Notes and quotes from the locker room
There was some fire and testiness to the Kings today that I think a lot of fans have been looking for when the team has struggled.
Michael Cammalleri, who came to the defense of Kopitar in the third period when he was elbowed into the boards by Alexandre Burrows, pointed Rob Blake as setting the tone.
(Kopitar's) a great hockey player and we’ve got to defend each other,'' Cammalleri said. ``We try not to let anybody get some licks on us without knowing (retaliation) is going to come, that’s for sure.
I think we're doing a good job responding when we need to. Blakey’s our leader and he’s the one that’s showing us the way. It's unacceptable to hit our goalie. It's unacceptable to hit guys when they’re in vulnerable positions, and we’re going to react to it.''
Through a Kings representative, Blake declined to speak with the media following the game. He got a 10-minute misconduct penalty in the final minute, again appearing to come to the defense of goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin with the Kings already missing Jason LaBarbera because of a player banging into the goalie.
``Any time there’s emotion in the game there’s nothing wrong with that,'' Crawford said. ``The game is one of emotion. You shouldn't go into those high-intense areas in front of the net without thinking you're going to have to answer the bell. With what happened to Jason, we're very conscious of protecting the goaltender now. I think it adds to the spice and the emotion that our team has, and we always seem to play better when we have that edge.''
Crawford said he thought it was Calder's best game since his return from injury and that the Armstrong-O'Sullivan-Willsie line was the one that won the game.
The Kings are now 10-1-0 when allowing two goals or less.
the way blake played tonight is what we were missing from our Captain, Matt Cooke looked like a huge baby holding onto Blakes leg in hopes he didnt get his face pummeled.
that was a fun game to watch, especially to see Anze think shot instead of pass on his goal.
Good jump by the boys tonight. Tenacious and consistent. It must've been the 38 candles on his birthday cake that lit the fire under Blake's ass.
Where was the retaliation after the hit on LaBarbera?
..um...there was no retaliation after LaBarbera got hit...i think that's sorta the point everyone is making. and to be fair i don't think anyone realized how bad Barbs was until after the pileup cleared around him...
Great game to watch last night. They gave a complete 60 minute effort.
Blake showed last night the leader he is. He hasn't shown much this year, but that was as physical and nasty as he's been.
How lucky are we that we get to see a guy like Kopitar play each night? This guy is going to be a superstar in this league for a long time. What a pleasure it is to watch him.
Hey by the way Pokey...I don't know if you caught the game last night but that was a heck of a game by Sully and wouldn't you know it, he played with Willsie and Army again. What was that comment about doing research? Yeah, thats what I thought.
MARK MY WORDS
Kopitar will eventually out shine Sidney Crosby.
And sooner than expected.
Trust me on this one.
Wow, O'Sullivan had more playing time than any other King forward.
Are my eyes deceiving me.
Somebody explain.
Nice win for the Kings. Other than getting the two points for the standings, the most important thing for me was watching the way they would stick up for each other. I don't know what happened to Rob Blake but the past two games he has been doing well in being nastier.
Seeing who the stars of the games were said alot about tonights game. Those in the back stepped up so those up front could step up more. Good job for Johnson and Kopitar to go up to Cammi in the PB and give him props. Blakes head lock on Cooke was icing on his cake. Even Vis looked like he got his spark back. He did some great drives across the ice schooling the CaDucks. Great game and exciting for the crowd. Staples was definitly on the ice.
Greeting from a die hard Kings fan in Dallas,
I watched the game on Center Ice and got the Vancouver broadcasters. A couple of interesting comments.
Marc Crawford: They said he has more wins at the 100 game mark with LA than he did when he was back in Vancouver. They then said that we know how good Vancouver is now so we can only imagine what's in store for LA.
I've been hearing a lot of fire Crawford talk and now I'm thinking it's too soon. It's nice to hear a different perspective once in awhile. The biggest issue they mentioned for LA is a second line that can score and goaltending. They were all over JS-A last night and not in a good way
They also praised Modry who is at a plus 6. They wondered what made his so special and Jim Hughson said "He just knows when to get off the ice"!
Hope you enjoy.
Blake was straight up awesome last night. I think that Rob is tired of losing and has decided to lead this team. Hopefully for a lot of the younger guys school is out, and Blake is going to show them how to win games. This is what we've been missing.
Big props to Blake, keep it up.
Excuse me but something is missing from here and it is glaringly noticable ........ WHERE's ANTHONY .... what a crepe hanger. What a GREAT game they guys played last night and boy is Sully ever getting into a groove, he's almost acting the way Brownie does with the hits. My own feelings are that Ranford needs to work with J.S. alot, the man thinks go down on every shot, JS if you stay on your feet a little more you won't look like a salmon swimming up stream and I bet you'll stop more of the scramble shots. The Zeus is gettin loose, great positioning all night. Did you all see Vis and those classic moves ..... wow!!! Hardest shot on the Kings?? .... O'Sullivan, fastest skater???...... O'Sullivan
Crawford said he thought it was Calder's best game since his return from injury and that the Armstrong-O'Sullivan-Willsie line was the one that won the game.
And so, therefore can we assume, knowing Coach Crawford's ADD, that before the mini-road trip ends, those three will be on three completely different lines (at least three times over?)
Personally, I think the A-O'S-W line would be MUCH better without A and W.
