October 2008 Archives

Oscar Moller not only is staying with the Kings, he has moved into a second-line center role between Alexander Frolov and Kyle Calder, an important role on a team looking for scoring depth. I talked to Moller today, before he got official word from the Kings that he was staying in the NHL...

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Question: You had to know the coaches and management were watching you pretty closely last night. Did you think you played well?

MOLLER: ``Yeah, I thought I did OK. I was still minus-2 and I took a stupid penalty, but I had some good scoring chances. (Luongo) made a good save on the first one but I should have buried a couple other ones. But overall I thought I played OK.''

Question: What would it mean to you to be able to stay here?

MOLLER: ``It would be huge for me. I would be really happy if they would keep me here. I would be working really hard, and I really want to stick around.''

Question: Have you reached the point where you're comfortable playing with pretty much anyone on the team?

MOLLER: ``Yeah. Right now it doesn't really matter who I'm playing with. We talk out there and support each other, so everything works fine.''

Question: Is there anything in particular that you've learned about playing in the NHL

MOLLER: ``Probably just being consistent every night, execution of things, the systems, passing, all of those kind of things. The speed is higher and the pace is higher, so it's all of those things.''

Oscar Moller is sticking around. To clarify, when Moller plays his 10th game tomorrow, he will officially draw a NHL salary and his ``clock'' toward free agency will start. The Kings can still send him back to his junior team, if they choose, but they won't get that year back. Moller has two goals and two assists in nine games this season. Here's what Dean Lombardi said about the decision to keep Moller...

LOMBARDI: ``With the way he has played, he deserves to be here. As with all our young players, we will continue to monitor his progress. It doesn't mean he can't go back, if he hits a lull or slacks off, but with Oscar, I don't think that's going to be the case.''

Moller, who played center in training camp and some exhibition games, will go back to center on a line with Alexander Frolov and Kyle Calder tomorrow night.

TERRY MURRAY: ``He's done a very good job. He has played very well, and he is a natural center iceman. We're looking for something good to happen off that line. We'll put him at center for a game and take a look at it and see if that line can start to be a threat in the offensive part of the game. That's a good thing for the team, and everything is being done for the team only.''

Jason LaBarbera will be back in goal tomorrow night for his 10th consecutive start. He's not even close to a record though. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Gerry Desjardins started the first 23 games of the 1969-70 season, the most consecutive starts by a Kings goalie to start a season. So, check back in a month...

LaBarbera has a 3.01 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage, and for better or worse, Terry Murry has been steadfast in going back to LaBarbera. Here's what Murray said, when asked if LaBarbera would be back in tomorrow...

MURRAY: ``Yeah, I'm going to go back to LaBarbera tomorrow. You know, (early in the game) it's a 5-on-3 and it goes to a 5-on-4 and it's one of those top-of-the-goal-crease redirections. The only one, I'm sure, he would like to have over again is the 4-on-4 one, the short-side one, the second goal, but he gave us some very big stops. There was a lot of power-play, special-teams play last night, and he came up very big at the right times. He need to be better as a team. Everybody needs to step up their game in front, and we've got to really improve our play from the dots to the boards. We're giving up too many plays that are coming back at us from those areas.''

Matt Moulson has gone from first-line winger to healthy scratch to fourth-line winger, back to first-line winger. That's where he will play Saturday against Calgary, as Patrick O'Sullivan drops down to skate with Michal Handzus and Wayne Simmonds. That, I'm told, is an attempt to get the ``gritty'' part of O'Sullivan's game going again, the part that elevated him to first-line status last year to begin with.

But back to Moulson. He has one goal, zero assists and a minus-3 rating, but the hope is that he can be strong in front of the net and pounce on some scoring opportunities. Here's what Terry Murray said about Moulson's comeback...

MURRAY: ``He has worked really hard. All the guys that have been out, I've got to tip my hat to them. They've given me a lot of hard work and tried to get themselves ready and tried to get refocused and listened to what it is that they need to add or improve in their game in order to contribute for us. Moulson, he had a good training camp and I'm looking for him just to get back to that same level. Hopefully that message has been sent by taking him out of the lineup for a couple games.''

Jarret Stoll, who spent the first nine games of the season in the important role of second-line center, will drop to a fourth-line winger tomorrow night against Calgary. It's been an up-and-down season for Stoll. He came under criticism for a slow start, seemed to pick it up and now, it seems, is back in the doghouse a bit. I asked Terry Murray for the reason for Stoll's quick, big drop...

MURRAY: ``Well, that's something I need to sit down and have a little talk with him about, in a one-on-one. But it's just a change right now. We need some scoring. We're not getting enough pucks to the net. We're not having that shot mentality that we had in the early part of the year. We need more contributions from everybody, and certainly I'm looking at the second line, with Stolly, being a line that's pretty skilled and has the ability to score, and we need to get more from that line. I'm looking at Moller, seeing if maybe he can be that creative guy that he was back in training camp.''

Brian Boyle, a healthy scratch in the last five games, will return to the Kings' lineup tomorrow and center a line with Jarret Stoll and Raitis Ivanans. The Kings have challenged Boyle, who has zero points and a minus-4 rating in three games this season, to play a tougher game at both ends, and Terry Murray said he's pleased with the progress Boyle has made...

MURRAY: ``Boyle has been out of the lineup for a while and he's been working really hard in practice. We've had several talks about what we need from him, as far as the style of play and what his role is. We're seeing more of that. We saw it yesterday, we saw it today in the practice, using his size and strength to be one of his trump cards. If we can get him going at the level that we need and are able to get four lines playing at a high level, we're going to be a better hockey club because of it. In too many games this year, already, I feel I've shut down that fourth line, having them play only three, four minutes. We need to get some flow with our game, much more intensity, shorter shifts and a greater contribution from that fourth line. Then we're going to be a better hockey club.''

The Kings' forwards will indeed skate tomorrow the way they practiced today. Jason LaBarbera will be in goal for his 10th consecutive start. Here's an initial quote from Terry Murray about the lineup shakeup:

MURRAY: ``We're looking to get some wins and we're looking to get a consistent level of play from our four lines. I think that whenever you lose three in a row, and especially the game last night, I think it brought a lot of focus to the need for change in personnel on lines and on the special-teams look. We just had a penalty-kill meeting, and we're trying to get refocused on the attitude we had in the early part of the season, meaning the first five, six games. Last night was just a game where we didn't get into it, I guess, because of our special teams. Both our penalty kill and our power play seemed to shut down at the same time last night, and we have to bring attention back and we have to get refocused here. We've got a huge game tomorrow against a very aggressive and determined team, and we know that we're going to have our hands full, so we're trying to bring some focus back to what we need to get done.''

Kings coaches and management are expected to meet with Oscar Moller shortly after the end of practice to tell him he's staying with the Kings.

Here's how the Kings' forwards are skating this morning:

Moulson-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Moller-Calder
O'Sullivan-Handzus-Simmonds
Stoll-Boyle-Ivanans

Yeah, I don't know either, but I'll ask...

Consistency is an issue for the Kings, as it is for any young team. The Kings are a couple minutes away from an impressive victory against Detroit, then come back with a clunker against Vancouver. It's obviously not all about youth, as veterans make mistakes as well, but it's clear that the Kings aren't going to start turning things around until they can string together three or four consecutive strong efforts, games in which they have good play from forwards, defensemen and the goalie at the same time. Here's what Matt Greene said about finding consistency...

GREENE: ``I think that's something we've got to work on. I think that's what the good teams in this league do. They have consistency. That's what we have to work toward. We've got to bring the same effort every night. Tonight we just didn't do it. We didn't have the same grit and the same drive that we did against Detroit and the other games that we played leading up to that. If we can figure out what it was, then obviously we can fix it. It's just something that we have to learn, going through it as a team as the year goes on, if we want to be successful.''

There's obviously been a lot of debate, here and elsewhere, about Jason LaBarbera. Last night did nothing to calm those discussions. LaBarbera allowed four goals, but how many could he reasonably been expected to stop? Here's what Matt Greene thought, along with LaBarbera's thoughts...

GREENE: ``I think we held them. They didn't get that many shots against us. I think we did a good job. It's just that the chances they had, they buried. They jammed the net on the first one. The second one was a great shot. The third one was a nice play and the fourth was a deflection. I think Barbs played well for us. It's just a matter of us cutting down on the `Grade A' opportunities and eliminating the lesser ones.''

LABARBERA: ``What did they have, 11 in the first 10 minutes and then seven after that? They made a couple pretty good plays on some of their goals and got a good bounce too. Those are tough, definitely tough for a goalie. I was feeling great, and then a couple unlucky bounces. That's kind of how it's been. It's kind of been up and down like that. One game you get bounces and one game you don't get them. I felt great out there.''

The Kings couldn't have asked for a worse start last night. A double minor in the first minute and a 5-on-3 five minutes into the game. The Kings basically spent the first five or six minutes of the game killing penalties, and not only did they end up trailing 1-0, but it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the game. Here's what a couple people had to say about the start and how it impacted the rest of the game...

JASON LABARBERA: ``It's not ideal to start 5-on-3 like that. I was doing my best to try to keep us in it, and they just got a lucky poke on the first one. We just never seemed to recover from that. They just played a smarter game than we did, I think. They did a real good job of collapsing to their net and didn't really give us a whole lot of opportunities, and obviously Luongo was there for them.''

MATT GREENE: ``Yeah, it's tough. You take a 5-on-3 that early in the game and they get one (goal), you're basically starting the game down 1-0 at the six-minute mark. But it's something you've got to rebound from. That's what good teams do. Good teams can overcome those early deficits and get back in it. That's what we've got to learn to do and learn to work toward.''

TERRY MURRAY: ``It was a tough start. We got a double minor in the first minute of play and it ends up on a 5-on-3. That's a tough start. You're just trying to get the game going, get everybody into the game with good flow and get involved, but that does happen obviously. We just about got it killed off, and they end up poking a loose puck and get the first goal. But it was a game of special teams tonight. They end up with a couple power-play goals. We have, I don't know what the final tally was, but six or seven power plays, and we don't get the job done on that. We had three pokes, two on the power play and then later in the third period we had another one. It was a game of special teams, and they won that game tonight.''

Picking up some of the stuff from last night, here's what Terry Murray said about the Kings' inability to beat Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo...

MURRAY: ``Against Luongo, you need traffic. When I was in Florida, we traded for him, and you know what you're getting. You knew what you were getting when he was going to be 27, 28 years old. He is that. He's one of the premier goalies in the league, and if you give those top goalies lots of free looks, then they're going to get the job done. You have to make sure you're getting a lot of traffic and putting a lot of pucks at the net. The percentage of pucks that go in, the number is pretty high. You've got to get 20 pucks to the net for one goal, or hopefully one goal. He was good tonight. He made a couple really good stops, a great glove save early in the third period where I thought maybe we would at least get the one (goal).''

This is a late-night special.
Tonight I attended the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation awards dinner, where L.A. Times hockey colunmist Helene Elliott was honored as the sports writer of the year. Luc Robitaille presented her with the award.
``Anything she ever wrote about me, good or bad, was the truth,'' Robitaille said. ``... She felt she had a responsibility to deliver the truth to her readers.''
Elliott's award was presented first so that Robitaille could leave to attend the Kings' game against the Canucks. I checked the score when he left, and it was 0-0. Not sure how many of Vancouver's four goals he saw.

-- This was (almost obviously) the Kings' largest margin of defeat of the season and their second shutout loss in nine games.

-- Special teams were huge. Vancouver scored two power-play goals in five chances while the Kings went 0 for 7 with the man advantage.

-- Shots were even, 11-11, after the first period. From there, the Kings outshot the Canucks 17-7.

-- Dustin Brown recorded a game-high eight shots on goal. Denis Gauthier was credited with a game-high seven hits.

-- Kyle Quincey played a game-high 24 minutes, 19 seconds for the Kings but was minus-2, as were Oscar Moller and Jarret Stoll.

