Kings vs Ducks: Carter Reigns

It's good to be the King. Or more specifically, it's good to be Jeff Carter right now.

After taking a few games to settle in, Carter picked the perfect moment for his coming-out party as a King, contributing two goals towards a very important win against the cross-town rival Anaheim Ducks. And the fact that his first goal as a King was assisted by his BFF Mike Richards was the kind of moment Hollywood screenwriters dream up for movies.

BFF's

Watching Carter during warm-ups last night was like watching the most popular guy in school working the room. If there were any concerns about his effect on the Kings locker room chemistry, I think those have been put to bed.

He's already a greeter....

The most popular guy in town chatting up his new teammates

The new cast of Entourage

Something tells me Carter will be VERY happy here in LA. And as long as he keeps sparking this offensive resurgence, I'm happy to have him.

Other thoughts from The Queen:

• Dustin Brown has now scored 4 goals in the last 5 games and is tied with Anze Kopitar for team goal leader. His goal last night was the direct result of hard work grinding it out in front of the net. Brown is the perfect example of a player knowing his role and executing on it perfectly. There are a few other forwards on this team that need to figure out their role and execute too.

• It was also nice to see Kopitar break his goal drought. Granted, all he did was hit an empty net, but you gotta start somewhere.  Then again, he did check George Parros into the boards. Yes, you read that right.

•  Dustin Penner is playing flat-out awful hockey right now. I'm not sure whether it's the divorce or the pancake diet, but he's just terrible. Seems Kings fans everywhere agree.

• When I weighed in on the issue of just how bad Dustin Penner was skating, no one disagreed with me.

• Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are truly the coolest people in Hollywood. They get the Kiss Cam pointed at them, get as excited as normal fans and then deliver the perfect smooch. And THEN Tom rocks it out during the Dance Cam segment. You'll never see THAT at a Lakers game, folks.

• Girl Scouts selling cookies on a night when Lubo is in the building. Coincidence? Or cookie for you?

And finally, two more of my favorite tweets for the night:

The Kings have a tough road trip in front of them this week. First up is another game in Nashville against a tough Predators squad on Tuesday, followed by back to back games in Columbus and Detroit. Let's hope Carter and Company can keep the Kings offensive firepower going. The playoffs are in sight, but we're far from done with this battle. Stay strong Kings fans!

GO KINGS GO!