that players are tiring of Crawford. I ran it by Cammalleri and this is what he had to say …

“I haven’t heard anything about that. That’s news to me. Crow and his staff have worked hard to get their message across to this team and I think we’re definitely buying in.”

Here’s that update I promised, courtesy of the Kings …

FSN West and Jack Johnsons team won for lowest score.

Kings Alumni of Rogie Vachon, Nelson Emerson, Ken Belanger, Ian Turnbull, and Strength and Conditioning coach Chad Smith came in 3rd.

Kings forward John Zeilers team from Pechanga Resort & Casino won Most Honest.

FSN Wests Patick ONeal won the putting contest

Live Auction item dinner with Luc Robitaille at the STAPLES Center Arena Club went for $1000

A fairly standard day at practice, with no ripples being made. The forwards practiced the same way they played the other night, and afterward Crawford said LaBarbera will get the start tomorrow. That’s no shock. The question becomes, what about the back-to-back games after that? It’s natural to assume that LaBarbera and Aubin will split those games, but the Kings have an entire week off following the second San Jose game. So it’s not completely unreasonable to think that LaBarbera could start all three. Not likely, but not out of the question either.

More notes and quotes later, assuming I can get to them before the basketball game. Matt has stuff also.

Here’s one thing…Crawford was asked about particulars in the last game, things that he was pleased and displeased with. He was pleased with…confidence, the players’ on-ice connection (vision, passing, etc.) and the puck movement of the defensemen, both in the D zone in the neutral zone. What was he displeased with? The number of quality scoring chances. I think all of those, good and bad, have been themes of late, and the good has far outweighed the bad. I think goaltending is also a major positive.

Jonathan Bernier has allowed eight goals in two games for Lewiston. Maybe a little residual effect from his time with the Kings. It can also be tough to stay motivated and focused heading down to juniors when you hoped to stay in the NHL. It’s a long season so nothing to be worried about right now, but something to keep an eye on.

Looking at some of the players from training camp in Manchester, Dan Cloutier is 1-3 with 11 goals allowed in four games. Brady Murray has a goal and an assist in four games, both coming in the last two. Gabe Gauthier leads the team in points with 12 in eight games. Matt Moulson leads in goals with five.

The team had an early morning skate today before heading out to the L.A. Kings Bud Light Golf Invitational at Industry Hills Golf Club. I’ll try to let you know who did best in the the golf event later in the day. I hear that Michael Cammalleri is a scratch golfer and the best on the team. Jean-Sebastien Aubin told me in training camp that he has a six handicap and played golf his first day arriving in Los Angeles.

Jason LaBarbera has been named as the NHL’s “First Star of the Week,” for the week ending Oct. 28. Brind`Amour and Ovechkin were the other two. Here’s what the NHL release had to say about LaBarbera’s week:

FIRST STAR — JASON LABARBERA, G, LOS ANGELES KINGS

LaBarbera posted a 3-0-0 record, 0.67 goals-against average, .976
save percentage and one shutout as the Kings won three consecutive home
games. On Oct. 23, LaBarbera recorded his second career NHL shutout by
making 17 saves as Los Angeles defeated the Nashville Predators 6-0. Two
nights later, he recorded 29 saves as the Kings defeated the Dallas Stars
2-1. LaBarbera finished the week by making 34 saves in a 4-1 victory over
the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 27. For the season, LaBarbera has posted a
record of 4-2-0 with a 2.06 goals-against average, .925 save percentage and
one shutout.

You guys are starting to feel bad for all of those immensely clever but seemingly premature slogans from two weeks ago!

Kings get a well-earned day off today.

I know you guys will like my lead here.

The last time the Kings won four in a row was in March of 2006.

This was the first two-goal game in Patrick O’Sullivan’s young career.

Jason LaBarbera made a season-high 34 saves and has now stopped 123 of his last 127 shots against (.969 save percentage). He stopped all 15 shots in the third period. He was named the No. 1 star for the third consecutive game.

Ladislav Nagy has five points in the past four games, Anze Kopitar eight points in the past eight games and Lubomir Visnovsky six points in the last five.

The Kings were outshot 35-31. Michael Cammalleri led the Kings with five shots.

John Zeiler led the Kings with seven hits in just over seven minutes on the ice.

Jack Johnson spent 23:36 on the ice, most on the team.

Patrick O’Sullivan
“After that tough start, we knew that’s not what our team was about. To come back here with these wins, we’re really showing that this organization is going in the right direction.”

“Barbs is playing unbelievable right now for us. That’s who he is. He really is a good goalie. I played with him last year and know what he’s capable of doing.”

“It’s nice to see we didn’t pout about being in the situation we were in. We battled back, got back to .500 here and we’re just going to keep building on this.”

Jason LaBarbera
“Right now, I’m just calm, I’m relaxed, I’m not worrying about things and the puck is hitting me.”

On stopping the wrap around in the third period: “It was a mad scramble. They got about three shots on the left side of the net. I knew I was stuck and he was going to wrap it so I scrambled over and threw my stick over. Luckily, he didn’t take a step and get it up high. He tried to stuff it and my stick got there, and that was a big save.”

“We knew we had the players here. It was just a matter of coming together as a team and trusting each other. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t trust each other and I think we learned from that.”

“We worked hard in practice, the coaches did a good job of preparing us and, for whatever reason, it wasn’t clicking. We didn’t really know what we were doing as a group. Once we got that win against Minnesota in the shootout, you could kind of see in our faces a little more confidence and it just carried on from there.”