Report from locker room
A few notes ...
--Those hoping to see more of Quick on Saturday will probably be disappointed. Crawford said he might get another chance next week.
--It sounds like Frolov is getting close. Crawford said he skated on Tuesday and would skate again tomorrow.
--Crawford went over to shake Quick's hand and offer his congratulations in the locker room after the game. Quick said his family wasn't able to come out from Connecticut on such short notice but that his father bought the NHL on-ice package just to watch the game.
--Crawford said LaBarbera was still sore but felt better tonight than he did this morning. Still, he said LaBarbera was a few days away from even testing the ribs.
--Kopitar set career highs with four points and four assists, Brown tied a career high with three points and Tom Preissing tied career highs with three points and two goals.
Some player quotes ...
Kopitar: ``Lately we had a couple of really good first periods where we’d go up a goal or two goals and then kind of let down and back off. That was the challenge for us. We kept pushing and pushing, and it paid off.’’
Armstrong: ``It was definitely nice for some of us guys who haven’t scored in a while. Maybe we can get going. It took a load off my back for sure.’’
Quick: ``When I first came out there were a little nerves but the team played excellent in front of me and made it easier for me to adjust. It helps to play with a 4-0 lead after the first. There was a lot of good work from those guys and they made it fun for me.''
Crawford quotes ...
``A game like that does wonders for everybody. You could see that a weight was lifted off a number of people on our team. We had lots of energy tonight. Why we had more energy tonight than the other night, I don’t know. But we did have it.''
``A game like that doesn’t happen an awful lot but they can really serve your confidence well. I was really pleased with how many puck battles we won tonight and the way we were skating. It was very noticeable along with the physicality we had. It was a game everybody contributed to and they’re all happy in there right now.''
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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.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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I could get used to this
i think the key tonight was the calming presence of an untested rookie goalie making his NHL debut.
(but really, great game.)
I'm not sure I've seen a goaltender perform worse than Thibault did in the first period... other than those that have worn Kings uniforms over the past few decades. Seriously, that was abhorrent. Three of those goals NEVER should have happened.
hmmm... you mean the whiffs on passes, bad positioning, turnovers, unsteadiness, and general inability to stop the puck? yeah, that was pretty horrendous.
The Modry goal was hilarious.
Miller was only slightly better too.
Modry, Army, Hanzus, Preissing score. Now I know their really is a Santa Claus.
Seriously though the phsyical play early from Zeiler and Brown set the tone. Buffalo didn't look to be in the mood to play a physical game at all.
It seems whenever the Kings put in a new goalie, the whole teams pays attention to their defensive responsibilities. That happened at first with Bernier. Unfortunately it doesn't last long. Once you have a game or two under your belt they abandon you like the titanic.
Still, it was nice to see a complete effort. I have a really strong feeling we won't be seeing that on Saturday. But hey, maybe the Santa thing will stick around a little.
The Kings will pick up Thibault during the off season and play him with Cloutier next year when they trade Babs away.
Modry deserved that goal. Good for him.
At first glance, Army's goal looked like an empty netter and all praise Kopitar. On replay it showed a tough waist high mid-air shot 90 degrees from the pass. He earned his first goal of the season.
JGS, if you call standing on the side of the post hoping Kopitars pass makes it across earning a goal than sure but earning a point is Kopitar making the pass or Nagy realizing the Dman doesn't have a stick so he feathers a pass over to Preissing. Or Brown...just dominating, that SH goal was beautiful, he truely is developing into a 30+ goal scoring power forward, except he leads the league in hits and i think hes starting to run away with it.
And boy did Handzus turn a corner last night he looked great everywhere doing almost everything right, playing the body, sticks in the passing lanes, amazing control of the puck as well as puck pursuit, it was nice to see him get rewarded on Brown's rebound.
But last night was just an overall awesome team effort, they controlled the puck outworked buffalo and the most important thing that has been killing them lately, their breakouts were picture perfect tonight. 2, 3, at most 4 passes that were stick to stick and flat and the kings had the puck deep in buffalos zone, it was like a dream.