Pronger hat trick...

By Rich Hammond on September 13, 2007 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

...of penalties, that is. He has taken three in the first 27 minutes of the game. The Kings just had a 5-on-3 power play for 77 seconds but the Ducks did a good job of blocking a couple shots on the perimeter.

Jack Johnson is moving the puck well and has gotten off a couple rocket shots. One led to a juicy rebound, but the Kings are having trouble finishing from close range. The opportunities are there but the pucks are just missing sticks.

We just had our first preseason fight, between Simmonds and Shane Hnidy. It wasn't much, lots of clutching and a couple jabs.

J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey. E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra
@inlandnewspapers.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.