Kings lose 5-4

Wow, did anybody hear how brutal Ray Ferraro was to the Kings defense tonight? My favorite line was when he was feeling sorry for Cloutier and stated, "How about trying to resurrect your career behind this defense." Ferraro was all over praising Kopitar and Brown though.
While the defense sucked overall tonight and showed how much they miss Modry and Stuart, I thought Harrold played well.

You really ought to consider getting Center Ice.

Put a highway cone in net and we at least force overtime. Cloutier is back to his old self. I very strongly believe this team is playing with great offensive energy and can score almost at will but play on their heals when the puck is at there own end. There is no defensive pressure. It appeas they don't want to make any careless mistakes that would allow a scoring chance. Can't really blame them since we definately have issues in goal. We will need to score at least four most nights just to force overtime.

Is this managements idea of putting a competitive team on the ice.
Hasn't anybody noticed the pathetic group of defenseman we have on the ice.
Dallman - 5'10
Harrold - 5'11
Lubo-cookie 5'10
Blake - 50 years old and floating around on the ice without a care in the world.

The opponents are just easily man handling this group of rag tag defenseman.
No respect from the opponents.
No intimidation by this group of tiny defenseman. It's like watching the midget league.
No team is going to have difficulty out scoring this group of blue liners. And our team won't be able to score at least 6 goals every game.

I know this season has been given up. Build for next year is the motto. But its now a matter of respect. And we're not getting that. Management ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Putting out this group of D-men is a slap in the face of the fans, who have shown great loyalty.

BTW, isn't it a miracle that Blakes injury is resolved right after the trade deadline. It must be devine intervention.

Screw Rob Blake.
Screw this Management.

The player that has to be most pleased, must be Brad Stuart. He must be thrilled to get the hell out of this laughing stock organization. I wonder if Dumbardi can hear the rest of the league laughing at him.

@NMKingsFan:

This was the 2nd Oilers broadcast of an Oilers vs. Kings matchup. He bashed the Kings in both games. I'm wondering if it could be sour grapes over his time in LA?

As for Cloutier, can you imagine resurrecting your career when you let in 3 soft goals a night with little or no explanation as to why?

When Cloutier came back, I advocated that the Kings, and Kings fans hadn't given this guy a fair shake. I still believe that, and I hope his game comes around. That said, he's played pretty badly so far. :(

Looks like we're solidifying our position to pick Drew Doughty. We need him MUCH more then we need Stamkos!

Anthony what happened to the great future you forecast for Kings when
they cameback against
Hawks? You are like the wind
Win- cup contenders
Lose- Lombardi sucks
The reality is that this game means nothing just like all the games have for the past two months.
Playoff chase ended in
December and it is all
about the future and not
the present

Only thing I can say about tonight.....Bad D, also Bad goalie when he can't pull off those great saves when the chips are down.
Thing to me is, as long as this team keeps in there plugging away and not just giving up as they did at the last part of Murrays coaching, I'll be content to sit back and watch the progress of the youth.

Ferraro's always critical of the Oilers opponents. He is a bit more harsh on the Kings, but living in Western Canada, one grows familiar with Ferraro's talent -- or lack thereof -- as an analyst.

Still, he hit the nail on the head about Kopitar and Brown, and adequately described our shoddy defensive zone coverage. While he was critical of Cloutier for the massive rebound he allowed on the Nilsson goal, he thought Clouts played an outstanding game. And from my point of view, Cloutier played very well in spurts, but most of the time looked like he had other things to do besides playing goal.

And as for Blake, he made a few bad plays, broke up a few Edmonton passes, took some wide slappers, but I don't think he threw a single check. Then again, aside from Brown, I don't think anyone from the Kings even tried one.

The offensive skills on this team are great, but they certainly look like a team just playing out the schedule.

its the new NHL formula for D... its not so much about physical strength as it is about speed... its not uncommon to see small defensemen in the NHL... if you throw out a 5-5 Dman like Derian hatcher, against an Ovechkin or a Thomas Vanek, its gonna be a battle of speed. Edmonton is a team built on speed. if you look at most of their forwards, they are at six feet or below. the reason for this is to outmatch the other teams speed. now toss a lubo , a dallman and a harrold out there, all of a sudden these guys are being followed around the net. granted the kings D is horrible, it is better to look at a team like Buffalo with their D. not big by any means of the imagination, but all of their Dmen are smallish and can skate and outmatch the speed of the opponent.

wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,wait till next year,

Hey Daily News, buy Center Ice for Matt! :)

Thinking of getting that myself, now that I finally have a decent internet connection...

