Kopitar, Williams, Brown, Carter, Richards.. I don't think you can bank on LA continuing to struggle to put the puck in the net.

And yet with all of those players but Carter for most of the year they've been inexplicably terrible on offense. Having seen them live and watched them play on TV their offensive sets have no creativity or thought and are incredibly easy to check. I mean it really is crazy how bad their offense is. Only Minnesota's is worse and the only other team within hailing distance of those two is lowly Columbus and the Islanders. Outside of them everyone else has at least 16 more goals than LA. Among their Western counterparts in contention its 26 more goals. I bring this up because unless you think Carter is some kind of magic bullet (and all evidence indicates that he isn't including his involvement on one of the other league worst offenses-even if he was a bit unmotivated) they could improve their goal scoring and still be a bad offensive team. Yes their defensive hockey is really good and Quick has been stellar but I don't think it will be enough.

I'm not even saying this year or in the near future exactly, but throw Gagne in there and a kid like Loktionov picking it up (not to mention Doughty and Voynov from the back end), they've got the tools. Still, pretty much all of their offensive weapons are having a down year except Kopitar.

And that's because they don't do a good job utilizing their talent.

it took st. louis 15 minutes of the 1st to get the idea...pretty frustrating, kept trying to score the perfect goal. they were good at holding possession but didn't quality shots off if they got one at all (except once). now they're shooting from the point and they're going to score soon. not too impressed by anaheim's scoring line either. hiller's playing pretty damn well right now, though.

Stars made it a lot harder than it needed to be against San Jose. San Jose outshot Dallas but Dallas was definitely getting more quality chances and had a 1 goal lead controlling it through most of 2. Then they did a very Dallas thing and gave up the tying goal with a second left. San Jose took a lead early in the third and it looked bad. Dallas bounced back to tie but gave up the lead again on some sloppy checking. They got it back right after they pulled the goalie to tie. Bullshit holding call gave San Jose the PP in OT but Dallas shut them down and made it to the shootout. No one scored through 4 rounds but Vincour (who scored his 4th of the year to tie it) scored in the shootout and the Lehtonen stoned his opponent and the Stars had a win. I wanted a two point gap but I'll take the 1 point advantage. 4 point lead on San Jose who has two games in hand. One of the more exciting games I've been to recently.

yeah i was watching nhlnet and they did a live look-in on that game and i saw san jose's goal with 4 left...didn't think you guys would pull it out.

got a pretty good glimpse of the kings last night. kopitar reminds me a lot of pre-concussed lindros and a little bit of dave backes. can't believe LA let it the game slip the way they did. detroit has that confidence about them though..damn fine team those red wings.

here's to hoping stl can bring the hammer down again on columbus tonight

it wasn't so much "are we going to lose", as it was "how much are we going to lose by"

you guys will be good in a couple seasons.

backes missed an open net...twice...if he just touched the puck with his stick he would have had a brace.

We've been saying that for years now, although I actually feel like we might be heading in a positive direction.

the blues have clinched the play-off spot..hopefully the central in and western are put beyond doubt in the next week. still the leader for the presidents trophy oh and 100 points!!

Stars against the Blackhawks on Friday played the worst game I've watched them play all year.

Cheer up 'rections. Stars look headed to the playoffs for the first time in a while.


They deserve the Presidents Trophy. Just straight up beastly this season. After 73 games their GAA is still below 2.