) didn't call a penalty on the play. Much has been made about the hit and now it will be good to see how exactly the folks from the NHL Operations department rule on this play. But this is the kind of play that all 3 CHL leagues need to take out of the game so there is no misunderstanding in the future. The CHL won't be able to say that Leier didn't suffer a concussion during this play. I watched enough Blade games this year to know that Thrower isn't a dirty player but odds are he will get that label no matter how this incident winds up. Oh yea the game A scoreless first period gave way to Portland getting on the board first when defensemen Derrick Pouliot scored his 2nd of the Memorial Cup after a bad clearing attempt by the Blades wound up on his stick and Pouliot's shot appeared to be deflected by one of the Blades and went in. The even strength goal gave Portland a 1-0 lead at 6:44. Shane McColgan (NYR 2011 5th) would get the goal back when he faked a pass from the corner then using both a screen and a deflection beat Portland goalie Mac Carruth for a power play goal at 11:20 of the 2nd period. It was McColgan's 1st goal of the Memorial Cup while fellow Ranger prospect Josh Nicholls (2013 UFA) would earn a secondary assist on the play. The game would go into the 2nd intermission tied at 2-2 and the Blades were able to stay with the current WHL champions. The 3rd period was a different story as Portland would use their speed and skill to take control of the game starting with Chase De Leo's 2nd goal of the Cup at 4:08 giving Portland a 2-1 lead. Brendan Leipsic would follow with his 1st goal of the Cup at 6:27 to make it 3-1 and Ty Rattie would add his 4th at 10:16 to give Portland a 4-1 lead at 10:16. Josh Nicholls would score his 4th of the Cup to make it 4-2 but it was too late as Portland earning a 4-2 win heads to Friday's semifinals. Saskatoon has to face the London Knights Thursday night in the tiebreaker game to ea