First, the most-relevant news. Jonathan Quick will start in goal tonight and Dustin Brown is OK to play.
Now, perhaps the bigger news. Justin Williams will have a strength test done on his injured shoulder tonight, and if the results are positive enough, there’s a real chance that Williams could be ready for Game 1 of a first-round playoff series. We’ll know more after tonight. Also, Anze Kopitar was at the rink today and talked about his injury and recovery. More on all this, and more notes and quotes, to come…
to bad Kopi cant return we all miss him
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Wow! They must have an amazing medical staff. Kopitar was at the rink. Williams could be ready for game 1?!!! That is fantastic news. I don’t carew if he is 3rd or 4th line material at this point. He is a name and can’t be worse than his replacement!
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I like hearing JW has a strong chance of playing in the playoffs. That would be huge. Good to hear that Brownie is OK. Need to take the game over tonight Brownie and get the 2pts!!! GKG
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OK to play = He’s injured, but he can play through it?
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Nitrohockey Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:00 am
@Blue Coconuts, Kinda sounds like it. Guess we’ll see tonight!
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Mike Martinez Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
@Nitrohockey, of course hes ok to play hes a hockey player and in all honesty who doesnt have some sort of injury this time of year and we need this win to get home ice hes not gonna let his team be on the ice without him
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Good to hear that Brown is ok!
Good to hear that Quick will start!
Good to hear that Williams is close!
Now just win! Beat the ducks and all will be good!
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Just win tonight! Take care of business and then get Williams back!
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Go Kings go! They will win tonight in an explosion of scoring from phenoms Handzus and Richardson -each recording double hat tricks a la Mikus on a bad day.
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Kevin Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:42 am
@jonsey, the ovechtrick
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Was just thinking about Kopi yesterday and wishing we’d hear something from him. Nice.
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KingsFanFTW Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:07 am
@wavesinair, yea i think when Kopi comes back he going to score score score score
but i have to wait if am right next season
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Williams tried to get to the doctor’s office, but his heart is too big to fit in the car.
What a gamer.
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I’m absolutely shocked that Kings players when having the puck on there stick with the a net that can catch butterfly are still shooting pucks at the Goalies chest and right into there glove.
Example 1 Wayne Simmonds had Ellis down begging for mercy and he shoots it into his glove. If Kings player had any skill they would roof it. Unfortunately we are just a bunch of grinders.
Dean needs to step it up in the offseason get a guy like Patrick Sharp, Brad Richards. Skill wins you games Enough is enough of the board grinding game.
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Cheezypoofs Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:53 am
@steve, It ain’t always that easy Steve
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Michael J. Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:56 am
@steve,
And, how should he get them? And for how much per year? And how does he cut salary to pay these guys under the cap?
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Rick Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
@Michael J., We are going to have to trade some people. I think that Johnson is a prime candidate.
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Derek Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
@steve, that play and the shot that hit the post on the PP killed me… we should have had that game in the bag.
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steve Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
@Derek, i know man. Hey playoffs are all about timing. Were still not bringing up the puck as a unit. The only think I see is a one man rush along the board that leads to only getting the puck stripped.
Things have got to change next season. Speed, Offense, 1 more mobile dman.
Handzus, Smyth, Poni, Moller, and 1 or two others will be gone. I look forward to July 1. Please god let us obtain a offensive Dynamo.
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Great news on Brown and Williams,,I hope he’s not affraid to throw a check or two and be aggressive,,but I’m sure TM wouldn’t let him play otherwise….I’m very intersted
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Ravens Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:10 am
@Ravens, I clicked to soon,,I ment I’m very intersted in what Kopi has to say
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GkingsG99 Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:13 am
@Ravens, Knowing Brown, he won’t back down, he’s a trooper.
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Good news on Justin! Please Kings, beat the Ducks tonight! Go Kings!
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Great news on Williams! Now there is something that is bugging me about some of the fans here. Some of you are acting as if Moller and Penner are the “Hockey Messiahs”. Those two players are finishers and they don’t have the player to feed them the puck and create those opurtunities. Also enough with this “Moller is too small” junk. Moller’s job isn’t to go pummeling players.
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Forum67 Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:29 am
@Seattle757,
Okay, I won’t say Moller is too small. I will just say he is not strong enough on the puck. I do agree that maybe some fans expected Moller and/or Penner to be hockey messiahs and those expectations haven’t been met. I think many others, and I count myself among those, expected for them to have more of an impact than they’ve had.
