The Dallas Stars improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven, and have yet to allow more than two goals in a game in seven games in 2011. The Stars now have a seven-point lead in the Pacific Division over second-place Anaheim and a 12-point lead over the last-place Kings. Here’s a sampling of how last [...]
Archive of entries posted on January 2011
Morning in St. Louis
It’s another morning, another city, another game. Regular readers are certainly familiar with this parking structure, so I’ll include an additional view, that of the inside of nearby Busch Stadium. For all the baseball fans out there, a reminder that pitchers and catchers report in just 26 days… The Kings are scheduled to have a [...]
Tonight’s game story (Jan. 17)
Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading… Kings lose to Stars 2-1 Of course, there’s another game tomorrow, with the Kings playing at St. Louis. There’s no official word as to whether there will be a morning skate tomorrow. I will update that when it is known.
Murray postgame quotes
Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the penalty-shot chance at the end…) MURRAY: “We had a chance. The goaltender makes a good save. That was about all there was to the opportunity. There’s lots going on around the net. It’s close to going in. The referee makes a good call on it and we get the [...]
Kopitar postgame quotes
Anze Kopitar’s postgame thoughts… (on the lack of scoring chances…) KOPITAR: “We didn’t get a lot of offense tonight, if you look at the whole 60 minutes. Yeah, we made a push there at the end, but it’s not enough. It’s not good enough, and it’s not enough. We definitely had a chance, with the [...]
FINAL: Stars 2, Kings 1
The Kings had a penalty shot with 52.4 seconds remaining, after officials ruled that a Dallas player used his hand to play the puck in the crease, but Kari Lehtonen made the save on Jack Johnson and the Stars held on for the win. More from the locker room to come…
End of second: Stars 2-1
The Stars are 2-for-5 on the power play so far, and the Kings have had only 1:17 of power-play time. Shots are 22-18 in favor of the Stars through two periods, and Dallas had a 13-7 edge in the second period. The Stars are 13-0-1 this season when leading after two periods.
Stars 2, Kings 1
Another power-play goal gave the Stars the lead with 3:01 remaining in the second period. Brad Richards held the puck in the middle of the left circle and fired a perfect pass, past Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, onto Jamie Langenbrunner’s stick. Langenbrunner had to do little more than touch the puck to send it past [...]
Kings 1, Stars 1
On their fourth power play of the game, the Stars tied the game 1-1 with 8:22 remaining in the second period. Mike Ribeiro did a nice job of keeping the puck in the Kings’ zone after a clearing attempt, and Brad Richards fired a shot from the blue line. Loui Eriksson tipped the puck while [...]
End of first: Kings 1-0
The Kings held the lead despite being on the penalty kill for 5 minutes, 17 seconds, in the first period. Shots were 10-9 in favor of the Kings in the first period. The Kings will be on the power play for the first 33 seconds of the second period.
Kings 1, Stars 0
After each team hit a goalpost in the first five minutes, the Kings took a 1-0 lead at the 7:30 mark. Ryan Smyth went hard to the net and got tangled with Dallas’ Nicklas Grossman in front of goalie Kari Lehtonen as the puck arrived. Justin Williams’ centering pass, from the left side, deflected off [...]
Simmonds update
The Kings said that Wayne Simmonds’ MRI revealed no major structural damage and that Simmonds is considered day to day.
Scouting the Stars
A reminder that tonight’s game, with a 5:30 p.m. Pacific time start, is being televised exclusively on Versus. As always, Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans will have the radio call as well. Kari Lehtonen, who has been hot of late, will get the call in goal again tonight for the Stars. Lehtonen is 0-2 against [...]
Bernier gets a chance to build on win
Jonathan Bernier will be starting consecutive games for the first time this season and will be making his second career start against Dallas. In March of last season, when Jonathan Quick’s wife went into labor, Bernier came up from Manchester and stopped 29 of 30 shots in a 2-1 shootout victory over the Stars in [...]
Trying to balance it out
Leave it to the Princeton graduate, Kevin Westgarth, to quickly figure out the math. After I chatted with him on an unrelated topic, I mentioned to Westgarth that there would be a lot of bulk on his line tonight, with Michal Handzus and Alexei Ponikarovsky. After about four seconds of thought, he said, “That’s 19 [...]
Monday skate update
No surprises from the morning skate in Dallas. Jonathan Bernier will start in goal. Dustin Brown will take Wayne Simmonds’ place with Stoll and Sturm, and Trevor Lewis will skate with Richardson and Clifford. The fourth line will be Ponikarovsky, Handzus and Westgarth. Simmonds is scheduled for an MRI in L.A. sometime today. More notes [...]
First look at Stars
The Dallas Stars just continue to roll along, behind goalie Kari Lehtonen. The Stars are atop the Pacific Division with 59 points in 45 games, and are on a 5-0-1 run in January. Lehtonen has started five of those games, and allowed a total of five regulation goals, and in the other game, backup Andrew [...]
Morning in Dallas
This morning’s view from Dallas is brought to you by the good folks from Munters. That’s right, Munters. Bringing you the finest in dehumidification systems, evaporative cooling systems, humidifiers and moisture-control services since 1955… The Kings are scheduled to be on the ice for their morning skate at 11:30 a.m. Central time.
Manchester Monarchs update
It was a good weekend for the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs, who had a three-game road swing and claimed five out of a possible six points. On Thursday, the Monarchs beat Charlotte 6-4, after they took a 3-0 lead. Corey Elkins and Dwight King each had two goals, Bud Holloway had three assists, Justin Azevedo and [...]
Simmonds’ injury means Westgarth’s return
With Wayne Simmonds out of the lineup for the next two games, Terry Murray said the Kings would not look to bring up a forward from the AHL, and would put Kevin Westgarth back into the lineup. The Kings practiced today with the same first line — Ryan Smyth, Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams — [...]