-- The Kings out-hit the Canucks 29-17 tonight. Los Angeles has only been out-hit twice so far this season.

QUOTES

Oscar Moller: ``The energy wasn't there tonight like it was against Detroit and we have to regroup and come out with a better attitude."

Terry Murray: ``It was a tough start. We got a double-minor in the first minute of play and then it ends up on a five-on-three, that's a tough start. You're just trying to get the game going and get everybody into the game with good flow and getting involved, but that does happen. We just about got killed it off and they end up poking in a loose puck and get the first goal.''

The Canucks get two power-play goals and Roberto Luongo doesn't need much help tonight as the Kings fall to 3-5-1 this season. LaBarbera stops 14 of 18 shots. Notes and quotes from the locker room to come...

Marc Crawford and Dave Taylor both in the box tonight. Crawford will work Saturday's game for CBC and Taylor is a regular here, as part of his work for the Dallas Stars.

Thanks to everyone for chatting tonight!

Check back tonight for the live chat of tonight's game between two teams formerly coached by Marc Crawford. Monday's chat had the highest number of participants to date, so come on in and chat about the non-``Rinkside View'' game...

As the Kings make their decision regarding wether to retain Oscar Moller or send him to juniors, Terry Murray gave his thoughts on what juniors can do for a player.
``It would never hurt a player to play his junior eligibility out, unless you're a real special player coming out, the first pick overall and then you're ready to play. It never hurts a player to go back. Absolutely not. I think it develops your game. You can learn to dominate and learn to do a lot of good things. Maturing physically is probably the No. 1 thing that takes over. We're making this decision based on our needs only and also with the mindset that we're aware of Oscar Moller, who he is, what he's done and what we see in the future from him.''

Drew Doughty, the No. 2 pick in the June entry draft, is thriving for the Kings, but other top picks haven't been so fortunate. No. 1 pick Steven Stamkos has one assist in eight games with Tampa Bay. No. 4 pick Alex Pietrangelo has been hurt and has appeared in only three games for St. Louis. Then today, Atlanta placed No. 3 pick Zach Bogosian on injured reserve with a broken left leg. Don't walk under any ladders, Drew.

Drew Doughty is arguably the Kings' best defenseman at 18 years old, and Oscar Moller, who seems likely to remain with the Kings this year, is just 19. Of course, the Kings are young overall, but Terry Murray was asked why so many players are doing so well in the NHL at such a young age.
``Since '04, the demands and the importance of managing your cap the right way is bringing lots of young players into the game today,'' Murray said. ``The young guys today are good players. They're coming through programs where they're young kids and highly skilled. They play a lot of games and play 12 months a year up in Canada now or even in Europe and the U.S. There's plenty of experience, and we're welcoming these young players. We have 30 teams in the league and we need to keep bringing these young guys in the game. It's a high-skilled, fast-paced game and they can bring it every night.''

It sounds like Oscar Moller would have to have a horrendous game tonight not to remain with the Kings. Asked if he's made the decision on whether Moller will go back to juniors or stay, Terry Murray said ``No, but he's going to have to have two real duds here in (games) 9 and 10. He's played real well. We have confidence in him. He's showing composure and the ability to play at a level that's necessary to play in the NHL. Averaging 15 minutes a night. He's been an important part of our team to this point.''

(Edit: Murray seems to be under the impression that the Kings have until AFTER the 10th game, but the rule actually kicks in when the player plays his 10th game)

No injuries or further changes to report from today's morning skate. So, you should still see Patrick O'Sullivan back on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown.

Here's what center Jarret Stoll had to say about linemate Oscar Moller, who be all accounts has been impressive as a 19-year-old rookie winger...

Question: Oscar seems to be getting a lot of praise from the coaches. What have been your experiences playing with him?

STOLL: ``He's very confident, for how young he is. For the experience he has, which isn't much, he's definitely confident. He's learned a lot of things since the first day of training camp, and even since the first day of the season. You can see improvement, and he's contributing to our team too. With guys that young, sometimes it takes a little while, but with him, it seems like he's soaking it in. He's learning, he's playing well and he's helping the team win. He's doing what he should be doing.''

Question: Can he play here the whole year, or might he run into problems at some point?

STOLL: ``It is a long year. As of now, yeah, he's looking great. He has that consistency. There's a level you have to be at, for an 82-game schedule, and hopefully more. That's the tough part, even for guys who have been in the league a while. That's a decision they have to make, and I'm sure they will make the right one for the organization and for Oscar.''

The Kings spent all summer, and a big chunk of training camp, trying to find a veteran left-shot defenseman to pair with Drew Doughty, and they eventually traded with the Ducks to acquire Sean O'Donnell. By all accounts, the trade has worked out well for the Kings. O'Donnell has been a responsible defender and penalty-killer and has been a reliable mentor for Doughty, the Kings' 18-year-old rookie. O'Donnell talked about Doughty's progress and his role in helping Doughty develop...

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Question: Have you ever been partnered with an 18-year-old before?

O'DONNELL: ``I had Aki Berg when he first came to L.A., but I think Drew is mentally more mature, and Aki had to deal with the language barrier too, which was tough, being away from home and being in a different country and stuff. Drew is 18 going on 25 out there, maturity wise.''

Question: This might be a tough question for you to answer, but do you feel like you've been good for him?

O'DONNELL: ``I don't know if he needs much calming down. He's a pretty poised guy. I think there's been some times when we've talked about some things, and I'd like to think I've helped a little bit. I can't take a lot of credit, when you have a guy who has that much talent and who is that level-headed, but if I can even give him a little bit of direction, it makes me feel pretty good.''

Question: What's the biggest surprise with him? What should he be struggling with that he's not?

O'DONNELL: ``Thinking through the game, and the poise. We played Detroit the other day and Detroit, not only are they good, but they're smart and they can pick apart a player who overcommits to a play or runs around too much. I thought he did a real good job of just letting the play come to him. He gets the game. He understands what the other teams are trying to do, and when you do that you're able to anticipate what they're trying to do and your positioning is a lot better. I think that's one of the things that Drew is lucky with. Not only does he have the physical ability, he also gets the game, and that's a great combination. Not too many people can do that.''

Question: Is there still some significant room for improvement there?

O'DONNELL: ``Oh yeah. I think he's still very raw. I think maybe sometimes he tries to do too much at times. He's been head and shoulders above everyone else, for the last two or three years, at his level, and maybe he tries to do a little bit too much. I try to talk to him a little bit, but you don't want to crush that. You don't want him to think that every time he gets the puck, he should just throw it off the glass and make the safe play, but there are also certain times in a game, and with certain lines, where you want to keep it simple. That's just part of growing in the game, and part of the maturity that comes with the more games you play in this league.''

Jill should have stuff from the morning skate a bit later, but here's something from yesterday about John Zeiler, who has been skating for a while after his groin strain. A good bet would be Zeiler being sent to Manchester, at least for a while, sometime in the next week...

MURRAY: ``Zeiler is getting closer to getting some ice time, some playing time. He's got the green light from the medical side of things. The groin is fine and he's doing a lot of heavy skating after practice. We have to decide, as an organization, is it best for him to get started with the Kings or is it best for him to go play some games? Missing as much time as he has, that's going to probably be the focal point of the conversation, whenever it takes place with management.''

Brian Boyle played in three of the Kings' first four games -- he had zero points and a minus-4 rating in a fourth-line center role -- but has been a healthy scratch for the last four games. Boyle has spent practices in the green jersey signifying players who are out of the lineup. The Kings have asked 6-foot-6 Boyle to play a tougher game, and I talked to Boyle today about the challenge of getting back into the lineup...

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Question: It's been a while now since you got in a game. Have they given you any indication about when that might change?

BOYLE: ``No, I haven't heard much lately. It's tough right now, and guys are playing pretty well too. It's a tough spot. You've just got to come to work every single day, as hard as you can. That's what I've got to do, just be harder in everything that I do. Be more physical with puck possession and stuff like that. (Murray) has pointed out specific things in games, and I have clips from all my games so far and the preseason games, and I'm just watching them over and over, just to get a better idea. Like I said, you want the team to do well, so it's tough, because you want to get back in it and be a contributor to it.''

Question: The stuff that they're asking you to do and show, is that easy to accomplish in practice, rather than a game situation?

BOYLE: ``It's more just a mentality that you have to take. It's kind of an attitude that I have to have more of in my game. It's been stated to me, and people have told me that at a few different points in past years, and I have to do a better job of being more consistent with it. I know I have that part of the game; I just have to bring it out. Sometimes unfortunately it takes a little kick in the butt, but I have to bring it up again. I have to bring it up a couple levels to be a contributor on this team, which is what I really want to do. But I'm still here, and this is where I want to be.''

Tomorrow night is the Kings' ninth game, meaning they have a decision to make after the game. If they keep Oscar Moller beyond that, he's officially a NHL player and a year is taken off his entry-level contract. So the Kings have to make a decision. Do they keep him here, or send him back to Chilliwack and retain all three years of his entry-level contract? The Kings haven't made an official decision, but it seems unlikely that Moller will be going back, as his play has justified a stay in the NHL and he's well-liked by teammates already. There's no question that Drew Doughty, the other King with junior eligibility, will be staying. Here's what Terry Murray said about Moller (and try to ignore the part where he gets the 10-game situation incorrect...)

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Question: A couple weeks ago, you said you hadn't really even considered that Moller might go back to junior. Has that thought changed at all?

MURRAY: ``No, his play has been pretty good. The only way, as a coach anyway, that you would think about it is if things are inconsistent and he's not playing well. I'm seeing a young player that's staying very hungry and his level of play actually, in my mind, has gone up. He's playing on the No. 2 line and on the power play, getting 15 minutes a night. I know there's a decision to be made and it doesn't have to be made until the 10th, after the 10th game. So we'll leave it at that, and that's also a meeting that involves people upstairs, and not strictly or solely a coaching decision. So we'll see, when it comes, what decision we're going to make.''

Question: Are you pretty confident that he could hold up for an entire season here?

MURRAY: ``All I can answer is based on what I've seen. Through the training camp and the games so far, he has held up physically, he's been staying with the pace of the game. He's been looking at a lot of minutes and NHL play, against top players, and he's fine. He's comfortable, he's confident with the puck and he's making good things happen. Now I know it's early. We haven't traveled a lot and had the wear and tear in the early going, so I think that's part of the conversation whenever we get to that time.''

Question: I guess I don't even need to ask about Doughty, right?

MURRAY: ``No, Doughty has played very well. He's really handled himself extremely well for an 18 year old.''

Jason LaBarbera will be back in goal for the start of tomorrow night's game, at which point he will have started all nine Kings games. The last Kings goalie to do that was Felix Potvin, who started the first nine games of 2001-02. I've have to consult with unofficial team historian Nick Nickson, who gave me that stat, to see the last time a Kings goalie started the first 10 games of a season. Here's what Murray said about sticking with LaBarbera...

MURRAY: ``Yes, Barbs will go back in. It's that kind of a schedule right now, when we're playing every second day, that clearly your No. 1 goalie is able to handle the workload. The game that he played back-to-back, at Nashville, I thought he was, as far as being alert and strong and moving and doing all the right stuff, he was fine that way. So physically, he's in good shape. He's ready to play and wants to play.''

Forbes has released its latest study of NHL teams and puts the Kings' estimated value at $210 million, which ranks them 12th among 30 NHL teams. Last year, the Kings were valued at $209 million and ranked No. 10. Forbes lists the Kings' operating income -- described as ``earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization'' -- at $1.2 million, down from $2 million last season and, of course, quite different from the Kings' claims of losing millions each year. Revenue and player expenses each increased by $7 million and gate receipts remained at $29 million.

The report on the Kings can be found here and the entire report can be found here. The report on the Kings starts off with, ``The Los Angeles Kings are owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, who knows nothing about hockey and probably cares even less.'' Ouch!

