I was at the game last night and yeah, the lighting was weird. Bigger crowd for the game than I thought would be there. Lots of teams represented by their fans which was actually pretty cool, but killed any chance for chants, the crowd was pretty dead. Long Beach Ice Dogs games had crowds that were louder than the crowd last night. But it was cool hearing a bunch of people explain the game to people that were with them. That is how the game grows. TONS of Lewis jerseys, for obvious reasons.
First period was too LOOOOONG due to the fact that the nets kept coming off the moorings. There was a time an add started to peel away from the boards behind the net, a ref had to put it back on after the play moved to center ice. Not sure if its because my ears feel like they're plugged from my cold, but the audio wasn't loud enough.
I hate split squad games, so it was good to see the entire team together. Toffoli looked good (that line was buzzing). Kopi looked good. Brown when he stayed on his feet looked good. AMart looked good too. Lots of mishandled passes and fans on shots by the Kings. Kovy had 3 give-a-ways which led to 3 scoring chances and 1 goal by the Canucks. That was just in the first 2 periods. Brickley looked pretty good playing big minutes with Doughty. The Carter-Kovy-Kempe line was pretty lackluster....didn't notice Kempe, only noticed Carter a couple of times and Kovy....as mentioned above.
I haven't been to a game in about 6 years since I moved, but concessions prices were WAAAY too high. $7.25 for large soda?! I used to work at the Anaheim Convention Center and our prices weren't nearly as bad!
Anyway, the Salt Lake Shootout isn't great (its not what Frozen Fury was). It definitely left a lot to be desired but if more kings fans showed up it could be better. I'd recommend it for any fans PLANNING to come next year. If you're not planning on coming, then it could be an easy pass.
Also, does this mean the NHL plans to expand to SLC in a few years? Oh and Bailey almost fell off a motorcycle during intermission. It was him and the Jazz mascot....Jazz mascot was steering, went to turn and put too much gas (no traction on ice) and when the tire finally caught, it fishtailed. Not sure if Bailey was planning on getting off the bike at that time or not lol, but he stayed on his feet.