Kings/NHL media blitz round-up

Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar were in Toronto yesterday as part of a one-stop buffet for national NHL reporters – Doughty will also take part in today’s World Cup of Hockey promotional “roundtable” in front of a live audience at 10:00 (link here and at NHL.com) – and sounded off on several topics that have been on Kings fans’ minds since the end of last season. None of the sit-downs league-wide elicited the hottest of hot takes, but there were several worthwhile stories written about the club.

USA Today: Kings’ Anze Kopitar optimistic about contract talks: ‘I’d like to stay’

“We’re maybe not as close as we wanted to be at this point, but I’m also not worried,” Kopitar told USA TODAY Sports at NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour. “I’ve said it all along: If it happens before the actual season starts, it would be really nice. But if it doesn’t, no alarms will go off. There’s still plenty of time.”

ESPN.com: Kings players stay focused on game amid off-ice issues

Elsewhere: Kings hire Brantt Myhres as the club’s “player assistance director” (LA Times) … “Re-energized” Kings (Daily News) … Jeff Carter’s evolution (Hockey Buzz) … Stamkos contract talks (NHL.com) … McDavid praised (NHL.com) … Kane news (Chicago Tribune) … The Cupcake System (Jewels from the Crown) … Can Calgary sustain its success this season? (Puck Daddy) … The Olympics matter (The Globe and Mail)

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.