Tonight’s game story (Oct. 25)

Posted by Rich Hammond on 25 October 2010, 10:44 pm

Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading!

Kings beat Wild 3-2 in shootout

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26 Comments

ryanzlakings says:

October 25, 2010 at 10:48 pm

WOW not the best game of the year, but elite teams find ways to win. I hope TM plays bernier wednesday, cause you can’t play quick too many games. Anze looks really good out there and stoll i love the way he is shooting.

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puck73 Reply:
October 25th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
@ryanzlakings, Agree about Bernier, Anze, and Stoll. However, I think this was their best effort and they dominated this game even though the scoreboard didnt show it. In the 2nd and 3rd periods it wasnt even close !

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luc20rules Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 4:47 am
@puck73, Ryan Smith had 2 what appeared to be sure goals, but miracle plays by Minn D-men made saves one was a 3 out of 10 type batting the puck out of the air after it beat the Goalie, and the other a 1 in 1000 stop D-man falling down and jerking his stick at a wrist shot that was beating the goalie. Your right there were so many scoring chances for the Kings probably 2 to 1 over Minnys.

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DougS Reply:
October 25th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
@ryanzlakings,
Since there are games Wednesday and Thursday, gotta figure Bernier will get one of them. If Murray holds to his pattern, Bernier will probably get the Chicago game on Wednesday because he wants to save Quick for the division rival (Dallas, on Thursday).

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KC23 Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 1:30 am
@DougS, Yeah, I believe Bernier will get Chicago because Dallas is a division game and therefore the most important of the two. Hope we get at least 2pts out of those games.

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DougS Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 2:27 am
@KC23,
A split would = a 3-2 trip with none of the games against patsy teams. I’d be satisfied with that.
ryanzlakings says:

October 25, 2010 at 10:50 pm

oh and GREAT JOB on the penalty kill of the whole night especally when it really needed from the 5 minute kill. great job

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dough nuts fan says:

October 25, 2010 at 10:52 pm

Rich,

As a thank you for all your hard work. When the road gets tedious, read “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanence”

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DodgersKings323 says:

October 25, 2010 at 11:51 pm

You guys seen Salanne getting laid out? http://network.yardbarker.com/nhl/article_external/kronwall_levels_selanne_selanne_whines_about_it/3480502

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Bill M. says:

October 26, 2010 at 12:18 am

I know it’s early in the season, I know some teams are one or two points back with a game in hand, but just can’t help freaking out a little…

THE KINGS ARE IN SECOND! WE ARE ONE POINT OUT OF FIRST!!!!!

Really. It’s fun to debate what lines might work, or which prospects will stick, or what can be done about underperforming areas of the game. BUT anybody legitimately complaining at this point is either ignorant or inflammatory. No legit fan gets upset about a team that is a game out of the lead. Whiners, I think I might be time to go home.

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roadtripper Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 1:17 am
@Bill M., You are right. It’s early. And the beauty is that we’re finding a way to get the 2-points NOW, which will help a ton in 6-months! Yes, we’re finding a way, through an injury to one of our franchise players (I think Kopi is also one), through early season rookie and line experimentation, and also through horrid officiating! The LA Kings are for real, built the right way from the goaltending out. We’re young, we’re big, we have depth! AND we still have a long way to go… But I still can’t help wondering if they’re gonna need to add another layer on to the cup for Ponikarovsky’s name

GKG!!!

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luc20rules Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 5:10 am
@Bill M., I believe the whiners have gone home, and they aren’t blogging either. The Kings win we are lucky to get 30 blogs even when its on the road and ends at 7:30pm. We lose and everybody blows this site up with what TM is doing wrong, or how DL didn’t get us that sniper at LW. Do the 70% of the bloggers that wrote DL & TL should lose their jobs for not signing Kovi write apologies now? It appears not, they are more likely to change their blogger names to hide their shame, or pretend they were against it from the start. I know enough about hockey to say the team is in the best hands now of the 20+ years I have been a fan. I love this team and the structure behind it. In DL I trust, and TM I follow. Even when I disagree with a move I have to wait a second and think what was behind it (Without Cloutier or Crawford there is no Doughty).
Go Kings Go!

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tantrum4 says:

October 26, 2010 at 1:25 am

I just want to say that was the best game I have seen the Kings play in quite some time. Not ONE player took a shift off and everyone’s feet were moving the entire game. And Ponikarovski is a BEAST! He might not get us a ton of points, but his defensive play and hitting along the boards are one of the best I’ve seen from ANY Kings player in quite some time. A big improvement over Frolov in the overall picture of the team.