Hey Matt, keeping doing what your doing. There is nothing wrong with providing your opinion in this blog or in your articles. The LA fans needs to read newspapers from Dallas, Tamapa Bay, Boston and almost all Canadian cities to see how opinionated those beat writers are. I mean we just past the trade deadline and there were numerous publications that were not only writing about trade rumors, but were analyziing rumors and then providing their own suggestions on who teams should and should not trade. LA fans are just not used to writers providing their own opinions, but its something that is normal all across the U.S. and Canada. As a USC graduate trained in journalism, i'm sure you know how to do your job better than most of these fans.

I just watched the entire game and didn't find Ferraro to be offensive in his assessment at all. He called it as it was. The Kings don't hit anyone in the defensive zone, are too small on the blue line, and they make the kind of mistakes that last place teams make... a lot! This was a matchup of two teams that will be golfing in 5 weeks, and it showed. Some real highlight reel goals though. Hemsky always seems to electrify when he brings the puck to the front of the net. O'Sullivan's shot was overpowering coming down the left wing. Brown made a great play to go through Gilbert's legs on the shortie. Sam Gagner is going to be an exceptional talent in this league.

Well, thank the heavens that they didn't get a point tonight, and let's see how they fare against a very playoff-hungry Colorado team on Saturday.

Ferraro was telling it like it is. That one line, "resurrect your career behind this defense" was pretty funny. The game plan against the Kings is pretty simple...play down low and put pucks on the net.

I know Daily News pay is bad, but it's THAT BAD???

Come on folks, lets get together and chip in and buy M.K. a center Ice package so he can see all of the playoff games.

Arrgghhh...Anthony!!! SHUT UP!!!! When it comes to the Kings, you’re the most closed minded, short sighted, "live in the now" moron on this blog.

1) The season is over....the focus is no longer just to put a competitive team on the ice

2) The D is worse because we just got rid of some assets to build for the future....remember the trade deadline...we were sellers...it was a whole three days ago...

3) There is no relation between Blake's return and the trade deadline. Go work on your JFK conspiracy theories...

How are we going to grow?

The two biggest needs are fairly obvious to me:
1) Defense
2) Goaltending

If you look at the list of Defensemen who are UFA this off-season, there is a decent crop (Kalinin, Liles, Stuart, Commodore, etc) plus a nice group of UFA which would require offer sheets. That cannot be said about goaltending free agents. We look to be stuck with LaBarbera and Cloutier with Bernier hoefully picking up his long rope of slack from being a .500 goaltender in juinors this year.

My concern is this: We have an elite group of top 6 forwards, but can we fill the defensive voids before it comes time to resign the promising talent we already have (Kopitar, Johnson, Oslullivan, Frolov etc.)

I have not been critical of Lombardi as of yet because I truly think the organization is in a better position today than when he took over; however, having said that, Defensemen and a solid goaltender need to be addressed if this team is going to succeed. I just hope it doesnt take DL 1 season too many to get those pieces in place.

DL, lets make a splash on draft day and get some solid pieces in here to back up the already solid core we have in place...GO KINGS GO

I couldn't say it any better than this:

kingskicka$$ said:

Arrgghhh...Anthony!!! SHUT UP!!!! When it comes to the Kings, you’re the most closed minded, short sighted, "live in the now" moron on this blog.

1) The season is over....the focus is no longer just to put a competitive team on the ice

2) The D is worse because we just got rid of some assets to build for the future....remember the trade deadline...we were sellers...it was a whole three days ago...

3) There is no relation between Blake's return and the trade deadline. Go work on your JFK conspiracy theories...

Hey isn't Anthony the one who said Kopitar is better than Sydney Crosby. Maybe he is right since Kopi may
finish the season with more points.LOL
Actually the Kings need to
learn to play TEAM DEFENSE
as it is not only the fault
of D-men and Goalie although a real goalie would cover up some of the
deficiencies but there are
not too many floating around right now.Hard to
believe Burke really waived Bryzgalov and got nothing back in return
especially when you see
Hulet bring back a 2nd rounder.

