At the end of practice today, Alexei Ponikarovksy and Willie Mitchell came onto the ice for some skating drills. It was the third day on the ice for each player. After his doctor appointment yesterday, Ponikarovksy was cleared to start handling and passing the puck. On Monday, Mitchell will go for a similar evaluation. Based [...]

After last night’s game, Terry Murray had a relatively positive outlook on his team’s play against Anaheim. Asked, today, if film review revealed anything different, or brought anything into greater focus, Murray reiterated that the Kings had solid scoring chances but simply didn’t capitalize on them. He also pointed to the power play, which went [...]

Brayden Schenn is back with the Kings, but for how long? It’s expected that the Kings will make a decision on Schenn’s short-term future before Thursday’s game, meaning that they will make the call as to whether to keep him or return him to junior. (It’s possible that Schenn’s short-term future might also include playing [...]

It was only a few minutes after last night’s game when Terry Murray told reporters that he wouldn’t make line changes, that he was pleased with chemistry. Well, this morning the Kings hit the ice with three new lines, although each received only right-wing tweaking. Justin Williams skated with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown. Trevor [...]

I caught up with Dean Lombardi today, during practice, to talk about some of the latest issues involving the Kings… Question: How do you recognize the difference between a temporary slump and a bigger problem? Coaches point to specific things that players need to improve, but when do you worry that a team might have [...]

Today was a “maintenance” day for Matt Greene, and Terry Murray said he was hopeful that Greene would be back on the ice tomorrow. Murray did not commit to going with today’s practice lines in Thursday’s game, saying only that he wanted to get a different look in practice. More notes and quotes to come…

Given a night of reflection, it seems Terry Murray did indeed see the need to move around forwards. Here’s how the Kings are skating this morning… Brown-Kopitar-Williams Smyth-Stoll-Lewis Clifford-Handzus-Simmonds Richardson-Zeiler-Westgarth King/Schenn Matt Greene is not on the ice, so we’ll have to see if it’s a “rest day” or something more than that.

Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings lost to the Anaheim Ducks, 2-0, on Monday night for their fourth consecutive loss and their seventh loss in their last eight games. – The Kings have their first four-game losing streak since Dec. 17-30 of last season. The last time the Kings earned only two [...]

Some quotes from the Ducks’ locker room last night… JASON BLAKE (on Jonas Hiller’s play…) “He played outstanding, and made some great, timely saves. In the first period, they came out with more energy and established their game plan. He bailed us out.” (on his goal…) “I just stepped on the ice and the puck [...]

Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading… Kings lose to Ducks 2-0 The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, but a practice time has not yet been announced.

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on whether this was an improved effort…) MURRAY: “Well, it was a good 60 minutes, yeah. We played well enough to win the game. We’re not scoring goals. There’s nothing happening in the end result, obviously, with the goal scoring. The other part of the game is pretty good. I thought [...]

Drew Doughty’s postgame thoughts… (on his second penalty…) DOUGHTY: “I had just gotten out of the box and I came out and took another penalty, and they pretty much scored right away. So obviously, I am not happy with myself for taking that penalty, but it sucks to lose.” (on the Kings’ slump…) DOUGHTY: “We [...]

Wayne Simmonds’ postgame thoughts… (on the game…) SIMMONDS: “I guess this game was a little bit better, but the final result is that we still got the loss. It doesn’t make a difference. We have to find a way to get two points. No excuses.” (on picking up play in the third period…) SIMMONDS: “That’s [...]

Dustin Brown’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) BROWN: “It wasn’t the result we wanted. I think it was probably the best 60 minutes we’ve played through this so-called slump that we’re going through. You look at the goals. They got a power-play goal and a goal off a turnover. We had a lot of chances. [...]

The Kings lost their fourth consecutive game, and for the seventh time in their last eight games, as they were shut out for the first time this season. The Kings outshot the Ducks 27-19 but Jonas Hiller earned the shutout, and made a lunging, point-blank save on Anze Kopitar with 3:19 remaining. More from the [...]

The Ducks took a 2-0 lead with 2:24 remaining, as Jason Blake and Teemu Selanne started a 2-on-1 break with Matt Greene back, after a giveaway by Jack Johnson. Blake kept the puck and beat Quick with a wrist shot to give the Ducks a two-goal lead.

Shots were 10-8 in favor of the Kings in the second period, but the Ducks got the only goal and got the better of the scoring chances, by far. The Ducks have a 4-0-1 record this season when leading after two periods.

The Kings killed one Drew Doughty penalty, but couldn’t kill two in a row. Doughty took a tripping penalty, then took another tripping penalty eight seconds after he got out of the box. The Ducks won the ensuing draw, and after a pass from Lubomir Visnovsky, Cam Fowler shot from the top of the right [...]

It was a fairly even, and sometimes ragged, first period. Shots were even, 7-7, in the period and neither team had a power play.

Tonight’s game is the first meeting of the season between the Kings and Ducks, both of whom are in desperate need of some positive momentum. The Kings are 1-6-0 in their last seven, and the Ducks are 1-4-2, although they’re coming off a 6-4 victory over Phoenix on Saturday. In that game, Bobby Ryan had [...]