The Kings will not practice tomorrow, as they have their scheduled family Christmas party. The Kings are expected to officially announce the hiring of Darryl Sutter as coach sometime tomorrow. Sutter is expected to run Wednesday’s practice, scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. start, and then the Kings will have an introductory press conference with Sutter and Dean Lombardi. Sutter’s first game will be Thursday at home against Anaheim (reminder: it’s a 7 p.m. start).
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“Hold onto your butts”
-Samuel L. Jackson, Jurassic Park
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SpreignedAnkle Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
@Belexes, Best line of the movie.
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Kramsteezy Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
@Belexes,
Haha! I use that quote on such a regular basis. Nice pull!!
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jonsey Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
@Belexes, “Good job Stanley”
-Swordfish
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Subby Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 11:26 pm
@Belexes, i always say that
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Chaz Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 3:03 am
@Belexes, You just spared no expense. Nice.
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Bring on the Quacks and the sutt
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Cookie Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 5:46 am
@stillKingly, not sure Sutter is the answer, but will give him a chance. Sutter’s were mean-ass player
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Sutter’s going to be the new Head Coach, when did this happen?
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puck73 Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:21 pm
@CB14, Sincerely, Roy Firestone.
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408kingsfan Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
@puck73, Dude Friday night can’t wait for the game! we can get some skating in downtown by the HP where all the bars and restaurants are before the game
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tornado12 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:34 am
@408kingsfan, with your new skates?
Stuart Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 10:38 am
@puck73, Roy Firestone…blast from the friggen past!!! LOL
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Duckbasher Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
@CB14, Yea… I know… I’ve also tried pulling the old ostrich move (hiding my head in the hole), but I guess it’s not going to go away is it?
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neil Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
@CB14, l.a. got a new hockey team?
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thats good get this coach thing over with and get the season ..and hoefully they make the playoffs
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We landed on the moon!
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Chaz Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 3:04 am
@John Paul Kelly, This line gets me every time!
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this is dl’s all-in move…he’s going with someone he has trust in…
although i don’t think sutter is more than murray nc-17, i understand that he rather go with someone he’s familiar with, especially with dl’s job most likely on the line…
i have my doubts about this, as i’ve said many times…
but i would love to be wrong and watch the kings become the team that we all thought they would be at the start of the season…
and i also hope they ask stevens to stay on…but you gotta figure this has all been discussed with sutter prior to his acceptance…
i hope you can get a one-on-one with sutter RICH on wednesday…(!)
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TheAcaciaStrain Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
@variable, I hope Stevens doesn’t stay, remember he is part of the Philadelphia crew, we want all the coaches gone, not just murray
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fsd1 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:38 am
@TheAcaciaStrain, Dont speak for me please, I think Stevens should stay.
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408kingsfan Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
@variable, In general a new head coach will bring in his own staff, however just like you I would like to see Sutter make an exception and keep Stevens on as assistant. Now with that being said, I think most of us would agree that there is no place on the Kings bench for Kompon.
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CB14 Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
@408kingsfan, Most? Try ALL.
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408kingsfan Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
@CB14, Ha ha I know ….just trying to be politically correct
CB14 Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
@408kingsfan, Good point, there’s always 1 who defies the laws of sanity.
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 5:03 am
@408kingsfan, I thought it was interesting how that was said during the broadcast. They made it clear that Stevens was staying, and didn’t say anything about Kompon. Should make the Christmas party interesting, unless he’s already hit the road.
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scootty Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:09 am
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, God, I hope Kompon is gone.
I gotta feeling Westie, and Cliffy are going to be a little busy… Hope they pick there spots well!
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Paul G Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
@Tim from the OC, If I’m not wrong Westgarth only has 1 fight this season…..he needs to fight more, I thought that he should of fought Colten Orr tonight
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Very interesting read, from a site Dominick mentioned yesterday, thought the Insiders might get a kick out of it:
http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1208
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PRMan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 4:17 am
@Wilmonde, “Everything is just slight differences in percentages, not a coach’s influence.” What does he think a coach’s influence looks like?
