27 Comments

1. HawKings says:

   October 25, 2009 at 1:03 am

   Rich, First let me say GREAT COVERAGE! It seems that the players and coaches have been very open with you. I am amazed at what you have been able to give to us directly from TM. This kind of access, which we are obviously thriving on, seems unprecedented in sports. It is a testament to your professionalism and integrity as a reporter. Thanks for all that you do for us.

   I think on Stoll’s second goal, he came back across to his forehand after first going to his backhand.

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2. What's the frequency, Kenneth? says:

   October 25, 2009 at 1:27 am

   Rich: I think “perfecting” should be “perfect.”

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3. RenoKingsFan says:

   October 25, 2009 at 6:50 am

   How about these lines
   Smyth kopitar simmonds
   Fro Stoll Williams
   Purcell Hanzus Brown

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4. Crown Royal says:

   October 25, 2009 at 6:54 am

   It looks like Kopitar has taken a giant step toward stardom. Congrats to Anze and the coaching staff who have him playing at both ends of the ice. He got the three assists last night but was also back checking so effectively for a minute I thought I was watching Peter Forsberg!

   Last night Quick kept us in the game in the first period and made some key stops thourgh out the game. Parse added a little more skill to the lineup, something we don’t have an excess of with this particular team make-up. Really looking forward to Loktionov’s developemnt. We need the skill that he can bring.

   Other teams seem to have the Kings number at the moment in creating turnovers in our own end. They are getting forwards forechecking in on Doughty and Johnson both very quickly, cutting them off and forcing them into bad passes which are being deflected or just weakly sent into the center of the ice. Both of those guys like to carry the puck more than the other defensemen.

   Johnson seems totally lost at the moment. It’s painful to watch because he brings a lot to the table. It seems the coaches made a mistake in asking him to lose weight. Right now he is neither fish nor fowl. He is not hitting and not playing well offensively. He reminds me of Jovonoski when he was in Florida. The coaches there tried to focus him in a system and he went thru a few years where he wasn’t that good. He finally found himself as a player after moving on to other teams. I hope what the Kings are doing with the young D-men in the organization pays off in the long run. Right now it dosen’t seem to be working.
   So many good things are happening now this is critical for the Kings to fix in order for us keep moving forward.

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5. socalkings says:

   October 25, 2009 at 7:11 am

   off topic:

   Rich I am curious over a few things.

   1. On road trips do players and coaches mingle with the media people freely, or do you media people give the team their “personal space”

   2. Who have you generally spent the most time with on road trips?

   3. Do you use a different, I don’t know how to refer to it other than, tone, writing style, point of view, when writing for the blog and writing for the “official” Kings website?

   I know your busy, so if you can answer great, if not no worries

   Thanks for you excellent coverage of the Kings

   Go Kings Go!

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6. Joel says:

   October 25, 2009 at 8:09 am

   I agree with crown royal. Every time Kopitar touches the puck, he looks like he’s going to create a scoring opportunity. He’s peerless in the Western Conference right now.

   That third goal by Doan was completely on Johnson. He was caught out of position when he should have been giving room to the forwards with a 2 goal lead late in the third.

   I thought Quick was much better than against Dallas. For a while we looked like the escort service again with all those give sways deep in the defensive zone. He really bailed the team out last night. Even though he gave up 3 goals, he was worthy of the third star.

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7. Shakes says:

   October 25, 2009 at 8:13 am

   Rich one quick thought: maybe for each game you have one post and then put through the scoring updates as special comments – almost like a game log – that way all the comments for each game stay under one heading.

   i know that sometimes i won’t comment after a goal or something if i think there’s a new post coming shortly at the end of the period

   Other then that continue writing the blog which eats away at a majority of my web surfing time every day for the past 2 years.

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8. khanon says:

   October 25, 2009 at 8:43 am

   RENOKINGFAN,

   I prefer this line-up:

   Smyth-Kopi-Simmonds
   JW-Handzus-Brown
   Frolov-Stoll-Parse(If he maintains his intensity)
   Ivanans-Richardson-XXX

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9. dirtmover says:

   October 25, 2009 at 8:54 am

   TM should be fired instantly if he moves WS off 1st line -
   WS compliments what the other 2 guys do so very well – with his combo of skill and rough edge game- Made the roadie to PHX last night and although we won still some areas that have to be addressed namely the running around in our own end – better breakouts are a must – which may come as season moves along and also the poor line changes – we seem to get caught with bad changes quite a bit – need to finish the wknd sweep with a win – see everybody at staples tonight-

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10. neil says:

    October 25, 2009 at 8:55 am

    I agree with shakes..if we could get all the comments under one story for the game it would be great..its hard to respond to someone if the comments have moved on…I spend more time on this site than any other..great stuff!!! Thanks

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11. neil says:

    October 25, 2009 at 8:57 am

    Phoenix seems to do a good job on the puck causing turnovers…with their speed maybe thats why we have had trouble matching up with them…In sports it seems like some teams always have troubles with a particular team….like hopefully the Yankees with the Angels….

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12. RenoKingsFan says:

    October 25, 2009 at 9:32 am

    Khanon> can williams play LW? just curious

    Dirtmover> I don’t see TM getting fired if he’s able to create 2 lines that will dominate the game

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13. vladimir says:

    October 25, 2009 at 9:37 am

    How about these lines
    Smyth kopitar simmonds
    Fro Hanzus Williams
    Purcell Stoll Brown

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14. dirtmover says:

    October 25, 2009 at 9:44 am

    RENO – pt being that WS such an obvious fit and working so well together so quickly that would be poor decision to move him out -

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15. Rich Hammond says:

    October 25, 2009 at 9:44 am

    Thanks for catching those errors guys…I’m going to correct them ASAP…

    socalkings…I’ll do my best to answer your questions!