As previously posted, Kyle Calder will move to the second-line left-wing spot, alongside Jarret Stoll and Oscar Moller. Matt Moulson returns to the lineup as the fourth-line right wing alongside Raitis Ivanans and Derek Armstrong, who moves back to center. Moulson started the season as the Kings' top-line left wing but has been a healthy scratch in the last three games. Here's what Terry Murray said about the two moves...

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Question: Do you think Calder will be a good fit in that second-line role?

MURRAY: ``I think so, and I like what Calder did with Kopi's line. He scored a good goal the other night, going to the net. That's his game, but the kind of game that Calder plays, I think, can fit with most lines. It's, get the puck in, get the forecheck, get in quickly, cycle the puck, go to the net, hang around the net looking for loose pucks and rebounds. So I like what he did with Kopi, and I'm making the change hoping that Sully can get his game going at a higher level and that the line is more productive on the offensive part of things.''

Question: And Moulson is going back in?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, I'm going to put him back in. He's been out for several days and he's been working really hard. We're going to put him on the right side. I know it's not a position that he's real familiar with, but in a conversation he said he feels fine. Obviously he would say that to me; he wants to get back in the lineup. We had a discussion a few games ago, when I did take him out, about his play and what I'm looking for from him. He's aware of it, so it's an opportunity to go back in and do it.''

Here's what Terry Murray said today about his decision to move Patrick O'Sullivan to the top line...

Question: A couple lineup changes today?

MURRAY: ``Yeah. I've decided to make a change on the lines. I put Sully up with Kopi and Brownie. I want to get (O'Sullivan) a better opportunity, I think, to play with those guys more on a regular basis. He's out there on the power play, but I want to see how it all goes with the 5-on-5 play. I know that he was there last year and the line had good success. Let's bring it together and see where this thing goes. We have a six-game homestand now, six games out of our homestand remaining, and it's a really important time for us. I'm hoping that it brings his best out and I hope it really shows good chemistry with the line.''

Question: How much do you look at the fact that those guys are good friends and get along so well off the ice. Does that translate onto the ice?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, it does. I think if a pair of defensemen or a line are hanging out together and going to dinner and the families are close and they're good friends, I think it does translate. There's always that deeper awareness for what's going on on the ice, in practice and in the games. It should always bring the best out of a player and the best out of a line, and I'm hoping that we can see good things happen with this line as we get going tomorrow night.''

Here are Anze Kopitar's thoughts about Patrick O'Sullivan's return to the top line, along with his impressions of what it might mean for him...

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Question: You're back with Patrick now. Is that comfort level there right away?

KOPITAR: ``I think so, yeah. I think we had good chemistry going last year. Maybe we were a little disappointed in the beginning because we didn't play together right from the start, but that's how it is. The coaches and the staff had their own reasons why they didn't put us together, but I think now all three of us are really happy to get back together and show that we're going to be a great line.''

Question: What is it about the three of you that works so well, in your mind?

KOPITAR: ``Maybe it's just the mix of everything. Sully is more of a shooter. I'm maybe more of a passer. Brownie is more of a power forward than a shooter, so it's probably just a mix of all the skills that we have. We're young and energetic and we kind of think the same way too, so that's probably what helps us.''

Question: Does having a shooter like him out there make the opposing team look at you guys differently?

KOPITAR: ``Maybe, yeah. I'm pretty sure we're going to see checkers every night now, but that's what we've got to deal with. We had checkers last year, and we've got to battle through it.''

Question: Might it open things up for you a little bit more?

KOPITAR: ``I hope so. Not that it wasn't open enough yet, but there might be some more space out there for me now.''

Question: Do you get a sense that teams have been focusing on you a lot more this year?

KOPITAR: ``I think so, yeah. Especially on me and Brownie. Like I said, we're facing the checkers every night and a tough pair of defensemen, but we take it as a compliment. We've got to be doing something right if they're trying to shut us down.''

Just to reset the table, here's what the Kings should look like on the ice tomorrow...

Patrick O'Sullivan-Anze Kopitar-Dustin Brown
Kyle Calder-Jarret Stoll-Oscar Moller
Alexander Frolov-Michal Handzus-Wayne Simmonds
Raitis Ivanans-Derek Armstrong-Matt Moulson

Sean O'Donnell-Drew Doughty
Kyle Quincey-Matt Greene
Denis Gauthier-Peter Harrold

Jason LaBarbera

Brad Richardson goes out of the lineup and Tom Preissing stays out, as does Brian Boyle.

Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan said after practice regarding his reunion with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar on the Kings' first line...

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Question: Happy to be back with those guys?

O'SULLIVAN: ``Yeah. I don't know the reason or whatever, because they haven't really talked about it. We have a lot of chemistry and we've been successful together. It's something that we can go right back to, so I'm excited. They're the top guys on this team and we're close off the ice as well, so I think it should be fun tomorrow.''

Question: Is this just sort of a natural progression for you, getting back after missing camp and all that?

O'SULLIVAN: ``That might be part of it, but I don't think the camp thing has ever really been a factor since I got here. It usually takes about 10 games, and then everything seems to figure itself out. Obviously we've had success together, so that's something to lean back on. We all play our own style that complements each guy. That's why any line is successful and that's why we've been successful as a line.''

Question: And you guys have already been together on the power play quite a bit...

O'SULLIVAN: ``Yeah, exactly, and we've had some 5-on-5 shifts together. Me and Brownie like to get in on the forecheck, and obviously Kopi is so smart in the middle of the ice that he can make plays. Brownie goes to the net hard and we try to get Kopi the puck as much as we can and try to get open for him.''

O'Sullivan will indeed be back on the top line, as he switches spots with Calder. Moulson will skate on the fourth line as the right wing in place of Richardson.

LaBarbera is back in goal tomorrow.

It seems likely that Oscar Moller will stay with the Kings, a decision that must be made before Saturday.

More to come, including stuff from O'Sullivan, Kopitar, Stoll, Boyle and O'Donnell...

Patrick O'Sullivan is skating with Brown and Kopitar. Calder with Moller and Stoll...Moulson with Armstrong and Ivanans.

The Kings will be on the ice soon in El Segundo, so we'll see if there are any changes in store for tomorrow night's game against Vancouver.

Here's a look at the Kings' two goaltenders...

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ERIK ERSBERG: He has played a total of 65 minutes this season, so there's not much to analyze yet. Ersberg had a rough start to training camp because he had flu symptoms, then he had to hold off Jonathan Quick for the No. 2 spot. Ersberg hasn't complained, which is consistent with his easygoing nature, and Terry Murray hasn't expressed any particular regret about not getting Ersberg in a game. Ersberg became something of a fan favorite with his strong play at the end of last season, which made it easier to forget that he had been fairly inconsistent for Manchester throughout the season. Ersberg has quickness and good rebound control, but is he ever going to get an extended chance to show his skills?

JASON LABARBERA: Is there any player more debated than LaBarbera? Goalies tend to be viewed a bit like closers in baseball. Any time they make an error, they're held up for public scorn. Yet even the greatest goalies make mistakes. The question is, how often do those mistakes take place, and do they occur in critical situations? Has LaBarbera been fantastic this season? No. Has he been awful? No. And that's why there's so much debate about him. The defense in front of him has improved this season, but he's still prone to bad rebounds. He made a couple huge saves in the third period last night, but it's still hard to shake the feeling that he's just a placeholder until Jonathan Bernier or one of the other prospects is ready.

Here's a look at the Kings' defensemen...

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DREW DOUGHTY: Check the birth certificate; there's no way this guy can be only 18 years old. After less than a month in the NHL, he's already playing a polished, intelligent NHL game, and he's getting along well with teammates. Pressure hasn't bothered him at all.

DENIS GAUTHIER: Took major heat for an awful turnover last night, and rightfully so, but he did what marginal NHL defensemen do. They make mistakes. The Kings' inability to develop defensemen in recent years led Dean Lombardi to reach for veterans such as Gauthier.

MATT GREENE: A nice guy with a quiet intensity, Greene brings a lot to the Kings. Not much offense, but that's not what they need from Greene. He's a responsible defender who brings some much-needed toughness, and he's a guy who won't be afraid to speak up in the room.

PETER HARROLD: Expectations are important when analyzing Harrold's game. At one point, there might have been a thought that Harrold could develop into a top-four defenseman, but not anymore. He needs to focus on making simple plays and playing a responsible 15 minutes.

JACK JOHNSON: His grade is a big ``incomplete'' at this point, of course. Bulked up big time over the summer, especially in the upper body, so that should help in the long run. His partner, Matt Greene, looks good with Kyle Quincey. Where will Johnson go in January?

SEAN O'DONNELL: A last-ditch choice to give the Kings a veteran left-shot defenseman, O'Donnell has made Dean Lombardi look like a genius. O'Donnell simply doesn't make major mistakes, and his calm demeanor and play have been hugely beneficial to Drew Doughty.

TOM PREISSING: Despite the generous contract he got from Dean Lombardi two summers ago, Preissing isn't a reliable defender at this point. If he's limiting his turnovers, he can fill a fifth or sixth defenseman spot, but that's the extent of it right now.

KYLE QUINCEY: The Kings weren't the only team to put in a claim for Quincey, and now it's clear why. In five games with the Kings, he's plus-5 with three points. Quincey moves the puck well and doesn't take unnecessary chances. Can he really be this good?

Here's some thoughts from the Detroit locker room, compiled by the Kings, after Monday's shootout loss.

RED WINGS HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK:

(Re: game recap): "Going into the third period, we had a tough early goal that got in, but you just got to stay determined and we were able to post a turnover and bury the Kings."

(Re: Kings): "The staff does a good job here in Los Angeles, you have six forwards that any team would love to have. They have a lot of the pieces here and are going in the right direction."

(Re: Playing after winning the Stanley Cup): "I'm not sure that we have avoided a slump, I don't know if there's anything to what people say after you win. We had the same summer that we had last year, and it's really a matter of getting your game together and seeing what happens. Hopefully we can stay healthy. We have the leadership, skill level and we play hard."

RED WINGS CENTER HENRIK ZETTERBERG:

(Re: game recap) "It was a tight game and they had a solid defense. They took advantage of our mistakes, but we played better defense today and didn't let them shoot as much. But, the teams have been able to shoot a little too much on our goal and today there was not much progress with that. So, hopefully we can stick with it and improve our defense and decrease the shots on goal. Even though we haven't played our best, we are just getting our wings and we can improve."

RED WINGS GOALIE CHRIS OSGOOD:

(Re: game recap) "We were confident, and we stay the course no matter what the score is or how we are penalty-wise. We just kill the penalties that we have and continue to play. We've been successful most of the time. We been a little lucky lately, and we haven't been as good as we wanted to be."

After eight game, and with no practice today, perhaps it's a good time to look at the Kings and how they're doing on an individual basis. Here's a look at the forwards, based on personal observations and conversations with people in the organization. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts...

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DEREK ARMSTRONG: Nothing has really changed here. If you liked Armstrong's game the last couple years, you still like it. If he frustrated you, he still does. If nothing else, take comfort that he's no longer being asked to play second- or third-line minutes.

BRIAN BOYLE: The Kings' 6-foot-6 enigma. A nicer guy won't be found in the locker room, but is that part of the problem? The Kings want him to be a physical force, but even a year-long stint playing defense didn't bring out the fierce nature the Kings want him to show.

DUSTIN BROWN: The steady improvement Brown has displayed from his rookie season is impressive. He's now the team captain and routinely the team leader in both hits and shots on goal. He seems to have elevated his play yet again after looking strong last season.

KYLE CALDER: One gets the sense that Calder knows this might be his last opportunity to make an impact with the Kings. Out of the lineup for four games, he got put on the first line and has done a respectable job so far. Consistency remains an issue for him.

ALEXANDER FROLOV: Seems to have adapted to his ``defensive-stopper'' role better than anticipated. Frolov has always been strong on the puck but hasn't always met offensive expectations. In this role, he can be a secondary scorer and play a strong two-way game.