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 5:11 am
@Wilmonde, Meh. I found the argument so unconvincing, I stopped reading in the middle.
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The calm before the storm.
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Very interesting week for the Kings. Not just with the coach, but with the roster also. I can’t imagine we are going to keep Voynov and Martinez in the stands for long, so that will be interesting to keep an eye on. And with Richards hopefully coming back sooner then later, that will most likely bump Loktionov back down — but maybe not? Maybe Hunter goes?
It’s going to be interesting to see who ends up on Sutter’s good list and who ends up the odd men out.
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CB14 Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
@CabbagesAndKings, I’m pretty sure they can’t get sent down until the 28th due to the roster freeze that went into affect today. When the day comes I think they send Lokti down. As much as I like Lokti, he hasn’t played that great, and he’s waiver exempt, so he’s the likely choice IMO. I’m with you though, I don’t see them keeping VV or AM in the stands for very much longer.
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neil Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:53 am
@CB14, due to the roster freeze..that also means they cant activate Richards even if they wanted to???? Cause when they activate Richards..another move needs to be made…
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Considering even if the Kings have been playing well going into this road trip I would have been happy with 2-1-1 or thereabouts, so 2-2 isnt too bad. The club HAS to start taking care of things in their own rink tho. They need to have the actor who played Dan Devine in “Rudy” come in and give the “No one… and I mean NO ONE.. comes into our house and kicks us around!” speech.
For the first time in a while the game was fun to watch! Penner is growing on me! Drewiske is earning his #6 spot! Doughty is nearly there! Lokti isnt (time to go back down)! Quick still cant handle the puck!
And we STILL have no finishers. On the road trip: 152 shots on goal… SIX goals. And countless wide or high shots too. The team would make things SO MUCH easier on themselves if they would occasionally bury the good looks they get 5-on-5.
GKG!
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1 party day with the fam. then most likely bag skate time! Who cares if we won (we do), still necessary!
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Wilmonde Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
@Kris, What is bag skate?
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chip Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 11:45 pm
@Wilmonde, It’s a Christmas thing…players with bags just like Santa…being nice to the little children who come to visit…
Or a coach skating the players until they need a bag to barf in.
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Shakes Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:44 am
@chip, and we won’t stop skating until we beat the Russians and win the 1980 Olympic gold medal!
CheezyPoofs Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 8:23 am
@Wilmonde, Hope this answers your question.
http://stateofthegame.michiganhockeyonline.com/2011/02/bag-skate.html
Here is a nice quote from the article “The use of the Bag Skate confirms one of three things, the coach doesn’t know any better, he saw Miracle too many times or there’s nothing else left in the coaching bag.” I for one hope that Sutter does NOT give them a bag skate, because I can tell you first hand that they really suck.
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im going to the game thursday and i expect the kings to kick the ……. out of the ducks.
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 5:59 am
@chuckrocks, Hope so. It’s a statement game and 2 points we need.
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Brown really answered all the critics. He is a lead-by-example captain and he was hitting and shooting and scoring tonight. Now guess which two of those three I was doing? Jk Jk Jk
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This poll is yuk!
http://www.nhl.com/ptth/app?service=page&page=PollPopPage&pid=19121&skinId=4&choiceId=79533&ip=true
Prove them wrong Kings…
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pr0cess Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:32 am
@Sammuch, 48% leading the poll saying we miss the playoffs….
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Two views about hiring Darryl Sutter as Kings coach (the dominant view is what you might suspect). See below.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7370718/hiring-darryl-sutter-coach-los-angeles-kings-looks-misguided-calculation
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Chaz Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 3:16 am
@King John, Is it me or can anyone else not see the hockey videos on ESPN?
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petemagoop Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 5:53 am
@Chaz, works here
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Lots of analysts talking about us trading Brown if they don’t turn it around under Sutter.
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What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 5:15 am
@Michael_DD8, two or three, for example?
