The Kings’ penalty-kill unit has been strong of late, and figures to get another test tonight against Minnesota. Last night, Anaheim — which is a top-five team in power-play efficiency — got only one power play and did not score. Tonight’s opponent, the Wild, rank seventh in power-play efficiency and have totaled six power-play goals [...]
Archive of entries posted on February 2011
Thursday (non-)skate update
The Kings had their team meeting this morning, after which Terry Murray said that Jonathan Bernier will start in goal, in the second of back-to-back games. As expected, Alexei Ponikarovsky returns, replacing Kevin Westgarth as the fourth-line right winger. No other changes are expected. More notes and quotes to come…
Postgame notes (Feb. 23)
Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings ended their run of 10 consecutive road games with a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night at Honda Center. – The Kings’ season-long run of road games ended with a 6-1-3 record, and with the Kings claiming 15 out of a possible 20 [...]
The view from Anaheim
As it turns out, last night’s game was the final Ducks start for goalie Curtis McElhinney, who was traded this morning to Tampa Bay for goalie Dan Ellis. The Kings beat McElhinney three times on 18 shots last night to improve to 2-1 against the Ducks this season. Here’s how the Orange County Register covered [...]
Tonight’s game story (Feb. 23)
Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading… Kings beat Ducks 3-2 The Kings host Minnesota tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. There will be a very limited morning skate at 10:30 a.m. in El Segundo for a handful of players, followed by a full-team meeting.
Mitchell postgame quotes
Willie Mitchell’s postgame thoughts… (on his goal…) MITCHELL: “It was just a great play by Willy [Justin Williams] to draw the guy in and kind of give me some time to shoot it. I was just trying to find the far side of the net, because there was a lot of traffic in front. Fortunate [...]
Murray postgame quotes
Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on finishing the 10 consecutive road games…) MURRAY: “That’s 15 points out of 20. That’s a nice road trip. It’s important that we just keep our focus on how that happened. The hard work, the intensity, the concentration, to bring it every day and do things right. Now we’ve got to [...]
Doughty postgame quotes
Drew Doughty’s postgame thoughts… (on Willie Mitchell’s goal…) DOUGHTY: “It was huge. I guess you could say he’s more of a defensive defenseman, but he has a big shot. When he gets it off, and when he has the time and space to let it go, I don’t think too many goalies are going to [...]
FINAL: Kings 3, Ducks 2
The Kings held on for the regulation win and two points, and moved into sixth place in the Western Conference despite being outshot 27-18. More from the locker room to come…
Kings 3, Ducks 2
Willie Mitchell gave the Kings a 3-2 lead 6:45 into the third period. Justin Williams dropped a short pass for Mitchell, who picked up the puck at the top of the left circle, wound up and scored on a slap shot through traffic. Trevor Lewis also got an assist.
End of second: 2-2
The Kings did a solid job with the pace of play for much of the second period, but recorded only five shots on goal to the Ducks’ nine. Neither team took a penalty in the second, and the Kings have yet to have a power play in the game.
Kings 2, Ducks 2
The Ducks tied the game with 9:55 remaining in the second period. After a scoring chance, Corey Perry pushed the puck out from behind the net, then went to the front of the net. Bobby Ryan sent the puck to the blue line, Luca Sbisa shot from the right point and Perry, in front of [...]
End of first: Kings 2-1
The Kings needed almost 11 minutes to record their first shot on goal, then got 10 shots on goal in the final eight-plus minutes. The Ducks outshot the Kings 12-10 in the first period, and the Ducks had the period’s only power play.
Kings 2, Ducks 1
Shortly after they killed the game’s first power play, the Kings took a 2-1 lead with 2:51 remaining in the first period. On a counter-attack, Justin Williams took a wide-angle shot from the right side. McElhinney made the save, but as Anze Kopitar went to the net, the rebound bounced in the crease. Ducks defenseman [...]
Kings 1, Ducks 1
Following a season-long trend, the Kings allowed a goal shortly after scoring one, as the Ducks tied the game 1-1 with 6:28 remaining in the first period. After a scrum behind the Kings’ net, Toni Lydman’s shot was deflected past the screened Quick by Teemu Selanne to tie the game.
Kings 1, Ducks 0
The Kings didn’t record their first shot on goal until almost 11 minutes into the first period, but they took a 1-0 lead just over a minute later. Jack Johnson’s point shot was saved, but Ryan Smyth, parked directly in front of Ducks goalie Curtis McElhinney, got his stick free and batted the puck into [...]
Scouting the Ducks
The significance of tonight’s Kings-Ducks game hardly needs to be explained. The teams are tied with 68 points. The team that earns two points tonight will be in the Western Conference’s top eight. If it’s a regulation game, the loser will be in 11th place. This is the third of six meetings this season between [...]
Can Drewiske stay put this time?
Will this be Davis Drewiske’s chance to finish the season strong? Last season, Drewiske returned from injury in early January but appeared in only four games after Jan. 4. This season, Drewiske has been healthy, but he has also been a healthy scratch from 19 consecutive games. Drewiske’s removal from the lineup coincided with Willie [...]
Kings to honor Bob Berry
Briefly looking ahead to tomorrow, the Kings will host Minnesota in the second of their three “Legends Night” games, in which they will wear the purple-and-gold jerseys. Thursday’s pregame honoree will be former Kings forward and coach Bob Berry, who played for the Kings from 1970-77 and coached them from 1978-81. Berry recently took some [...]
Feeling at home on the road
One of the oddest and longest “road trips” in recent memory comes to an end for the Kings tonight when they play at Anaheim. The run of 10 consecutive road games started on Feb. 1 in Minnesota, but between then and now, the Kings have been able to spend eight nights at home, because of [...]
