Some notes from last night’s game…
– The Kings ended their road trip, and the four-game interim-coaching tenure of John Stevens, with a win as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout on Monday night at Air Canada Centre.
– The Kings finished their road trip with a 2-2-0 record under Stevens. The Kings are expected to officially announce today that Darryl Sutter will take over as coach, starting with Thursday’s game.
– The Kings have scored two or fewer regulation/overtime goals in 12 consecutive games, a franchise record.
– The Kings outshot the Maple Leafs 42-33, including 16-4 in the second period. The Kings have totaled more than 40 shots on goal in four of their last six games. They had not reached the 40-shot mark in any of their first 27 games this season. Every Kings player except Matt Greene recorded at least one shot on goal.
– The Kings went 1-for-5 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. The Kings had not scored a power-play goal in seven consecutive games and were on a 2-for-36 skid before Dustin Brown’s second-period goal.
– The Kings improved to 2-2 in shootouts, 7-5-3 on the road, 9-6-4 in one-goal games, 11-2-3 when scoring first and 10-0-1 when leading after the second period.
– Jonathan Quick stopped 31 of 33 shots in regulation and overtime, and stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout.
– Dustin Brown scored a second-period power-play goal — his seventh goal of the season — and also scored the lone goal of the shootout, in the third round. Brown had been 0-for-2 in the shootout this season. Brown has two goals and one assist in his last three games. Four of Brown’s seven goals this season have come on the power play.
– Justin Williams had one goal, his fifth of the season. Williams had one goal in his previous 23 games, and now has one goal and two assists in his last two games.
– Drew Doughty had one assist, his eighth assist and 10th point of the season. Doughty has two assists in his last three games.
– Simon Gagne had one assist, on the power play, his 10th assist and 17th point of the season. Gagne has two assists in his last three games.
– Rob Scuderi had one assist, his third assist and third point of the season.
– Anze Kopitar had one assist, to push his team-high totals to 20 assists and 30 points this season. Kopitar has two assists in his last three games.
– Dustin Brown recorded team-highs with six shots on goal and five hits. Jack Johnson was credited with a game-high six blocked shots.
– Jack Johnson played a game-high 27 minutes, 59 seconds, to lead the Kings, followed by Anze Kopitar, at 26:20.
– The Kings won 26 of 61 faceoffs (43 percent). Jarret Stoll won 15 of 27 draws (56 percent). Anze Kopitar won 7 of 17 draws (41 percent). Colin Fraser won 2 of 7 draws (29 percent).
Has anyone seen any reports on the assistant coaches? I assume Stevens stays. How bout kompn?
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rogiesbackup Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:05 am
@@spencerlakings, From what I heard Kompon operates the teams VCR really well. Might be a reason to keep him in. LOL
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colo king fan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
@rogiesbackup,
What’s a VCR?
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Weasel Reply:
December 21st, 2011 at 11:31 am
@colo king fan,
An ancient porn delivery device.
wavesinair Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:07 am
@@spencerlakings,
The only reports are that Stevens is expected to stay on, which could be interpreted that Kompon won’t. I would be very surprised to see him stay. Not sure about Ranford but I’d hope he stays being that he’s done a great job.
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KC23 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:31 am
@wavesinair, I saw no such report about Stevens staying. I did read Steven said he would like to stay and hasn’t been told otherwise, but that is all I heard on the matter.
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KC23 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:58 am
@KC23, found the report and yes it does say only Stevens will stay till at least end of the year. Sounds like Koupon will be on the outside looking in.
wavesinair Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
@KC23,
I was gonna say, I’m surprised you didn’t read it since it was reported by Rich!
http://lakingsinsider.com/2011/12/17/sutter-signed-deal-in-place/
40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
@@spencerlakings, Word is that for reasons of consistency behind the bench, Sutter is not interested in retaining anyone who cannot remove their dentures and make the Bitter Beer Face. That being said, Steven and Kompon could both be gone.
Sorry for that one. Just getting excited about having a dynamic character behind the bench again. It’s been quite awhile.
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Well, its official. With the string of 2 or more goals in regulation continuing, we now qaulify to be in the Wrigley’s DoubleMint gum commercials.
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Still can’t get over thew AWESOME cycle we saw during the second period against the Leafs. Hope Sutter stresses the importance of it and continues to pursue the cycle aggressively with this team.
Seeing it left a “good taste” in my mouth.
Doughty and the Kings looked really good last night!!
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jess Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:19 am
@rogiesbackup, -Yeah we haven’t seen that in a while..
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RobSD Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
@rogiesbackup,
They looked good but the leafs missed several wide open point blank opportunities due to defensive breakdowns. Very lucky they were missed wide or shot over the net.
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fsd1 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
@RobSD, Like we usually do? every game in the nhl has some luck involved in it. every single one.
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The team looked good last night. The second Leafs goal was almost impossible to defend. All I read about were weird bounces and a blown off side call. Really? How about being out played and out shot. That was the first game in a while that was entertaining to watch. They play like that every night and they will win a lot of games. Bring on Sutter. I think he will do well. I hope they get Kopitar going. There is no reason he is not among the top scorers in the NHL. He seems to be pressing right now.
