As noted earlier, the Kings used the same lines and pairs in practice today that they used in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Carolina. Does that mean the lineup will look the same tomorrow against Tampa Bay. Not necessarily — this is Darryl Sutter, after all — but that would be the smart bet. The likelihood of that increases because it seems that Sutter was generally pleased with the effort the Kings gave in Carolina, other than, you know, not scoring.

SUTTER: “I thought we pretty much controlled the game. It was disappointing that we didn’t get something out of it. That’s what we told the players after. We did everything you want on the road. We had a good start, scored a power-play goal, killed penalties, dominated faceoffs, spent most of the time in their zone… It was a tough loss for team, because we didn’t feel like we lost.’’

Continue reading ‘Kings staying with same lineup?’ »

Dean Lombardi joined the Kings in Florida, after a trip to see the Manchester Monarchs for a few days. Lombardi’s attention, of course, will be focused on the trade deadline, three weeks from today. As typical with any general manager, Lombardi wouldn’t publicly tip his hand in terms of who he might seek or what he might give up, but it doesn’t take a coulomb specialist to know that Lombardi will be looking for a forward or two. The questions are, what is out there and what is Lombardi willing to give up?

The irony of the trade deadline is that the more-productive trades are usually made during the summer, not in the panic-driven market of February. That said, the Kings can’t afford to wait. The first line of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams has been productive, as has Mike Richards at times. After that, though, there’s a steep fall-off, and Lombardi’s moves over the past calendar year haven’t paid off. Dustin Penner, last year’s trade-deadline acquisition, hasn’t worked. (A move, mind you, that had the approval of more than 95 percent of voters on this blog.) Simon Gagne got hurt, Scott Parse got hurt, Trent Hunter hasn’t produced much and Ethan Moreau is gone. The Kings needed two of those guys to pan out, and none have. The question now is, can the Kings address their needs at the trade deadline? I asked Lombardi whether the dynamics of the deadline will allow the Kings to significantly improve…

LOMBARDI: “As the season moves along, people have a better handle on which direction they want to go. There’s two things that can happen. One, obviously, is a team just strictly downsizing, like we did five years ago, and just saying, `Let’s get picks.’ Secondly, you might have a philosophical change and just say, `It’s not a downsizing, per se, but we want a change to change the structure of our roster.’ So it’s not a rental, per se. It’s different. I think, as the deadline gets closer, it’s not about the deadline. It’s that more teams realize what they have or don’t have. They take into consideration how many injuries they have, and say, `If we get guys back, we’re OK,’ or they say, `We’ve got to look at upgrading our back end.’ And the rentals are always going to be there.

Continue reading ‘Lombardi talks trade-deadline philosophy’ »

The Kings are on the ice for practice, with some familiar-looking lines and pairs…

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
Penner-Richards-Stoll
Clifford-Loktionov-Lewis
Richardson-Fraser-Hunter/Westgarth

Scuderi-Doughty
Mitchell-Johnson
Martinez-Greene
Drewiske-Voynov

It could be a long practice, given yesterday’s off day…

The Kings are in Tampa Bay until Tuesday night. Has TV analyst Jim Fox already found a side job in town? No, but it was pretty funny to open one of the local papers today, the Tampa Bay Times, and see the “Canada Report” written by a correspondent named Jim Fox. If there’s a country-music review written by a correspondent named Bob Miller in tomorrow’s paper, I’m going to start to get suspicious.

With no game until Tuesday, it’s a day off in Tampa for the Kings, officially listed on the schedule as “recovery day/treatments.” Practice is scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow. So today is a chance to unwind and watch the Super Bowl. Jonathan Quick is an avowed New York Giants fan, but I’m not sure that any other players have strong affiliations either way. A couple members of the equipment/training staff are Patriots fans.

