Kings cruise past listless Blue Jackets

Hockey Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jonathan Quick needed to stop just 11 shots for his third shutout of the season and Los Angeles scored four first-period goals on its way to a 6-0 clobbering of Columbus.

Alexander Frolov had a goal and three assists while Michal Handzus and Fredrik Modin each added a goal and an assist for the Kings, who snapped a two-game losing streak.

Steve Mason was tagged for four goals on 13 shots and did not survive the first period for the Blue Jackets, who have dropped their past five games. Mathieu Garon stopped 20-of-22 shots the rest of the way.

It's been a difficult sophomore campaign for Mason, who won the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie last season. Coming into Monday's contest, he had a 3.08 goals against average and .899 save percentage, posting a 16-20-7 record.

"That was embarrassing," LA's R.J. Umberger said of the loss. "We didn't play smart. We are our own worst enemies out there."

Los Angeles dominated this game start to finish and scored the only goal it needed 5:49 in, as Wayne Simmonds caught up to the puck in the neutral zone, skated down to the right circle and blasted a shot under the glove of Mason.

Drew Doughty made it a 2-0 game with 6:36 left in the first on a one-timer from the slot, and Handzus scored 1:14 later when he jammed home his own rebound from the left side on the power play.

Frolov made it a 4-0 game with a power-play goal thanks to a one- timer from the top of the left circle.

The Kings took a 5-0 lead 4:20 into the second with their third power-play goal of the game when Modin skated into the slot and lifted a backhand past Garon.

It was 6-0 halfway through the second as Brad Richardson slammed home a rebound off a Jarrett Stoll shot that was sitting in the crease.

Columbus, which managed just three shots in the first period, had two in the second and six in the third.

"Mentally it can be a bit of a battle to stay focused a full 60 minutes, but the team played great the whole game," Quick said. "It was real easy for me. We had some big goals, and it was just a great game."

Game Notes

The Kings hit the road for a pair of games in Chicago on Wednesday and Dallas on Friday...The Kings took three of four against Columbus this season...Quick has seven shutouts in his career...LA scored on three of its six power plays while Columbus failed to score any of its four attempts.

Wskybook Hockey Betting News

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.