Ersberg makes NHL debut
which, obviously, can't be a good thing for the Kings. Cloutier is pulled with the Kings trailing 5-1 after allowing four goals in the first nine minutes of the second period. The Kings are allowing rush after rush right out of the faceoffs. Time to see what the kid can do.
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About the bloggers
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.
Certainly can't do any worse than Beachball. It must have really hurt
Crawfish to pull his boy.
A trash can positioned in
middle of the net would have made more stops. I
think any chance of trading
Clousseau just went down the drain.
Good to see the old Cloutier return.
Was wondering who the imposter was wearing #39 in the last few games.
And could there be a worse defensive corps than ours.
I'm sure all the Cloutier haters will come out and blame this game on him. But this was NOT Cloutier's fault!
This was the worst defensive performance by the Kings in 2 months.
I have a request of Dean Lombardi, if for some reason he reads this blog:
PLEASE trade Lubomir Vishnovsky and get us a real defenseman!!!
I don't know what happened to this guy. Maybe he's hurt all year? He's consistently been the worst defenseman on the ice all season for the Kings.
Kings first power play. Lubo has the puck in his own end. It takes him ONE MINUTE to figure out how to get teh puck out of his own zone. An "offensive defenseman"?
The Havlat goal. Lubo is the only guy covering Havlat as he's coming out of the corner, and what does Lubo do? Backs off and falls down in front of Cloutier!
Games like this drive me crazy! :(
And now we have the 3rd period to play. Where's my pepto bismol?
so how many goalies have played for us these past two seasons..correct me if ive missed someone.
Cloutier, Garon, LaBarbera, Brust, Fukafuji (sp), Quick, Ersberg, Bernier, ....kings goaltending woes continue...
@ we rock: You forgot Brad Stuart, he's done his share of blocking shots this season...
At least Cloutier doesn't allow rebounds like Barbs, the puck just goes in the nets pretty cleanly...
3/5 weren't Cloutiers fault but 2 were glaring bad goals.
The backhander out of the corner and the typical Cloutier goal from last season where the guy shoots from the goal line and banks it in. Horrible.
That being said the Kings defense is awful.
Shakes..ya you're right :p although with barbs you get to hold your breath for 2/3 seconds longer..
You know. I don't know what to think about this team anymore.
5-5 tie. Great comeback!!! Where was this team in the 2nd period??
And how about Jack Johnson preventing the empty net goal all by himself!
In my last post, I said Lubo has been our worst defenseman. Well, Jack Johnson has been our best defenseman all year! Pretty good for a rookie.
yeah baby! we did it again!
OT baby! ...and this my friends is why we watch Kings hockey...
....sigh.... damn OT...but all-in-all a Saturday afternoon/evening well spent
Tough loss after the comeback but great effort in the 3rd. JMFJ on that last goal was awesome, fought off two Blackhawks, saved an open netter and in the process chipped the puck up to Cammy I believe which set up the 5th goal with 13 seconds left. Great effort, I really thought they'd win it in the OT....
D wasn't all that great this game and agree Clouts allowed a couple bad goals but, not unhappy with this team after that great comeback.
Proves once again, people should never tune this team out until end of the game. Future is very bright.
Was sorry to see the return of the old Clouts.
Dan H. was right. well at least we got a point and avoided a bit more embarrassment. good debut by Ersberg, I kind of hope we're able to hang on to him next season even though we have so many 'tenders in the system.
What Nick and Daryl said on the radio was that the Kings top lines just let down in front of Cloutier, and yes bad goals happen, I swear you guys just love to beat on someone and MATT you're starting to sound like a bunch of them that make noise here also. I think the only thing that will make any of you quit bleating is the 2nd coming of Sawchuk and then I'm not too sure about that.
Great finish!
Some of you guys are so quick to blame Cloutier though! Were you watching the game? Only one of the goals he allowed can really be considered a bad goal, that's the one from the goal line by Toews. The Havlat goal was a perfectly placed backhand shot to the far post, you just have to give credit to Havlat for that. The real culprit was the Kings defense in the 2nd period, just breakdown after breakdown...and we need to focus on that. Cloutier is an easy target for Kings fans, but he wasn't at fault today!
I agree we had some lousy defense. But, when it's all said and done, our goalie is still the one that should be stopping the puck when our defense fails. He should be our last defense and he should be great. Cloutier is not, period.
Anthony if you think our second period breakdowns were because of the defenseman, you're a schmuck & know nothing about the team sport that is hockey!