On paper, it wasn’t the most obvious of moves. When defenseman Matt Greene returned to the lineup, the Kings chose to pair their two least-experience defensemen, Alec Martinez and Davis Drewiske, together. Drewiske, 26, has 90 games of NHL experience while Martinez, 23, has 19 games. So far, though, it has worked out well, particularly [...]
Archive of entries posted on December 2010
Once every 15 years or so…
Call it the “Moon Shot,” or “Air Mail,” or anything you’d like, but Anze Kopitar’s 80-foot bomb of a pass, that led to Dustin Brown’s goal late in the third period against San Jose, was still a big topic of discussion on Tuesday. After the game, Murray said he had only seen a pass like [...]
Johnson’s play is a big `plus’
Terry Murray had strong praise on Tuesday for all of the efforts of his defensemen in Monday’s victory over San Jose, but when asked about Jack Johnson, Murray had particularly kind words. Johnson had one assist, a plus-3 rating and was credited with a team-high five blocked shots as he played 25 minutes, 32 seconds, [...]
December to remember for Brown
Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar are both having one of the best months of their careers. In 12 December games, Brown has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) while Kopitar has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists). Brown is now the team leader with 16 goals and Kopitar has moved up to No. 11 in [...]
Tuesday (non-)practice update
Terry Murray said Alexei Ponikarovsky, who missed last night’s game, will attempt to participate in tomorrow’s morning skate and might be able to play against Phoenix. The Kings didn’t practice today, opting for a team meeting instead, but Ponikarovsky went to the practice rink for treatment today. Jonathan Quick will get the start in goal [...]
World Juniors update
The United States, Canada and Russia — and the teams’ respective Kings prospects — are back in action today in pool-play games in the World Junior Championships. Brayden Schenn and Canada take on the Czech Republic at 1 p.m. Pacific time, followed by Maxim Kitsyn and Russia against Sweden at 4 p.m. and Derek Forbort [...]
The `air mail’ pass
For those who haven’t seen Dustin Brown’s second goal last night — Anze Kopitar’s pass was called “Air Mail” by NHL.com this morning — here’s a look at it…
Postgame notes (Dec. 27)
Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings scored four third-period goals to break a scoreless tie and beat the San Jose Sharks 4-0 on Monday night in San Jose. – Trevor Lewis and Marco Sturm scored on the Kings’ first and second shots of the third period, respectively — at 2:08 and 3:19 [...]
The view from San Jose
First, late last night — early this morning, actually — the Kings decided against practicing today, so there will be no bus ride to Peoria (neither Arizona nor Iowa). I’ll still catch up with Terry Murray at some point today for some updates. For now, here’s the way last night’s Kings-Sharks game was portrayed in [...]
Tonight’s game story (Dec. 27)
Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading! Kings beat Sharks 4-0 The Kings are scheduled to practice in Arizona tomorrow at 12:45 p.m. local time (11:45 a.m. Pacific time).
Murray postgame quotes
Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) MURRAY: “We played with an attitude, all through the 60 minutes. I loved our start. We had great offensive-zone time. We had lots of pucks to the net. We had a shot mentality and recovered a lot of pucks. The second period, we fell off it a little [...]
Kopitar postgame quotes
Anze Kopitar’s postgame thoughts… (on his long pass to Brown…) KOPITAR: “We have (connected). We have connected a few times, but it just wasn’t a case like this. Either a D was back, so it wasn’t a clear-cut breakaway. Tonight it worked out pretty well.” (on breaking through in the third period…) KOPITAR: “That’s one [...]
Brown postgame quotes
Dustin Brown’s postgame thoughts… (on whether he knew the pass from Kopitar was coming…) BROWN: “Yeah. We’ve actually tried that, in similar situations. You probably don’t realize it because it has never connected like that. Either I’m thinking he’s going to do it too early, and I’m going too fast, or he flips it on [...]
Richardson postgame quotes
Brad Richardson’s postgame thoughts… (on his assist, after getting hit…) RICHARDSON: “It worked out good. Obviously you don’t want to get hit like that. [laughs] It’s never fun, but that one just kind of worked out really well. It just kind of stayed in my feet, and I got up and Lewie was wide open. [...]
Quick postgame quotes
Jonathan Quick’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) QUICK: “I can’t really say enough about the way the team played. San Jose is one of the top teams in the league, and really we brought our `A’ game. We played well, and we didn’t give them much defensively and we scored some big goals. Niemi played [...]
FINAL: Kings 4, Sharks 0
The Kings scored four third-period goals, including two by Dustin Brown, and Jonathan Quick made 24 saves for his fourth shutout of the season. More from the locker room to come…
Kings 4, Sharks 0
The Kings saved their best goal for last, as Brown scored his second goal of the game in a 4-on-4 situation with two minutes remaining. Anze Kopitar picked up his third assist of the game when he flipped the puck at least 80 feet in the air and onto the stick of Brown, who skated [...]
Kings 3, Sharks 0
The Kings scored their third goal of the period at the 6:49 mark. Drew Doughty took a point shot and Niemi made a pad save, but the rebound kicked hard to the right. Dustin Brown crashed the net, beat San Jose’s Dany Heatley to the puck and knocked it in to give the Kings a [...]
Kings 2, Sharks 0
After having chance after chance turned away for two periods, the Kings scored on their first two shots of the third period. This time, Marco Sturm got his first goal with the Kings at the 3:19 mark. Anze Kopitar carried the puck into the Sharks’ zone and passed left to Sturm. Sturm took a shot [...]
Kings 1, Sharks 0
The first goal of the game finally arrived 2:08 into the third period. Brad Richardson tried to play the puck in the corner but got crunched by two San Jose defenders. As a third Shark skated in and attempted to play the puck, Richardson recovered and centered a pass to Trevor Lewis, who scored on [...]
