25 Comments

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

   November 18, 2009 at 11:33 pm

   Rich!? Smyth has an UPPER body injury? Not what I remember.

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

   November 18, 2009 at 11:39 pm

   Otherwise, great story…you hit the nail on the head with the 5-on-3. Going into the period I was telling myself “now they can’t afford to have a bad start in the 2nd period.” Oh well…they had one.

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

   November 19, 2009 at 12:06 am

   WRT “upper-body” guess it’s my bad…I checked back, and that’s what they’re reporting. Thought it was an ankle thing (which they obviously didn’t report, but I thought they called it a lower-body injury.) Nevertheless, your last report had it as an upper-body injury, and so did Beacham, tonight.

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4. Crown Royal says:

   November 19, 2009 at 5:31 am

   Before the season DL said the main thing about the Kings being better this year was not about signing free agents but the young players getting better. Kopitar and Simmonds have: the others have not. The terrible 5 on 3 was another example of the fact that Doughty is not yet an NHL powerplay quarterback. He’s scoring more but his puck decisions are stll lacking. This is going to take time. Stoll is there to shoot the puck but interesting neither Stoll or Brown were on the ice at the end when the Kings pulled Quick.
   With TM’s current coaching decisions Brown, team captain,young,thirty-goal scorer is becoming a forgotton piece of the puzzle. The reason is no second line playmaking center which is cutting off the wingers other than those playing on the 1st line.
   Last night Williams was amazing and despite much complaining about Frolov by fellow Kings fans, I thought he was good as well.
   Frustrating that this Kings team is better and yet not quite good enough. Quick has been pretty good this year but needs to play better. We need a powerplay quarterback and there is no one on the team currently who can handle the job (Jones ?) until Doughty matures. We need a second line playmaking center to make our non-first line wingers better. If we can achieve those three things this will be a very good team. Until then we’ll be teased but not satisfied.

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5. A Thark says:

   November 19, 2009 at 6:30 am

   We have to stop trying to play catch up! We can play so well and yet… we don’t put games away. We always give teams a chance to get back into it! It seems like when we make mistakes, they are big ones and other teams capitalize on them.

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6. LAKingsFan26 says:

   November 19, 2009 at 6:38 am

   Reading Helene Elliott’s story in the Times this morning. Can she be any more negative? The Kings did not play that bad last night and just had a real nice road trip. Same old reporting.

   Keep up the good work Rich!!

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

   November 19, 2009 at 7:21 am

   I’ve been one of the bigger defenders of Frolov. The point remains: 0G, 0A, 1SOG. At least his line mates put it on net.

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8. P90X says:

   November 19, 2009 at 8:13 am

   Well looks like day one of the Frolov experiment wasn’t too successful. Although I will say he looked a little better than usual. Hopefully he gets better with more time on the first line. Sorry if that sounds like ranting or taunghting but I haven’t had time to troll my other hockey sites yet… Ya know Johnjuan……

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9. darko25o says:

   November 19, 2009 at 8:21 am

   Its amazing to see how the difference in Frolov’s style, versus that of Smyth’s, really effects the other forwards. Smyth is always moving forward towards the net, and his range seems to win the 50/50 pucks into the attacking zone. Frolov, on the other hand, constantly has his back to the goal, and seems to want to hug the half wall, eventually cycling closer to the net, instead of crashing it like Smyth would. Fro also seems to actually give the puck up on purpose in alot of 50/50 situations in order to better position himself during the takeaway-which he does maybe better than anyone on the team. The style of skating that Fro has is more of a gliding into position, where Smyth is constantly moving and stepping to get somewhere. The physicality of Smyth is just flat out harder to play against than the possession game of Frolov, and Smyth’s style is more conducive to what Kopitar and Williams need to be succesful.
   Also, Parse and Williams are playing great. You’ll notice how much more freedom Stoll has to hit because of his trust in Parse’s ability to backcheck and position himself correctly. I don’t think I’ve seen Stoll ever hit as hard as he has these past 4 games. With a little more time to gel, I think our 2nd line will be exactly what this team needs-a hard hitting, defensively responsible, scoring line.

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10. Teeder says:

    November 19, 2009 at 8:53 am

    As Helene Elliot in to-day’s LA Times nailed it: ‘…the Kings during their 5 on 3 didn’t score because they kept trying to make the perfect pass instead of shooting’ which it seems DL also suffers from: trying to make the perfect trade instead of pulling the trigger and getting some new bodies in the line-up. Todays lineup without Smyth and Scuderi are basically the same Kings circa 2007-2009. It’s hard to imagine a few years ago the Flyers were dead last in their division, then in the next off-season they completely cleaned house with new players and look where they are now.

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11. wavesinair says:

    November 19, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Nailed it? Hardly.

    Yes, the power play is anemic. Painful to watch way too often. But to compare DL to it is a reach at best and completely ridiculous at worst.

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

    November 19, 2009 at 9:12 am

    Agreed…and it wasn’t just failing to shoot–they wasted half the 5-on-3 trying to gain the zone, and when they gained the zone, they didn’t move their feet.

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13. Barry's Mullet says:

    November 19, 2009 at 9:18 am

    The difference tonight was the PP and Goaltending!

    It seems that whenever a team DOESN’T capitalize on a 5 on 3 PP it comes back to haunt them. I can’t remember a game in the last 2 years that the Kings won after they FAIL on the 5 on 3. And not scoring on a full two minute 5 on 3…game over!

