Sharks 3, Kings 1
The Kings should double Patrick Marleau's salary, just so they don't have to play against him anymore. The King-killer struck again with two goals and despite an honest effort, the Kings slumbered again offensively and couldn't do much against a motivated San Jose defense and a sharp goalie, Evgeni Nabokov.
In the end, there's a reason why the Kings are the Kings and the Sharks are the Sharks. It wasn't a terrible effort by the Kings, but it wasn't good enough to beat one of the NHL's top teams. Sean Burke stopped 18 of 19 shots through two periods, then gave up two goals on seven shots in the third, but it's hard to fault him.
The Kings generated a good number of chances in the second period but got only one goal, and that was really their only period of sustained offense. The Sharks didn't get a ton of chances either, but they put three in the net.
Other thoughts:
-- Patrick O'Sullivan looks so much more comfortable than he did earlier this season, and it's showing on the stat sheets. With an assist tonight, he has two goals and nine assists in his last nine games.
-- Dustin Brown is a guy who is now able to contribute on the power play and penalty kill. The last piece of the puzzle for him is putting the puck in the net. He showed a great scoring touch in the AHL during the lockout and if he can ever get it to click in the NHL, watch out.
-- John Zeiler is a guy to watch for the future. He took a couple unfortunate penalties in the second period but he brings a lot of energy and he's a good guy to have in the dressing room.
-- The Sean Burke party is over. He gave the Kings a boost when he arrived, but he has allowed at least three goals in each of his last 10 games, and that doesn't even include the two-goal, zero-save clunker against the Ducks.
-- It will be very interesting to see what the Kings' defense looks like next season. Barring an unforseen trade, Blake and Visnovsky will be back for sure, and then there's you-know-who, the rookie. Beyond that, who knows? Aaron Miller? Mike Weaver? Joe Piskula? Peter Harrold? It's assumed that a chunk of the free salary-cap money will go to one or two defensemen, so we'll see how that works out.
5 Comments
Leave a comment
About Rich Hammond
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.
Now if they'd only find the budget to send you on some road trips again...
Agreed on O'Sullivan. People were very impatient with him and trying to hang him in the beggining putting him up n the Kopitar level. He should work out just fine. If Lewis is half as good as we expect, we got a steal from Minnesota.
Lombardi has said he is looking for 2 older vets (Blake and maybe Miller???), 2 younger experienced guys (Visnovsky and Stuart/Souray??) and 2 youngsters (Johnson and Harrold/Petiot/Piskula???) on his blue line. Sounds like agreat plan.
The Kings did a good job with O'Sullivan. Sending him back to Manchester, after he struggled here early, could have messed with his head, but they handled him really well and he has come back strong. I've heard Lombardi say essentially the same thing about the defensemen, and it does sound like a solid plan. Now about those goalies...
And yes, maybe a Daily News telethon is in order for road-trip funding...
The goaltending is going to be difficult. Bernier is year away and Garon/Burke are just average. If the defense is as good as it can be, we may get by with Garon. I think they made a mistake with Cloutier and we may be stuck with him until BErnier is ready! UGH!
Keep in mind that Bernier is currently in Canadian juniors and still has junior elgibility. He could wind up back in junior hockey next season and if he does, he's at least two years away.
A lot depends on what the Kings do with the three goalies they have up with the big club. I have to think that Garon is as good as gone. I suspect that he has little interest in signing with the Kings again, and I'm not sure the Kings are interested in signing him, either. LaBarbera will get a shot with the Kings next season, and I get the impression that the Kings are not fond of Barry Brust, the current #2 goalie at Manchester. So there will likely be room for Bernier at Manchester, but right now, it's tough to say what is likely to transpire.