Not only did Jonathan Quick have to sit and watch last night’s game, he had to watch it from just about as far away from his teammates as he could get. The setups at NHL arenas are not uniform, so a handful of places have some quirks, and Carolina’s RBC Center is one of them. For one, there’s no tunnel access to the visiting team’s bench, so the players have to enter the ice from the penalty-box side of the rink. That’s no big deal for players, since the locker room is on that side anyway, but the coaches have to walk across the ice, in their suits and dress shoes, to get to the bench.

The other quirk is that there isn’t enough room on the visitors’ bench for the backup goalie, so he — in this case, Quick — has to sit on a chair in the corner of the rink, opposite the Kings’ bench. It’s so odd to look down and see a uniformed NHL player sitting by himself in the corner. I grabbed this shot of Quick, who not only was isolated but seemed to be screened by a couple photographers. Tough night.

Some notes from last night’s game…

– The Kings’ offensive woes continued, as they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Saturday night at RBC Center.

– The Kings fell to 0-2-0 on this season-long six-game road trip.

– The Kings have scored only one 5-on-5 goal in nine periods since they returned from the All-Star break. Three of their four goals in the last three games have been scored on the power play.

– The Kings have scored fewer than two goals in 20 of their 53 games this season, and they have a 3-11-6 record in those games.

– The Kings have scored a total of 12 goals in their last eight road games, but have actually outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 12-11 in those games.

– The Kings had been 9-0-1 this season when leading after the first period. They led 1-0 on Saturday after Anze Kopitar’s power-play goal.

– The Kings lost both ends of a back-to-back set of games for the first time this season. It was their ninth set of back-to-back games.

Continue reading ‘Postgame notes (Feb. 4)’ »

In a way, it’s a shame that the Kings and Carolina Hurricanes don’t play each other more often. Six of the teams’ last seven meetings have been decided by one goal, including last night’s game and the Kings’ 4-3 victory at Staples Center last season. The Kings haven’t enjoyed a lot of Southern hospitality of late, though. They entered last night’s game with a three-game winning streak against the Hurricanes, but the Kings have won only one of their last six games at Carolina (1-2-3). The Hurricanes haven’t been making much of a playoff push of late, but it’s not for a lack of defense and goaltending. The Hurricanes have allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of their last 11 games. The Kings played right into the Hurricanes’ hands, given that the Kings haven’t even reached the two-goal mark in more than one-third of their games this season. Click below to see how The News & Observer — Raleigh’s big newspaper — covered last night’s game…

Skinner’s goal lifts Canes to 2-1 win over Kings

Present any NHL team with this scenario, and tell them to take it or leave it. Tell them they’re going to allow a total of only three goals in six periods while playing road games on back-to-back nights. Out of 30 coaches, 30 would take those odds. Well, maybe not Darryl Sutter these days, given that his team has the scoring ability of a Scrabble player with four “Z’’ tiles sitting in front of him. The Kings are well past the thought that they are simply “squeezing their sticks too tight,’’ as the well-worn cliche goes. This is a team that, since the end of the All-Star break, has scored one even-strength goal in nine periods. That’s an epidemic, and with every period, the pressure increases on Dean Lombardi to make a move in advance of the trade deadline. What was the key aspect of the Kings’ 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes? I present three options at the link below, and you can vote for your choice…

The Key Three: Feb. 4

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For those who enjoy the traditional game recap, it can be read by clicking here.

Darryl Sutter’s postgame thoughts…

(on the play falling off after the first period…)
SUTTER: “Not really. I thought we played a pretty solid game. I would have liked one more power play in the third. I thought we maybe had a couple chances to do that, and that was the difference.’’

(on not having confidence in scoring…)
SUTTER: “If you’re getting chances, then it’s not about that, it’s about finishing the job. Most of our scoring opportunities come from — whether it’s because we’re on the road and other teams are matching up against us — most of our scoring chances are coming from our third and fourth lines. So it’s about productivity out of your top players.’’

Continue reading ‘Sutter postgame quotes (Feb. 4)’ »

Dustin Brown’s postgame thoughts…

(on the play falling off after the first period…)
BROWN: “We had a good first, and found a way to get a power-play goal. You said it. We just have to find a way to score goals. That’s the bottom line. We have two good goalies who give us good efforts every night. Everyone is aware of our situation. We have to find ways to score goals. That’s the responsibility of our best players: me, Kopi, Willy [Justin Williams], Ricky [Mike Richards], Pens, we’ve all got to step up.’’

