As noted earlier, the Kings had an optional morning skate, which is nothing groundbreaking for a road game. Typically, after the turn of the calendar, Terry Murray goes with optional skates, although all players are still required to report to the rink and do off-ice work. Here are Murray’s thoughts on the skate, followed by [...]

The Kings will make one lineup change tonight, with Kevin Westgarth replacing Trent Hunter on the fourth line. It was an optional morning skate today, with about 15 players on the ice. Terry Murray said he was sensitive to the tough travel this month. More notes and quotes to come…

Almost two weeks into the season, it’s finally time for the Kings to play a team from their own time zone. After games against the New York Rangers, Buffalo, New Jersey, Philadelphia and St. Louis, the Kings play their first Pacific Division game tonight when they take on Phoenix. Another game against Phoenix, and two [...]

Here’s a couple items before the Kings get on the ice in Arizona. First, my weekly LAKings.com feature takes a look at Jack Johnson, and his need/ability to pick up some slack for the defense while Drew Doughty is out of the lineup injured. Also, many of you might have seen this yesterday, but ESPN’s [...]

It’s, uh, hockey weather here in Glendale, Ariz., where the high is expected to reach 94 degrees. But it’s a dry heat. Here’s how things look this morning. Glendale is such a mixed bag. The area immediately surrounding the arena is quite nice, with a massive restaurant/bar/retail scene — seen partially to the right — [...]

Before last Saturday’s game at Philadelphia, the Kings made a subtle change. The third line, with center Jarret Stoll and wingers Ethan Moreau and Brad Richardson, remained intact, but the wingers swapped spots, with Moreau going to left wing and Richardson going to right wing. The move was more about Moreau than it was about [...]

So far, this is the Simon Gagne the Kings hoped to see, as Gagne has started the season with three goals and four assists in five games while playing a first-line role alongside center Anze Kopitar and right winger Justin Williams. The Kings’ signing of Gagne didn’t get as much attention as their trade for [...]

The Kings left Wednesday afternoon for their one-game road trip to Phoenix without defenseman Drew Doughty, who is on injured reserve and will miss a second consecutive game. Doughty will not be able to return until Tuesday’s game against New Jersey at the earliest, and Murray said Doughty (upper-body injury) will do some conditioning skating [...]

It’s customary for Anze Kopitar to lead the Kings’ forwards in ice time. Sometimes the title goes to Dustin Brown. In Tuesday’s game, though, Jarret Stoll led the way with 19 minutes, 29 seconds, of ice time. Stoll, by definition, is the Kings’ third-line center, but he also plays in power-play and penalty-kill situations, and [...]

Slava Voynov made his NHL debut last night and had a plus-2 rating in 19 minutes, 48 seconds, of ice time. How did he do? His defensive partner, Willie Mitchell, and coach Terry Murray shared their thoughts on Voynov’s debut… MITCHELL: “I thought he was excellent, pretty composed, moved the puck really well for his [...]

No changes or surprises in today’s practice. Terry Murray said Drew Doughty will stay in Los Angeles and will skate tomorrow, and Murray said Doughty is feeling “much better,” but there is no updated timetable on his return. More notes and quotes to come, but for those who attended the game last night, I’m curious [...]

Simon Gagne’s goal last night — off a blue line to blue line lofted pass from Anze Kopitar — immediately brought back memories of a similar goal scored by Dustin Brown last December in San Jose. Here are the two goals, followed by a poll: Which goal was the bigger highlight? What’s the bigger `highlight’ [...]

Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings won their Staples Center opener with a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night. – The Kings had been 0-6-1 against the Blues in their previous seven meetings and hadn’t defeated the Blues at Staples Center since Dec. 11, 2008. – The Kings [...]

The St. Louis Blues ended their four-game, Pacific Division road trip with a 1-3 record after Tuesday night’s 5-0 loss to the Kings. Here’s how the game was reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, followed by some postgame quotes from the Blues’ locker room… Halak pulled as Blues suffer discouraging loss McDonald’s injury calls NHL [...]

Here’s my LAKings.com recap for tonight, with stats, video and pictures included. Thanks for reading… Kings 5, Blues 0 The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at noon at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, followed by a flight to Phoenix.

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts… (on the win…) MURRAY: “Very good effort, very good outcome. We talked about this being our first game at home after a long road trip and the fact that St. Louis had given us a lot of trouble in the past couple years. Certainly last year we weren’t able to win [...]

Anze Kopitar’s postgame thoughts… (on winning the home opener…) KOPITAR: “We knew that the building was going to be pretty loud and that fans were going to be excited. We were excited to come back. It was a long road trip and I thought we came back on a good note.’’ (on the game…) KOPITAR: [...]

Simon Gagne’s postgame thoughts… (on the win…) GAGNE: “It’s what we wanted (in) the first game at home in front of your fans. We want to show what type of team we are and it’s good to get the first win and get a lot of goals for the fans. It’s always fun to go [...]

Jonathan Quick’s postgame thoughts… (on winning the home opener…) QUICK: “The first 10 minutes, the fans really picked us up. They were loud and into the game, and that gave us a lot of energy and a lot of emotion. It’s great to get the kind of support that we did there. We built off [...]

Jarret Stoll’s postgame thoughts… (on the win…) STOLL: “It was a good team effort. Quickie played great and we moved the puck extremely well all night, up the ice and not hanging onto it, not going back, just everything was north. That’s how we’ve got to play. We’ve got to get our forecheck going, and [...]