Tonight’s game is the first regular-season meeting between the Kings and Colorado Avalanche, but the teams did meet twice in the preseason. For what it’s worth, the games couldn’t have been much different. In the first, the Kings dominated the second and third periods and won 6-0. Three days later, in Las Vegas, the Kings were dominated in a 4-1 loss. Terry Murray recognizes that the Avalanche have a young, talented group of forwards, including 18-year-old Gabriel Landeskog, who has four goals in 10 games.
MURRAY: “A lot of young forwards, and they take advantage of the youth with a lot of speed, quickness, pressure. They’re on you, right now, in all situations, whether it’s special-teams play or 5-on-5. They are relentless at jumping on pucks, recovering them, getting them back to the net. They look to race to the net and beat you off the boards for those quick little plays from up top. So we’re going to have to be real good here. We’ve got to match that intensity and we’ve got to be really good on the checking part. I know if we do that, we can generate some good things on the other side of the puck in the offensive zone. We have played them a couple times, and when we were able to recover pucks, cycle and change the point of attack, there were a lot of plays to the net. Traffic is going to be important. They’ve got Varlamov playing here tonight. If he’s able to see the puck, we’ve seen enough of his game (to know) that he can make the stops.’’
We don’t do very well against speedy teams, I hope the guys come through tonight.
[Reply]
Maybe Richardson gets another hatty tonight
[Reply]
puck73 Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
@Caleb C, If that happens again, that would blow me away.
[Reply]
Just once I want to hear Murray say…..” If we play our game…use our defense….use our skill…..use our great goalie…..then we will be hard to play against…we have no reason to lose tonight other then if we dont play hard for 60 minutes…that is what Iam telling the boys…..60 minutes of good hockey and no one can beat us”
[Reply]
jess Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
@neil, -well then we would be absolutely robbed of other fantastic sayings such as: “shot mentality” “net presence” “big effort” “thick n heavy” and “make a difference”
[Reply]
408kingsfan Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
@jess, puck management
[Reply]
KingsGuy Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
@jess, Hot hand
[Reply]
jess Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
@KingsGuy & 408kingsfan,
yes…. YES!
Don’t I have any friends here in Utah? I’m trying to put together a rocky mountain fan club. A place where folks from this region can get together and talk Kings hockey. There are not but a handful of Utah Insider folks that I know, Basically 2 {801 kings fan. UT fan}, I know there are others, this has the makings of a great season. Let’s get together people and show our pride. The Game is always on at my house. If anybody needs or wants a place to watch let me know. With some work I’ll get this region rocking with Kings hockey. Free beer and chips to anyone in Salt Lake. Let’s party!!! If I lived in So Cal I know plenty of great fans to share a beer with, but in this place it may be a challenge. If anyone who wants to join the New Rocky Mountain Kings Fan Club, let me know for I am the only member.
[Reply]
utahkingsfan Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
@kinginsaltlake,
I am a huge Kings fan, but I live in Provo.
[Reply]
kinginsaltlake Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 5:37 pm
@utahkingsfan, Good e-mail me at oldpro323@aol.com. I would like to get together and watch a game. Now we have two members. Great!!!
[Reply]
Not pertaining to this thread but I have a question. This is the last game that will be televised on DirectTV until they and Fox come to an agreement. How many Kings fans in Orange County have DirectTV? Is there a place OC Kings fans gather to watch road games? I switched from Dish to Direct last year when Dish was going to drop Fox and I don’t want to switch again but I don’t want to miss any games. If any Kings fans want to get together somewhere to watch games I’d like to hear dome suggestions as to where we may be able to catch some games.
[Reply]
frazier king Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
@Seems A Good Fellow, same thing happened to me . I even paid a early cancellation fee. man i hope it`s not like dish 3 weeks of blackouts.only hope that direct has more clout with 4x the customers.
[Reply]
Let me see, we are 1-12 on the PP over the past few games. That is less than 10%. Yep, we are going to far with that.
[Reply]
Kingsfanone Reply:
October 30th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
@DesertKing,
Ask Terry Murray and he’ll tell you they’re playing heavy!
[Reply]
Tonights potential TM quotes. About the Avalanche fast start: “Well, they have some terrific young players there and they brought the compete tonight, especially in the first period. I thought we did a decent job hunkering down there in front of our own net to stop the onslaught of shots.” About the cycle: “I thought we dumped it ok we just couldn’t recover the puck quick enough in their zone on the chase part so that’s something we’ll have to work on. We have some probability guys working on which side of the boards is the best to guess at.” On Drew Doughty falling down. “Yea, he’s ok. He said he thought the blue line was protrusing up a bit and it surprised him a little.” On Dustin Penner’s game. “We talked in my office (again) about what I expect of him and we need more.”. On Quick: “Quick was brilliant”
[Reply]