The Kings had an optional skate this morning — 13 of 19 skaters on the ice — and are expected to use the same lines and pairs as yesterday’s practice. Rob Scuderi is still dealing with some type of undisclosed ailment and did not skate this morning. Terry Murray said he expects Scuderi will play tonight, but Peter Harrold will also skate in warmups as a precaution.
Also, John Zeiler has been put on recall waivers. If he clears, at 9 a.m. Monday, he can join the Kings. More notes and quotes to come…
I’ve always liked Zeiler. Brings a ton of energy at a low cap hit. And that is what this team needs is some energy. Clifford Richie and Zeiler is a decent fourth line
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Zeiler???? What is he possibly going to add to this team????? Some of these personnel moves are starting to look like DL and TM are throwing darts…
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USHA#17 Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
@rick, That’s putting it mildly.
What happened to all those rookies who were ready to have a Stamkos breakout year?!?!
(hope you know that’s a joke…sort of)
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Bad to worse with Harrold skating and Zeiler on re-call waivers.
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Zeiler? That’s random…………..
Big game tonight, they NEED a win, not necessarily with regard to the standings, but just to get back on track.
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hmmm…
I like the move. This guy is desperate for a new contract and will leave it all on the ice. The Kings have needed a player with his intensity all season.
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Maybe… JUST MAYBE… some bottom feeder team needed a cheap energy guy, and by the Kings placing him on recall waivers, that team can acquire him at half-price.
MAYBE
/pray
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I’m not going to just copy what I wrote in the previous thread because I’m too lazy.
But Zeiler is not the same player he ever was in the past. And I mean that in the best possible way.
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Belexes Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:40 am
@holly,
You mean he’s not the guy thats going to take reckless runs at every player on the other team, leaving his teamates to clean up the mess he starts?
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insider#2 Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:42 am
@Belexes, True, he does need to backup his hits. Maybe he learned how to fight.
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holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:49 am
@Belexes, Exactly.
He’s actually been playing pretty intelligently. I used to groan every time he stepped onto the ice, but now I’ve actually come to enjoy watching him. Zeiler is still high energy but he’s no longer completely out of control.
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Belexes Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:52 am
@holly,
appreciate your insider views on Manchester Holly. I will now try very hard to watch Z with a little different attitude!
rick Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:43 am
@holly, Just read your comments. Thanks for the insight. However, unless the guy has gone through a serious transformation, he is going to be nothing better than a high energy, “heavy”, grinder with little or no scoring touch. We have more than enough of those already.
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holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:55 am
@rick, Zeiler has never been and never will be a guy that you look at for pretty goals or brilliant play making.
He used to be a liability on the ice but now he definitely isn’t. He was always someone that at every moment was a major concern as far as injuring himself or another player on the ice, usually his own teammates. That has definitely been toned down quite a bit. Now he’s playing where I’m sure the Kings had hoped he’d play years ago. I still don’t see him as a full time NHL guy, but he’s absolutely improved.
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rick Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
@holly, Hardly seems like the kind of guy you look to when your team is in a tailspin.
holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
@rick, I don’t know who else they’d choose right now, to be honest. If they went for Zeiler over a guy like Loktionov or someone else, odds are they had a very specific plan in mind.
Quisp Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
@holly,
Also, Zeiler managed one of the most amazing Wrestling “reversal” moves in a fight I have ever seen. I wish I could remember the exact maneuver. I think he pulled the other guy through his own legs.
I like him. Not on your stopper line (not to mention top six), but I have seen him drive people to madness. Was it Adam Foote in the pre-season?
Why not call up Clune if you want energy? I’m not sure Zeiler is being called up to suit up for the Kings, we shall see though
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holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 11:58 am
@AK47, Different positions and different styles of play, really. Zeiler has been playing RW all season for the Monarchs and if I remember correctly, he historically has. Clune has always played LW for the Monarchs. While a lot of guys are comfortable switching around, it could be a desire to pull someone up to play on their natural side. Clune is more of an intentional agitator, Zeiler’s agitating incidents tend to be unintentional (and far less frequent this season).
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Just talked to him. Says, Kings hope he clears and if he does he’s plays Monday. Though, they probably wouldn’t tell him if there were an ulterior motive.
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the Kings have been Pathetic lately, now we may have to watch Zeiler what a Joke. put JZ with Westgarth and the Kings can have the worst line in the NHL.
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puck73 Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
@KingsfaninWNY, Take it eay there, we are not an elite organization yet even though a lot of people think we are now. We wont be where Detroit is for another 1 to 4 seasons….As DL has said many times in interviews..We still gotta lot of work to do here.
