What no quote from Lord Cammi. What a surprise. Did anybody catch his anger when Brownie scored a PP goal instead of him.
A team player? I don't think so.

Ersberg will carry this team to the playoffs next season. He's unbelieveable and unbeatable.

Credit where credit is due....Nothing against Kopi but Ersberg deserved 1st star. He was all over the place, especially in the 1st period when the Kings D abandoned him. This kid is good; the thing Kings fans will like about him is that he doesn't give up rebounds, he smothers them and allows very few 2nd chance shots. A decent effort by LA, outstanding effort by Ersberg, particularly after having played the night before. The future is looking brighter for the Kings.

Am I imagining things or is Tom Preissing starting to settle in defensively? He seems much more reliable now in his own end than he has been for most of the season.

agreed Jon and Moondoggie. I don't know what's gotten into Preissing. he (and to a lesser degree, Blake) are almost different players. Lubo has also improved... I wonder where these guys have been all season??

I love how you never really see an interview by Cammy. they interview everyone else on the team, while Cammy storms back to the locker room to stew it seems. I've seen him give a few words on TV before, but this pretty much went out the window in the last year. is this guy ever personable?

Moon, Jon, Brianguy - the key to D is communication and confidence. If you look back to the start of the season, the Kings had new D-men in Preissing, Stuart and Johnson. Getting to know each other takes time. Blake was coming off hip surgery and Vis was coming off a summer of trying to figure out how he was going to allocate all the money he just made on his poor family and girlfriends back on Slovakia. Too much thinking, not enough smarts.

And the collective team had little confidence in Labs/Aubin after Bernier left. So, yes, it makes sense that they are playing better D now. Still, I would love to see guys like Dallman let go and replaced with a punishing, stay-at-home D-man.

In all fairness to Cammy, he did make a couple of nice passes in the offensive zone. Its something!

Too bad it took them so long to play like this. Does anyone know how they stack up against the rest of the league since Christmas? Just wondering.

I don't think there's any question, Ersberg goes into next season as the #1. After that, it's up to him to keep the job. It will be interesting to see what they do with Barbs. Do you put Bernier in Manchester and have Barbs backup Ersberg? I don't see the need to go out and get another goalie.

I agree guys on Preissing and Blake. They have both played really well in the 2nd half. Maybe for Preissing it was getting used to the new team. It took Stuart a while to get acclimated as well. I still hope they re-sign Stuart. Also, Dallman has played well lately.
Classy job by Crawford giving PP time to the 4th line guys at the end of the game. You don't rub it in your opponents face and its nice to give people like Ellis the opportunity. I've liked his game since he got here. He's excellent on the PK.
This is going to be an interesting off season for the Kings. A lot of decisions have to be made. Hopefully DL gets it right because I think this team should make the playoffs next year and will be extremely dissapointed if they don't.

Wow its amazing what people complain about.

You can bash Cammalleri for being a complete bastard at contract time, you can bash him for being a one dimensional player, but you really cant knock him for lack of emotion on a goal that has no meaning. Mini John Favreau is still regarded as a leader in the locker room by the other players. I'm sure this season is just as much or more frustrating to him as it is to us fans.

Is 30th place not enough to complain about? Sheesh.

-Thanks for the great coverage Rich (as always)! (I wish I knew how to quit Inside the Kings!)

Moondoggie you're right on. My wife and I were baffled that Ersberg wasn't the #1 star. You get a shutout like that and you almost ALWAYS get #1 unless there was a hat trick or something.

I love Kopi so no slight there, he had a great game too, but Ersberg was the man.

As I asked on the last thread, anyone notice that now that we WANT them to lose and get a better shot at the #1 that they're playing better and winning?

Thanks guys!

Props to the effort though when they're just playing out the last few games until vacation season.

Erik the "ICEbeeeerg"!!

Rich,

You might want to check this out:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2008/03/28/bertuzzi-crawford.html

Whover said that Cammy was mad that Brown scored that powerplay instead of him is smoking crack. I didn't notice until the slo-mo replay, but Cammy didn't SHOOT the puck on goal that Brown scored on. He was clearly trying to pass to Brown. The PASS went off the skate of the D-Man,(who was between Cammy & Brown),and bounced off the pad of the Phoenix goalie onto Brown's stick. Not sure how Cammy would be mad that he didn't score when he wasn't even shooting to begin with.....

The thing with Preissing is that he needs to get regular minutes to settle down and get into a groove. Crawford didn't give him that until Modry and Stuart were gone and Johnson was down. He should've been getting Modry's minutes all year long.