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Kenny44 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
@BigMikeonD, The second goal became impossible to stop the moment that Gagne lost his check. Hope he’s getting that out of his system before Sutter takes charge.
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Duckbasher Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
@Kenny44, – I noticed a few times that Gagne was either pushed off the puck or outskated to the puck. And that missed assignement on the second goal was just horrible play.
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Starting today, it’s like when you were still living with the parents and they come back home from vacation.
The party’s over!
Chateau Boww Wowww is open for “guests”…..
Hah, hah, Hahhhh
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It is now fairly clear to me that Stevens had to follow TM’s lead when Muph was coach, but now we can see that Stevens actually has quite a bit of common sense with the line choices, benching players for poor performance, video review strategy and calling timeouts at the right moment. I hope he stays on with us along with Ranford. Would love to see an exciting offensive / PP coach, and that choice will give a strong clue as to what kind of a guy Sutter really is.
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KC23 Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:33 am
@jess, I think it is pretty clear Koupon needs to go, but we’ll see.
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Dominick Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
@KC23, It was pretty clear last season, but he survived. Wouldn’t shock me to see him stay in some fashion or another. Sutter would be crazy to not have Stevens here. Stevens already knows the players, and could help with the transition.
He would be wise to keep Ranford also. Ranford has nothing to do with the system, or the lack of goals, and it’s been goaltending that has carried this team with low scoring 1 goal games, and no goal support.
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Steve Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
@jess, Stevens would have been a great head coach. I think Sutter will be even better.
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I think going 2-2 on this road trip and following up the debacle in Detroit with a nice win is a huge accomplishment. I’m hoping we can go on a roll now.
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Forum Gold Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
@40YearKingsFan, Mostly Western Conference teams comming up so we could move up dramatically with a roll. I’m for a “Let’s Roll” in the locker room. GO KINGS GO!!!
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
@Forum Gold, Anything can happen this Thursday. If the Ducks only play a few good games all season they will be against us at the most inopportune times. There are so many story lines coming into that game it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. All the drama aside, it’s 2 points we really need.
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I hope sutter tells kopi to be a little more selfish out there and I think we will see the puck in the back of the net more often.
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:42 am
@travis, I noticed Kopi made a couple outstanding defensive plays last night that if he doesn’t make, we lose the game. He’s on the ice and a key guy in every situation you can prepare for. I’d like hime to score more too, but when you isolate on his game he does so many things we couldn’t win without that it’s no wonder his personal stats suffer. A healthy Richards will help a whole lot but IMO if Kopi wasn’t the two way player he’s become and concentrated mostly on his offensive production, like a lot of the “stars” in the league are able to do, he’d be a hundred point guy every year.
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soyokaze Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
@40YearKingsFan, +1. That stuff does not really show up on the stat sheet…well except for Plus/minus. But then again, Kopitar’s line is usually matched up against the top lines.
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rogiesbackup Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
@soyokaze, Nor does it show up in the NHL Network unless you’re an eastern team!
for some reason, I believe this team is turning things around and I see a winning streak is coming. I’m expecting at list 5 goals against ducks.
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The Kings were lucky that none of the games decisions went to the war room in……….Toronto.
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I for one still think hiring a MORE defensive coach is a mistake. None of the elite teams in the league play that way now, so to expect that 90s style can bring us to the Cup is fanciful thinking, but have at ‘em, Sutter and lets see.
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Dominick Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
@bbb7, I am worried also. Hitchcock was a defensive style coach, but is the only coach to replace a fired one that has revamped his old style to be more offensive. He’s been a huge surprise for me this season, and has completely turned the Blues furtunes around, and instilled confidence in a relatively short time span.
Don’t know what to expect with Sutter, but he’s not exactly known for bringing out the offense despite the 2 seasons he got lucky and got his teams to score in the top 15 in the league.
Don’t be fooled by any clowns who argues other wise either, because those same people argued our system was offensive enough when Murray was coach, regardless of what the entire hockey world said outside LA.
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the kings have now scored 2 goals or less in regulation in 27 of their 33 games ….. thats a fact ……………. someone needs to call the elias sports bureau on that one ……. this has got to be a record for ineptitude
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Rich, way to spell it Air Canada CentRE and not Center! True professional!
Hope you enjoyed your time in Toronto.
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We really dont know how much of a influrence tm. had on the power play.if tm wasnt happy with it he could ask jk to change it
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I, too, hope they keep Billy Ranford. The guy was a heckuva player and seems to be developing the young duo quite well. I don’t know anything about Kompon except that a lot of people don’t want him to stick around. Stevens at least held the line at .500 and he was always quite positive -which is a nice contrast to Murray’s robot-on-painkillers interview style. Let’s hope Sutter brings this group to their full potential (a Pacific championship).
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jonsey Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
@jonsey, While there still is a Pacific Division! C’mon, at least once they need to get it!
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I haven’t seen the past few games, but it’s good to hear that Penner and DD are stepping up their games. At least there are some positive signs.
And having Richards close to playing again will definitely help.
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