Game 61: Red Wings 2, Kings 1

How good it must be to be the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Over at Abel to Yzerman, their Kings/Wings game thread evolved into a never-ending booze-fest called "Hit Me Mick", with it's participants taking drinks whenever a Wing shoots the puck, scores a goal, gets in a fight, makes a save... You get the gist. It's a game so popular, they have decided to limit games of "Hit Me Mick" to Friday and Saturday and maybe Sunday afternoon games. The thread culuminated with this quote from poster Jennemy of the Skate:

Almost 600 comments worth of limited coherence.
We’ve outdone ourselves if it was even remotely coherent!

As the night wore on, the thread devolved into a debate of whether lizards came from dinosaurs. Yeah, it's that kind of game. Chris Kontos, from The Royal Half, had a similar game, called Kingo.

Then again, I'd drink too if I had to live in Detroit. Oh wait, I don't, and neither do many Wing fans. But I digress.

The Kings started good, took a nap in the second, and stormed furiously back in the third. It's an all-too-familar refrain that has many Kings fans thinking this might not be the year. Like Rudy Kelly from Battle of California states oh so eloquently. And as much as I can see Rudy's point of "Woe is the Kings, they suck," I also tend to see that they are 4 points away from the 8th place in the West.

Some postitives form last night's game: Quick played solid last night, making 39 saves against the defending Stanley Cup champions. The KIngs shut out the top power play unit in the league, and are now tied for sixth in the NHL in power play goals.

Dustin Brown returned from seeing his second child born, and was immediately paired with Kopitar. However, he failed to tally a hit, which raises some questions around the league that DB has gone soft now that he's sporting a minivan with two kids. Keep in mind that his kids are called Thor and Apollo, and the "minivan" is actually an all-terrain hummer with spiked wheels that is fueled by the tears of Dustin's enemies. Yeah, Brown's gone soft... Look out, Chicago. Brown's comin' and he's brigning hell with him.

• AP: Osgood sharp in return as Red Wings top Kings

 "I think we did some good things in the first period. We managed the puck well and was getting it on the net," Kings coach Terry Murray said. "Unfortunately, we made some passes through the middle of the ice and that gave Detroit some momentum on turnovers."

• Yahoo: Team report

The Kings were outshot 41-31. It was the sixth time this season the Kings have allowed 40 or more shots on goal in a game. In their three previous games against Detroit, the Kings allowed 37, 36 and 31 shots on goal, respectively.

• Royal road report: Kopitar for charity

Goaltender Jonathan Quick got his first start of the season at Joe Louis Arena in December and he looked happy to be back between the pipes in Detroit on Friday. The 23-year-old made 38 saves, helping stall an explosive Red Wings attack while the Kings fought for a comeback.

• Royal road report: Homecoming

"I'm comfortable playing here, but it seems like the team we're playing against gets better every time. But, it's just fun for me to come back here and I just feel like this is home."

They said it

“There’s a lot of good things I liked about the lines, the way they have been for the last half a dozen games. There’s some pretty good chemistry starting to develop. But the bottom line is that we need to find a way to score some goals and get some wins under our belts.”—Kings coach Terry Murray.

Looking through purple-hued goggles

• Battle For California: Next season

Next season, the Kings will make the playoffs because they lost games like tonight this season.

• The Throne Room: Who'd have thought

The Kings have gotten outstanding goaltending on all 3 games of this road trip thus far, but have only one win to show for it. Having scored two goals in 9 periods of hockey has a lot to do with that.

From across the aisle, the Detroit view

• DetroitHockey.net: Osgood Strong as Red Wings Down Kings

• DetNews.com: Ozzie of old returns

• DetNews.com: Practice time is over for Wings' Osgood

• MLive.com: Wings-Kings post-game wrap-up

Peeping the dailies