Kings-Nashville

Already losers of six in a row, it only took two and a half minutes for the Kings to fall behind on a pretty 2-on-1. The Kings have seven defensemen active. It’s too bad they can’t have them all on the ice at once. Cammy got into a scrap behind the net protecting Kopitar. I think I’m going to call Cammy the team enforcer from now on.

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Kings lose 2-1

Columbus scored less than a minute into the third period. The Kings were outshot 15-10 in the first period after outplaying the Blue Jackets in the first two periods. Frolov led the team with 26:11 on the ice. I guess that’s a good sign for his health. Sixth consecutive loss for the Kings.

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Kings tied 1-1 entering third

The Kings had a goal disallowed in the first period because of interference in the crease, then at the end of the second period LaBarbera had the puck covered up and Jiri Novotny came in and poked it in. That goal was allowed. I guess those are the sort of things that go against you when you’re struggling. Michael Cammalleri broke his seven-game scoring drought for the Kings goal.

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Kings-Columbus game about to get underway

on FSN West. As you know, Dustin Brown is out with a shoulder injury and Nagy is back. The Kings just can’t seem to get fully healthy. Brown leads the team with 16 goals. Jason LaBarbera is in net, his third start in a row since coming back from the ribs injury. I’d venture to guess that Aubin starts in Nashville tomorrow. Columbus is 14-13-6 with 34 points, tied with Chicago for third in the Central Division. The Kings are 12-21-2 with 26 points, the worst total in the NHL, and are on a five-game losing streak. Columbus also is struggling of late, losing four of its past five. Rick Nash leads the Blue Jackets with 18 goals and 13 assists. In the previous matchup between the teams this season, the Kings lost 4-1 at Staples Center on Halloween night. Jason Chimera scored twice for Columbus in that one. Kyle Calder scored the lone Kings goal, though that was also the game he broke his thumb.

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Off-day poll

Many of you probably have seen the Kings’ all-star commercial that has run on the overhead screen at games recently. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here it is. And that brings us to my question …

How many cookies would it take for you to vote for Lubo?
None. I’ll vote for any King.
1
5
My own Mrs. Fields franchise
More than there are on Earth
  
pollcode.com free polls
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Notes and quotes from the locker room

The Kings played decent in the second period and pretty well in the third but the game was already over after they allowed three goals in a first period in which they only managed four shots.

LaBarbera took the blame for the first period. You probably won’t read this quote in any story, but he even said the team probably would have won the game if he didn’t play like (excrement) in the first period.

Here’s his printable quote: “The first period, I just felt like I was on my heels. It’s a big difference between practice and getting in games. I was on my heels and it cost us. They scored three goals I probably could have had. To let your team get behind like that is tough. I wanted to come in with a good start. I thought I played well the rest of the game but the first period was the game.”

But, if you saw the game, you know it wasn’t all LaBarbera’s fault. Visnovsky hung him out to dry on the second goal and Blake kicked in the third one. LaBarbera actually was named the second star of the game for his 37 saves.

After all that talk of finishing checks against Smyth and paying him some extra attention, the Kings basically did nothing to make him pay the price for injuring LaBarbera on Dec. 1. Cammalleri pinned him in a semi-headlock against the boards for a few extra seconds after the first period and had some words with him. He had his stick knocked away a few times and took a couple light elbows, but he wasn’t even knocked down hard. There was no real retaliation.

When I asked Crawford about Smyth, he completely dodged the question. Here’s what LaBarbera had to say: “Hes pretty savvy. Hes been around a long time and hes good at avoiding those kinds of confrontations. We got a couple shots in there but nothing too huge. The biggest thing is you can’t run out of positon to make a hit on him or get a penalty and put your team down. It happened. It might have been a dirty hit, but Id rather not try to kill a penalty than have guys try to run around and get back on him.
I happen to be the (victim) and dont want guys running around trying do somrthing bad or get the team in trouble.”

The Kings had been putting together fuller games lately, getting away from their habit of only playing 40 minutes, but this was a regression.

“In spurts, weve been good but for whatever reason we cant seem to get 60 min together and it’s costing us games and taking us further and further down the standings,” LaBarbera said. “I don’t know what it is. We need to figure something out.”

The Kings are now three points behind the next-worst team in the NHL and four points behind in the Western Conference.

“I think at this point, desperate is the word everyone in this room should be thinking about,” Patrick O’Sullivan said. “We talked about it before tonight and went out and gave up a three-goal cushion. I don’t know what the answer is. It’s getting to the point where it needs to turn around or we’re going to be in some serious trouble.”

Oh, and here’s what Crawford had to say about the game. I jusk asked for his thoughts on the game this time and let him say what he was already going to anyway.

“We had a terrible start. Adversity is a big enemy of ours right now. We look inexperienced at handling our adversity.

“We wanted to give LaBarbera a night not too difficult but tonight we gave up far too many chances. I thought we were better in second and made a game of it in the third but we still can’t start like that and get away with it in this league.

“At times like these, you can point fingers and be really divisive and divide the group, but one thing I will say is these guys are sticking together and trying to work a way through it. We are struggling right now, there is no doubt about that.

“I thought either Jason or Rob Blake were our best players tonight and there weren’t a lot of other players who played to the level they needed to. It’s great to have him (Jason) back. I think, if nothing else, it should solidify our group knowing he’s going to get saves.

“We didn’t like the effort tonight, make no mistake about that. The effort wasn’t good enough. It’s hard to put a finger on it but it’s very apparent tonight that when we got an early penalty and then they score on the power play, you could almost see our guys on their heels, and the game is difficult to play when you’re taking a defensive stance all time.”

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