In all, a better period for the Kings, who got two early goals and outshot the Flames 12-7. The Flames will be on the power play for the first 55 seconds of the third period, courtesy of a Raitis Ivanans offensive-zone interference penalty.

Calgary showed the Kings how a 5-on-3 power play is supposed to work. Just 17 seconds into their 35-second two-man advantage, Iginla scored his second goal of the game on a sharp wrist shot from the left side, after a pass from Jay Bouwmeester at the 6:51 mark.

Two quick goals for the Kings. First, a “shot mentality” goal for Terry Murray. Sean O’Donnell passed across to Drew Doughty, whose rising slap shot from the right side beat Kiprusoff at the 3:22 mark. Then, 38 seconds later, another long-range shot by Doughty generated a rebound in front. Alexander Frolov picked up the puck [...]

After the initial disaster, the Kings didn’t play a bad period, but they also didn’t establish much offensive pressure. They did a good job cleaning up two consecutive Calgary power plays, but on their only power-play chance of the period, the Kings couldn’t even establish control of the puck in the first 60 seconds. Shots [...]

It took exactly 13 seconds for the Flames to take a lead. Jarome Iginla skated in and, marked by Sean O’Donnell just inside the blue line, ripped a wrist shot that deflected slightly off O’Donnell’s foot — just after the shot — and beat Jonathan Quick low and to the far post.

Let’s see if Drew Doughty, in particular, does anything to impress today. Steve Yzerman and Kevin Lowe, two men with a big say in who will be selected for Canada’s Olympic team, are in attendance this afternoon.

Jonathan Quick will start in goal again for the Kings today, and Terry Murray said he has not “penciled in” Erik Ersberg for a start in the near future. But given Murray’s comments, below, coupled with the fact that the Kings have 13 games in a 23-day span after today, it’s likely that Murray will [...]

Manchester beat Albany 2-1 tonight, with goals from Gabe Gauthier and Bud Holloway and 33 saves from Jonathan Bernier. In his last four games, Bernier has stopped 116 of 121 shots and not allowed more than two goals in a game. For the season, Bernier has a .954 save percentage and a 1.55 goals-against average.

It’s been a rough past month or so for Teddy Purcell. His season started out well enough, as he had two goals in his first three games as the second-line left wing, but since then he has three assists in 18 games and has bounced between being a fourth-line winger and a healthy scratch. Purcell, [...]

Alexander Frolov showed a bit of a lighter side today. When asked about his comfort level playing with Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams, Frolov grinned and said, “Not as comfortable as on Zeus’ line.” Of course, Michal Handzus was sitting about one foot to his left at the time. Joking aside, Frolov, who typically doesn’t [...]

The lasting image of the Kings’ loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday might be of the Kings passing the puck around on their 5-on-3 power play, and not shooting (or scoring). Beyond not generating goals, play like that drives coaches (and fans, no doubt) crazy. It goes back to the “shot mentality” that Terry Murray so [...]

For those hoping to see Rich Clune called up to the Kings, well, he’s hurt again. Word from Manchester is that Clune is day to day with another “lower-body injury.” As posted before, Trevor Lewis is out long term with an upper-body injury and, according to Terry Murray, Justin Azevedo recently got “stepped on” with [...]

Not that Anze Kopitar’s importance to the Kings needs to be stated, but there’s this… The Kings have a 13-5 record when Kopitar records at least one point, and an 0-3-2 record when Kopitar is kept off the score sheet. Here’s what Kopitar said today about the importance of maintaining the first line’s strong play [...]

A bit later, I will have thoughts from Alexander Frolov and Anze Kopitar about the new-look first line, but first, here are Terry Murray’s thoughts about the line’s play against Philadelphia, a game in which the first line was kept off the score sheet. The line combined for 15 shots, but lacked the strong play [...]

According to Terry Murray and the Kings, Rob Scuderi will attempt to skate, on his own and without pads, on Sunday morning. That would be his first time on the ice since he suffered his lower-body injury at Tampa Bay. Earlier, after practice, Murray said Scuderi is “doing everything in the off-ice part of it. [...]

As posted earlier, the Kings will skate tomorrow with a third line of Raitis Ivanans, Michal Handzus and Wayne Simmonds, and a fourth line of Teddy Purcell, Brad Richardson and Peter Harrold. Here’s how Terry Murray explained the Ivanans/Purcell flip today… MURRAY: “I need to play him [Ivanans] more. Not only him. It’s the three [...]

Rob Scuderi will be out for tomorrow’s game, and the Kings’ forwards will skate as they practiced today. Terry Murray said he needs to get more minutes out of his fourth line. Lots of talk of the need for the first line to play with more of a net presence. No call-up from Manchester yet, [...]

Clearly I meant Kopitar as the center there. Sorry, brain freeze. Also, Rob Scuderi is not on the ice this morning…

Frolov-Smyth-Williams Parse-Stoll-Brown Ivanans-Handzus-Simmonds Purcell-Richardson-Harrold Late start to practice. Updates to come…

Before I head out to the 10 a.m. practice, here’s the last of the open forum questions and answers. I threw them all in this one, so it’s really long. The questions were very good and entertaining. We’ll do another one next month, and I’ll announce it further in advance than just one day next [...]