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Since '67 Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:44 am
@Forum67, Stays on the puck a lot more than some of the bigger players. I always think that around here once someone says that a player is small everyone jumps on that bandwagon with out much thought to evrything else involved. I agree with Seattle 757′s assessment. That and don’t forget he is basically a rookie, I don’t think DL is expecting him to lead this team and certainly hope that TM isn’t either. Now if we get possitive contributions from him of course that will be a huge plus for us.
We better win tonight! GKG!!!!
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jonsey Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:30 am
@Seattle757, Uh, yeah it is. He is playing in our dump and chase system and has to be the first in to recover the puck. He can’t effectively do that when the guy he is against has more talent, more weight, a longer stick, and experience. Moller stinks in any role.
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neil Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:31 am
@Seattle757, Moeller wasnt too small when he had a good game….. Moeller is a good player…He is only 22!!! He has more talent then Lewis and Cliffy.Lewis is a minus 10 for the year.I also think that if you ask other G.M’s. who they would want in a trade,Moeller’s name would come up first…
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:36 am
@Seattle757, Penner had the puck on his stick twice last night in high-percentage chances. In one case, a beautiful pass bounced off his stick in the slot while he slept. In the other case, he skated right through the slot and didn’t take an obvious shot practically everyone in the building knew he should have taken.
What we have is a finisher who doesn’t finish, NOT someone who has no opportunities (and it’s not clear he works hard enough to make his opportunities anyway.) Before those two instances last night, I was grumpy about him but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not any more.
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kingoftheupgrade Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:45 am
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, Agree 100%. Even the duck announcers said he should have shot the puck. Maybe he will show up tonight. I have not been unhappy with Moller. If Penner only tried as hard there might something there.
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bbb7 Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
@Seattle757, I dont look to Penner or Moller as messiahs, and in Oscar’s case he gives it his best, he’s just plain not big enough. Yes, when someone says that people always bring out St Louis, etc, but at this point Oscar doesnt have the hockey sense necessary to find space and pick his spots. Perhaps it’s because he’s trying to play a system he isnt built to play in, but in any case he cant be called on to play a cycling role; he cant do it.
Penner, on the other hand, I dont need to be a Messiah, I just need him to give a full effort. I hate watching guys who dont have anywhere near his talent busting their butts trying (meaning Clifford, Richardson, Lewis, etc) while he has the talent and seems to refuse to skate into contact or pound someone near the boards or use his hands and take some shots. He frustrates me because he seems detached from the urgency the other guys play with.
GKG, close it out in style!
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Williams has a reputation for healing quickly. But as we’ve seen in the past, his skills often take a bit longer to recover. Having said that, I’ll be very happy if he’s in the lineup for Game 1. GKG!
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Great news about JW and Brownie. Big 2pts tonight boys! It will be nice to have JW back for the playoffs maybe then we’ll have someone to put the puck in the net.
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Justin Williams heart, character, and grit will be a welcome addition going into the playoffs, looking forward to it !
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chuckrocks Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:33 am
@puck73, now if only some of that would rub off on on Penner.
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The LA Checkers & Grinders (formerly Kings)
TM has turned the Kings into a very defensive team. Even players who have offensive skills are expected to be ‘defensively responsible’ first. Williams coming back would be a huge boost, but fundamentally the tactics we use won’t change. Once again our total failure on the power play proved costly last night.
It would be huge to win tonight and avoid the top two seeds. I think Nashville would be the best match up for us but who knows, in the playoffs anything can happen.
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jonsey Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:34 am
@ForumFan, Great analysis. Couldn’t agree more. Let’s hope the checkers and grinders can steal a few. We need to exceed our physicality. VAN out toughed us last year.
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Dominick Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:56 am
@ForumFan,
Nashville would be an interesting match up. I think offensively we are very similar in numbers.
Only problem I see is that defensively they’re even better than us. No secret that we can’t score consistantly, even at full strength. Going up against the 3rd best defense, and #3 ranked goalie in the whole NHL is not the match up I was looking forward too.
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Kings x Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
@Dominick, Zero-zero fifth overtime every game. The worlds most low scoring boring hockey series. Good thing we have bernier.
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Too bad we didn’t have Parse all year :/
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One more bit of good news, Penner had a heart transplant last night, removing the mouse heart and inserting a lion’s heart.