Continue reading ‘Brown postgame quotes (Feb. 4)’ »

It’s hockey in the South, as the Kings take on the Carolina Hurricanes. All the action is on Fox Sports West and on 1150-AM and affiliates, with all the game updates here as well…

THIRD PERIOD
In goal: It’s still Bernier vs. Ward.
Hurricanes 2, Kings 1: Carolina took the lead 3:02 into the third period, thanks to some nice work by Jeff Skinner. Twice, Skinner worked the forecheck and worked the puck away from the Kings. Skinner then went to the net and was in position when Jussi Jokinen shot from the left circle. Bernier made the stop but couldn’t cover the rebound, and Skinner grabbed the puck and scored from close range. Drayson Bowman also got an assist.
End of period: The Kings outshot the Hurricanes 25-22 but fell to 0-2 on the road trip. The Kings were held under two goals for the 20th time in 53 games this season.

Continue reading ‘Game 53: Hurricanes 2, Kings 1 (FINAL)’ »

[UPDATE: Jonathan Bernier gets the start tonight. Andrei Loktionov and Alec Martinez are in warmups, while Slava Voynov and Kevin Westgarth are not.]

This is the only meeting of the season between the Kings and the Carolina Hurricanes. The teams have played each other only five times since the lockout. Each team has won twice in regulation and the Kings also have an overtime victory. The Hurricanes are coming off one of their most impressive games of the season, a 3-0 road victory over Boston on Thursday, in which Cam Ward made 47 saves. The Hurricanes have been unable to sustain momentum of late, as they have a 6-4-2 record since the start of January. The good news for the Hurricanes — and also the bad news for the goal-starved Kings — is that Carolina has allowed two or fewer goals in nine of its last 10 games. Eric Staal leads the Hurricanes with 38 points and Tuomo Ruutu has a team-high 16 goals. For the latest on the Hurricanes, check out the coverage from The News & Observer, followed by tonight’s possible lineups for the Kings and the Hurricanes…

The News & Observer’s Hurricanes coverage

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KINGS LINEUP
Dustin Brown-Anze Kopitar-Justin Williams
Kyle Clifford-Mike Richards-Dustin Penner
Brad Richardson-Jarret Stoll-Trevor Lewis
Andrei Loktionov-Colin Fraser-Trent Hunter

Rob Scuderi-Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell-Slava Voynov
Jack Johnson-Matt Greene

Jonathan Bernier
Jonathan Quick

Continue reading ‘Scouting the Hurricanes’ »

If Jonathan Bernier gets the start in goal for the Kings tonight — we probably won’t know until the start of pregame warmups — he couldn’t have been encouraged by what he saw last night in St. Louis, where the Kings were shut out for the sixth time this season. Bernier has started eight games this season, and the Kings have been shut out in two of them. In Bernier’s eight starts, the Kings have scored a total of 16 goals, and five of those goals came in his last start, a 5-2 victory over Washington on Jan. 9.

If Bernier gets the nod, it will also be the longest gap between his starts this season. Bernier has been on the bench for the last nine games, and hasn’t seen any game action in 25 days. In his previous longest stretch, Bernier went 16 days between appearances early in the season, between his second and third starts. When Bernier finally played, on Oct. 25 against New Jersey — after Jonathan Quick’s third consecutive shutout — Bernier allowed three goals on 23 shots in a 3-0 loss to the Devils.

[UPDATE: Bernier is expected to get the start tonight.]

Some notes from last night’s game…

– The Kings were shut out for the sixth time this season, as they lost 1-0 to the St. Louis Blues on Friday night at Scottrade Center.

– The Kings suffered their third 1-0 loss of the season, following losses to Winnipeg on Dec. 29 (in overtime) and Columbus on Jan. 7.

