The Nashville Predators were on an 8-0-2 run when the KIngs beat them on Saturday. To win tonight, and end their road trip with a winning record, the Kings will have to end another streak. Colorado enters tonight’s game with six consecutive victories and has moved up to fourth place in the Western Conference with [...]
Archive of entries posted on December 2010
Morning in Denver
Gray pictures have been the theme of this road trip, so why stop now? Just in the past few minutes, though, it has started to clear up, and it’s actually been relatively mild — in the 40s — in Denver for the past 24 hours. The Kings’ morning skate will be underway in less than [...]
Today’s notebook, and other notes
To catch up on today’s news and notes, please check out my LAKings.com notebook for today… Kings notebook (Dec. 20) A couple other quick notes. Congratulations to Kings head athletic trainer Chris Kingsley, who will work his 1,000th professional hockey game tomorrow. Kingsley (pictured right), the man often referred to in Terry Murray’s quotes as [...]
A little too much time on ice
The Kings, it seems, can’t wait to get on the ice, and that’s not a good thing. Five times in their last 10 games, the Kings have been penalized for having too many men on the ice. Terry Murray said he counted seven such penalties this season (I could find only six) and it seems [...]
Not enough stops after scores
Terry Murray knew what was coming. After practice today, Bob Miller started to ask Murray a question about the number of times, this season, the Kings have scored a goal and then quickly allowed one. Bob got to the word “goal,” and Murray jumped in with, “It’s nine times.” Murray said his standard was three [...]
Second line: will it work again?
The likely debut of Marco Sturm tomorrow also means the likely return of the line of Ryan Smyth, Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams. That line was put together before the third game of the season, and over the next 21 games it was often the Kings’ best line. During those 21 games, Williams had eight [...]
Murray: Sturm seems ready to go
Barring any last-minute change of mind or heart, it appears as though Marco Sturm will get in his first NHL game since May 1 (when he suffered a major knee injury) tomorrow when the Kings play Colorado. After today’s practice, in which Sturm skated in a fourth-line role, Sturm said he would talk to coach [...]
Monday practice update; Sturm in?
It’s not set in stone, but it seems likely that Marco Sturm will make his Kings debut tomorrow night in a fourth-line role. Terry Murray said Sturm indicated, during practice today, that he felt ready to play, and Murray said he would ease Sturm into the lineup in a fourth-line role, and build toward that [...]
Monday’s practice lines
Here’s how the Kings’ forwards are skating in practice today… Richardson-Kopitar-Brown Smyth-Stoll-Williams Clifford-Handzus-Simmonds Ponikarovsky/Lewis/Westgarth/Sturm We’ll have to see if the Kings intend to play Richardson in that spot, or if it’s a wait-and-see move, depending on whether Marco Sturm plays tomorrow. Practice just got underway here at Pepsi Center…
Moller assigned to Manchester
The Kings have assigned forward Oscar Moller to Manchester of the AHL. Officially, the move took place last night, before the NHL’s eight-day holiday roster freeze went into effect at midnight. During his latest stint with the Kings, Moller had one goal and two assists in three games. The Kings, it seems, are preparing for [...]
Postgame notes (Dec. 19)
Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings fell back to even on their road trip with a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. The Kings are now 2-2 on the trip, with Tuesday’s game at Colorado remaining. – The Kings had scored 15 goals in their previous two games, but [...]
The view from Chicago
Here’s a sampling of the coverage of last night’s Kings-Blackhawks game from the Chicago media, followed by a few quotes from the Blackhawks’ locker room… `Solid’ win just fine with Blackhawks John Scott vs. Kevin Westgarth, Round II (Tribune blog) Hawks’ strong `D’ means business (Sun-Times) Blackhawks turning things around (Daily Herald) COACH JOEL QUENNEVILLE: [...]
Tonight’s game story (Dec. 19)
Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading… Kings lose to Blackhawks 3-2 The Kings are scheduled to practice in Denver at noon Mountain time tomorrow, and I’ll have notes and updates in the morning.
Murray postgame quotes
Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the traffic in front of Quick…) MURRAY: “I think, on the Keith goal, he just didn’t see it. They had a big body there. We had a player there. But the plays are developed with our own doing, turning the puck over. That’s a Stanley Cup championship team that is [...]
Clifford postgame quotes
Kyle Clifford’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) CLIFFORD: “We’re pretty disappointed in ourselves here. We need to come out and play more consistent. We need to play as a team better. Our all-around game, there’s no excuses. We just have to be better.” (on the toughness of back-to-back games…) CLIFFORD: “It’s just the way the [...]
Quick postgame quotes
Jonathan Quick’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) QUICK: “I thought we played a good third period, and we created some chances, but it was just too little, too late.” (on whether he was screened on the first two goals…) QUICK: “Not on the first one. It kind of just took a funny deflection and didn’t [...]
Kopitar postgame quotes
Anze Kopitar’s postgame thoughts… (on the game…) KOPITAR: “Mixed emotions. I thought we played a pretty good game, but a pretty good game against these guys is not good enough. We all know that, in this league, you’ve got to play 60 minutes, and that second period was not even close to what we need [...]
FINAL: Blackhawks 3, Kings 2
The Kings outshot the Blackhawks 11-4 in the third period, and had a handful of scoring chances after Wayne Simmonds made it a one-goal game early in the period, but couldn’t tie it up. The Kings are now 2-2 on this road trip with Tuesday’s game at Colorado remaining. More from the locker room to [...]
Blackhawks 3, Kings 2
The Kings made it a one-goal game again, 1:20 into the third period. Wayne Simmonds took a pass from Anze Kopitar, walked the puck out from behind the net and tried to jam it past Crawford. Chicago defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson had an accidental deflection, and the puck popped up and landed over the line. Kopitar [...]
End of second: Blackhawks 3-1
Shots are 20-17 in favor of the Blackhawks through two periods. The Kings will be on the power play for the first 1:18 of the third period. The Blackhawks have a 13-3-1 record this season when leading after the second period.