Shakes, as you commented on in the previous post, I too watched the Vancouver feed off the Center Ice package and couldn't believe that stat, Modry +6, the rest of the D combined -44.
Even though I like Bob & Jim's call of games, I like to watch the other teams announcers (except for those Duck homers) on Center Ice, gives a fresh perspective. Every one I have seen are very complimentary to the Kings team talking about their great young players and what a good team we will have in the future. Remember Ottawa a few years ago, what a yo-yo team they were, now look at them. Patience folks, everyone outside of LA recognizes the good thing that is building.
The Vancouver announcer last night called Kopitar the Ovechkin of the West, he said more people need to see this guy and that was before he scored on that beautiful backhander.
They even praised Crawford for getting the "ABC" line out their when the Canucks top checking line was on the bench, leading to that goal.
Could it be that after 30 games the Kings are finally ready to play?
It's best to probably be cautiously optimistic but their recent fiery play is something to be positive about.
The team still faces an uphill battle being last in the West with 52 games remaining.
They need to at least win 3/4 of the remaining games to have a shot at the playoffs....
But first things first... how about a winning streak fellas?
11-11-2 since coming back from that STUPID trip to England that led to a 1-5 start.
didn't watch (but listened) last night, and sounded great. watched part of the replay this morning, and not only did the kings have some fire, but cooke holding on to rob blake's leg helplessly as blake was beating him up? pure gold.
every time i think of cooke now, i'll think of brown crushing him last year, and blake last night. good stuff.
11-11-2 since coming back from that STUPID trip to England that led to a 1-5 start.
One might say that the Kings have stupidly gone 11-11-2 after coming back from that 1-5 start... Team's going nowhere but the black hole... that ain't good.
Uh, Anthony = Marc Nathan.
Big Rob From Dallas and NMKingsFans, thanks for the outsiders view. I think the typical LA fanatic get s bit myopic from time to time. Including me.
I guess the most important thing for every fan (and every prospective fan) to remember is that the Kings have a great future and are starting to play with fire. I f they can keep this up and can keep improving they will make to the playoffs. This year. Granted, Labs and JSA won't take them past the 1s round but just getting there is all that matters right now.
I think if every Kings game looked like a Wounded Cougar song sounds, this town would be alright.
Cheers!
Since I'm in NY I catch the games on the package as well. The announcers in Vancouver are the best i've heard, other than Miller/Fox. They're fair and honest.
Anyone catch the Timex commercial with the astronaut running for the space shuttle? LMAO over that one. If you didn't see it, you can catch it on youtube.
I was thinking about something with Blake. Weren't the Kings saying that because of his injury, he really wasn't going to be 100% for at least a couple of months? Maybe that's been the problem. Who really knows, but it's just nice to see him playing this way. Lets hope it continues.
Anthony, I can't really disagree with you on the Crosby part. We are watching something very special in Kopitar. This guy has the talent and the work ethic to be mentioned with the top young players in the league. From a media standpoint, he'll never be compared to Crosby because of where he plays. To the media, the league really doesn't exist west of Detroit. It's a shame because they are missing out on a great player. As Kings fans lets just consider ourselves lucky to have him and hopefully in years to come he will be one of the guys carrying around the cup for the Kings.
Now watch, after tonights game we'll all be bitching and moaning again about the lack of effort. It's been that way all year. Hopefully not though.
I thought the Kings looked the best they have all year against Vancouver. All season long people here and many places elsewhere have claimed this team "has no identity". While I didn't disagree, I'm seeing signs of the team really coming together as a group. Strong play must start at the top and Blake's play the last week has improved significantly. Also, the energy as a whole has been there as of late.
This team seems primed to crawl its way out of the cellar. Not ready to proclaim that the playoffs lay on the other side of this mini-turnaround, but I would like to think they can carry this momentum at least into some more consistent play. All starts with the Hawks tonight; lets see if this team is ready to let its balls hang and go play consistently.
Kopitar continues to amaze, what a player he is turning into. The rest of the league is no doubt taking note as well. Away announcers are constantly singing his praises (the Vancouver announcer went as far as to say he is the Ovechkin of the west) and opposing coaches are consistently running their best defensive lines against him. I thought Crow's decision to double shift him with Ivanans was smart; anyone else notice Vigneault sending the Burrowes line out there to match on the first shift only to have Cammy Brown and Anze come out 45 second later and almost bury one...that line was buzzing all night.
Here's to a Kings W tonight vs the Hawks...c'mon boys!
Great, 11-11-2 if you don't count the bad start. Also 4-8-3 in the last 14. Both records WAY out of the playoffs. Right now the Kings need 67 points in 52 games after getting 26 in their first 30. That'd be like 33-16-3. Fat chance.
Hey 11-11-2, it may be improbably to go 33-16-3(though I think we realistically need 74 more points to get in), but it's definitely not impossible! We've seen glimpses of a total team game the last couple weeks, so if we can learn to play that way consistently we have a great chance of leap frogging a bunch of teams & getting in. No reason to give up hope so early with 52 games to play!
Big props to the Chicago Blackouts for not showing the game tonight. Appreciate that.
I wonder if they get to watch their team play when they are in LA?
Its on Center Ice. Its 3-0 Hawks with 6 minutes remaining in the first -_- Kings have come out strong offensively but have just collapsed defensively. Crawford is about to pull Aubin.
NYKingFan we should meet up, I'm in NY as well. Are you going to the games versus the Rangers and Devils in Feb?