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KC23 Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 1:33 am
@tantrum4, Agreed about Poni. Was concerned the first few games, but he gained a half step over the last 3 or 4 games. Seems to be getting chemistry with Zues.

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vplaza Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 9:14 am
@tantrum4, I still think that Poni for Fro is still more of a push. Okay, maybe slightly better than a push. The fact is Poni’s great play on defense and the PK makes up for the fact that we won’t see 20 goals from him. In that sense, it’s an improvement on one side of the ledger, but at a loss of 20 goals that someone else has to make up.

Now, if he starts lighting the lamp a bit more, then I’d agree that he is a big improvement from Fro. Right now, he’s just playing a different part of the game much better than Fro ever did.

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paul says:

October 26, 2010 at 2:22 am

Nice road win Kings

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Shakes says:

October 26, 2010 at 4:53 am

Off Topic:

random Mathieu Schneider reference:

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/the-morning-skate-banging-heads-and-scratching-ilya/#more-32877

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FaninHighland Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 8:08 am
@Shakes, Enjoyed the piece, funny how Mattieu Schneider smiled when Fraser mentioned it to him.

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Shakes says:

October 26, 2010 at 4:58 am

After years of having weird Kings slogans (e.g. “Pride=Passion=Power”), Wild center Matt Cullen may have just given us the best one possible with his quote after the game last night:

“They’re young, they’re big, they can skate and they attack”

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luc20rules Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 5:19 am
@Shakes, We’re not sneaking up on anyone and we are still 6-2-0 in a rougher patch in the schedule. I saw the 2 back to backs one more coming Wed & Thurs and 2 vs Vanc all the travel and was worried, but we have handled the teams, but will need to improve in the back to backs which we always have more then our share(11) of due to sharing Staples Center with so many teams and events.

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Stone says:

October 26, 2010 at 5:23 am

boy oh boy, I sure am enjoyin’ watchin’ the Kings lately. I don’t see any glaring weakness. They’re big, they’re fast. They can roll out four lines. Have one of the best bluelines in the NHL. They wear teams down as the game goes on. They are resilient. They all seem to love playin’ together. And this team is only gonna get better and better. I see the makings of a… DYNASTY

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Since '67 Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 9:48 am
@Stone, Maybe you have the next slogan, might have to be cut down a bit though.
“They’re big, they’re fast. They can roll out four lines. Have one of the best bluelines in the NHL. They wear teams down as the game goes on. They are resilient. They all seem to love playin’ together. And this team is only gonna get better and better.”

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Real 7 says:

October 26, 2010 at 5:41 am

nice site for NHL stats….notes: big comeback for Tim Thomas this year, the leading goalie….ANA leads in penalty minutes and major penalties….Devils have scored a paltry 13 goals….check it out…
http://espn.go.com/nhl/statistics

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scvking says:

October 26, 2010 at 6:25 am

That was a terrific win for the Kings. The Kings came out pretty hard to start the game, yet fell down 2 goals, although I still don’t know how that happened.

From that point forward, the Kings dominated the game for the most part. The Kings seemed pretty relentless all night, with shifts in the offensive zone that were endless. Kings were flying all over the ice and were winning almost every battle for possession.

Not to overlook other players, but Drewiske and (especially) Harrold played really good games.

There were four players that a lot of fans seemed down on during the offseason…JW, Stoll, Harrold and Drewiske. It certainly appears that the right choice was to keep them, doesn’t it?

Now, it is on to Chicago, and Let’s Win There!

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Shotongoal Reply:
October 26th, 2010 at 10:55 am
@scvking, I have to admit I was not too high on Drewiske staying and Muzzin being sent back to AHL. But, with that said, I think Drewiske has improved over the last few games. He still has costly turnovers, but he has improved his hitting and shot blocking lately. So I guess i would say he has stepped up his play since Doughty went out, now if J. Johnson would do the same!

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vplaza says:

October 26, 2010 at 9:20 am

Hard to complain about getting two points on a road game when you were down by two goals early in the first period. But….

If the Kings can only get more of their shots on the PP on goal, they’d find these games easier to win. Don’t get me wrong, I love Stoll and what he brings on the ice, but it drives me crazy when I hear Nick Nixon announce on the radio that he’s on the point on the PP, Kopi sends him the puck, and he one times it…..wide or high.

Maybe he’s figuring it out now with the PP goal late in the first last night, but prior to that, there have been a lot of PPs where Stoll (and Johnson) would shoot the puck off the target, resulting in a lost posession or lost time on the PP.

Again, I’m not complaining about the win. It was a good game overall. But somehow, I think that if the point guys on the PP can get more of their shots on net, two points would be easier to get most nights.

Go Kings Go!

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