Well, this should be an interesting game. It’s not too often that a team loses 7-0 and plays the next night, so it’s hard to predict how things will go for the Kings tonight. They could come out with a lot of fire, or be too tense and lay another egg.
It’s funny how things work out though. The Kings’ worst shutout loss last season was a 5-0 loss at Buffalo on Dec. 19. Jason LaBarbera started that game — which turned out to be his last game with the Kings — and was replaced in the third period by…Jonathan Quick, in his season debut. Quick allowed one goal on eight shots, then played the next night in Detroit and stopped 30 of 35 in a 6-4 loss to Detroit.
Anyway, the Kings didn’t seem too “down” this morning. A group of players kicked around the soccer ball, as usual, and Ryan Smyth, who has seen plenty of bad losses in his time, said there was no reason to panic.
SMYTH: “The sun came up. It’s a nice day out here, and we’ve got to carry forth. We can’t dwell on it. We’ve got to look past it and look at the opportunity we have tonight. … Obviously we have to erase what we were doing yesterday, and that goes for everybody, right from the goaltenders to the D to all the forwards. We know that, and we’ve got to respond. The best thing is, we play tonight, and we don’t dwell on the loss even longer. We can redeem ourselves here in Tampa.”
Question: Do you have any sense of how that game got away from you so quickly?
SMYTH: “Sometimes things happen like that. There’s no question we made a lot of mistakes that cost us and ended up in our net, 5-on-5, PK, special teams, power play. That’s very important in today’s game, special teams, and we weren’t, by any means, at the top of our game when it comes to special teams. We’ve got to give them credit for being in the right position, but by no means were we at the top of our game.”
Here’s what Terry Murray said about going forward to Tampa Bay, first in response to my question about whether players should use the Atlanta game as motivation or try to put it out of their minds as quickly as possible.
MURRAY: “You never put it out of your mind. You can never do that as a pro athlete. You always have to remember what happened and make changes, dig in, use it as motivation, get upset, get pissed off.”
Question: Based on what you’ve seen since the game ended, is that type of attitude there?
MURRAY: “The read is always in the next game. If you’re able to get on the ice and have a practice, you can probably have a pretty good read on players emotionally, and their feelings. We had meetings today, and you could definitely see that there was a higher level of concentration and focus. That’s the start of the preparation for the game tonight. I think we’re heading in the right direction.
“No one feels good about it. No one accepts a loss, especially when you outshot and outplayed your opponent. Our chances were almost 2-to-1 in quality chances, so it’s not like you blow it up and put it back together again. There’s attention that’s needed to certain areas of the game, and you’ve got to go back and play again tonight.”
Hextall said and i quote “So he’s got another shot tonight” did he try to signal something? If quick fails tonight do they plan on sending him down to Manchester for conditioning? I personally think it would be nice if we can pick up J-S Giguere just for this season. he wants out of quacks. we can send Ersberg the other way
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After a 7-0 embarrassment does it really matter who is in goal the next night? Someone needs to make a stop. Doesn’t matter who at this point.
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J-Quick will be fine, he’s just in a little slump.
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quick going down to manchester? ur kidding right? if anyones getting send down its ersberg and bernier comming up.. and giguere??? are u kidding? ill take quick or bernier any day over them.. after watching the kings for the last 11 years i think im pretty much over picking up useless temporary players.. what DL is doing right now is perfect and its how things should be done.. giguere can park his ass in anaheim along with hiller..
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Focus Jonathan!!!
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With a young team like this it doesn’t take much to shake their confidence. The Nashville game was the start. The team was playing so well and predictably they took the night off against a team that was hungrier than they were. Good teams don’t let that happen. Chicago they were out worked again but played much better. Than the worse possible thing happens…you beat a team like Carolina that’s struggling and you think you got your mojo back and than you go into Atlanta…it was the perfect storm. Hopefully getting their ass kicked by a team considered to be further behind the Kings in their rebuilding will be the reality check they needed.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes the Kings to turn things around. If they don’t get a split in Florida we could be in for a rough patch and that confidence we all saw at the beginning of the year will be all gone. I’m smelling an 8 or 10 game losing streak but maybe this year will be different.
