Hickey/Monarchs update
Following up on the Thomas Hickey story, he did not play last night for Seattle, the day after he took a knee to the head during a game. According to a couple newspaper articles, holding out Hickey was precautionary, but we'll see. The WHL Western Conference semifinals resume Tuesday, with Seattle and Tri-City tied 1-1.
Also, rather than recap a lot of information, I'll refer you to the Union-Leader's stories about Manchester, which have some good stuff about Jonathan Bernier and an injury to Brian Boyle. Kevin Provencher does a great job of covering that team. Here you go...

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
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 

for the record i hate Brian Willsie. he chose the worst time of the season to on a goal scoring spree.
We should trade Willsie to the Grizzlies for Kwame.