Zeiler sent down
John Zeiler was not at practice Friday and Crawford said he has been sent down to Manchester. No word yet on who the Kings will call up. That Jon Klemm can play defense or forward probably helps his cause. Zeiler, 25, had been up with the Kings all season. The second-year player averaged eight minutes and 35 seconds of ice time over 34 games with one assist and 23 penalty minutes.
Here's what Crawford had to say about Zeiler: ``John Zeiler has I think got caught up in the tenseness and the complications that come from an extended period of play that a team has gone trhough. We can do something for John Zeiler, which is allow him to go down and recapture his game. He’s given us energy. We’ve been really pleased with the energy he’s given us and the hits that he’s given us, but it pretty much stops there. And there’s more of a player there in John Zeiler that we believe he’s got to continue to develop. They’re playing a lot of games right now in Manchester. It’s going to give him a good opportunity to go down and play. We can't just throw John in and say, ` John, go out there and be confident with the puck.' He needs the opportunity to feel confident with the puck. We can't give him the opportunity right now here, but we can give it to him there. If we're not going to use him here in a game then he should be playing. I believe that is the thought going into this move. Make no mistake about it, though, John is a quality guy. He’s got great character. We love his enthusiasm, his energy and the physicality he plays with. What were looking at is trying to get him to be a little more of a player with the puck and let him keep progressing.''
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.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.
About time.
But lets not replace one worthlss player with another worthlss player.
John Klemm will contribute ZERO - nothing - nada, to the kings if he's called up. He averaged like 3 minutes game the last time he was up.
The Kings still have alot of house cleaning to do. Wilsie, Thonton, & Ivanans should be following Zeiler. Especially Thornton. Seeing an "A" on his sweater is enough to make me want to puke.
I'm looking forward to watching Purcell, Harrold, Moulson, and Boyle play.
They can't do any worse than the team we're seeing right now. They may do better and pick up valuable experience on the way.
I'ts about effin' time...sorry J.Z but if you're gonna play smashmouth hockey then you're gonna hafta drop'em now & then, go get some balls and come back.
Interesting plan, send down the guy that hustles while keeping folks that contribute nothing (Wilsie, Army, Thornton)
Wilsie has contributed 5 points, Army has contributed 15 points, Thornton has 3 points. . . Zeiler has 1 point. . . . even though they don't contribute much. . . still more than J.Z and believe me. . . i think all those guys need to be sent down
They signed this guy to a FOUR year deal... LOL... you have to admire the stupidity of Dean Lombardi on occasion... OK, all the time...
Cloutier, Armstrong, McCauley, Willsie, Zeiler, and the dream (nightmare) goes on and on forever.
Zeiler hustles when he's on the ice. He's doesn't have much experience as he only came on board late last season. He gives 100%. He certainly is not worthless. I'd say some of the draft choices are proving to be worthless. They're the ones that were heralded to add something to the team and so far I've seen absolutely NOTHING. Zeiler has spirit and energy and he at least can be counted on to HIT. No one else on the team does diddly in that area so give the kid a break.
It's freaking classic that that a ton you ALWAYS say that none of our players hit! Do we not have the leading hitter in the National Hockey League: Dustin Brown!!! Wake-up!!!
I'm gonna go with Marc Nathan and Pokey here. If DL had not landed Jack Johnson or Jonathan Bernier, and to a certain extent Thomas Hickey, he would not be as popular thus far.
So besides Brownie, who else hits? So anyone else that you can count on that consistently goes out there and does any checking at all? I'm sitting in Section 117 and I don't see it. Zeiler is a work in progress and I can't single him out any more than I can single out any of the others. He gives 100%. If the rest of those you mention gave that much -- the veterans that we were counting on that we drafted and who were supposed to hold so much promise to help us to be a team in competition, then I would agree. Sure, he has a lot to learn, but at least he's goes out there and gives his all.
Mr Irreverent- you left out Patrick O'Sullivan (and the 3 college free agents ALL 30 teams were after & we got, Purcell, Bagnall & Piskula), Trevor Lewis, Wayne Simmonds & Oscar Moller! We are rebuilding, these are the important acquisitions!!!