November 2006 Archives

Some stuff from the morning skate, in advance of tonight's Kings-Devils game...

On Sunday, the Kings will visit six rinks throughout Southern California for on-ice clinics with youth players and question-and-answer sessions with fans. The events will last from 3 to 4 p.m. at each rink and here's a breakdown of who is scheduled to be where:

From the Kings' press release:

On Sunday, the Kings will split into groups and travel to eight Southern California-area rinks for on-ice clinics with youth players and a question-and-answer session with fans. There is no charge for the event, which will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. at each location: Here's the list of rinks.

For those who don't know, Mark Cuban, Internet-savvy owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, runs his own blog at www.blogmaverick.com. It's usually a very interesting read, because regardless of what you think of Cuban, he's an entertaining guy. So what does this have to do with the NHL Kings? Well, Cuban recently posted about his team's dealings with the media, and how he saw it evolving and what he thought he could do to improve the often-difficult relationship. While I understand that the average fan cares little about the plight of the media, the average fan should care about how NHL teams present themselves and how they're working -- or not working -- to improve their standing in the eyes of the local media. This is an important time for the NHL, when it comes to media attention. Some teams understand this, some teams often seem to not get it.

Mark Cuban's blog

Some stuff from this morning, in advance of tonight's game against San Jose

Some stuff from the early afternoon in El Segundo...

Derek Armstrong has a ``clavicular contusion,'' whatever that means, and with Jeff Cowan already out of the lineup, the Kings had no spare forwards. So they put both Armstrong and Cowan on injured reserve and recalled Noah Clarke and Tim Jackman from Manchester.

Clarke never rose about the level of fourth-line forward in his previous stints but he's off to a great start in Manchester, with five goals and four assists in nine games. Jackman has two goals and one assist in nine games with Manchester. The Kings acquired him in one of their 524 transactions involving Yanick Lehoux last season.

At least one of them -- or both, if the Kings decide to scratch Raitis Ivanans -- will be in the lineup Tuesday night in Colorado.

Some stuff from this morning on the goalies, the roster situation and Dustin Brown

Some stuff from practice this morning/afternoon...

Rookie forward Patrick O'Sullivan has been sent to the Kings' American Hockey League affiliate in Manchester, N.H. I'll post more on this later, plus Marc Crawford's thoughts on the goaltending situation.

A few things from the postgame scrum...

Dan Cloutier just gave up his second goal in nine minutes -- first one soft, second one mostly because of a defensive breakdown -- and a large percentage of the crowd is chanting for Mathieu Garon.

Trade talk can be dismissed as just that -- talk -- 95 percent of the time, but the amount of proverbial smoke around the Kings these days suggests that something might be close.