    1. On road trips do players and coaches mingle with the media people freely, or do you media people give the team their “personal space”

    I definitely give them their personal space. If I run into a player or coach in the hotel lobby or elevator, of course you say hello or what have you, but there’s no socializing going on. We don’t eat meals together, or hang out, anything like that.

    2. Who have you generally spent the most time with on road trips?

    I’m very lucky to have been adopted — for lack of a better term — by the broadcasters and the TV producers/directors, so I’d say most lunches and dinners are eaten with a group of them and the team’s communications manager, Mike Kalinowski. I’ve known Bob, Daryl, Jim, Nick and Mike for some time, and it’s been great to get to know the TV guys, Hoover, Mike and Rohin.

    3. Do you use a different, I don’t know how to refer to it other than, tone, writing style, point of view, when writing for the blog and writing for the “official” Kings website?

    Yes, no doubt. It’s very similar, actually, to the way I used to write for the Daily News blog vs. the way I would write for the newspaper. The writing for the newspaper/website is more structured, more formal, the way we were taught in journalism school. Here’s your lead, here’s your nut graph, etc. Writing for the blog is much more free-form and conversational, which also lends itself to more creativity in terms of content. I hope you think it works!

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16. fourtunato says:

    October 25, 2009 at 10:16 am

    It works.

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17. BringBackTheShieldJersey says:

    October 25, 2009 at 10:24 am

    Yeah, Rich, you do a good job of it. There continues to be a clear distinction between your “reporting” and your “blogging”, although there’s been a noticable increase in “reporting” and decrease in “blogging”. Not complaining, I’m, to risk trademark violation, I’m just sayin’.

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18. BringBackTheShieldJersey says:

    October 25, 2009 at 10:32 am

    How fun is it to watch Kopi? Every time he’s on the ice you’re just waiting for him to get the puck. And every time he gets the puck you’re expecting him to be dangerous with it. As a fan, that’s just flat-out fun.

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19. Copper10-8 says:

    October 25, 2009 at 10:33 am

    Keep up the great work, Rich! Be interesting to see/learn how many other NHL teams have this kind of access

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20. Quisp says:

    October 25, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Smyth/Kopitar/Simmonds
    Parse/Stoll/Purcell
    Frolov/Handzus/Brown
    Lewis/Richardson/Harrold

    then, when Williams and Clune are healthy:

    Smyth/Kopitar/Simmonds
    Parse/Stoll/Williams
    Frolov/Handzus/Brown
    Clune/Richardson/Purcell

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21. AZ King says:

    October 25, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Everyone keeps talking about Willie like he wasn’t doing anything on the top line. That line was producing BEFORE Simmer joined it, and Willie was putting up a point-per-game average. Yes Simmer has fit very nicely, and I think he’s earned as spot in the top 6 (definitely more than Fro has), but he is not going to bump Willie out of his spot just like that.

    One advantage to Smyth-Kopi-Simmer, Willie-Handzus-Brown is it gives a solid forechecker that knows how to take body on each of the top two lines. I don’t know if Willie plays LW, but it think Brown can.

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22. Shakes says:

    October 25, 2009 at 11:15 am

    @Copper10-8 I think the only other team was the Islanders who started the idea of having an independent writer/blogger associated with the team last year and they saw their website hits increase to like 500,000 hits/month (I only know this because there was an article about that here which was about a seemingly dying franchise had a large hidden fanbase)

    It’s funny how news has come full circle because if I’m not mistaken in the 50s and stuff teams used to pay travel expenses for newspaper reporters in order to encourage the papers to give them proper coverage. However some reporters asked to be off the team payroll in order to remain completely independent. Now fast forward a few decades and you have the Kings and Isles who have independent writers on the payroll because newspaper simply aren’t able to (and one would argue even in the better days didn’t) provide the highest quality of coverage.

    When I read the LA Times coverage of LA hockey it makes me cringe because that used to be the level of coverage which I had considered to be “okay.” Now it’s funny to hear a gameday preview which only consists of who the starting goaltenders are and players who are on point scoring streaks..

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23. UglyinLA says:

    October 25, 2009 at 11:38 am

    Damn, Phoenix is a quick team. They seemed to have constant pressure on the Kings all night. But our Kings play excellent. and altough I had my doubts, Parse impressed me last night. I didnt see any panic in his play, just smart hockey. Another great game by Simmonds, however, Williams was doing pretty well on that first line too. I say its still Williams on the top line.

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24. I'm Just Saying says:

    October 25, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    Formally RJB (Blatent Copy Righy Infringement)

    I think you keep the first line as is. Brownie, Fro and Stoll..Parse Williams Zues…Richardson (Playing very well)Purcell (Ho Hum) Harrold…

    Keep Quick again tonight and the first game of the next back to back if we are still on the streak Quick plays if not bring Bernie up for the second game of the back to back..

    “Saying Just I’m”

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25. Mudfish4 says:

    October 25, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    A folding chair could get 2 pts playing with Kopitar and Smitty right now. Not taking anything away from Williams or Simmons by any means. The other two are just that good right now.

    Rich – if you get a chance…what do the coaches think about Jack’s play so far? Other than last night on Doan, when I watch the games, I think he’s been playing really well. Yet, somehow he’s still a -7.

    Most of the goals that go in when he’s on the ice don’t seem to be his fault. Just curious what the coaches think of his game.

    Honestly, I haven’t been super impressed with Scuderi. He’s not bad. But hasn’t been super strong.

    Thoughts?

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26. Dan says:

    October 25, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    I think Scuderi has been doing his job defensively. I know he isn’t a big goal scorer but he seems to posses no offensive threat at all. Am I reading that right?

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27. Copper10-8 says:

    October 25, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    Thanks for that heads up Shakes!

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