MICHAL HANDZUS: For a stretch early in the season, he might have been the Kings' best forward. The turnaround from last season has been dramatic, and is attributed to his return to 100-percent health and his familiarity with Terry Murray. Can he keep it up?

RAITIS IVANANS: It's fair to ask whether his presence is still needed in the lineup. There's always some value in having a ``heavyweight'' out there, but the Kings are tougher now on defense. His penalty last night, which led to a 5-on-3 power play, was a killer.

ANZE KOPITAR: It's clear that opposing teams are focusing on Kopitar. He's not getting room to make plays, either for himself or teammates, the way he did the last couple years. It's his responsibility to adjust his game and take advantage of his superior talent.

OSCAR MOLLER: There's still some internal debate about whether Moller is physically mature enough to play a full season in the NHL right now, but he's a very intelligent player who already has NHL skills, and he's already well received in the locker room by veterans.

MATT MOULSON: It's hard to criticize him too much, given that the decision to put him on the first line was a bit of a head-scratcher to begin with. Moulson might have a place on a NHL roster, but it's not playing 16 minutes a game next to Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar.

PATRICK O'SULLIVAN: Seems to have accepted his second-line role without complaint, even though he'd probably feel more comfortable playing with Brown and Kopitar. Continues to grow offensively but can't forget the two-way play that made him a standout last year.

BRAD RICHARDSON: One point and an even rating in five games. Nothing really here to celebrate or critique too roughly. It's still a bit hard to see why the Kings gave up a second-round pick to get him, but perhaps he will evolve into a strong energy-line player.

WAYNE SIMMONDS: Couldn't be in a better spot right now, in terms of his age and skill level. Simmonds is getting a chance to establish himself on a line with two solid veteran defenders who can take some pressure off him. Needs to get stronger still, but he's getting there.

JARRET STOLL: Stoll's play in the first couples games raised some eyebrows, and not in a good way. He rebounded nicely with a stretch of strong games. The Kings need him to be consistent and be that strong second-line center they desperately lacked last season.

The Kings won't be on the ice today, but will practice tomorrow in advance of Thursday's game against Vancouver.

Here's what Terry Murray is thinking when it comes to shootouts.
``A few years ago you didn't have a choice. The board of governors put in the new rule that the home team has the choice, thinking that if you score first the opposing team has the pressure on them when it comes down to the last shooter. It's a philosophy. Obviously it can go both ways. I like to shoot first. We have confidence in our players that we can get out and get the lead and put the pressure on the other team. It didn't work tonight, but it will in the future.''

Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan said after last night's loss...

``We've got a young team and playing the defending champs, you've got a lot of all-stars over there and I think after the first five or 10 minutes we settled into our game and we saw that we were going to be able to compete with them and, like I said, we gave them a pretty good run. ... Obviously we were real close to getting the two (points) and it's disappointing, but at the same time, that's a really good team and we're happy with that one point. They've got some pretty good players they can put out there for the shootout. Shootouts are fun when you win and when you lose it kind of stings a little bit, but we're going to be on our fair-share of the win side this year. Overall, we have to be happy with the game and we can build on it."

Most of you do a great job posting comments. We thank you for all your support and engaging in intelligent debates. However, several posts were deleted after last night's game. I understand fans are frusrtated with the loss, but to post death threats or to describe in detail harming yourself or an innocent person (I deleted these before they ever made it on the Web site) is unacceptable, as is attacking other posters. It's a game, folks. And if the worst thing that happens to you this year is that your team loses a game it should've won, then I'd say you're doing all right. If you don't comply, you'll be banned from posting. Simple as that.

``It's the kind you'd like to have back and do over again for sure,'' Terry Murray said. ``It's one of those things that happened in the game. You're trying to do the right thing on the breakout and find the center iceman, but it was a mistake. Unfortunately, it ended up being a goal that gave them all kinds of life to get back into it.''

But for one ill-advised pass in the defensive zone, the Kings would be celebrating a huge, huge victory right now. Denis Gauthier made a play that he will regret for a long time, and the Kings earned a solid point but lost a chance for a lot more, from a confidence standpoint.

Other thoughts...

-- Gauthier's mistake cost the Kings late, but don't forget Raitis Ivanans' awful hook that gave Detroit a 5-on-3 power play and led to the goal that tied the game 2-2.

-- How good were Drew Doughty and Kyle Quincey tonight? Quincey probably played his best game as a King, and he's been pretty good to begin with. Doughty made a couple outstanding defensive plays to prevent scoring chances.

-- The Kings were outshot 37-19, almost doubled up. That's Detroit hockey, and it broke a three-game stretch in which the Kings outshot their opponents.

-- Dustin Brown recorded six hits.

-- Patrick O'Sullivan played more than 18 minutes but didn't record a shot on goal.

More quotes and notes to come...

Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg scored in the shootout and Dustin Brown and Oscar Moller didn't.
Kings played the Red Wings tough but a huge turnover near the end of the third period allowed Detroit to tie the game.
What did you guys think?

Detroit's Valtteri Filppula scored after a bad pass from Denis Gauthier deep in the Kings zone....Filppula intercepted the pass and beat Jason LaBarbera glove side to tie the game at 3 and send it to overtime. Gauthier took slammed his stick against the post on the Kings goal after his turnover.

Sorry for the brief delay on updating this latest goal, but we have to file our first edition story by 9:30 p.m...
Alexander Frolov scored at 46 seconds in the third period. His shot from the left wing was redirected off the right skate of defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and went in the right side of the net.

The Red Wings had a 5-on-3 power play and not surprisingly scored. These guys are tough at full strength, but to give them a two-man advantage is a little much to ask. Marian Hossa scored on a wrister from the top of the slot and beat Jason LaBarbera five-hole at 9:24 in the second period.

The Kings scored 76 seconds into the second period on Kyle Calder's first goal of the season. Chris Osgood deflected Anze Kopitar's shot, but Kyle Calder got the rebound in the left side of the net to give the Kings a 2-1 lead.

It didn't take the Kings long to answer Detroit's goal. Oscar Moller scored on a power play goal at 10:46 in the first period. Peter Harrold had the assist on a slapshot from the faceoff circle, which trickled in behind Chris Osgood in the crease, and Moller was there to tap it in the net for his second goal of the season.

Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg scored at 5:54 in the first period, just after the Kings killed a penalty. Zetterberg took a pass from Brian Rafalski and scored on an offbalance shot that got thorugh the left side of the net.

Terry Murray is mixing things up with the starting lineup...Check it out.

D Sean O'Donnell
D Drew Doughty
LW Alexander Frolov
C Michal Handzus
RW Wayne Simmonds
G Jason LaBarbera

Brian Boyle
Matt Moulson
Tom Preissing

Thanks again for chatting tonight everyone!

Keep on eye on defenseman Kyle Quincey, who was waived by Detroit earlier this month. Quincey wasn't able to log many games with the Red Wings, but he's averaging 22:21 minutes per game with the Kings, which is most on the team. Quincey is plus-4. Drew Doughty follows at 21:38 and is plus-6.

The Kings are giving out a calendar at the game tonight. Guess who's on the cover? Trick question. I couldn't tell what exactly was on the cover but have been informed that it's armour with the small outline of a Kings hockey player. Interesting.

Get here early if you want to donate blood for the Children's Hospital - stationed outside the front of Staples Center, across from the Nokia Center.

It's early in the season, but Kyle Calder has experienced the highs - playing on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, where he'll play again tonight - and being a healthy scratch for four games.
``Definitely (it's tough), on anybody it is,'' Calder said. ``It's something they see. You can't let it bother you. You have to show what you can do and work hard.''
Playing on this line is a grand opportunity for Calder - who had 59 points with Chicago in 2005-06.
``They're two great players that I'm playing with right now,'' Calder said. ``I just have to go out there, work hard and play the way I know how to play.''

We'll get the chat going for tonight's Kings-Wings game, so come on by later...

With Johan Franzen out, here's how the Detroit Red Wings are expected to skate tonight:

Tomas Holmstrom-Pavel Datsyuk-Marian Hossa
Daniel Cleary-Henrik Zetterberg-Mikael Samuelsson
Tomas Kopecky-Valtteri Filppula-Jiri Hudler
Kirk Maltby-Kris Draper-Darren McCarty

One thing Dustin Brown has to do in his role as captain is talk to the officials. It's still a work in progress, but Terry Murray likes how Brown is approaching this. He'd rather Brown err on the side of less complaining.
``The important thing, for me anyway, and a captain, is not to go to the referees too often,'' Murray said. ``You just can't get into that kind of a habit because they'll stop listening after a while. I think as you go through a game, as you see as a team you're working hard and trying hard and you're getting maybe in your mind the odd penalty that you don't think you should've had, maybe a good captain will skate over to the referee and say, `Look, we're really trying here. We're working hard, really trying and we just need a level playing field here.' That's all you need. I don't want to get into being a whiner about plays that happen. Penalties happen. That's the game. You kill them off and move on.''

Does Detroit - the defending Stanley Cup champion - become more susceptible, now that it's without forward Johan Franzen? Not so, says Terry Murray. Franzen is out three to four weeks with a knee injury after a collision with Chicago's Brent Sopel on Saturday.
``I don't think they change a bit. They're such a great team. They lose players. Players retire. Players get injured. (Chris) Chelios went out with a broken leg. They just move on. They move another player into the lineup, and they keep going. It's a big Ocean liner. Once you get the thing full speed, it doesn't just stop once you shut the engine off. It's been full speed for a long time. It's tough to stop it. They have great leaders and great players. I don't think they're going to miss a beat with one player out of the lineup.''

I'm referring to St. Louis goalie Manny Legace's hip injury after he slipped on the carpet that was llaid down for Sarah Palin, who dropped the first puck on Friday. Here are Terry Murray's thoughts on that situation.
``That was pretty nice of her to do that, the hockey mom ... I didn't know that was the reason why after the first period that the goalie was changed. I read it the next morning. All I can say, when you've been in the game for a bunch of years and you step on the ice and there's a carpet there, you better be careful. You have to take some of that responsibility yourself. It's unfortunate, hell. You don't want to see anybody have an accident like that. When you look around the league and all the games we play, there's a lot of ceremonies, carpets rolled out on the ice. Even with cameras going out there sometimes with cords, you've got to be careful where you're going. You have to be heads up all the time. You've got to keep your head up in the game when you're playing, you've got to keep your head up before the game even starts sometimes, I guess.

I will be posting a few things from today's morning skate. Terry Murray was asked about how to avoid slow starts (like the 3-0 first-period deficit) to Nashville on Saturday.
``I didn't think the start was slow at all. I liked the start of the game. The first few shifts of the game were really good. They were under control, lots of composure. Good start. We got ourselves in a little penalty trouble, and that's where they ended up scoring a couple of goals. As you get back into the 5-on-5 in the second half of that first period, you try to maybe make plays that aren't there because you're behind and you're trying to score. We don't manage the puck in the middle of the ice. They come right back at us. Now we're down with what I thought was a flukey goal, the one (Jean-Pierre) Dumont ended up getting. As we move on through the game, we had our opportunities - many power play opportunities - a couple of 5-on-3 - and we just didn't score on that to get back into it right away. I really liked our start. They were good. Just that little dip there in the middle of the first period.''

It's been an up-and-down week for Jason LaBarbera, who went from getting pulled after two periods (Monday) to turning in a shutout (Friday) to getting pulled in the first period (Saturday). LaBarbera is scheduled to be back in goal tonight when the Kings host the Red Wings. Here's what he said yesterday about his odd week...

LABARBERA: ``That's hockey. I didn't think I played that bad (Saturday) night either. It was just one of those games where (the Predators) came out really hard and they got a couple breaks and it was 3-0. I felt good. It was just one of those games where it didn't work out.''

Question: Do you get a lot of feedback from Terry or (goaltending coach) Bill Ranford?