So was i the only one that noticed that Crow was in all black? Tie and all, was he in morning of the Team, it was very strange.

Buy out the Beachball's contract...because there's no future for him in the NHL...

Cloutier set the tone by letting in that brutal goal 47 seconds in. He didn't look like he was ready to start the game. Shame on him. After that he made some really good saves, but his overall play was subpar.

I didn't think Ferraro was overly critical of the Kings. We have some major shortcomings on D. It's obvious to everyone. We lost 2 of our top 6 D earlier in the week and one coming back from injury, so I don't know what you could have expected from them, but they weren't very good.

Last night was the first time in a long time I didn't think Frolov played very well. Kopitar and Brown played outstanding.

As was mentioned before, and I've mentioned before...It's obvious we need to look for D help in the draft. As nice as it would be to have Stamkos as one of our top 6 forwards, you win in this league with D. I think if we get the #1 pick, DL needs to seriously look at trade offers. If Stamkos is as good as advertised, imagine what he could bring back in a trade?
The goaltending situation will need to play itself out. If its not LaBarbera or Bernier next year, they need to find a short term rental to play in goal. There's no question Bernier is the long term future for the Kings. He has to be. I just hope whoever we get doesn't cause us to say...boy, wish we had LaBarbara back. I have a feeling that's what will happen. The grass is not always greener on the other side. Goalies have a tendancy to look very good when they have good D'men in front of them and not so good when they have D'men like the Kings have.

One last thing to Matt:
Go ahead and give your opinions on this blog. That's what the blog is for. If Kings players and management are reading this (I doubt it) and getting mad at you for giving your opinion, shame on them. What you are writing in the newspaper and on here are two different things and two different styles of writing.

There are three players that come every night to play: Brown, Kopi and Sully. All the rest leave a lot to be desired. Argue this point all you want but IMO it's true. Fro can be awesome and then he can be so-so. With 15 seconds left in the game and Brown in front of the net causing the d-man to screen the goalie, Fro tries a cross ice pass to Kopi instead of just firing the puck on net and letting all hell break loose with Brownie. Cammi is IMO useless. Ray Ferraro said it: in the beginning of the year Cammi had 10 goals in 10 games because he was always moving but now he stands there looking for a shot. This team would do itself a big justice by sending him away and getting some much needed D and another scoring power forward. He gets excuses made for him about his injury slowing his scoring ability and Blake , who fractured his ankle, gets crapped on. I'm not a huge Blake fan, but Cammi will never have the career Blake had.

Why let a stud like Stamkos slip through your fingers when drafting #1? What, we don't need a potential #2 center for this team after Zeus retires? Draft Stamkos - if he's ready, throw him out there with the kids to learn ala Crosby. And, at draft time, package Cammy, a pick and a prospect and go get a young stud D man to pair with Johnson. Someone who puts the fear of GOD into opponents. Whatever happened to hitting?!!!

THANK YOU DANNY! you finally did it man. honorable mention to our shoestring "D"

Matt: get your employer to pay for it. how do they expect you to do your job? of course, the NHL network on satellite is the next-best thing.

NYKing fan...I see your point but you ALWAYS pick the best player available. The NHL draft is strange and sixth rounders sometimes play when 1st rounders fail.

That being said I think if the Kings DO get the #1, they should take Stamkos and if they haven't made any headway with Cammy's contract, load him up and see if you can either pick higher or bring back a top D Man.

Clouts made some nice saves last night but some glaring mistakes too.

Blake I thought looked like he had more jump than he did all season and some of his slappers on the PP were nice, just didn't go in.

"Hard to
believe Burke really waived Bryzgalov and got nothing back in return
especially when you see
Hulet bring back a 2nd rounder. "

I agree with metalmaster. before the season even started I told a guy at work, on the Ducks bandwagon the Kings should get Bryzgalov. why Dean didn't try to make a trade (or did he) I don't know since even I thought of it! obviously our claim fell short and he went in the Division anyway so what's the difference between that and trading to your rival for something decent. I guess DL didn't know we'd become strong sellers but it was a pretty good probability.

