Another scoreless 20 minutes passed, but this period had a much different feel. The Kings’ scoring chances were not as plentiful — they still outshot the Sharks 14-8 — and the period was intense and full of tight-checking action. The Kings got their cycle going late in the period, and neither team had a power [...]
Archive of entries posted on December 2010
End of first: 0-0
The Kings outshot the Sharks 16-6 in the first period — at one point it was 15-1 — and had scoring chances by the handful but couldn’t put a puck past Antti Niemi. The Sharks came on stronger at the end of the period and will be on the power play for the first 1:13 [...]
Lineup set; Westgarth in
The Kings have announced that Alexei Ponikarovsky is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, so Kevin Westgarth will be in the lineup with Brad Richardson and Trevor Lewis.
Scouting the Sharks
To catch up on today’s Kings news and notes, please check out my LAKings.com notebook by clicking here. For the latest on the Sharks, check out the Mercury News’ game preview and the fine blog maintained by beat writer David Pollak. The Sharks will start Antti Niemi in goal and are expected to be without [...]
Tight battle in Pacific Division
Every win in the NHL is important, of course, but given how things are going this season, the Kings’ victory over Anaheim last night seemed to have deeper implications. The Kings entered that game with a 2-3-0 record against Pacific Division opponents this season, and given that the division is so tight — with seven [...]
Puck recovery a key to success
The Kings’ power play has been on an uptick of late — in the last 15 days, they’ve gone from 27th to 15th in the league in power-play efficiency — but that will get put to the test tonight. San Jose has allowed only one power-play goal in its last three games. After this morning’s [...]
Second Slovenian to join NHL ranks
In a couple hours, Anze Kopitar is expected to lose his status as the only Slovenian player in the NHL. The Detroit Red Wings today called up forward Jan Mursak, who is expected to be in the lineup tonight and make his NHL regular-season debut. Mursak, 22, was born five months after Kopitar and was [...]
Monday skate update
The Kings had an optional skate this morning, after last night’s game, and a handful of skaters took to the ice to give Jonathan Quick some work. As expected, Quick will start tonight. The Kings will go with the same defense, and Terry Murray said he would make a game-time decision about whether to put [...]
Postgame notes (Dec. 26)
Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings scored four second-period goals, including three consecutive goals, and earned a 4-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night at Staples Center. – Anze Kopitar boosted his team-high goal total to 15, while Dustin Brown and Justin Williams also scored to keep pace with their [...]
Morning in San Jose
Here’s the view in San Jose this morning, with a slightly different look than last time. The first one isn’t much of a view. It’s of the interior courtyard of the hotel — although the fire pit is quite nice — and the second is of the little plaza area around the corner, for those [...]
The view from Anaheim
Here’s what the good folks at the Orange County Register had to say about last night’s Kings-Ducks game, followed by some reaction from the Ducks’ dressing room… Kings make it look easy against Ducks Ryan’s December drought continues Ducks’ Lupul still treading long road back COACH RANDY CARLYLE (on the game…) “We made too many [...]
Tonight’s game story (Dec. 26)
Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading! Kings beat Ducks 4-1 The plane is on the ground in San Jose, and the Kings will take on the Sharks tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Murray postgame quotes
Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the second period…) MURRAY: “They did put a lot of pressure on us. We were just talking about that in the office. Bernier was pretty good here tonight. He had a lot of pressure around him with pucks, and a lot of traffic. It looked like they had four guys [...]
Bernier postgame quotes
Jonathan Bernier’s postgame thoughts… (on not seeing the Ducks’ goal…) BERNIER: “It was going pretty high, and he got it at the right spot and it went five-hole. I tried to squeeze it but it was just a little too late.” (on his recent play…) BERNIER: “I feel pretty good. Obviously, I think the team [...]
Simmonds postgame quotes
Wayne Simmonds’ postgame thoughts… (on allowing the tying goal early in the second period, then rebounding…) SIMMONDS: “I think that’s been happening a lot to us lately. We have to start clamping down. We have to have better shifts after we score goals. i think that has happened quite a bit, actually, in the last [...]
Kopitar postgame quotes
Anze Kopitar’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) KOPITAR: “I think the first period was not the best, but coming out of the break, when you’re pretty much not doing anything for two days, I thought everybody — even their guys — felt a little sloppy and stuff like that. it is what it is, but [...]
FINAL: Kings 4, Ducks 1
The Kings were able to avenge last month’s loss to the Kings, and earned a win at the start of their four games in five nights. Shots were 30-19 in favor of the Kings. More from the locker room to come…
Kings 4, Ducks 1
The Kings’ fourth goal of the period was the last shot Hiller faced. Drew Doughty took a shot from just inside the blue line, and Dustin Brown was in the slot to pick up the rebound and score on a wrist shot. Jack Johnson also picked up an assist. Curtis McElhinney then replaced Hiller, who [...]
Kings 3, Ducks 1
Justin Williams gave the Kings a two-goal lead with 7:05 remaining in the second period. With the puck in the Ducks’ zone, Joffrey Lupul lost it in his skates momentarily, and Williams pounced. Williams took the puck to the net and beat Hiller with a high wrist shot to give the Kings a 3-1 lead.
Kings 2, Ducks 1
The Kings took a 2-1 lead 9:10 into the second period. Dustin Brown got the play started with a breakout pass, and Anze Kopitar put the puck on net from the blue line. The long rebound went to Marco Sturm, who took a quick shot that was saved, and Kopitar came back into the play [...]
