Sore goalies
Who would have guessed, three months ago, that the Kings' goalies would be J.S. Aubin and Jonathan Quick? That's what it has come to.
Jason LaBarbera has rib-cartilage issues, and it doesn't seem as though they're going away any time soon. LaBarbera said he tried to drive to the rink yesterday but had trouble simply steering and looking around while changing lanes. He needed his girlfriend to drive him to the rink today.
``I've become best friends with ice,'' LaBarbera said. ``I did some little (workout) stuff today but it's still painful. It's just time and ice. There's not much else you can do.''
Meanwhile, Aubin disclosed for the first time that he's playing with TWO sore groin muscles. Seems as though his preseason injury never completely healed, but he said the injuries aren't hampering his ability to play. Still, it has to be a little scary for the Kings, given how fickle groin muscles can be.
Aubin shared a story about how he once played almost an entire period with a broken rib. Aubin said he somehow got kicked in the side and had trouble breathing for the rest of the game but stayed in because the starting goalie had been pulled earlier in the game. Aubin said he gasped for air every time he had to go down to make a save.
``At least I earned some points from the GM, after they found out I was hurt,'' Aubin joked.
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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
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Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
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Good think Lombardi didn't feel the need to pursue Bryzgalov.
Ive been happy with Labs, its just the curse you see. Nothing changes
Lombardi had no shot at Bryzgalov. PHX was gonna get him regardless. Shut up about him.
There is nothing we can do about the goalie situation...we knew this coming in and it's still true now. Bernier is the answer but he's at least a year away (most likely two or three)
Did Aubin get his two groin injuries trying to scale the walls when Penner scored that PP goal? jk. Actually if we didn't win that come from behind win against Dallas we would have been tied with Phoenix the day he went on waivers and since we had more games played than Phoenix we would have been lower than them. Just saying.
So are we going to see Quick in the next game?
Rich,
Please put a Bryzgalov-filter on this site. Too many uninformed comments are wasting our time. Burke would never trade with the Kings. Sweat-heart deals for Canadian heros only. You just know the Ducks GM has a man-crush on Wayne.
No Lombardi could have had Bryz for a conditional draft pick, before he was even placed on waivers, but chose to stand pat. Another year, another minor league goalie, who doesn't like top 5 draft picks anyways...
When will this organization ever understand that without a high quality goalie there will be no playoffs?
Looks like another season in the bust column. Par for the course.
Reduced to Aubin and Quick.
THIS SUCKS!
the only thing that DOESN'T suck about this is that Aubin/Quick is LIGHT YEARS better than Brust/Fukufuji.
How quickly (no pun intended) we forget!
Well will see, cause aubin didnt look that steady last night. I just cant help feeling that if labs was there we would have won
Lucas,
Burke told the press that he offered him to Lombardi for a conditional pick. Lombardi has said there was no interest and a waiver claim was not put in.
Let us all move on - we have Bernier and Zatkoff in the pipeline for the long term and Labarbera here now. Labs has 2.56 gaa in spite of the team play in front of him and a save % of .916.
Maybe more thought should be put in to the awful play of Visnovsky, and sub par performance from Blake, Stuart and Preissing?
dominic lavoie could you please give a link to that statement made by Lombardi? I was under the impression that Burke never offered Bryzgalov to Dean.
We have goalies stacked all over the system. Most won't amount to much but how many contracts are the Kings supposed to waste on goaltending? Sure Bryz would have been nice (especially since Labs went down), but we have to be realistic. When they signed Cloutier (swiss cheese), they gave him a contract that hamstrung us when he didn't work out.
Dan H.
You seem very acccepting of the failure of this club. After 40 years I can't say the same. Have you forgotten that our neighbors down the freeway won the cup last year, after what 15 years or so in the league?
Name all the Kings tenders you'd like "in the system", but I'd like to see solid goaltending NOW. LaBarbara is solid but injured. The back up plan is Aubin? Good luck.
Injuries happen every year, to the Kings more than most.
If Labarberra was finally solid and you admit that, then you can't complain TOO much.
Hell I would have liked Hasek in his prime or Brodeur but you're not going to get that. Realistically there are 5 stud goalies in the league. The rest mesh from adequate to mush.
I'm not happy supporting a losing team year after year but seeing who's in the pipeline right now brings confidence, especially how Bernier played when he was up at the spot you're most concerned with.
I agree, there was no way we were ever getting Bryz.
The timing of him being put on waivers by Burke was deliberate. He knew the Kings had no shot to get him. Why would you give your most hated rival the one thing they need to compete? Especially for a conditional pick. Thats ridiculous.
Why are we complaining about Barbs? If there has been one consistent thing for us this year, it's been the goaltending. If we had this kind of play from our goalies last year, we would have been able to compete for a playoff spot. Also, have we forgotten the promise that Bernier showed?
For those who forgot, remember how Patrick Roy started. he was brought up for 10 games and sent back to his junior team. He didn't play well when he was sent back down, but look at the final results?
Bernier is the future in goal for the Kings.
As requested....
From LATIMES article following 1-0 loss to Phoenix...."Kings management said Friday that it was not interested in acquiring him, opting to develop its own goalies."
From EDMONTON JOURNAL: Jim Matheson reports Burke's asking price for Bryzgalov was a conditional pick but other teams couldn't afford him due to salary cap issues, even the LA Kings, whom Burke claimed he tried to trade the netminder to. Burke tells Matheson he "wouldn't be surprised" if Phoenix claims Bryzgalov. Matheson doesn't believe the Oilers will claim him,as they're already at their maximum of 50 players under contract and would thus have to drop a player first, suggesting Calgary, San Jose and Pittsburgh as destinations.
For folks looking to see a link to an article reporting that Burke offered Bryzgalov to us for a conditional pick.......
http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/hockey/story.html?id=06da23c6-db30-4a0f-89df-8a99b6d78d65
looks like daniel and lucas have some egg on their faces?
Thanks dominic lavoie.