Morning Flurries: Bannergate 2019

The Los Angeles Kings are a very bad hockey team.

At this point, it’s no longer up for discussion; the Kings can’t defend, and their scoring has been inconsistent enough that they can’t overcome the disastrous backslide Jonathan Quick has been on for the last year and change.

Their latest outing resulted in yet another difficult showing at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights, who made quick work of their opponent’s no-longer-Quick goaltending:

In the end, Quick allowed a season-low five goals (!!!) and improved (!!!!) to a .793 save percentage (!!!!) and a 6.43 GAA (!!!) through his first three games of the year.

But while that may seem like simply unfortunate news for a conference rival that the Avalanche are likely all too fine to see far from threatening them for a playoff spot, though, it comes with some added hilarity. Because, after all, the NHL sometimes just can’t seem to get out of it’s own way:

The fact that this is a real story is absolutely incredible. It boils down to the writer of the above-shown piece loosely insinuating that the Kings somehow have drawn a correlation between a 2015 banner presented to Taylor Swift for selling out 13 consecutive shows at the Staples Center and their disastrous playoff drought, even though 1) Taylor Swift almost certainly hasn’t put a hex on Jonathan Quick and 2) they’ve made the playoffs since the banner went up, anyway. It’s bizarre that the banner exists in the first place, but the weird ‘deadcatting’ that seems to be happening here while the Kings and their star goaltender spiral into the league’s basement is truly another level — even for the NHL.

In other news, Patrick Marleau made his return to The Tank on Sunday night:

There are plenty of fans who don’t like the Sharks, but no human beings with hearts in their chests truly hate Patrick Marleau. So watching him make his return home, especially in what has all but been declared his victory lap year, is a bit emotional for any hockey fan who’s followed the game over the last 20 years. [The Score]

Speaking of Sharks legends:

In some league-wide young player news, Joshua Ho-Sang has been a minor storyline this year as the offensively gifted (but still relatively polarizing) forward continues to struggle with finding ice time and NHL game action with the New York Islanders. Now, there’s a report that the Penguins may have called the Islanders to inquire after a player who may come to them young, cheap, and talented. [Pittsburgh Hockey Now]

Finally, in some international goaltending news: