A couple notes on some guys not yet in the NHL… – Jonathan Bernier was named yesterday to start the AHL All-Star Game, which will be played Jan. 19 in Maine. Check out that story here. – Canada beat Slovakia 8-2 yesterday in the World Junior Championships, setting up Thursday’s game against the United States. [...]

Not so long ago, the Kings were first in the Western Conference. They awoke this morning in sixth place, only three points ahead of ninth-place Detroit and four points ahead of 11th-place Minnesota. If Nashville gets a point tonight, the Kings will be in seventh. That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Anyone who objectively, [...]

As previously posted, Jarret Stoll traveled with the Kings to Calgary in order to continue rehabbing his strained groin, both on the ice and off the ice, Terry Murray said. Injured players typically don’t travel, so that’s a positive sign for Stoll, even though both he and Murray insist that Stoll won’t play on Wednesday [...]

Depending on how you look at it, Michal Handzus will get either his second or third chance at the Olympics in a few weeks. Handzus represented Slovakia in 2002 (EDIT: and won a gold medal with Slovakia in the 2002 World Championships) and was selected again in 2006, but in the second-to-last NHL game before [...]

Much of the postgame discussion centered around a play that led up to Minnesota’s third goal, an important power-play goal that made the score 3-1 early in the third period. On the play, Alexander Frolov lost his stick and had it broken. In that situation, a player has three options: attempt to play without a [...]

Nothing ground-breaking at practice today. Same players, same lines, with the addition of Jarret Stoll, who stayed on the ice for most of the practice. Stoll will accompany the Kings to Calgary and Minnesota, in order to continue workouts with the team, but won’t play in either game. More notes and quotes to come, including [...]

Michal Handzus has been selected to represent his native Slovakia in the Olympics, making him a three-time Olympian (2002, 2006). Raitis Ivanans was not selected for Latvia.

The view from the Minnesota locker room last night… COACH TODD RICHARDS “I think the game got away from us a little bit, but (the Kings) are a very good team and they had nothing to lose. They were down by two goals and their defense was much more active and much more aggressive in [...]

Here is my game story tonight from LAKings.com, with video and stats. Thanks for reading! Wild defeat Kings 4-3

I’ll put these all on one post, for the sake of brevity. From Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Matt Greene… DUSTIN BROWN “It’s one of those plays where it went right in the corner off Dewey’s stick. That was a huge two points that got away from us. That’s all that really matters at this [...]

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the result…) MURRAY: “I thought we played well enough to win today. We’re playing well. We didn’t think we played well in Phoenix, but we played well enough to win today. We just need to keep going with the same thing.” (on the difference in the game…) MURRAY: “We did [...]

Drew Doughty’s postgame thoughts… (on the game-winning goal…) DOUGHTY: “It was just kind of an unfortunate bounce. They kind of got a lucky bounce in the first place, when Jack stepped up there and it kind of bounced between his legs and kind of caused a 2-on-1. I tried going stick-on-puck, as he wound up [...]

The Kings outshoot the Wild 32-23 but drop their third consecutive game. More from the locker room ASAP…

A rough turn of fortunes for the Kings. Scott Parse tied the game with 2:37 remaining, but Eric Belanger scored 12 seconds later to give the Wild a one-goal lead with 2:25 remaining.

The Kings got some life, 2:28 into the third period, on the power play as Jack Johnson’s shot got through, with some nice traffic in front by Michal Handzus, and beat Backstrom after a deflection by Wild defenseman Kim Johnsson.

Owen Nolan held the puck behind the Kings’ net, and fed a centering pass past Drew Doughty in front and onto the stick of Eric Belanger, who managed to knock the puck past Quick with 1:02 remaining in the second period. We’re now at the second intermission. Minnesota is 8-0-1 this season when leading after [...]

Minnesota had been 1-for-19 on the power play in its previous four games, but the Wild took the lead with a power-play goal with five minutes left in the second period. Andrew Brunette held the puck to the right of the Kings’ net and fed a perfect, no-look backdoor pass to Kim Johnsson, who skated [...]

The Kings tied the game on a disputed goal with 8:24 left in the second period. Drew Doughty crashed the net, and crashed into Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom, but in the scrum the puck crossed the line. After a video review, the goal held up. Brad Richardson and Scott Parse picked up assists.

Minnesota controlled the first few minutes of the second period, and got rewarded 4:23 into the period. Eric Belanger pushed the puck ahead to Martin Havlat, who carried it into the Kings’ zone, one-on-one with Jack Johnson, slowed at the top of the right circle and fired a wrist shot that beat Jonathan Quick high.

It was a scoreless but entertaining period, in which the Kings outshot the Wild 13-10. Minnesota had the period’s only power play, and had an Antti Miettinen shot hit the post at the 7:58 mark.