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fsd1 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:35 am
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, actually, just one hockey analyst, dregher said it as a musing is all.
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Michael_DD8 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 8:22 am
@fsd1,
Dreger, McKenzie and another whom’s name I forgot
What's the frequency, Kenneth? Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Couldn’t find any indication McKenzie said it…I’ll assume “lots” was hyperbole, and it was one.
JD Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 6:49 am
@Michael_DD8,
Seriously, what is all this talk about Brown being traded? First of all, he has to want to be traded because of the clause in his contract. Secondly, there are really useless guys on this team that should be released before letting Brown go. Also, before spending $7 mil a year on DD, Dean should have spent that money aquiring another top forward. DD had one good season and IMO has not proven himself worthy of that kind of money. If anyone thinks the Kings are going to win the Stanley Cup by trading Dustin Brown, you are sadly mistaken.
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Real good bounce-back win for the Kings last night.
A lot of hustle and they kept the puck on their sticks and away from the Leafs in the offensive zone. It was nie to see the cycle return. Good opportunites come off the cycle. We’ve done that in previous years, but very little of it so far this season.
DD looks like the old DD. He played smart both offensively and defensively. He rushed the puck when the opportunity was there. He wasn’t forcing things.
Finally Clifford dropped the gloves….Win or lose it doesn’t matter. Just get out there and show other teams we can fight back.
Terrible game by Westy. 2 bad penalties. If he’s taking penalties, he needs to take players off the ice with him.
Only other player that i’m disappointed in is Loktionov. For a highly skilled guy, he sure knows how to hide that skill for 60 minutes a night…
Quick was on top of his game all night. He’s great at bouncing back from poor outings. He showd it again last night.
It doesn’t matter that we only scored 2 goals last night…sure, we’d all like to see them score 4 and 5 goals, but the object is the 2 points. Toronto’s a really good offensive team, but we showed that a good D can shut down a good O.
The chances are there…soon enough the flood gates will open. Great job by JW last night. He had a lot of pep in his step.
Good luck to Sutter and hopefully he can get this team to maximize its full potential.
Go Kings!
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 6:18 am
@nykingfan, All very astute observations. Haven’t heard anyone else mention the cycle but I thought that was the key to our game. Best job of controlling the puck I’ve seen this year. That combined with Quick playing his usual superb game will beat most teams most nights. A couple more of those and the Kings will get their swagger back and be the story of the second half of the season.
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scvking Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 6:53 am
@nykingfan,
I also had been noticing the lack of cycle in our game, probably due to the “shot mentality” that had been the primary focus. The Kings are really good when they cycle and it showed last night.
Westgarth had been doing a decent job of not hurting the team, but that seems to have ended. Westgarth does not do enough to warrant him giving the other team the man-advantage. Inexcusable.
Lokti does seem to disappear. Have to stay with him though.
I thought Stoll was good. I know there is talk of him being traded, and I know he is not producing. But we will miss the overall, end to end game that he plays.
BIG win last night.
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California Royalty Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:40 am
@nykingfan, Well said! What are positive game an so many different aspects. So many players played well. I agree with Doughty too. He was a beast! He’s been great at carrying the puck in the zone, pinching at the right times, making great passes, using his body position well… Of course, no one mentions that on this site.
And yeah, Loktionov needs to go back down once Richards comes back. He avoids contact – which goes against the grain and make up of the team. I could see him being traded this season and depending on who comes back, wouldn’t be that affected by it.
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Shakes Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:46 am
@nykingfan,
Bob and Jim referred to it during the game, but one thing lost about the cycle is that it really does wear down an opponent. I think it’s similar to why in football you want to establish the run game early… it may not be so pretty to watch (although actually in hockey the cycle is) but it makes it easier for you later in the game to open things up
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7PM start Thursday???
Let’s see—Anaheim games start at 7, the Kings games start at 7:30—why change to a time that is more normal for the Ducks? The Kings don’t need earlier starts. Holiday Hours? WTF?
