Colorado made it interesting late, as the Avalanche pulled within 4-3 with 30 seconds remaining. Paul Stastny forced the puck away from Quick behind the net, then had his centering attempt go off Jarret Stoll and into the Kings’ net. The Kings held on for the win and recorded a season-high 42 shots as they [...]

Colorado broke the Kings’ shutout bid with two quick successive goals by David Jones in the third period. First, the Avalanche scored a 5-on-3 power play goal with 7:18 remaining, when Jones took a cross-ice pass from John-Michael Liles and beat Quick from close range to give Colorado its first goal. Then, just 39 seconds [...]

The Kings’ second power-play goal of the game — this time, a 4-on-3 advantage — gave them a 4-0 lead 5:47 into the third period. Jarret Stoll took a cross-ice pass from Justin Williams and beat Elliott with a slap shot from the top of the left circle.

A power-play goal gave the Kings a 3-0 lead with 1.1 seconds remaining in the second period. After a battle behind the Colorado net, Anze Kopitar pushed the puck up to the blue line, and Drew Doughty’s shot got through traffic. Elliott made the stop, but the puck trickled behind him and over the line. [...]

The Kings took a 2-0 lead 9:50 into the second period. Kyle Clifford battled for the puck along the boards in the Colorado zone, then pushed it back to Alec Martinez at the left point. With Kevin Westgarth running some traffic in front, Martinez’s slap shot beat Elliott.

The Kings’ newly constructed first line came through with the game’s first goal. Brad Richardson controlled the puck behind the Colorado net and carried it out front. Elliott made a stop, but the rebound stayed in the crease and Anze Kopitar knocked in the rebound to give the Kings a 1-0 lead 7:13 into the [...]

Here’s how the Kings are expected to line up today, with Kevin Westgarth replacing the departed Marco Sturm… Richardson-Kopitar-Simmonds Smyth-Stoll-Brown Clifford-Handzus-Williams Ponikarovsky-Lewis-Westgarth Mitchell-Doughty Johnson-Scuderi Martinez-Greene Quick

This will be the third of four meetings this season between the Kings and Colorado, following the Kings’ 6-4 road win on Oct. 23 and the Kings’ 5-0 home win on Dec. 21. Both of those wins came against goalie Craig Anderson, who was traded to Ottawa this month for Brian Elliott, who gets the [...]

Here’s another item, and a nice story for the morning. The Red Deer Advocate newspaper today told the story of the Thiesmann family — residents of Mirror, Alberta — whose house was destroyed by fire three days before Christmas. This week, the family was presented with a contribution check of $26,680, plus an autographed jersey [...]

Andrei Loktionov suffered an injury to his left shoulder last night while playing for Manchester and is scheduled to have an MRI on Sunday. As posted last night, Monarchs coach Mark Morris told the Union-Leader newspaper that he fears Loktionov will be out for the rest of the season.

Marco Sturm has been claimed off waivers by Washington, per Pierre LeBrun. Three players were claimed off waivers this morning, including Craig Rivet by Columbus and Nick Boynton by Philadelphia. It will be interesting to see what the Kings do with the lineup today. Either Davis Drewiske or Peter Harrold can go in as a [...]

The AHL’s Manchester Monarchs beat Bridgeport 4-3 tonight, but it might have been a costly win. The Union-Leader newspaper reported that Andrei Loktionov suffered an injury and quoted coach Mark Morris as saying he thought Loktionov was “done for the season.” Loktionov reportedly left the ice doubled over after a hit along the boards. Loktionov [...]

It’s been a day of a lot of news and notes, so if you need to catch up on any/all, please check out my LAKings.com notebook for today… Kings notebook (Feb. 25) A couple other things… After tomorrow’s game, I’ll be the guest for a 30-minute live Q&A at the ESPN Zone at L.A. Live, [...]

As the trade-deadline fretting lurches toward its conclusion, one player who has some recent perspective on it is Alexei Ponikarovsky, who joined the Kings as a free agent last summer but who was part of a deadline deal last season, when he moved from Toronto to Pittsburgh. In the weeks prior to the deadline, the [...]

As noted earlier, the Kings are expected to make one lineup change tomorrow, with Alec Martinez replacing Davis Drewiske on defense. Drewiske played the previous two games in place of Martinez, after Terry Murray expressed some concern about Martinez’s game and had strong praise of the recent practice efforts of Drewiske. Now, the Kings will [...]

Dustin Brown had two assists last night, but that probably was not a just reward for the type of effort Brown gave in a game in which he tied for team highs in shots on goal (five) and hits (six) and consistently took the puck to the net with authority. Asked today about Brown’s effort [...]

Back to some on-ice stuff… The Kings are expected to go with the same group of forwards tomorrow against Colorado, which would mean a fourth line of center Trevor Lewis with wingers Kyle Clifford and Alexei Ponikarovsky. Last night’s game was that trio’s debut together, and the line had some of the best shifts of [...]

Just to clarify/consolidate some of the Marco Sturm stuff, he’s on waivers and teams have until 9 a.m. to put in claims. If no teams put in a claim, Sturm will remain with the Kings, and Terry Murray and Dean Lombardi both said today that, in that case, Sturm will play tomorrow against Colorado. That [...]

After today’s practice, Terry Murray confirmed that Marco Sturm will play tomorrow — assuming he clears waivers at 9 a.m. — and will remain in his first-line role. At least one change will take place though, as Alec Martinez will return to the lineup in place of Davis Drewiske. More notes and quotes to come, [...]

A bit of update/clarification on Marco Sturm’s situation… He is on waivers but is expected to practice today and play tomorrow if he clears waivers in the morning. From the Kings’ perspective, putting Sturm on waivers gives them roster flexibility in advance of Monday’s trade deadline, since they currently are at the maximum of 23 [...]