LABARBERA: ``(Ranford) said I just have to stick with it. There aren't going to be very many games like that where it just doesn't go your way. I really didn't feel like I was bad or anything. It just didn't work out. In years past, I might have beaten myself up over it, but I went out (Sunday) and I had a great practice, so it doesn't deter me at all.''

Question: Did you ever anticipate starting the first seven games of the season?

LABARBERA: ``You know, I don't even look at the schedule. I just kind of take it a day at a time and see what happens. If you look at my past, everywhere I've played, I've played lots of games, so it's definitely not foreign to me.''

Say one thing for certain about Terry Murray: he's not being wishy-washy with his goaltending. Jason LaBarbera will be back in goal tonight, barring any last-second changes, and will be making his eighth consecutive start even though he's been pulled from two of the last three games. Murray discusses his thought process with the goalies...

Question: Any thoughts on the goaltending situation?

MURRAY: ``Yes, I've had lots. Lots of thoughts on the goaltending. Barbs will go back in (Monday). There's an urgency on our part, in front of him, to do the right things with the puck as we start the game. You know that Nashville is going to come at you with a lot of intensity and team speed. They were sitting there watching our game (Friday against St. Louis) on television, and we have to manage that the right way as a team. You slow things down. You take a lot of faceoffs. You get pucks to the net in the offensive zone and you go to the net, you stop and force the goaltender to hold onto it. You take that intensity, you take that speed away, and that's a learned skill. That's something that we have to start to do and identify. The players need to do that themselves. I think that with us trying to force things, we turned it over and they came back at us and they got a couple goals that I think, in most situations, we wouldn't have given up. So I don't look at the goaltending. You always need big saves, you know that, but I don't look at a couple of those goals (Saturday) night as isolating one player.''

It might be easy to dismiss the question, given that Anze Kopitar has six points in seven games, but is he struggling? Kopitar has only one goal, but beyond that, he doesn't seem to be the often-dominant force that he was for so much of last season.

If it's true, it could be due to a couple factors. One, perhaps it's just a normal slow start. Perhaps seven games from now, he will look great and this will all be forgotten. Two, perhaps he's feeling a bit of the pressure of the alternate-captain role and his big seven-year contract extension. Three, perhaps opponents are now targeting him as the Kings' best player, and it's taking time for him to adjust. I posed the following questions to Terry Murray to get his thoughts. What are yours?

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Question: Keeping in mind that this is your first year here, do you see any signs that Kopitar might be pressing a bit, or maybe getting away from what his normal game?

MURRAY: ``I don't have much to compare that to, you're right. But that's OK. It's OK to press and get away from your comfort zone. I think that you go through frustration to get to the next level and you become a better player because of it. You're trying to do things that maybe are a little different than what you've done in the past. Those are the growing parts of a player and I don't mind that stuff, whenever it does happen.''

Question: In his game in particular, is there anything there that you see him pressing to develop right now?

MURRAY: ``I'm seeing an attitude of wanting to have the puck and really attacking hard, and trying to score off that puck possession that he has. I really like that attitude. If you want to become a premier center iceman in the National Hockey League, you have to want the puck. You've got to want to attack, you've got to try to do something with it every time it gets on your stick, and I love that attitude that he has. That's where you break through and good things will happen in your game. If it happens a month from now, or at the end of the year this year, or it starts to happen for him consistently next year, it doesn't matter. It's the attitude I just love.''

After practice today, Terry Murray said that Kyle Calder will stay on the Kings' top line, alongside Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown. Calder played the previous two games in that role and had one assist and a plus-1 rating. It might be easy to forget that Calder once scored 26 goals in a season (2005-06 with Chicago) but Murray seems to be pleased with what he's seeing so far. Here's what Murray said about Calder's play...

MURRAY: ``I think the line has played well. They're attacking, they want to make good plays, they want to make things happen in the offensive zone through puck possession, and I really think Calder has added to that mentality that Brownie and Kopi bring to the game, with holding on to it deep in the offensive zone, cycling it and making little hand-off plays and getting to the net. That's his game, that's his identity in the league. His skating, he has good jump. He's coming up with a lot of loose pucks in board play and he races to pucks in the offensive zone and he's getting himself to the net. So that is a good thing for that line and I'm going to continue to go with them tomorrow night.''

When I asked Terry Murray, after the Colorado loss, if inconsistency can be attributed to having a young roster, he fairly quickly dismissed the theory. So today, after a Nashville game in which the Kings seemed to be very different in the final 30 minutes than they were in the first 30 minutes, I asked Murray, more generally, about how inconsistency might be overcome.

MURRAY: ``I think that's that process we talked about in August, and it is a process. We're bringing together a group of guys that we're trying to make a team out of. We're trying to become a team. We're showing great team play at times, in certain games and in parts of the games we've played. In the St. Louis game, I thought we showed a great team game. That's the consistent level that you strive for, for every game. So it is a process and we've made lots of steps in the right direction.''

First, some general impressions from around the rink from folks who saw both road games -- and, for the record, I had no access to the Nashville game. I'm not certain why some people think Bettman gave me super-secret access to some video feed, but if it's not on Center Ice, I don't get it either folks...

-- Dustin Brown might have had his two best games as a King and Jarret Stoll is also coming on strong after an uneven start. The goaltending situation is difficult to figure, primarily because Jason LaBarbera is playing neither awful nor great. Not bad enough to cost the Kings games, not good enough to steal games the way elite goalies often do. Kyle Quincey and Sean O'Donnell have been two unsung heroes for this team, but is something going on with Anze Kopitar?

More on some of this stuff later, but here's what Terry Murray said about the loss to Nashville, an up-and-down game for the Kings...

MURRAY: ``I haven't put it completely behind me yet. I think there's always lessons to be learned from every game. I thought the lesson out of the Nashville game is that we need to go back to managing that puck again. It seemed to be an issue that popped up several times with our play in the neutral zone. They're a team that plays the left-wing lock and in the third period, when they had that one-goal lead, they were hard back with four guys across at their own blue line. We tried to force a lot of plays with possession and it ended up coming right back at us. Managing the puck and making strong decisions is one of the lessons.

``The second part of it was, I thought we started the game real well. I really liked our composure. We were under control and doing all the right things with our game plan. We seemed to get away from that once they scored that first goal even. I don't know if they took their game to another level, with intensity, and just getting the puck in deep and using their speed more, but I thought it was probably more us not reacting to the play the right way. We got ourselves in some problems with that. So we addressed that this morning. We had a team meeting, and it's important that you take something out of that game. Those are the two lessons I'd like to think we learned.''

Not much new to report from practice today. No line changes, and Jason LaBarbera will be back in goal tomorrow night against Detroit. Quotes and more notes to follow soon...

The Kings have a noon practice scheduled after a quick, up-and-down road trip, so I'll have a report a bit later...

I miss one game, to watch my high school play its rival, and this happens?

Manny Legace gets hurt by Sarah Palin's carpet?

Jason LaBarbera records a shutout?

St. Louis and its 40-percent power play goes 0-for-4 against the Kings, who are STILL perfect on the penalty kill, their weakest skill for three years running?

I think I'm being Punk'd. Somebody tell me what really happened.

I'd been meaning to catch up with Matt Greene since he signed his five-year contract extension, but after practice he's usually caught up in conversation with a teammate. If you're a Kings fan, that's definitely a good thing... But I finally caught Greene yesterday and asked him about signing with the Kings long term after just a couple months in the organization...

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Question: You made a big commitment without being here very long. What was it that made you feel comfortable enough to sign long term?

GREENE: ``The organization has been great and the guys have been good. I like what I see. It reminds me a lot of the team we had in Edmonton, with young players who are going to develop and get better. I want to be around for when everybody starts to get better and a little bit older, and reap the benefits of having some good years here.''

Question: What are your impressions of this defensive group so far:

GREENE: ``It's a good mix of skill and size back there. I think the young kids are showing a lot of promise, and I think guys are just kind of filling in where they need to. Doughty has been rock solid, same with (Gauthier) and Tommy (Preissing) and Kyle Quincey has come in and done a good job. Doughty has a ton of poise and I think there's going to be some good things coming from this group.''

Question: You had three partners in your first four games, but it looks like you're settling in with Kyle Quincey. How's that pairing going for you?

GREENE: ``I'm still getting to know him, but I think it's great. He moves the puck really well, but at the same time too, he's a good-sized guy so he throws his weight around. I think it's going to be a good partnership. He's real easy to play with and he knows where to be, so it's an easy adjustment for me. I just hope I'm doing all the things he wants me to do too.''

AEG has purchased a majority interest in the Ontario Reign, the Kings' ECHL affiliate. Barry Kemp, whose company founded the team after previously owning the Long Beach Ice Dogs, will retain a minority interest and will continue to run the team. The Kings are expected to supply more prospects to the Reign in the future, but right now goalie Jeff Zatkoff is the only Kings prospect in Ontario.

Jack Johnson attended practice today, this time without his left arm in a sling. Johnson said his return is being targeted for just after the All-Star Game, which is Jan. 25 (slightly longer than the initial three-month estimate), but that he's hoping to return before that. Johnson said he can resume lifting weights in December. Johnson said he had suffered some minor tearing in the shoulder in college and was optimistic that the shoulder would feel better than ever upon his return.

Also, John Zeiler, who hasn't played this season because of a strained groin, appears close to a comeback. Zeiler participated fully in today's practice but didn't travel with the team and will take the next two days off from skating. It's not certain where Zeiler will play (L.A. or Manchester) upon his return. Zeiler said, ``Stopping and starting has been the main issue, but today we did a lot of starting and stopping and it felt good.''

Terry Murray hasn't been shy about shifting players in and out of the lineup (Calder, Richardson, Harrold, etc.) so I thought it might be interesting to ask him about his philosophy, in terms of how patient he is with players he believes are underachieving...

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Question: In general, when you talk to a guy and tell him he needs to improve in certain areas, how much rope do you give him before you say, `Hey, I've got to make a change'?

MURRAY: ``You like to see a player respond almost immediately to a meeting, to put some focus on the area that we're addressing, whether it's shooting the puck or being more responsible on the defensive part of it and working harder and battling and making smarter plays off the boards in the offensive zone. Immediate action, immediate response would be important, from the player's side of it. I think it also goes to who the player is. As they say in sports, everybody is treated equal, but really they are not. If you're going to have a couple of your top-line players who you need to address for any particular reason, you're going to give them a lot of rope and time to turn it around, because you know that they can make a difference in the game in any given shift. On the other side of it, if it's players that are new to the team or maybe just working their way into the NHL, maybe the rope is a little shorter in those situations.''

The Kings' game against St. Louis tomorrow features an interesting matchup. The Kings are perfect (23 for 23) on the penalty kill this season while the Blues are No. 1 in power-play efficiency. St. Louis has a remarkable 40.7 percent power-play conversion rate and has scored 11 power-play goals in six games. Coach Andy Murray's first power-play unit has regularly included five forwards, but the Blues have allowed only one shorthanded goal. Here's what Terry Murray said about the matchup...

Question: Should be quite a matchup, with the No. 1 power play against the No. 1 penalty kill...

MURRAY: ``I haven't seen them yet. I'll watch them on the flight over, but I know their power play really has been good. Andy's got the five forwards there on the power play and it looks like a real smart move to go that route. It's working. They've got some players who can really move the puck around. They're intelligent people and experienced on the offensive part of the game. They're making a lot of good things happen for themselves.''

Question: What have you seen with the Kings' power play that you like or dislike so far?

MURRAY: ``I like the things we're starting to get in place here. The attitude is to be an attack power play, an attack team on the 5-on-5 and following through with it on the special teams. Shooting the puck from up top is really an important part of the power play being successful, and I think sometimes we look to make one extra play, but that's something that we have to work our way through. Overall, I think it's been coming pretty well.''

Terry Murray confirmed today that he's planning on making two lineup changes tomorrow. Kyle Calder will replace Matt Moulson as the first-line left wing and Peter Harrold will rejoin the defensive group, almost certainly in place of Tom Preissing.