BRIANGUY
Maybe they should have done an Aubin for Bryzgalov
trade. LOL Actually Burke
sucks when it comes to assessing goaltending talent and drafting. He
actually lucked into a Cup
with Ducks.Burke had MC as
his coach and Cloutier as
his #1 during his tenure in
Vancouver. Burke often referred to it as a goaltending graveyard.

Dan H,

I agree, at #1 they would probably have no choice but to pick Stamkos...But if he is that good, why not move down a slot or 2 and get some serious D talent in return?
I'm not sure Cammy will bring back more than the #1 pick would. Cammy has the contract issue looming, and teams would probably be treating him as a rental player for the year.
I agree about Blake. I thought he played really well for his first game back.
I'm also hoping this weekend Ersberg gets a start.

Never said that Kopitar is a better player than Crosby.
I stated that Kopitar will out shine Crosby in the near future. And I still stand by that.
I believe that Kopitar was the best player drafted in 2005 draft.
Look it up.
Check out the players drafted before him and after.

Cloutier isn't great, but the team played like crap in front of him. They gave the Oilers all kinds of chances to score in the slot. Clouts came up with a few good saves every now and then. But the Edmonton announcers were right, Clouts isn't going to be able to resurrect his game with the team playing such crappy d in front of him.

man... beachball gave up some fat rebounds, but the Defense on this team is strait from hell...

Hemsky had about 8 seconds, standing still in the high slot UNCONTESTED,,, waiting for our D to screen danny boy so he could PASS the puck into the net... rediculious... who was there to blindside Hemsky with a devistating hit? NOBODY... definatley not preissing or harrold or any of these other weakling dmen who continuously get overpowered in our own zone... LOMBARDI PLEASE BRING IN A BRUISING PHYSICAL INTIMIDATING HARDNOSED D-MAN... contrary to popular belief,, there are big physical d-men who can skate and make plays,, etc... but when they do cough up the puck like Lubo-nabisco-cookie or dallman or harrold, they f-ing take out the man who ended up with the puck...

Anthony your logic is INSANE
If Kopitar is best player from 2005 draft (as you say)then you are saying he is better than Crosby
How is going to outshine him? Outshine him on a team run by Dumbardi (your
name)? Here are the numbers:
Crosby Kopitar
206 GP 137GP
95G 48G
190A 75A
285P 123P
+24 -26
These numbers show that Crosby is twice the player
Kopitar is. there is a difference between a good player (which Kopitar is)
and a great player which
Crosby is. Kopitar may one
day be a great player but he is not there yet. So
exactly how is he going to outshine a player that the
NHL is using to market
their sport around? If you
gave 30 GMs a choice of which player they could have if they could have anyone I don't think you
are going to find one who
will pick Kopitar. He was a
steal with #11 pick so I will give you that but I would wait 5 years before
I write off all those taken in front of him but
for now he is the 2nd best player taken in 2005.

Whoa
No way can you classify Kopitar as just a "good" player. This guy is a great player bordering on a superstar. We've watched him for 2 years and listened to other teams announcers as well as his own teammates talk about him and never have I heard anything other than them saying he's a "great" player.
The things he can do with the puck simply amaze me and when you take a look and he's only 20 years old it makes it even more incredible. I'm not ready to put him above Crosby, but make no mistake, he's our Crosby and nobody on this team is close to him in talent or production on a nightly basis.
We talk about what great players Brown and Sully have become...It's no coincidence that they played the majority of the season with Kopitar. He makes players around him better. Thats what a superstar does.
Here are the players taken before Kopitar in the draft:
Sidney Crosby
Bobby Ryan
Jack Johnson
Benoit Pouliot
Carey Price
Gilbert Brule
Jack Skille
Devin Setoguchi
Brian Lee
Luc Bourdon

We did get the steal of the draft.
Sorry but when it comes to Kopitar I'll defend him to the death..I think he's that great.

I'm with nykingfan on his take on Kopitar.

No use reasoning with that rusted metal loser.

You guys have low standard which is why you can call him great all you want. Did
I say he would never be a great player or had great talent? NO All I said is that he wasn't there yet.
A superstar in my book averages a point a game at
least. He has qualities to get there but not yet. There are not many superstars in the league right now and he may become one in the future but not after 2 years.
P.S. Anonymous I have
forgotten more about hockey than you will ever know. Ask my bookie