By all accounts, last night was a successful return for Alexei Ponikarovsky, who had missed the previous 12 games with a broken finger. Ponikarovsky played 12 minutes, 19 seconds, and had two shots on goal and one hit. In general, he looked aggressive, with and without the puck, and, as Terry Murray points out later, he made up one-third of what perhaps was the Kings’ best all-around line last night, with Michal Handzus and Wayne Simmonds.
MURRAY: “Poni was very good. The line was very good. They had a big effort against their top line, their top players, and responded very well on the checking part of it. Poni, his conditioning was never a concern for me. He’s been a member of the skating club there for a couple weeks, and he’s been really pushing it hard. Obviously, with him being out that long your’e worried about timing, but his game was really good. It looked like the chemistry clicked right away. Timing was not an issue, and I was very pleased, at the end of the night, with how he played.”
Murray also had high praise for Simmonds, who made the centering pass that led to Kyle Clifford’s first NHL goal and also had three shots on goal and three hits in 14 minutes of ice time.
MURRAY: “That was his best 60 minutes this year. He played really well. And when he plays that way, he can be a very effective player in this league. I liked what I saw with his reads. His tracking, especially on the checking part of the game, was tremendous, and he carried the puck with authority. He made some strong plays right from the early part of the game. He drove down the wing, just putting pucks to the net, which led to, eventually, the same play from the other side, throwing pucks to the net from a sharp angle and scoring the first goal. A solid performance for him.”
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