In other important changes, a doubles division has started in the ongoing Kings Locker-Room Ping-Pong tournament. Today featured Derek Armstrong and Anze Kopitar vs. Raitis Ivanans and John Zeiler. It was close when I left. Drew Doughty said he has formed a team with Brad Richardson. Now, back to hockey...

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Question: Going on the road, do you feel it's important to get a couple veteran players back in the lineup?

MURRAY: ``Well, I am going to get Calder in the lineup, but the reason for that is that he's been out for a while and he's really been working hard at getting his game to a higher level. I've asked him to do a lot of extra skating after every practice in the last week and he's been doing it. I see the positives coming out of it in the practice. I'm going to get him in. He's going to play on the left side with Kopitar. Part of that is that I need more from Moulson also. I had a meeting with him yesterday, and I would like to see more of the stuff that we probably saw in training camp and the exhibition games and the first couple (regular-season) games. I thought he was contributing and playing very well, but his game has tailed off in the last two. I just had to bring attention to that, and he's going to come out of the lineup for a game and we'll see where it goes.''

Question: Any defensive changes that you anticipate?

MURRAY: ``I am anticipating a change, with Harrold going in. I will think about that one overnight and make the decision at the morning skate tomorrow, but it's a move I was thinking about after the Colorado game.''

Jason LaBarbera was pulled to start the third period against Colorado on Monday, a move coach Terry Murray attributed to his dissatisfaction with the team in general, not LaBarbera in specific. LaBarbera will be back in goal tomorrow night in St. Louis. He has a 2.98 goals-against average and a .889 save percentage this season. As for Saturday's game against Nashville, we'll see. Here's what Murray said about the situation...

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Question: It doesn't look like you've lost any confidence in LaBarbera...

MURRAY: ``Not at all. Nope. He's going to play in St. Louis. The game the other night, those are situations where we had possession of the puck. Any time you turn it over and they're back at you, you're either going to get a spectacular stop or it's going to end up by the goaltender. Unfortunately, on both of those chances they got, they ended up in our net. That's something that we have to clean up in front of our goaltender.''

Question: Are you planning on going to Ersberg on Saturday?

MURRAY: ``I don't know. I've been thinking about that, going back probably a couple weeks. I'm not real sure. I'll see how things go in St. Louis and how Barbs is feeling, how he plays, how the team is playing and make a decision probably the morning of the game in Nashville.''

Here's what Terry Murray said today about everyone's favorite topic, the Kings' line pairings up top...

Question: Are you happy with what you're seeing from the O'Sullivan-Stoll-Moller line?

MURRAY: ``Yeah. They've gotten better each game. I like the way Stoll has picked his game up. He had a pretty good training camp. He was really skating and putting a lot of pressure on the opposition through his speeed, and now he seems to carry the puck more often and he's trying to do something with the puck on his stick. I like that attitude a lot. And as a result, we're seeing that line have some success now. O'Sullivan is a very gifted player and Moller seems to be more comfortable every day, making plays. He had a great goal that was scored the other night against Colorado. It was just a great transition, going to the net, three of them, and he made a strong play to end up getting the puck to the net. So everything is going pretty good with that line.''

Question: So you don't see any reason to move O'Sullivan to the first line?

MURRAY: ``Not right now. I'm pretty aware, through conversation only, of what that line did last year. I have tried it. I have put (O'Sullivan) up on the line. He's had several shifts in the last couple games there, but it's also important to have good balance in your lineup. When you come down to the final half of the third period and you're looking for something big to happen, you can make that change, but right now I like the way the Stoll line is setting up.''

Since his return/contract signing, Patrick O'Sullivan has played on the Kings' second line with Jarret Stoll and Oscar Moller, rather than the first-line spot he occupied last season with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. That's obviously been a topic of big discussion the last couple weeks, so I asked O'Sullivan what he thought about his role on the team so far...

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Question: The last game looked like it was your best since you came back. How did it feel?

O'SULLIVAN: ``Yeah, I felt good. I think it was one of those games where my line -- Stolly, myself and Oscar -- had some jump and got in on the forecheck. All three of us skate pretty good, so we know that's an asset for our line.''

Question: Do you feel like you're developing a good rapport with those two guys, or do you still look at Brown and Kopitar sometimes and wish that was together again?

O'SULLIVAN: ``Kopi, Brownie and myself, we had good success over the last couple years. I think it's a case here where the coaching staff is trying to spread it out a little more. It's hard. I've only played with Stolly for four games in the regular season, because I missed training camp, but I think we're starting to develop some chemistry. I think (Handzus) and (Frolov) are working well together, so if we can get those three lines... At least I think that's what they're thinking. I just play where they tell me to play. I play with Kopi and Brownie on the power play and against Carolina we had a couple shifts together. We'll see what happens. It's still so early. I think after 10 or 15 games, everything works itself out. Would I like to play with them? Sure, but a lot of guys would like to play with them. At the same time, I think if we spread it out a bit, it makes the other teams play against two or three lines.''

The Kings are preparing for their flight to St. Louis, but first a couple notes...

-- Calder will indeed skate with Brown and Kopitar tomorrow.

-- LaBarbera will start against the Blues and Terry Murray wouldn't commit to starting Ersberg on Saturday just yet.

-- Murray said he's still considering a defensive switch, which would almost certainly be Harrold for Preissing.

-- Zeiler is skating hard in practice and is just about ready to go.

Quotes and more stuff to follow in a little bit...

Nothing too exciting on the ice this morning. Kyle Calder is still skating with Brown and Kopitar, so that looks like it will stick. Moulson is an extra with Boyle and Zeiler. Notes and quotes to come...

Drew Doughty and Oscar Moller both scored their first NHL goal in Monday's game. The Kings checked with Elias Sports Bureau and discovered that the feat had been accomplished several times in franchise history, most recently on Oct. 8, 1989. The two, uh, memorable goals were scored by Craig Duncanson and Mikael Lindholm, and the Kings probably only want that comparison to go so far. Duncanson's NHL career lasted 38 games and included five goals. Lindholm's career lasted 18 games and included two goals.

Kyle Calder skated with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar today, while Matt Moulson was in one of the green jerseys that have come to signify players who are expected to be out of the lineup. In addition, Peter Harrold skated with Denis Gauthier, a strong indication that Tom Preissing won't be in the lineup. Preissing did not have a shift in the third period of Monday's game.

Coach Terry Murray said today, ``Calder has been out for four games and I talked to him about maybe there being a lack of jump in his legs. You see it with races, with puck battles, with front of the net positioning, and those are things he is noted for. It has to be there. I talked about it and what we have seen at every practice since is that he has some good jump back in his legs and it is time to get back out there.''

``I need more from (Moulson) on that line. He came out of training camp with a real good camp and I feel as though the last three games has tailed off a bit. To play on that line you need to be consistent and give that effort and performance every night.''

The Kings' website has a report on the situation and more quotes here.

The New Hampshire Union Leader did a quick interview with goalie Jonathan Bernier...

A goalie of the future wants to work hard, be patient

Since this lovely rumor seems to have gained some traction among legitimate news organizations, I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about rumors in general and the ``Marian Gaborik might be coming to L.A.'' rumor in specific. It's rumors such as this one that tend to make my hair fall out in clumps.

Gaborik makes $6.3 million this season and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Those are two HUGE red flags that should indicate to anyone that he's not coming to the Kings. The Kings are already at their self-imposed payroll cap, plus if you think the Kings would give up anything of value (meaning prospects or high draft picks) to get a player who will be a free agent in a little more than eight months...they just won't. It would go against everything Dean Lombardi has preached for two-plus years.

Unless someone thinks the Wild is willing to take at least $5 million worth of fourth-line forwards and extra defensemen, it's very hard to see how a deal like this would ever happen. That's not to say that the publications which reported the story were irresponsible. The main report out of Minnesota said the Wild contacted teams about Gaborik. No doubt, they did. If the Wild really is shopping Gaborik, chances are calls went out to every team that has cap room. Doesn't mean there's going to be a fit. In the case of the Kings, there isn't.

Some other things to remember about rumors:

1. Ninety-five percent of them never come close to being reality.

2. If you hear rumors of a specific trade, as in, ``The Kings are considering sending Player X to City Y in exchange for Player Z,'' the trade isn't going to happen. Maybe that specific trade was discussed at some point, but by the time it hits public, it's d-e-a-d.

3. I stopped paying attention to rumors a few years back, when I covered a different local team (not the Kings). During the offseason, a rival paper reported that the local team had held talks about trading for a certain player. The next day, I talked to the GM of the local team, and he told me, ``I talked to (the other GM), but that player's name never even came up.'' After that, I stopped paying attention to most reports.

The Kings confirmed today that they will debut their new alternate jerseys on Nov. 22 and wear them 12 times this season:

November 22 versus Colorado
December 1 versus Toronto
December 17 versus New York Rangers
December 26 versus Phoenix
January 3 versus Philadelphia
January 8 versus Anaheim
January 29 versus Chicago
February 21 versus Phoenix
March 5 versus Dallas
March 31 versus Dallas
April 4 versus Phoenix
April 11 versus San Jose

We can only hope that they don't look exactly like those renderings that have circulated online, because those look...yeah. Regardless, it will never be as bad as...

Season-ticket holders will receive a jersey at a private ``meet the players'' party at Dodger Stadium on Nov. 23.

Here's today's column on Derek Armstrong's outing at the Kings Bud Light Tournament. This is a little something to try to get to know one of the Kings off the ice.

Alexander Frolov's foursome won the L.A. Kings Bud Light Golf Tournament today with a net-58. Also, Derek Armstrong's group had the longest drive.

Today was the Kings' Bud Light Golf Tournament at Industry Hills. I followed Derek Armstrong for most of the day and Anze Kopitar for a hole. Armstrong is as funny and entertaining as he is in the locker room. He crushes the ball off the tee. Kopitar was playing just the third round of his golf career and all three rounds have been in this tournament. He said there were a lot of courses in Slovenia, but he mostly played hockey and tennis.
I left early, but I'll have the winning team for you when I get it from the Kings and other tidbits from the day.
I'll also post my golf column from the tournament tomorrow morning.

The Manchester Monarchs are off to a bumpy 1-3 start in the AHL. Jonathan Bernier and Jonathan Quick have each started two games and each has a goals-against average slightly above 4.00. Bernier has stopped 53 of 61 shots and Quick has stopped 66 of 74.

Up front, Teddy Purcell has three goals in four games and Gabe Gauthier has a team-high six points (one goal, five assists).

Terry Murray was asked whether last night's uneven effort -- solid in the first and third periods, dreadful in the second -- could be attributed to the normal ups and downs of a young roster. Murray wouldn't have any part of it...

MURRAY: ``No. That's not allowed. Youth has nothing to do with it. We made some mistakes in the second period. We had some problems managing the puck again, and the experience of their team took advantage of it. You have that lapse of about 12 minutes in the second, where it ends up costing you the game. I liked a lot of the stuff we did in the third period. It was a tremendous third period, with our effort and focus and doing the right stuff. We just have to figure that out and do it for 60 minutes.''

Here are a couple other general quotes from after last night's game...

DUSTIN BROWN: ``That was a weird game out there, I think. We had a pretty good first period. We have one breakdown and they score and it's 1-1. It seems like that's kind of how the game went. Every time we broke down, they capitalized. Our PK was good again tonight, but we made one bad pass coming out of the zone and it was in our net. I felt like we were chasing a lot though tonight. We weren't making the plays that we're capable of, coming out of our zone. Not necessarily dumping it in, but neutral-zone play. We were just flipping it into the neutral zone and chasing, and they were coming right back at us. We played a pretty good third period, but we didn't put it all together tonight.''

DREW DOUGHTY: ``We can't take a period off. The first period we were good, then in the second we definitely took it off, and that's when they took it to us and made it 4-2. Then in the third period we took it back to them and were all over them.''

