Game 30: Sharks 3, Kings 2 (shootout)

    When the Kings grow up, if they're lucky they'll look just like the league-leading San Jose Sharks.
Built around kids they drafted and developed carefully, backed by mature goaltenders and blessed with several mobile defensemen who have Stanley Cup rings, the Sharks are everything the Kings aim to be.
Everything the Kings might become one fine day.
But aren't yet.

    The Kings didn’t win the special-teams battle Monday. They went 0-for-5 on the power play and allowed a shorthanded goal to San Jose’s Patrick Marleau. The Kings also allowed a power-play goal to Ryane Clowe on the only shorthanded situation they faced in the game. The Kings’ power play had been a strength of late. They had scored nine power-play goals in their last 22 chances over six games before Monday.

“Some of these upper-echelon teams, they don’t need many chances to put the puck in the back of the net. There’s a reason they’ve only lost three games all year.”— Kings D Sean O’Donnell on the Sharks

    After dominating teams early in the season, the Sharks are now finding they've got their hands full, even against teams in the lower half of the standings, like Los Angeles.
"We're not seeing the 'B' game, or the 'A' game," McLellan said after his team's 14th consecutive game without a regulation loss. "We're seeing the 'A-plus' game night in and night out."

    Here we go again. The season made infamous because of goaltender injuries continues. Erik Ersberg, the backup who played his way into the starting role for the Kings, left Monday's game against the Sharks in the second period with a pulled groin muscle and was replaced by Jason LaBarbera. Ersberg (8-5-2, 2.38 GAA, owned in 17 percent of all Yahoo! leagues) will be reevaluated Tuesday. ...

    "It is a special opportunity for young kids to play in that tournament," Dean Lombardi said. "The pressure in that tournament for a young player is pretty significant, and it's a big thing for their growth to play in that tournament. It's a great thing for his continued development, especially because they told us he was going to be one of their captains.