– The Kings had been 3-0-3 on the road under coach Darryl Sutter, and suffered their first regulation road loss since Dec. 17 against Detroit.

– The Kings have a 3-9-0 record in St. Louis since Dec. 2006.

– The Kings have scored two or fewer goals in 37 of 52 games this season, and have an 11-17-9 record in those games. The Kings have allowed two or fewer goals in 33 of 52 games, and have a 21-5-7 record in those games.

Continue reading ‘Postgame notes (Feb. 3)’ »

It’s a pretty good time to be a Blues fan in St. Louis. Not only has the weather been unseasonably warm, but so has the hockey team. With last night’s win over the Kings, the Blues jumped back over the Nashville Predators and into fourth place in the Western Conference, still within range of first-place Detroit and the top spot in the conference. The Blues are 9-1-2 in 2012 and haven’t lost at home in regulation since Dec. 26 (a run of 14-0-3). Jaroslav Halak has a 12-1-3 record in his last 16 starts, and he wasn’t even the Blues’ All-Star goalie this season, as that honor went to Brian Elliott. Here’s how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered last night’s game…

Halak has 21st career shutout in victory over Kings

After today’s team meeting, Darryl Sutter didn’t tip his hand as to lineup changes — including goalie — but did say, “We’re going to put some guys in who didn’t play” against St. Louis. It’s possible that there will be a couple line-combination as well, and Sutter, it seems, will be looking for much more from his centers than he got last night.

SUTTER: “You look at the matchups. They wanted Backes against Kopitar, and Arnott against Richards, and Berglund against Stoll. That should be all right (for the Kings), when you look at it, but when you look at it at the end of the night, their three guys clearly outplayed our three guys. That’s the difference in the game.”

Asked how Kyle Clifford fared, in his second-line role, Sutter only said, “Hey, we lost. I wasn’t happy with anyone.”

How have the Kings fared in the second of back-to-back games this season? Relatively well, actually. This is the ninth set of back-to-back games the Kings have faced this season (six more remain), and in the previous eight, the Kings have a 2-2-4 record in the second game. The breakdown follows…

Continue reading ‘What will back-to-back effort be?’ »

Is there a theme developing here? Is this destined to not only be the “Grammy trip” but also the “freeway trip”? For the second consecutive day, you get a nice look at a local highway. This time, it’s the ol’ Cliff Benson Beltline in Raleigh. For the sake of aesthetics, I’ve added a second photo, which zooms into the distance to capture a little more of the local scenery. Because of the back-to-back games, the Kings (per usual) won’t have a morning skate today, but will have an early-afternoon meeting at the hotel.

Things haven’t exactly been trending the Kings’ way in their season series against the St. Louis Blues. The Kings scorched the Blues 5-0 in their home opener, then needed two third-period goals to pull out a 3-2 victory in St. Louis in November. This time, the Blues shut down the Kings. Here is perhaps the most telling stat of the game: the Kings recorded five shots on goal in the game’s first 4 minutes, 40 seconds. Then they recorded a total of 12 shots on goal over the next 42 minutes, 45 seconds. None of those shots, of course, went in the Blues’ net, as the Kings were shut out for the sixth time this season. Once again, Jonathan Quick lost a game and had his goals-against average drop. What was the key aspect of the Kings’ 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues? I present three options at the link below, and you can vote for your choice below…

The Key Three: Feb. 3

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For those who enjoy the traditional game recap, it can be found by clicking here.

Darryl Sutter’s postgame thoughts…

(on the game…)
SUTTER: “I think St. Louis has the best home record for a good reason. First period, they play hard. They came out and physically established it with it. We weathered it. I thought our second period was our best period, even though we were down a goal. I think we had probably four or five (chances) that you would consider grade-A chances, and their goalie was better than our shooter.’’

(on struggling with breakout passes…)

SUTTER: “First period, it’s tough to make the first pass when your friggin’ (butt) is up in the air, from getting knocked on it. After that, we were fine.’’

Continue reading ‘Sutter postgame quotes (Feb. 3)’ »