Goaltending update
The Kings assigned Barry Brust to Manchester of the AHL in preparation for the arrival of Sean Burke. Brust has been numbers than Yutaka Fukufuji (and Dan Cloutier, of course) but Fukufuji will stick around as Burke's backup until Mathieu Garon's broken finger has healed.
As for Burke, he made his NHL debut on March 2, 1988, when Kings rookie Anze Kopitar was six months old. Here's what GM Dean Lombardi told the Canadian Press about the situation. Not exacly a ringing endorsement...
``He's an NHL goaltender,'' Lombardi said of Burke. ``He's a character guy. But we're not sure what to expect. In fairness to him, he hasn't played a lot this year. ... Let's face it, in fairness to the kids that are playing for us right now, they're just not NHL goalies. It's not fair to Brust or Fukufuji, they're not ready for this. It's not their fault.''
Burke, who turns 40 on Jan. 29, was claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay. He played seven games in the AHL and had a 4.52 goals-against average.
About the bloggers
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
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