In the six playoff series the Kings have held 2-1 leads, they’ve won four times. The last occasion was the 1993 conference finals against Toronto, which they won in seven games.

After some good chances by both teams, Ryan Smyth, just gassed at the end of a shift, fires one at the Canucks net. Looks like it hits a defender on the way in and it beats Andrew Raycroft on the glove side. That might be the longest goal in Smytty's career! This guy usually scores when he's on top of the goalie!

Luongo was chased from the game after the Kings next goal, an unassisted steal by Brad Richardson, who forced a turnover in front of the Canucks net, whirled and fired a shot past Luongo, who allowed four goals on just 16 shots but was unfazed afterwards. 

"I thought the building was very good," head coach Terry Murray told a full house of reporters afterwards.  "I've been hearing for the past couple of years about the atmosphere, that it was going to be a plus... it was tremendous; fans were a big part of the game for us."

Kings color commentator Jim Fox said it was a good goal. The referee said it was a good goal. But those in Toronto took a loooong time before overruling the call on the ice. That's right. Those in TORONTO who had gigantic brass balls to overturn the call on the ice.  And Vancouver fans heads collectively exploded. 

O’Donnell is showing his veteran worth. While he looked slow and overmatched much of the regular season, his experience is proving too much for the Canucks to handle. They may be faster than OD, but they aren’t smarter, and his calm stick and stealthy positioning are breaking up plays left and right.

There was so much going on in and around STAPLES Center that I'm glad I got inside just as the players hit the ice for warmups. Every inch of the area was occupied by someone or something so that there was no wasted space throughout the entire arena. I, myself, was nervous and antsy for the start of the game so I didn't try to take in every single stimuli.

Slow Starts – The Kings got away with one this time, but damn if this pattern of giving up an early goal (or two) doesn’t come back and bite them in the ass. If they manage to get by the Canucks, and indeed in ORDER to get by the Canucks, this pattern is going to have to stop. If the Kings played like we saw in the 2nd period, they can hang with (and beat) any team in the league. This is the inconsistency we’ve been seeing all season, and the Kings need to rise above it now.