Only five games into his NHL career, Drew Doughty is already being given many of the responsibilities of a veteran NHL defenseman. He's playing more than 20 minutes per game, including time on the power play and penalty kill. He's joining the rush on a regular basis, including on his first NHL goal last night, and showing some offensive potential. Here's Doughty's minute total for his first five game:

at San Jose: 17:40
vs. San Jose: 23:56
vs. Anaheim: 15:52 (didn't play third period)
vs. Carolina: 22:28
vs. Colorado: 25:07

Terry Murray was asked after last night's game whether Doughty had permission to jump up and join the rush whenever he wanted to...

MURRAY: ``We would really like him to keep it pretty simple out there, moving the puck on the breakouts and doing all the right things that we ask all of our defensemen to do. But we know that he's a special player and he has a special high end and will get there some day, on a consistent basis. He has the ability to jump up in the play, and we ask our defensemen to do that. He's got an ability to be able to attack with speed, to make a play or to do what he did on that goal. That's just a tremendous individual effort.''

The Kings have trailed heading into the third period of four of their five games this season. That's not a trend they'd like to continue, if for no other reason -- as Dustin Brown points out below -- that a young team needs to learn how to play with a lead. The Kings erased a two-goal, first-period deficit against the Ducks and rallied from a third-period deficit to beat Carolina and nearly came back last night against Colorado. Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan talked about the deficits and the Kings' strong third-period play...

Question: This whole thing of having to come back in the third period...I imagine you don't want to make a habit of it...

BROWN: ``We definitely don't. Like you said, we're capable of it, but it's a lot better going into the third with a lead and learning to play with a lead. We have to really bear down. The last two games, I think our second periods have been very average. That's what we need to focus on, a solid 60 minutes. I think we did that against Anaheim, and you saw the result. I think we dominated that game pretty well. Then against Carolina it was one bad period, in the second, and we managed to come back. If we can manage to play a solid 60 minutes, I think we'll be fine.''

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O'SULLIVAN: ``We were really happy about our third period effort. We competed and that's something we can build on. We work really hard as a team and if we just eliminate those couple mistakes we're going to be good. We're going in the right direction and that third period was pretty good, I thought.''

Jason LaBarbera allowed four goals on 14 shots, including three on the first six he faced. Erik Ersberg replaced him to start the period and stopped the only two shots he faced, but after the game, coach Terry Murray didn't put the blame on LaBarbera. Murray talked about how defensive-zone turnovers, including two blatant ones by Michal Handzus and Tom Preissing, led directly to Colorado goals. Murray said, of pulling LaBarbera:

``It was about the team. I'm not putting anybody on an island here. This is about the team. We had the puck in those situations on three goals and we put the goaltender in a pretty tough situation. It was to send a message to the hockey club that we had to be better. We have to manage the puck and we have to make sure that we're doing the right stuff and continue to work on our game.''

Ersberg is almost certain to start one of the two back-to-back road games (Friday and Saturday). What do you think? How well has LaBarbera done this season?

On the flip side of Drew Doughty's NHL goal was this play, which ended up being the game-winning goal by Colorado's Ryan Smythe in the third period.

That's Doughty, being made an unfortunate part of the highlight goal, but after the game, Doughty had an interesting take on the goal.

``It actually hit my foot first and went back to him,'' Doughty said, ``so it was kind of a lucky bounce on his part, but I still have to be taking the man in that position. So it's partly my fault but it was definitely a lucky bounce for him.''

The Kings remain one of only three teams -- Buffalo and Minnesota are the others -- to not allow a power-play goal this season. The Kings are 23-for-23, while the Sabres are 24-for-24 and the Wild is 15-for-15. That's a dramatic turnaround for a team that has finished last in the NHL in penalty-kill percentage for three years running and hasn't been out of the bottom five since 2003.

The Kings went 4-for-4 last night against a Colorado team that had thrived on the power play of late. Michal Handzus had four minutes, 15 seconds of penalty-kill time while Matt Greene and Sean O'Donnell played 3:56 and 3:40, respectively. Anze Kopitar and Alexander Frolov also see substantial penalty-kill time.

Here's a couple quotes from last night on the improved penalty killing...

PATRICK O'SULLIVAN: ``I think maybe that is starting to be something that everyone is talking about and it's definitely improved from last year. Our mentality is that we're going to try to outwork the five guys they put out there against us and if we continue to do that we're going to have success.''

TERRY MURRAY: ``Well, it's a new system and a new philosophy. We put a lot of attention on the penalty kill. We knew last year was an off year and that to have success in this game, you've got to have pretty good special teams going. So we put a lot of focus on it and talked about it right from the beginning of the training camp. Maybe some new players are getting an opportunity and putting in big efforts, but against a good power-play team that really has some great players, a guy like Sakic, there was a big commitment by all our players on the penalty kill.''

Last night was a big one for Kings rookies Oscar Moller and Drew Doughty, both of whom scored their first NHL goals in the 4-3 loss to Colorado. Moller scored a power-play goal in the first period and Doughty scored an even-strength goal in the third period. Here they are...

Doughty said of his first goal, ``It was awesome. It's so good to finally get that goal and just give me that boost of confidence. After I got that goal, I was more in the play and rushing the puck a little bit more, so it was good. Obviously it would have been better to win the game, but it's always good to get that first goal.''

Terry Murray talked about the two goals...

``It was only a matter of time before these young guys were going to get their first goal. It's great to see it happen so early in the season. Quite honestly, Moller's goal was just a veteran play, throwing the puck to the net, you never know what's going to happen. It's the right play, when you make that kind of a play, but it's usually an experienced guy that ends up doing it. Same with Doughty. After a tough goal against there in the second period, on what ends up being the winning goal, he had no effects of it whatsoever. He came out and played a tremendous third period and had a great effort on that goal to show poise and handle the puck and come in off that left-wing side with a great shot. So congratulations to both of those guys.''

No practice today, as the Kings are participating in their annual charity golf tournament. As we were leaving the postgame interview last night, I asked Terry Murray if he was going to ``teach a lesson'' to his players on the course today. He laughed and said, ``My 7 handicap won't hold up.'' We'll see who comes out victorious.

Still plenty of quotes and notes to go over from last night, so I'll be posting them throughout the day.

Seems that neither Tom Preissing nor Raitis Ivanans took a shift in the third period tonight. I'll have to check tomorrow and see what the reason for that might have been...

A few notes from the Kings, as I attempt to finish my story tonight...

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Both Oscar Moller and Drew Doughty scored their first NHL goal tonight (both playing in their fifth NHL game).

Moller also earned an assist for his first career multi-point game (1-1=2).

Doughty played a season-high 25:07.

The Kings killed all four penalties tonight and are now a perfect 23-for-23 in penalty killing on the season. The only other teams that haven't allowed a power-play goal are Buffalo and Minnesota (idle tonight).

Michal Handzus now has four points in the last three games (2-2=4). He leads the team with five points overall (2-3=5).

Kyle Quincey played a game-high 25:47.

The Kings outhit Colorado 28-19

The live chat should be up and going, but the blog server seems to be having some issues. I'll keep this open as a ``live blog'' as well, to post goals and such during the game, rather than having 15 different posts during the game.

To start, Peter Harrold, Kyle Calder and Brian Boyle are the scratches for the Kings, as expected. For the Avalanche, it's Ben Guite and Daniel Tjarnqvist.

FIRST PERIOD

4:34: Kings on power play. Smyth for hooking.

6:19: KINGS LEAD 1-0. Oscar Moller, on the power play, scores. He held the puck a couple feed beyond the end line and took a sweeping shot toward the net. Budaj, playing a pass, had the puck deflected off his leg and into the net.

11:28: TIED 1-1. Ryan Smyth slips the defense, takes a centering pass from Paul Stastny and scores from the left circle.

16:20: Kings have a brief 5-on-3 power play but go scoreless.

END OF FIRST PERIOD: TIED 1-1

SECOND PERIOD

3:02: KINGS LEAD 2-1. Patrick O'Sullivan with the backhand on a rebound, assists to Stoll and Moller.

4:01: TIED 2-2. Hejduk scores after a turnover by Handzus.

5:16: COLORADO LEADS 3-2. David Jones scores after a poor clearing attempt by the Kings and scores on a long-range slap shot. Colorado has three goals on six shots.

16:32: COLORADO LEADS 4-2. Ryan Smyth gives Drew Doughty a NHL education, and he goes around him, goes in alone on LaBarbera and scores on the backhand.

END OF SECOND PERIOD. COLORADO LEADS 4-2.

2:25: COLORADO LEADS 4-3. Drew Doughty with his first NHL goal, a wrist shot from the left circle.

FINAL. COLORADO WINS 4-3.

Thanks for chatting tonight...

Peter Budaj will get the start for the Avalanche tonight, despite some recent struggles. Budaj is 0-3 with a 4.38 goals-against average and an .824 save percentage, while Andrew Raycroft is 2-0 with a 3.00 GAA and an .875 save percentage. On the other hand, Raycroft has a career 5.20 GAA against the Kings (four games) while Budaj has a career 2.41 GAA against the Kings (six games). Jason LaBarbera? He has a 3.45 career GAA against the `Lanche. Of course, different years, different teams...

Colorado has won back-to-back games after starting 0-3 and has scored seven power-play goals in its last three games. That should be a good challenge for the Kings' suddenly-strong penalty-kill unit.

I'll open up the chat later for those who want to hang out during the game...

Spend enough time around any sports organization and you're bound to hear some wacky things, and this one ranks pretty high on the list. For those who missed Helene Elliott's blog item yesterday -- check it out here -- she posted an e-mail she received from a former Kings season-ticket holder who canceled his tickets because of this summer's price increases. Nothing shocking there, until you read about what the gentleman claims he was told by the team's ticket representatives.

First, according to the e-mail, the man was told by a Kings ticket rep ``that he didn't want to raise prices but that it was [General Manager] Dean Lombardi's idea.'' The man also says that he was told several times that ``management won't allow'' reps to sell tickets at last season's prices and that the Kings are ``losing tons of loyal fans because of this decision.''

Assuming the gentleman is quoting the Kings' ticket reps correctly...what a disaster. Never mind the fact that Dean Lombardi has zero to do with setting ticket prices. Why are ticket reps out there essentially telling fans, ``Yeah, it's stupid, but we have to do it''? If this is a coordinated plan, and something the Kings feel is necessary to stabilize their bottom line and build for the future, shouldn't everyone be on board?

You can debate the merits of raising prices after a miserable season -- I think I know what the majority opinion is on this subject -- but it seems indisputable that this isn't the correct way to communicate with fans.

Jason LaBarbera will start his fifth consecutive game tonight, so that means another night on the bench for Erik Ersberg. The Kings are one of six teams -- Calgary, Minnesota, New Jersey, Phoenix and Pittsburgh are the others -- to use only one goalie so far this season. So while Ersberg beat out Jonathan Quick at the end of training camp, he has yet to appear in a game. That will almost certainly change on Friday or Saturday, when the Kings play back-to-back road games. For now, here's what Ersberg said about sitting and waiting...

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Question: Have they talked to you about when you might get in a game?

ERSBERG: ``I don't know. You'll have to talk to the coach about that. It's his decision. I'm just trying to practice as hard as I can and be ready. When it's my time, I'm going to be ready.''

Question: Are you feeling good in practice?

ERSBERG: ``I feel good out there. I'm ready to play.''

Question: It might be hard for some guys to step into a first game like this. Do you feel like you'd be ready if you got the call?

ERSBERG: ``Yeah, obviously I haven't played in a while but I've seen a lot of shots in practice, so I feel I'm ready, definitely.''

Question: Is there a difference between being practice-sharp and game-sharp?

ERSBERG: ``Well, I mean there's not much you can do. There's only one guy that can play. So I just try to work hard in practice. That's really all I can do. I feel ready. It feels good out there.''

I raised the question earlier about the last Kings goalie to start the first five games of the season. The answer comes courtesy of Kings broadcasting king Nick Nickson, who notes that Felix Potvin got the first NINE starts in 2001-02 (and went 3-5-1) before Jamie Storr started the 10th game. Potvin appeared in 71 games that season; Storr in 19. Thanks to NIck...

