Darn those Phoenix Coyotes. Can you imagine where we'd be in the standings if we were 6-0 against them. Instead of 0-6.

I love Sully's quote:

``We played a couple games earlier in the year together and had some success. It’s nice playing with guys that can play. It just goes to show how good our young forwards are."

Which pretty much also hints to the fact that when Armstrong goes does he is suddenly around people who can actually play and not old has beens that can't lol. I really hope this line sticks. I would very much like to see these three connect some more and rack up some points.

Great game last night after coming out dead flat in the 1st. Cloutier deserves credit for holding down the fort until the cavalry arrived.

Now I have to vent a little...

All of you hoping for losses in order to land Stamkos crack me up.

First off, scoring is the least of our worries. Second, winning games and learning how to win games will go further for this group than any 1 draft pick. Do you really want to enter next season on the heals of finishing last in the league, losing games all the way down the stretch? Or would you rather gain a bit of Mo' and string some wins together and generate some team chemistry amongst the youngsters. On top of all this, what free agent is going to want to sign in the summer with a team that finished last, and despite it's young talent, has shown no signs of being able to win?

This draft is very deep defensively, and I would expect DL to draft a defenseman with our first pick, even if we end up with the #1 overall.

Some of the rational of you Stamkos lovers is mind boggling to me? Anyone else?

Great win indeed, would have been much better for Cloutier's confidence if they got the shut out. But, still great win.

I was really pulling for the shut out, too bad we took the penalty in the third.
Keep going in the right direction Dan and you'll win the fans back!

why no Daily News story on the game last night?? I don't understand it. Am I missing something.

Phoenix, shmoenix. I like our position in the standings. beats ending up 12th or 13th again... still 2 more tries but I won't lose sleep over this. if we don't this year, we'll get 'em next year.

BTW we can possibly improve our other draft pick by beating Dallas, whom we play twice in March. I suggest we also lose to Edmonton on Feb 28th to mess with the Ducks' 1st pick.

brianguy,

Beating Dallas could only mess with their position for the playoffs. We have to hope that they get swept in the first round in order for the pick to be somewhat decent. If they win the Cup the pick will be 30th overall. Hope this helps.

sounds good

I agree with Andrew. We have a ton of offense throughout the organization, including juniors. We need to get more depth on the blueline. I realize that developing the young defensemen will take time, but we have to remain patient and watch our talent level grow. This team will become attractive to a lot of big name free agents when they see the enormous talent pool we're developing. We'll be able to combine young stars with top flight veterans and that will lead to what hopefully will become a Kings dynasty.
It seems a lot more possible than ever before.

Andrew, the goal is to play well enough to keep winning some games, not play us out of a high lottery pick. we have done that several years of recent, except Murray's last. the kids are learning to win, they're playing well and we're not leapfrogging anyone. the parity in the league this year is awesome, as we have a better record than last season and were 3rd from the bottom last year compared to dead last now. as long as we don't go on a 10 game winning streak I'm happy. we deserve some reward for all these years of misery, why have the Kings never picked higher than 3rd despite all that?

Andrew, I believe Stamkos would be great for the Kings for several reasons. He is suppose to be an awesome player and he will help get the Kings some more exposure. They might actually be on some nationally televised games and I am sure the Canadians will follow his progress. The Kings young group of forwards are great but they dont bring the flash or glamour as the other young forward in the league. He can do to us what Kane, Toews, Ovechkin, Malkin, and Crosby has done for their respective teams. 2. The Kings need a good D-man with experience now. Not in 2-3 years. If they draft a Dman in the first round, it will be a while before they make the transistion to NHL. IMO I would trade Cammy (open a spot for Stamkos) and other prospects and pics for a high end Dman or goalie. You know we will have a problem resigning Camy after the next year so get some value for him now. And he might not be missed if Stamkos can fill in for him immediately.

Now dont get me wrong, I dont want the Kings to lose everygame because it still hurts. And since it is a lottery nothing is gauranteed. But I believe getting a player like Stamkos would be great for LA.