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neil Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 7:56 am
@scvking, Holiday hours for Kings home games….
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No practice, holiday party, introducing a new coach, Mike Richards is back… a great day for the players to recharge and get some positive attitude flowing! Thursday will be the game they get the elusive 3 goal mark – I think they score 4!
Best game in weeks last night!
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petemagoop Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 8:26 am
@California Royalty, and Kopi will score the 1st game #10 returns, guaranteed
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My prediction – Sutter takes over to right the ship and keeps Stevens on as assistant coach. The Kings limp into the playoffs and makes a decent showing. They improve their 5 on 5 scoring next year. The following year, Sutter says thanks and goodbye and Stevens takes over as head coach to lead us to the Finals where we beat the Wings in 6.
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scootty Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:17 am
@Kaiser Soze, How is it possible to beat the Wings in 6 in the finals?
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Kaiser Soze Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:37 am
@scootty, next year, the Wings will be in a different division, or whatever they call the new allignment.
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Stuart Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
@Kaiser Soze, the only way we beat the wings in the finals is if they scrap what they have for the seating now and end up doing what’s been talked about and that’s something like after the 2nd round, all teams get seated according to their rank (?) and then teams from the same conference can end up playing each other in the finals…
Kings actually had a game plan(and it worked) Those who keep talking about trades….DL doenst make trades….He shouldve made a trade long time ago when it was obvious that Bernier,Martinez,Whiskey,Hickey,Lewis ETC wasnt really nneeded this year.Why trade Brown…thats the type of player we need..a hard nose scorer…You trade your excess(defense) for what you need(a bottom 6 forward who can actually score)…
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KC23 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 8:09 am
@neil, “… DL doenst make trades …”
Richards.
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petemagoop Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 8:25 am
@neil, let’s face it, Brown only turned his game around in the last 10 days or so, he’s actually pretty good when he puts forth an effort
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Helvetica Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:19 am
@petemagoop, Everybody loves Brown when he’s playing hard nosed, keep your feet moving hockey. Unfortunately, just like the rest of the team, he’s pretty inconsistent. I like Brown, But there are some valid arguments for trading him.
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The glass half full:
As it stands now the Kings have 48 games left and are roughly 5 points behind Nashville for the last spot in the playoffs. Banking on the notion that they have already endured their worst slump of the year, I am confident that they can make the playoffs. Should the Kings find themselves in a playoff position by the end of February (not an unrealistic thought) then they can ratchet it up over tha last 20 or so games in preparation for a deep run.
The glass half empty:
The Kings are 4 points behind Nashville and the Predators have a game in hand. Similarly, the Sharks are three points ahead of the Kings with three games in hand themselves. I do not forsee any of the teams in the current top 8 tanking and falling out of the race by themselves. The Kings have their work cut out for them.
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KC23 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 8:45 am
@Michael J., Both Dallas and Nashville are very much question marks on making the playoffs, the rest look pretty secure.
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fsd1 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:11 am
@KC23, I actually also think that St. Louis, Phoenix and Minny will not be able to keep up the pace they are at, some slumps coming.
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Michael J. Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:21 am
@fsd1,
I hope so. Minnesota has a 10 point lead on the Kings right now; thats a lot of points to catch up.
If the Kings can climb up to 5th or 6th spot they will be in position to make a decent run this year.
KC23 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:26 am
@fsd1, Probably unlikely we’ll catch the Wild, but possible. They seem to be headed into a slump now and have injury issues. San Jose isn’t all that impressive this year either.
I think we still have a decent shot at being first in our division because we have a lot of games left with the Sharks.
Michael J. Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:22 am
@KC23,
I hope you are right. Every team seems to go through a rough patch. I hope the Kings are through theirs.
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Helvetica Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:23 am
@Michael J., I know it’s hard right now, but i’m trying to keep a glass 1/2 full attitude and keep it at that. What’s the point of being a fan if all i’m going to do is wallow in misery for the whole season. Time to believe…
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