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jonsey Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:45 am
@Happy Lappy, Also, Handzus underwent surgery to remove an odd anvil-like deformity that was “weighting him down” and is expected to skate faster and shoot the puck without a parachute on his arms.
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klepto Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:51 am
@Happy Lappy, sadly, it’s made of paper. Penner seems plays with little, to no emotion…he needs more than a new heart.
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Kings x Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:55 am
@klepto, What I don’t get is how can you make that much money, be married to such a hot chick, be in such demand and suck so bad. So much for the right fit. There is nothing right about this waste of spaceoid
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Steve Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
@klepto, That was Penner’s MO in Edmonton. I dont know what it will take to get this guy going. I would pick his brain apart if I was Terry Murray and ask him when are u going to nut up and start playing like a true power forward.
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Game 1, game 2, It doesn’t matter as long as we can look forward to getting him back somewhere in the 1rst round. Happy for Quick to get a chance to go right back at them tonight. We held the Ducks high powered offense to 2 goals, but didn’t score enough to win. Lets not waist another “2 goals or less” performance by our goaltender by our inability to create offense.
Interesting that in Quicks last 6 losses he has lost in identical scores to
Vancouver March 3rd 3-1
Vancouver March 31rst 3-1
Anahiem March 19th 2-1
Anahiem Apr 8th 2-1
The other losses there was 10 goals scored, and the Kings got shut out in one and scored 1 in the other. In 15 of his 16 wins in that same time frame he’s allowed 2 or less.
Can’t say enough about how good this guy has become.
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KingsFanFTW Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:49 am
@Dominick, Quick is doing great but the Forward not doing anyhting
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jonsey Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:56 am
@KingsFanFTW, Spot on. Quick could stop 99 out of 100 and we’d still lose if we didn’t score 2.
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poe Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
@KingsFanFTW, That’s because the Murray system is all about defense and little is done to nurture forward’s offense. In fact, it is stifled.And then of course there is the outstanding power play—NOT, which has been missing all season. I cant imagine how bad the teams are on the PP are if the Kings are 20th in the league. Show us the prode, passion and ower tonite, guys
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A win tonight is paramount to playoff success. Most likely a series against nashville or Phoenix vs. Vancouver, Detroit or SJ. Yeah, I think a win is in order especially on fan appreciation day plus a little remdeption on the sucks now that they have come off their we need to win to be in the playoffs sugar high.
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jonsey Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 11:58 am
@Kings x, I wish we’d play NAS. Didn’t we play well against them this year? But maybe DET would be better. NAS and PHX have great goalies.
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Dominick Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
@Kings x, We also could see Nash and Phx play each other while we match up against Detroit.
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Kings x Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
@Dominick, I’d take that match up scenario even against Detroit rather than vancouver or SJ. We are playing well against Detroit and they are not the same team anymore although I think they will kick it up a notch in the playoffs
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Dominick Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
@Kings x, I do like that match up. They do have alot of guys who know how to win in the playoffs though. The last playoff series the Kings ever won was against Detroit. Would love to stick it to them again, all these years later.
Go Quicker. Let’s get the final season win at home. Great news that Brownie is okay to play, but that really doesn’t mean he isn’t playing hurt. That being said, I’ll bet we have other players that are playing hurt. At this time of the year, it is probably pretty common.
Best of all maybe JW will be cleared to play for our 1st playoff game. Yes! This team has tons of heart. They have proved it over and over again this year and will prove it again tonight. Go Kings Go!
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Kings x Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
@KFII, Maybe if Penner played with a picture of JW heart in his wallet he would be better?
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What do you want the Kings to look like next year?
I know it won’t happen, but I wouldn’t mind a return of a certain LWer….
Dustin Penner -Anze Kopitar- Justin Williams
Ryan Smyth – Jarrett Stoll- Dustin Brown
Kyle Clifford – Trevor Lewis – Wayne Simmonds
Alexander Frolov – Christopher Higgins- Scottie Upshall
Jack Johnson – Rob Scuderi
Drew Doughty – Willie Mitchell
Alec Martinez – Greene
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steve Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
@jonsey, I would sign Upshall in a heart beat put him on the second or third line. Add a guy like Richards or Sharp.
Who know Calgary may want to part with Iginla. Stranger things have happened. I would like to thank Handzus for a whale of a job he has done, but he will not be back next season. Time to turn over the reigns.
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Moller and Penner were dead ends last night. Put Penner on a grinder line and Moller with Smyth
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Tonight is a MUST WIN! They blew it last night…
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