I didn't see the game last night so I'm not sure if Cloutier played great or our D-men played great. Either way it seems to be something out of the ordinary. Hating Cloutier as much as I do, I'd probably be the last person to jump on that bandwagon. Having said that, Labarbs is out, the playoffs is out of reach so why not have Clouts play the rest of the season. This way there will be no doubts as to how incompetent he is. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong.

Man!! Imagine what type of year Frolov could have had had he not been hurt? Didn't he go goal less for the 1st 10 games or something.

(Seems like a lot of "hads" in that sentence)

Big Rob in Dallas

To comment on Andrews post.

I know I said that I wanted the Kings to barely lose for the draft position. However, when I watch the game and we kick ass that opinion goes out the window. Run up the score baby.

It's just that we've been in dead last for so long that I feel we deserve something for it. Kinda like a reward for sucking so long. I don't know much of Stamkos or anyone else but maybe we can package a deal with the 1st overall pick and get a proven d-man, goalie, forward or new owners.

Big Rob in Dallas

Well, the good news is that the Kings still have a chance to be one of the fifteen best teams inside the Western Conference!!!

Great win by the Kings. I know it doesn't mean much now, but, it shows glimpses of what can be in the future. It's scary how good this team can be when they play to thier potential. Sully is tearing it up. I am glad he is proving to the haters that he belongs in the NHL. I can't remeber the last time I saw a player improve that much from one season to the next. Hopefully we can solidify our Defense next year and move to playoff contention. Here are some stats to mull around in your brains...

Los Angeles Kings 07-08 Stats:

#9 GF 2.78 (177 GF)
#29 GAA 3.20 (204 GAA)
#25 PIM 750M
#9 PP 18%
#29 PK 77.9%
#18 FW 47.7% W-1714 L-1876

Obviously our two glaring issues are GAA and PK. In the off season I hope that Lombardi shores up some of the defensive issues with this team. A nice top shutdown D-man would help. What say you Kings fans?

I believe that the draft pick order has nothing to do with the playoffs. It would be much better to have the #1 pick even if DL wants to pick a D, because it would be great trade bait to #2 or #3 if they want Stamkos. It is always better to more choices.

I agree on how this team does have offense, but if we were to have the #1 overall pick how can you pass on a prospect like Stamkos. Seriously the guy has the potential to be the next Crosby. There's no way you can pass up a guy like that. Our defense is definitely soft but the Kings do have a very talented minor league system, and we can make a trade or two to improve our defense. The reality is that we need solid net minding. perfect example, last night we didn't have nobody great on defense and Cloutier played "ideal" goaltending....Kings win 5-1. So unless the next Rogie Vashon is the potential #1 I say draft Stamkos.

I totally agree with you DF. Passing up on a player of Stamkos' caliber would be ridiculous. If he can have the impact of a Kane, Toews, Malkin, etc...Ideally with strong goaltending this team should be a whole lot better. The only issue is where do we get that solid goaltender? Do you make a run at Huet in the offseason? I don't know how many solid netminders will be available this summer or do you dangle Cammy to a team like lets say Dallas and snag Turco in the offseason? There are many if's regarding this and no doubt we are in a position to do something with our minor league prospects. Should be very interesting what happens.

The rule is to pick the best player open at that time and that's Stamkos at #1. If you have any issues on a contract extension with Cammy, you can always bundle him to get a D man back.

With Bernier coming up soon I don't see another goalie coming this way. We have a log jam of dam stoppers already.

unless we find a team that gives us unbelievable value for a #1 pick, we should take stamkos.

Stamko's stats for the season:

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/player.php?id=4595

Gotta come along for the ride with the Stamkos fans, particularly Dan H, you've got to pick the best player available, that's Stamkos. This draft is going to be deep, particularly for defensemen. With the Kings draft picks this year, they should do well. I see Stamkos like so many of the others, he could be as good as Crosby....

Don't you just love Sully??? This it turns out was a great trade DL made. He's now paired where he should be. Interesting comment by Crow with Sully playing on the same line he had earlier in the season. Hello???!!! Glad to see he was listening, unfortunatly 3 months too late.