You what I love about Ersberg is that the man expends no wasted energy. He's calm and efficient. Labs has some talent sure, but he is a manic ball of stress that always results in over enthused movements. I love his spirit, but he's got nothing on Ersberg in terms of control of his game.

You especially notice it in the top down replays of Ersberg. His legs move totally independent of his upper body and with perfect fluidity.

Also love that Ersberg has classic great goalie crazy eyes. I see determination in them whereas I see just nerves in Labs'.

OK CHappy. I just watched the play again on the dvr and did it in super slow motion. Brown wasn't even in the position for a pass at the time Cammy turned to shoot. The so called pass was actually a shot at the far post which the goalie stopped with the right leg and the rebound went to Brownie. When the puck went in the net Cammy's head went down and he never raised his stick in celebration. It's really funny how Blake, Lubo and Kopi went right over to Brown to congratulate him. As far as Cammy making a couple of nice passes, that's what he makes 3.8 mil for. Reach around with both hands and pull your head out of where it is right now. Why is it some people can't admit this guy is self serving?

easy one NYK... the Kings are 18-17-4 since Christmas (18-16-4 since the 9-game slide, the last loss of which was Dec 26th vs. SJ). pretty nice, compared to where they have been in the standings. but this would not be enough to qualify for a playoff spot projected over an entire season.

and ya, I saw the Cammy assist on tv, it was pretty obvious it wasn't a pass from the get go. then he went and sulked in the corner while Brown got his helmet pushed down and glovewash by Blake. to his credit(?) it's not like DB even put his arms in the air to celebrate, so maybe he was just following along (LOL)

Annonymous,

You can give your OPINION on Cammy..that's fine, but don't try to state factually that you know what he was thinking. That's completely assinine. How do you know he didn't have stomach cramps at the time the goal was scored or he just blew a fart and messed himself? Cmon..
Trying to gather information based on a quick reaction will, 100% of the time, be incorrect.
You can attack his play this year, but the part of him not caring is a reach. I've seen him do interviews and I never got the impression he didn't care.

While you're all singing the praises of Tom Preissing, a little bit of credit to his defensive partner Kevin Dallman, who, while still occasionally overmatched defensively, has shown that he has some solid offensive awareness, and is willing to battle and play as physically as he can to stay in the lineup. Personally, I'm more excited about his contributions because he was left and given up for dead by the allstar break.

nykingsfan,

I respect opinion alot, even though you bash most of mine every chance you get. But this "stomach cramp" excuse, or "blew a fart" thing, I do believe your talking out of your ass.
It's very obvious, Lord Cammi is not as much a team player now, as he once was. His Majesty must go.

Normally I wouldn't take the side of the person whose name is Anthony. But you guys defending cammy in this situation is ridiculous. Go ahead all of you, watch that replay again. And try to tell me there is no way Cammy can easily see Lubo WIDE OPEN for an extremely easy tap in. Not to mention the facts that lubo is calling for the puck and banging his stick on the ice. What does me-first cammaleri do ? His most predictable move of course. The cut from the half boards, improve his useless shooting angle, and shoot it into the goalies pads. Except luckily for him the dman deflected it it went off the goalies pad and right onto browns stick. I don't think you guys would be defending Cammy if he takes that shot and it deflects out of the zone when he could have just took the assist and passed it to Lubo. What a selfish jack ass. And No I don't care enough to go through the game and find a couple other examples of how easily identifiable cammy's selfish my-goal-scoring-total first attitude. But trust me when he gets dealt at the draft I will be throwing a party, get this guy away from our young impressionable future stars.

Just curious, did anyone at the game see what Enver Lisin did when he go into the penalty box late in the third period? The dude picks up an O (Oprah's) magazine out of nowhere and just flips through the pages. I saw the replay and they didn't even mention it, but I thought it was hilarious, though I'm sure Gretzky couldn't have been too happy about it.

I don't even like Cammaleri, so defending him isn't really my goal. I just don't think that sending the puck through the crease can be seen as having intent to score. He was in front of the right post and sent the puck throught the crease. The only reason it wound up on goal was that it went off the D-Man's skate. Unless he was going for inside the left post, and the puck rolled off the toe of his stick, it was a pass in my opinion.

If the Kings draft Stankos, Cammy and a draft pick are going to get packaged for a D-Man. Just check the standings for a team looking for goals, probably in the East

And it begins.

me thinks Chris' favorite book is "Gullible's Travels."

cammy is in a rut... and when snipers are in a rut... they keep shooting to get out of the rut...not to mention he is coming back from an injury.i bet you all loved him when he was hot now he's the anti christ give me a break. by the way that was a pass to brownie. maybe you should fork out the extra dollars and get HD. then maybe you'll see it for yourselves.cammy will only get better.