    Quick looked average at best. Can’t really fault him on any of the 3 goals….all scrambling type of plays. I hate to pick on him but he’s going down early way too much…..even my wife picked up on that!

    Flyers didn’t play well. They had their back up goalie in net, somehow made 35 saves and played Flyers hockey. That’s a team built for the playoffs…something the Kings need to try and emulate.

    Kings threw everything but the kitchen table at them in the third period. Starting to remind me of the days under Andy Murray. Play like stiffs for the first two periods and than continually have to claw your way back in the third….just doesn’t work. That’s why we all remember the great comebacks against Dallas…few and far between.

    Where was Zeus and Simmer last night?

    Smyth, Frolov, Purcell…I don’t care who you put on the ice….if you don’t play 60 minutes it doesn’t matter who’s playing!

    Kings need to nut up and play like Stolly did last night. The guy is barely 6 ft tall? but the body checks he was laying out were insane….glad someone got up to play the Flyers.

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14. wavesinair says:

    November 19, 2009 at 9:34 am

    Kompon’s in charge of the PP, correct? Seriously, there needs to be a change there. What he’s trying to do: his philosophy, approach, style, whatever… is not working often enough. I don’t even care about the percentage per se, I care about how weak it looks. If there’s more of a sense of urgency and deliberate play, the goals will come. I’d rather see a few shorthanded breakaways here and there. At least that shows we’re aggressive.

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15. Grinder17 says:

    November 19, 2009 at 9:42 am

    Waves, you are right. JK needs to go. With TM and MH we have the defensive tools to be competitive. We also, IMO, have enough offense. The system, and especially PP, are just not suited for some of our players. Don’t know what it is, but something is not right. A change needs to be made. Just part of the maturation and time to get were this team is going.

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16. Cynic says:

    November 19, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Sounds like I should be glad I missed the game, being in Mexico and all. SUCKS to lose Smyth for a month. What to do with Frolov…sad.

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17. Kings562 says:

    November 19, 2009 at 9:57 am

    Blah, Blah, Blah…I read and hear the same “Expert” opinions every year. I don’t get paid to coach or play in the NHL, as do none of you. What I do know is what I saw last night and several nights this season. Complete confusion. Lack of consistent intensity. We can’t expect to be considered a playoff team when we can’t score on a 5 on 3 much less a 5 on 4. The Flyers are a top tier team. They beat the crap out of Jack and Sean and Ratis ALL night. Oh, and they scored when they needed to. What did we do? Skated around like a bunch of confused rookies waiting for someone, anyone to take charge. We have a LONG way to go before we are considered Playoff Worthy.

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18. wavesinair says:

    November 19, 2009 at 10:05 am

    I want the General from Mars Attacks! as our Power Play guy…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxLw0uas9Rc

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19. "I'm Just Saying" says:

    November 19, 2009 at 10:59 am

    Hey RJC

    It’s “I’m Just Saying” 1

    You 0

    Lets hope that turns around quickly! Thanks for listening

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20. "I'm Just Saying" says:

    November 19, 2009 at 11:03 am

    People- it is still early enough in the Smyth injury to make a move and get a Sniper….

    Please be aware that even after Smyth’s return after missing 15-17 games and a month or so of conditioning its going to take him a few games to get back into the swing of things.

    Go pull Salami fronm the Ducks for a draft pick. He can score with his eyes closed and wont cost us much. Please pull the trigger now or risk falling out of the chase by New Years. Scoring 1 or 2 goals will not do it. Even if you play hard and compete for the 60 min a loss is a loss…

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21. Alberto says:

    November 19, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    Don’t you think that may be goal tending is a problem? Look at Quick numbers – at the bottom of NHL, while Kings are trying to stay on top. Compare to last year numbers. He had no shut out this year – zero. He gives 1-2 bad goals almost every game. He is the only goally who makes less than $1M. There is no accident that Kings would never show save % for their goalies during the broadcast. That third goal was a bad one – this is it.

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

    November 19, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    anthony?

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23. "I'm Just Saying" says:

    November 19, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    RJC76

    Playing with myself? I hope that we can survive these next few weeks. That is a statement no team should have to make. Good organizations do not put their team or fans in that position. Yes injuries are unfortunate and are going to happen, but when they include 2 of your top 5 players you dont just hope you can pull through. You go and make a deal to help put a turicate on the bleeding. You dont bleed out then call 911 it does not work that way. Also I am not asking for a trade to get Salami because he is 40 and cant play defence. I am saying he is the kind of player you can get cheap enough to patch a hole for now. And yes RJC76 there is a scoreboard and I am hoping to lose that score. I want us succeed but when 16 out of 30 teams make the playoffs and one of the top markets in the country cant do that for 6 staight years, it is unexceptable and good organizations would never let it happen.

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24. Player-X says:

    November 19, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    I agree with Kompon needing to either modernize his power play tactics or be gone. Just look at what the top pp did, they have guys skating diagonally through the box, they move away from the puck to open passing lanes, and if they ever did a 5 on 3 like we did probably Richards would kill himself out of dishonor. Give-and-goes from half boards, moving screens with two men rotating in and out from low circle to crease, one-timers AFTER a good session keepaway to tire out the defenders, on and on. DL- e-mail me, I am ready for a 20 minute interview, at least let me have an hour with Stoll and Doughty…It all starts at the point, and ends with MOVEMENT.

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25. Player-X says:

    November 19, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    And BTW- it’s “tourniquet”, and “unacceptable”. Picky, yeah, but I just gotta say it

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