Patrick O'Sullivan speaks
Here's Patrick O'Sullivan, who speaks about his solid start to the season, his play on the penalty kill, and how it felt to take a puck to the face for the second time.
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Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.Dannie commented on Interview with Coach Crawford
mike commented on Goalie Jonathan Bernier interview
Joseph Dickson commented on I lost my wallet in El Segundo, but I did watch our prospects!
Mitch commented on Ladislav Nagy in action
Mateo commented on Michel Handzus in action
Here's Patrick O'Sullivan, who speaks about his solid start to the season, his play on the penalty kill, and how it felt to take a puck to the face for the second time.
I went out to practice on Wednesday, to see just how jet-lagged the Kings were. They skated for a little over an hour, and they seemed loose.
Afterwards I talked with Cammalleri, who had just come off the ice. He was nice enough to talk about the road trip and how the team responded flying halfway across the world.
It's 9 a.m., you've been gambling all night. You haven't gotten a wink of sleep since you've gotten to vegas. What better to do than go watch the Kings take the ice for a practice.
More later...
Here's Dustin Brown, who is really excited about becoming a father. However, I doubt he'll find the humor in what I think his kid may look like.
Dustin is going to have a breakout season this year, as it seems he'll be on a line with Anze Kopitar and Michael Cammalleri.
Here's my quick interview with Jack Johnson. Sorry it was so short, but I was trying to get more players.
More on the way.
Here's my first interview of training camp: Anze Kopitar.
Here's Lauri Tukonen, the Kings' first-round pick in 2004. We were a bit rushed, so Lauri's answers were a tad short. But he was excited to talk, and is anxious to play more games on the big club this season.
Check out his spill on the second action sequence. It looks worse than it was, but it makes me wince every time I watch it. I felt the same way when O'Sullivan was hammered during the prospect game, and skated back to the locker room in the middle of the first period. You'd hate to see these guys get hurt during a camp.
Here's the Kings 2006 first round pick, Jonathan Bernier. Bernier is coming off a stellar season with the Lewiston Maineiacs, when he won the Guy Lafluer Trophy for the most valuable player in the QMJHL playoffs.
Bernier is on the ice for the first time since his injury last season. He took some time to talk with me after goalie practice during the developmental camp. Enjoy. And, tell a friend.
On Friday, after four days of documenting everything I could on the ice, I was lucky to be able to talk with Coach Crawford. He was nice enough to answer my questions, and was very engaging to listen to.
When I was editing the video, I was toying with lifting parts of it and making it shorter. But then I thought of you, the Hockeywood faithful, who would hang on Coach's every word. And if I cut something out, that would be short-changing you.
So here it is, the full interview. All for you. And when you speak of me, speak well.
Tuesday morning, I ventured out to the beautiful city of El Segundo to watch some of the Kings' brightest young stars take to the ice at the TSC. Needless to say, I was amazed at just how hard they were skating. I won't bore you with my analysis. So instead of creating a lesson plan, I did what all good substitute teachers do, I brought a movie. Only instead of renting Thumb Wars down at Blockbuster, I made my own. Check it...
More video, this time featuring Ladislav Nagy. This is the one that was against the Kings back in January.
And Nagy scoring the winning shootout goal against the Avs.
Here's some video of one of the L.A. Kings' newest players, Michal Handzus. The first is against the Nashville Predators this year...
This goal was the very first OT penalty shot goal in Flyers' history.
Here's the first of hopefully many video blog entries I plan on doing this season. Let me know what you think...
So, I finally made it out to Staples Center with my daughter for what has become an annual Daddy-Daughter Date at a hockey game. Last year, we made it out to a Ducks Roast. This season just "happened" to coincide with the NHL debut of one of the Kings most heralded rookies, Jack Johnson.
Now keep in mind, my daughter is three, so all the hullabaloo was sort of lost on her. When we made our way down to the glass for the pre-game skate, I turned it into a learning experience, pointing out numbers. After a while, she was pointing them out herself. But she really only knows one through ten really well, and is sort of sporadic after 12. When Johnson skated by, she made the observation about his number.
"Daddy, why does he have two 3s?"
"Well baby, that is because that's the number 33."
"But that guy over there has one 3. Right, Daddy?"
"That's true, honey. 3 and 33 are different numbers."
"Well, I think the guy with furty-free is better, because he has two 3s on his shirt. And I'm three."
"Yes you are, sweetie."
We made our way up to the nosebleeds, just below where I usually update the blog at Staples. With a large popcorn in one arm and a water in the other, she really was more into cramming kernels down her gullet. I just smiled, and made sure she was having a good time.
When they announced the starting lineups, I had a sneaking suspicion what to expect, so I recorded it with my digital camera. It may sound a little tinny, but that's because I have to shrink it down in size.
The whole place erupted, and even my daughter was into it.
"Go furty-free!"
I didn't really get a chance to really analyze the game, since I was having a blast eating popcorn with my princess. However, I did record the game, so I'm going to try and watch and write up a recap of Jack's first game.
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