KINGS33
He has to get better because he can't get any
worse. When he does get better it will be on another team. My guess is
St. Louis

If he did get traded,It would be just another bad move by the organization.Getting rid of a player before he reaches his full potential.It seems as though his frustration in his current play is seen as unhappiness with other players success.There was talk during preseason of his potential as a team leader. Even mention of a future captain!He seems like the type of player that leads by example. so it has to be difficult to be in such a long rut.I hope he stays every team can use a fast sniper.

Hello.hello.hello.
Is Chris there? I did'nt think so.

Dan H, thanx! You and I usually see eye to eye anyways. I loved the part about wanting the team to loose to improve their chances in the lottery, that's hilarious and so true! Right on, when you think you're going to be in the top spot for the top guy in the draft the team who hasn't had a goaltender in two years plucks one out of the Swedish Elite Leagues and they start winning. Go figure.

So what do you think about all of the Cammy talk? Anthony, I'm going to come along with you in part. No, he didn't go right over and congradulate Brownie but I think it was more out of frustration over having missed the shot. Still tho, as an Alternate, as a linemate, as a teammate, he should have been in on the celebration, especially the way the Kings have played this season. Leadership begins in the lockeroom and you've got to show that emotion on the ice as well as off. I still don't think he's fully recovered from his injury, he's just not cranking his shots like he was before he got hurt. Still tho, he's a good player and has an obligation to lead. However, if DL gets a good opportunity to trade him at draft time, I'd consider the options. I think arbitration screwed up Cammy, he just doesn't seem to have the heart he played with last year and I don't seriously think he has any intention of staying in LA any longer than he has to....

Some of you have some crappy vid equipment or don't know s*** about how to play hockey. Even in real time i could see that it was a pass, but the couple of replays on FOX made it that much clearer. Check the blade of cammy's stick- at release, it was directed with the face almost perpendicular to the goal line- the position one would have it in if you were going to pass across the crease.

As for his response to the goal, go check his reaction to some of his own goals- a lot of times he does almost the same i'm too cool for celebrating thing.
That's his whole ego/persona that he shows to the crowd, but there is not a person on here, certainly not anthony, who has any idea what he is like on the bench or in the locker room. In otherwords give your baseless, unfounded criticisms and speculation a rest- it's polluting an otherwise excellent site.

Kings33, I just wanna state that I disliked Cammi all season, even when he was leading the NHL in goals (wow that was a long time ago) and everyone was singing his praises. For about a week this season I thought that he had gotten past his selfishness but no, he is back to shooting 90% of the time he has the puck. If he was scoring it would be one thing, but he's not. And no, snipers do not always just shoot to get out of slumps. The good ones try to find success in other ways by getting other players involved until their game comes back, but that's not Cammy's style. He plays for himself and he won't be happy if he isn't scoring. It's pretty clear and it has been ever since his rookie season. I have been cringing since seeing him brought up in '03 when he just refuses to pass the damn puck.

Cammy reminds me of a guy like Mike Comrie. He has average talent, thinks he is a lot more talented than he actually is, and plays for himself instead of the team.

I am at a loss to understand how this guy gets a letter on his chest. Where the hell is Brownie's "A"? Or Kopi's? I am willing to bet that next season we see both of them as alternates along with Lubo to replace Thornton and Cammy (who I expect to be stripped of it even if he's kept around.)

I look forward to seeing the Kings move Cammy and pick up a veteran defenseman at the draft. In fact I will call it right now, the Kings send Cammalleri to Toronto (they would LOVE to have him) for either McCabe or Kaberle. Ooh, now I have myself all excited!

Anthony

We agreed on a point earlier in the week. It's all good. You make some crazy points at times, but thats cool. You have a right to your opinion.

I was obviously using sarcasm when describing what Cammy's reaction could have been. My point was How can anyone tell what's going through a persons mind in an instant?
You can all bash his play this year, thats fine..I can understand it to a point, but to start to generalize that the guy doesn't care seems ridiculous.
I haven't, but we can all look back to the comments posted here during the 1st 10 games when he was on fire. I'm sure there wasn't much bashing of him then. If he scored 40 goals this year, but still was a "puckhog", would everyone still be bashing him?
Just a thought.

Hey Chris; it could be worse! He could have been eating a box of donuts in the box ;)