This is when we find out how good of a coach TM is.
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I think management will make a move only if J-Quick consistently plays poorly over the next couple of games. If he bounces back tonight I don’t see anything happening.
Come on Quick, show us the “swagger and skill” u had last season!
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Sorry for the repost, but the question is still relevant:
The best way to define a goalie problem is to pick a specific length of the season, then check the goalies’ GAA.
One quarter of the season approaches. After 18 games, Jonathan Quick (18 games ties him with Nabokov and Anderson for league high in starts) ranks 25th of 42 goalies with a GAA of 2.77. He ranks 36th of 42 goalies with a save pct. of .894.
As long as the Kings’ fans are patient enough to wait for Quick to shake things out–meaning the playoffs are not as important this year as they will be next year–they can wait for Quick to get better and Bernier to finish this year in Manchester.
Everyone: Are you that patient?
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No. We must make the playoffs this year. As a fan, waiting 7 long painful years is long enough. I love Quick and I think he can do it, but it all comes down to performance and if he’s not getting it done by mid way through the season, we must look elsewhere for goaltending help. Maybe it’s JB, maybe it’s a veteran acquisition, or maybe JQ gets over this hurdle and thrives. I hope for the latter, but time is running out. The playoffs must be of the highest priority now.
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Hey fellas,
it’s only one game. We had lots of turnovers, and a few mistakes that cost us 2-3 goals that made the momentum change to Atlanta. Give them props, because they played strong and positive. We got Thrashed yesterday, and hopefully, there wont be any lighting heading towards Florida on Monday!
Go Kings!!
Lets go show all the Haters what’s up!!!!!!
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Finally, a line I’ve been waiting the coach or player to say. “Get Pissed Off” !! This 7-0 loss is a blessing in disguise. The attitude in this organ-eye-zation is finally changing.
GO KINGS GO
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I agree Grinder. Getting “pissed off” is a form of passion…
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They were pissed off after opening night. Weren’t they pissed off after Nashville?
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The Kings will be fine. Every team gets their ass kicked like that a couple times a year. You can make a argument the Kings equaled or outperformed the Thrashers in many areas. Final score doesn’t indicate that observation, but I feel it to be true. The boys will not disappoint tonight.
Quick on the other hand is worrying me a bit. I’m no doubt a huge Quick fan, but his lack of confidence right now is scaring me. His toughness is what makes him so good….where did it disappear to so quickly? I’m actually kind of stunned he’s struggling as much as he is. I knew there would be a transition period of technical adjustments, but I was sure his mental edginess could handle it. Come on Quick, you can do it son, you can do it!!!
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Chill out on Quick about last night’s game. He gave up one bad goal. You can’t fault him for a bank off of a Dman’s skate or a breakaway by Kovalchuk. It did appear that he was rattled though and was totally unprepared for ZB’s shot. That’s concerning. If that becomes a pattern, I’m all for sending him down to figure it out and giving Bernier a shot. (No, sending Ersberg down is not an option since it’ll do no good to sit Quick in the NHL) Still though, really only one bad goal and TM pulled him mostly to shake the team up, not because he blamed Quick for all 3 goals. Tonight’s response by him and the entire team will prove, somewhat, how good this team is, but the next several games are what I’ll be looking at to see how mentally tough they are. We can’t make the playoffs with these bipolar efforts. The West is too good for that.
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The team has been playing with a lot of confidence this year and I agree with the earlier post THE KINGS MUST MAKE THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR! If Quick doesn’t get his act together real soon the Kings will have no other choice than to make a move. I’m thinking the Kings will pick up Biron for the rest of the season. No way DL calls up Bernier, they don’t want to put him in the pressure cooker this early in his career.
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How can anyone criticize the
Goalies?
We got
Shut out and made a ton of mistakes.
Quick doesn’t look confident, but the coaches show no confidence in him. No goalie will remain confident when they’re always looking over their shoulder. For me, Murray has thrown Quick under the bus and isn’t dealing with our TEAM problem of playing a smart, responsible, and patient game.
You can see an ebb and flow in the team’s performances. Rather than “getting pissed,” the team needs to learn how to perform consistently as a unit. Set the pace and let the opposition deal with the anger and frustration.
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