Following up on the Doughty-Burrows stuff, Kings coach Terry Murray was asked, on a more serious note, about the hostilities that can develop between two teams during a playoff series, and the right way to deal with the situation. Told that players have said there is a lot of “chirping” taking place on the ice, [...]

Based on reports from the Vancouver morning skate, it appears as though the Canucks’ forwards will skate as follows, with the big move being Pavol Demitra dropping to the fourth line. Tanner Glass is expected to replace Rick Rypien in the lineup. D. Sedin-H. Sedin-Burrows Raymond-Kesler-Samuelsson Grabner-Wellwood-Bernier Glass-Demitra-Hansen If the Canucks do make a change [...]

Everything gets magnified in the playoffs, particularly when reporters covering the same two teams for several consecutive games need to find things to write about. So the topic du jour this morning was “chirping,” particularly the on-ice exchanges between Vancouver’s Alex Burrows and the Kings’ Drew Doughty. Burrows is a known on-ice yapper, and he [...]

Almost every NHL team, before a game, lists what it presumes will be the opposing team’s lineup on its whiteboard. It was humorous to note today, that on the whiteboard in the Kings’ locker room, there was a blank space next to Kevin Bieksa’s name, the spot previously occupied by Andrew Alberts. Alberts’ name wasn’t [...]

No big news from the morning skate today, as no lineup changes are expected. The Canucks are skating right now at Staples Center. Lots of talk about the on-ice “chirping” between players, particularly Alex Burrows toward Drew Doughty. More on that, and other notes, to come…

You might remember the blog poll we did before Game 2, in which the majority of you said that the thing the Kings needed to improve upon the most was putting more pressure on Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo. The Kings largely accomplished that mission in Game 2, as they outshot the Canucks 32-26 and, more [...]

Rob Scuderi was happy to shed the nickname “The Piece” when he came to L.A. from Pittsburgh, but Saturday night, he showed why he is a valuable “piece” for a playoff team when he drew the too-man-men-on-the-ice penalty in overtime that led to the game-winning goal. I chronicled the play extensively in last night’s game [...]

Jack Johnson had what a few team followers believed might have been one of his strongest games of the season. In 22:31 of ice time, Johnson had two assists, both on the power play, and it seems as though Johnson should get used to even more power-play time. On the game-winning power-play goal, Johnson was [...]

In Game 1, Henrik and Daniel Sedin had a hand in each of Vancouver’s three goals. In Game 2, the Sedins were kept off the scoresheet completely. Keeping the Sedins scoreless is probably not a realistic long-term goal, but the Kings will have something of an advantage when the games shift to Staples Center, in [...]

The biggest question about the Kings going into the playoffs was in goal, given that Jonathan Quick ended the season with an eight-game winless streak. Given the way he played in the first two games, Quick’s play continues to be a storyline, but now it’s in a positive sense. After Quick allowed a cover-your-eyes goal [...]

After practice today, Terry Murray said that he would not make any lineup changes fpr Game 3. Stay tuned for notes on Jonathan Quick, Jack Johnson, the matchup against the Sedins and more…

The full team is on the ice for Kings practice this afternoon, with the lineup looking the same as it did last night. Justin Williams and Raitis Ivanans are wearing the green jerseys that usually designate a scratched forward. We’ll see, after practice, if any changes will be announced…

Terry Murray shocked a lot of people — myself included — when he took Justin Williams out of the lineup for Game 2. After the game, there was pretty solid praise for the new-look first line of Kopitar, Smyth and Simmonds. On the other hand, Williams has lifted the Stanley Cup. Would you put him [...]

Here’s a sampling of what they’re saying in the Vancouver media about last night’s Game 2… `It was the wrong call’: Canucks lose to Kings in overtime on power-play goal Cole: Kings the better, and smarter team — thanks to Rob Scuderi’s royal move Luongo’s knob helps L.A. Kings to OT win over Vancouver Canucks [...]

For those who didn’t catch it in the game story… Canucks coach Alain Vigneault has been relatively short and bland with the media since the start of the series, but after last night’s game, he discovered something he wanted to talk about: the too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty his team was whistled for in overtime, that led to [...]

Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading! Kings beat Canucks 3-2 in overtime The Kings are scheduled to practice at 4 p.m. tomorrow in El Segundo.

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the importance of evening the series…) MURRAY: “It’s real important if you want to win the series. (laughs) The percentages of going down 2-0 and ending up winning a series are slim. It has been done, and certainly I know that, but to be able to get a split and [...]

Drew Doughty’s postgame thoughts… (on an impressive comeback win…) DOUGHTY: “Definitely. Especially in playoff hockey, it’s so hard to get back into a game like that. That’s one thing about our youth. Even though we don’t have a lot of that experience, we never quit. We’re going to do anything we can to get those [...]

Jonathan Quick’s postgame thoughts… (on the comeback…) QUICK: “We’ve been in that situation many times before. It wasn’t the first time that we’ve been down a couple goals. We said the same thing we’ve said all year, play like it’s 0-0. We were getting shots and we were getting chances. Luongo made some great saves [...]

Fredrik Modin’s postgame thoughts… (on having two of the Kings’ five playoff goals…) MODIN: “Obviously it feels good to score, but I think we’ve played two very similar games. They could have gone either way, and that’s what makes this a lot of fun. A lot of tight games, two overtime games, and I’m sure [...]