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holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
@KingsfaninWNY, But if we didn’t have Westgarth everyone would be crying about how we don’t have an enforcer.
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Matt Reitz Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@holly, Not everyone
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jet Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
@Matt Reitz, I was wondering who teh team doctor was.
JZ will play in place of Westgarth when they don’t dress him. The Harrold experiment of having him play forward is FINISHED after the Montreal game. Maybe in an emergency but no more when we have healthy forwards sitting.
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QWe have officialy reached panic mode
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wonder which 6 players didn’t skate…?
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Choralone Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
@DannyMeux, Besides Scuderi as mentioned, I’d guess and say some of the older players like Smyth and ‘Zus would be on that list. But I have no facts.
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DannyMeux Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
@Choralone,
haha good. cuz i would have guessed doughts and simmer cuz of “partying” lol
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Simply a joke.
5 years after DL takes over and trades Cammy, Boyle, and a host of others we’re still working with the Zeilers (aka – Guiliano, Chartrand) players?
I get the idea of drafting defense, but you have got to balance out the team. There is a crop of young talented forwards throughout the league and in our division.
The Kings have come a long way, but this is the cap era and we’re not seeing any significant impact from DL’s draft picks at forward. Lewis and Simmonds are nice players, but where are the impact forwards a la Chris Stewart, James Neal, Rene Bourque?
For all the defensive drafting, we’re still only getting impact at the back from Doughty and to an extent Drewiske.
5 years, too little quality as of yet.
Time to let the draft picks learn on the job and get rid of our glut at the center position.
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holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
@Cristobal, Whiskey wasn’t a draft.
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puck73 Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
@Cristobal, There are always gonna be players that dont make it here because they weret good enough at the time, or maybe because of the 59 million dollar salary cap. I am sure Chicago did not want to get rid of the 10 players that were on their roster but had no choice because of the cap…No one ever said being a President and GM like Dean was easy.
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RBGolfer Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
@Cristobal, LOL Boyle???????
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@holly
my bad on Davis, but that just makes our drafting look worse.
Cheers
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holly Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
@Cristobal, I know. I was like “Whiskey wasn’t… oh, this just further proves the point.”
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zeiler will at least be fun in the ducks game. hope its one and done after that.
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@rbgolfer
Yes, Boyle, who has 9 or 10 goals so far playing on the 4th line in New York.
I didn’t even mention Purcell and Moulson, but they weren’t LA draft picks.
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to have a consistantly winning team there’s so much more to the equation than talented players. I know all of u pretty much know that already, jz is being called up for a different reason than his hockey skills. Although he is a decent player, maybe Not a regular n the show but has other aspects that r key to having success. What john brings to the table is mostly off the ice, even though he does skate with a lot of energy, that’s not why he’s here. If a team lacks charactor n off ice energy then it will 100% effect the way they play. Jz is a very liked and loose person. He definetley brings a lot of comic relief to the team, a different type of comedy (not like Greener’s comedy) which is extremely important. Being a comic relief/role player n my short lived career knows exactly what they r expecting from zeiler. I was much like john, there were a million better players than me but my charactor n comic relief off the ice never made it hard to land a job with almost any team i approached. The kings have lost a few games n the room is probably starting to tense up n if they don’t do something now it could b a bad Yr. Its already clear the kings have a good team and plenty of talent. They must of been lacking something off the ice, hints-recalling z. I think its an extremely smart move to bring z back. Its not gonna put a wrench n the lines and just enough to shake the room up a little. What z is gonna bring to the kings is gonna go unseen n unappreciated by the fans but is a huge role n having consistent success. Z is one of the nicest n approachable players I Know. U have to remember most of these guys don’t have any friends or family within a 1000 miles so it really helps to have a Z n the room. So I really hope guys like z start to b appreciated more because the roles they play can b as big as the heros role. Unless u have played professionally or even juniors then u probably will continue to complain about a call up like z, but there’s soooooo much more to hockey than talent. I hope everybody will stop bagging z, he will help the team, promise u that. Sucks his contributions r gonna go unnoticed, but they r huge. I went to LA during training camp to see some old buddies and went out with all the boys a few nights and really took a liking 2 zeiler. His comic relief n Rico suave looks n attire was second to none. I had a great time that night n couldn’t of been out with a funner group l, n it just so happened that the center of attention n comic relief was JZ. He is a very liked from both the vets and rookies. When I saw they recalled him i new exactly why they did. Great move I think.
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