The Kings have the option to return 19-year-old winger Oscar Moller to his junior team up until his 10th game, but that seems increasingly unlikely. Moller has one assist and an even rating in four games and has been playing second-line minutes alongside Jarret Stoll and Patrick O'Sullivan. Moller, a second-round pick last year, was one of the big surprises of training camp, and so far he has looked poised beyond his years. Here's what Moller had to say today about his early experiences in the NHL...

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Question: How comfortable do you feel at the NHL level now?

MOLLER: ``I feel way more comfortable now, playing the games. The first two games, especially the first game, I was really nervous. The second game, I got a little more loose and I think I'm in it now. I feel comfortable out there, doing what I do.''

Question: What do you think changed in those couple games?

MOLLER: ``I was just gripping the stick too hard, you know? From being nervous. Probably that. I just feel more comfortable making plays.''

Question: They'll put you in a pretty big role, with big minutes. Does that help, to be put in a strong position?

MOLLER: ``Yeah. Obviously they want me to succeed and they're putting me with good players. I've got to be good too, to help them out too. I just have to start putting the puck in the net now.''

Question: Are you mentally checking off the games until you get to nine?

MOLLER: ``I just take one game at a time right now. It's up to them after nine games. I'm just going to do my job here. I just want to be here the whole year.''

Much of the credit given for the Kings' strong start on the penalty kill -- they're perfect entering tonight's game against Colorado -- has gone to assistant coach Mark Hardy, who handles the unit directly. Hardy spent six seasons with the Kings as an assistant under Andy Murray, then, after two seasons as an assistant in Chicago, returned to L.A. this summer under Terry Murray. Hardy is well-known but being a hard-nosed but fair and personable coach, and for anyone who watches practice, he's still one of the strongest skaters on the ice at age 49. Here's what Terry Murray said today about hiring Mark Hardy...

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Question: What went into the decision to hire Mark Hardy?

MURRAY: ``Actually, the game came up in a meeting we had upstairs with Dean and Hexy. I knew that he was working in Chicago. It never even crossed my mind that maybe that would be a coach I could talk to. He was under contract. Then when we spoke upstairs, what came out was that he was going to be asked to go to the American League and run their team down there. The reason they wanted to do that is because he did such a good job with the young defensemen in Chicago and helped that team make a big step last year, so (they wanted to) continue with the development process of the young guys in the AHL. I've always liked the fact that someone, an assistant coach, has played in the organization. I think that's a great bonus to have. Mark is a longtime player here, and when that name came up as a possibility even, I said, `Wow, that would be great to have the opportunity to at least talk to him.' I didn't think that (Chicago GM) Dale Tallon would oblige. Dean called and talked to Dale and it went from there.''

Question: Did you know him very well before this?

MURRAY: ``No. No, I didn't know him very well. But I was certainly aware of what happened in his time here with Andy Murray. They had a great thing going and then of course last year in Chicago they made a wonderful step with a young team and a young blue-line core, and they all looked like they have great awareness of how to play the game. That's a reflection on the person who was working with them directly. So I was excited to have a chance to talk to Mark and see what his interests were. His priority was to stay in the NHL, and the opportunity to come back here, he was excited about it.''

After losing Jack Johnson to injury and watching Peter Harrold get replaced by Kyle Quincey, it seems that Matt Greene might finally have a full-time partner on the blue line. The Kings will stick with Kyle Quincey, who fared well Friday in his first game with the Kings, and continue to partner him with Greene, who signed a five-year contract extension on Friday. For those who didn't see Helene Elliott's story today, Greene also opened his home to rookie defenseman Drew Doughty, a nice touch and an important step in terms of developing some team camaraderie. Here's what Terry Murray said today about the Greene-Quincey partnership...

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Question: Quincey with Greene, is that something you'll stay with?

MURRAY: ``Quincey, I'm going to stay with him. The game was really good the other night. There's some areas that he gets a little bit of that pressure kind of a look, and it put a little stress on us. I think there was one on the 4-on-4 where he got caught in the offensive zone, trying to make a play, but overall his composure with the puck, his breakout, his handoffs, his vision on the ice, it's very good. And he has a bit of an edge to his game on the physical side of it. So I'm going to keep going with him right now.''

After three games back with the Kings, Patrick O'Sullivan seems to have settled on the second line, alongside Jarret Stoll and Oscar Moller. O'Sullivan, who has one goal and one assist in three games this season, had some success playing with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar on the top line last season, so I wanted to get Terry Murray's thoughts on where he saw O'Sullivan fitting in...

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Question: Are you starting to get a feel for O'Sullivan and where you'd like to see him slotted in? Or do you like him where he is?

MURRAY: ``Right now, I don't mind where he is. I like what Stoll has been doing here the last two games. He's using his speed more often to carry the puck more and he's moving the puck better and finding his wingers as a result of it. Sully is... I'm obviously going to continue to watch him very closely. He's a very special kind of a guy. He has an incredible level of skill. As we go through this, we'll see where it all does shake out. I know he had great success with Kopi and Brownie last year, so I'll pay attention to that, but I like the balance on the four lines that I have right now. Having a threat from different parts of the game is a nice asset for a coach.''

As previously posted a couple times, Brad Richardson will return to the lineup in place of Brian Boyle. Richardson, who played in the Kings' first game but then was a healthy scratch for the next three, gets a chance to play against Colorado, the team that traded him to the Kings on draft day for a second-round pick. Boyle sits, after three games in which he got limited minutes as a fourth-line center and had a minus-4 rating. I asked Terry Murray about the change and what Boyle needs to improve...

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Question: Going with a lineup change tonight?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, Richardson is going to play tonight. He's been out for a while, he's working hard (and) he's against his former team. Sometimes that can mean good things. I like the speed that he's going to bring to the game, plus he's a penalty killer and he's done a pretty good job in that area. Sometimes his speed becomes a little bit of a concern for me, because he gets ahead of the play. As I spoke with him yesterday, it's about slowing down on the breakouts, come from below, generate your speed as you're leaving your zone through the middle of the ice. I think he's been giving that a focus in the last two days of practice.''

Question: As Boyle tries to establish himself here, are there certain things you need to see more of?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, there are. On most of the stuff, I've talked to him and met with him one-on-one already. I'll meet with him again after the morning skate here and show him some clips from the game the other night. I think the consistency is probably the main issue. The game against Anaheim, I liked a lot of the stuff he did. He took the puck to the net, he was using his size, his strength and his one-on-one play. Then he seemed to take a step back the other night against Carolina. That's the major issue that I have.''

Jack Johnson watched most of this morning's skate next to Dean Lombardi, his left arm in a sling covered by a Kings jacket. After the skate ended, we talked to Jack about his recovery from surgery to repair the torn labrum in his left shoulder. If all goes well, Johnson could be looking at a mid-January return, it seems.

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Question: How are you feeling at this point?

JOHNSON: ``As good as I'm going to be for now. Everythinig went well. I'm going to see a doctor now to get my stitches taken out and everything. Everything is on schedule. I got stuff cleaned up in my shoulder. I had stuff that happened to me in previous years, in college and juniors, so it turned out to be something that was well-needed. I'll be better for it in the long run and better for it in three months, because my shoulder will be pretty much on a clean slate again.''

Question: That previous stuff, was any of that a contributing factor in what happened?

JOHNSON: ``No, that injury was its own problem. It was one freak incident, but I have had problems with my left shoulder before. They cleaned it all out, and I'm pretty much starting over with a clean slate.''

Question: Did you know right away that there was a problem? You tried to skate a little bit...

JOHNSON: ``I knew right away that there was a problem. Like any other stubborn athlete, I said, `I'll just go out and hopefully it will go away.' I tried to play and I knew it wasn't working for me, so there was no point pushing it this early in the season and this early in life, so I packed it in for now.''

Question: Are you in pain now?

JOHNSON: ``I'm fine, but my range of motion isn't fully back yet. There's a little pain if I roll over on it a certain way. I'm getting a little bit back every day, so that's encouraging.''

Question: You mentioned three months. Is that the timetable you're hoping for?

JOHNSON: ``No, that's just what I've been told. Hopefully, I'll be back sooner than that. My (broken) foot healed quicker than they told me it would, so I'm hoping the shoulder will be the same case. They told me, on average, it takes about three months, so we'll see.''

-- Brad Richardson returns to the lineup in place of Brian Boyle. Kyle Calder is scratched again and Kyle Quincey stays in the lineup.

-- Jason LaBarbera in goal again tonight.

-- Jack Johnson attended the skate, his arm in a sling. I talked to him for a few minutes about his recovery.

-- John Zeiler continues to skate, but doesn't yet seem close to a return.

Many more quotes and notes to follow...

Getting ready to head out to the skate to see what's going on today. Seems as though Brad Richardson will be back in the lineup, in place of Brian Boyle. Whether you agree or not, it probably reflects more on Boyle than it does on Richardson. Also, Kyle Quincey is expected to remain in the lineup.

Jason LaBarbera probably in nets tonight. I spent a little time trying to find the answer to this question, but couldn't. When was the last time the Kings started the same goalie in the first five games of their season? It's before 2002-03, I know that much.

Here is a season previewof the Avalanche courtesy of our sister paper, the Denver Post. The Kings (2-2) host the Avalanche (2-3) on Monday night.

Terry Murray said something interesting the other day, when asked about preparing for Carolina. He didn't just give a standard answer about the need to play well against a (fil in your favorite adjective) team like the Hurricanes. Instead, he talked about how the opposing team rarely comes up in pregame preparations. He said, ``It's really important that we get a foundation in place and stick with it and have real consistency.''

In other words, to paraphrase, ``We're worrying out us; not about them.'' Perhaps that's why you're seeing a lot of these young guys play with poise and confidence. They're not being overloaded. They don't have a million thoughts going through their heads every time they step on the ice.

In previous years, Andy Murray would be all about preparation. Before every game, a breakdown of that night's opposing goalie would be posted in the locker room. As you probably already know, Andy was well known for slipping detailed game plans under the hotel-room doors of his players and quizzing them about certain things. Now, that's not necessarily a criticism. Different team require different coaching strategies. Those teams were more veteran and perhaps better equipped to handle that type of coaching.

Would it work for this team? No. Terry Murray is doing the right thing by keeping it simple and letting these guys get comfortable. Of course, the challenge comes down the road. Because at some point, the bar needs to be raised. Simply being competant in their own system won't be enough in the long run if the Kings want to be winners. The young players will have to be held accountable for more. Terry Murray said that could start taking place after the all-star break.

Any thoughts on Murray's strategy?

Here is Terry Murray's postgame interview following the Kings' come-from-behind 4-3 win over Carolina last night:

Here are some quickie quotes from the locker room, provided by the Kings.I wasn't in there long because of deadline. I'll have Terry Murray's full interview up tomorrow morning. In the meantime, here's some food for thought:

For the second consecutive game, the Kings overcame a two-goal deficit to win. Obviously, they don't want to make a habit of this, but they've proven they can come-from-behind to win. Allowing three consecutive goals really hurt, but Dustin Brown's goal at 17:55 in the second period was huge.

The Kings are one of three NHL teams that hasn't given up a power play goal this season. Carolina had five power-play opportunities and didn't score. The Kings have killed all 19 penalties this season.

Michal Handzus scored two goals and has four points through the first four games. He needed 16 games to get four points last year.

Wayne Simmonds had his first NHL assist. He won't forget it, considering the shot he took after it.

This is the Kings' first overtime victory since Dec. 30, 2007 at Chicago.

Terry Murray was happy with the play of Kyle Quincey, who played his first game as a King. He was on the ice for 21:43 tonight, which was fifth-most on the Kings.

-- Big night for the Kings, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit, and the top line, as Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar both netted their first goals of the season. The biggest night, however, belonged to Michal Handzus, who continued his resurgence with two goals, including the winner in overtime.

-- Jason LaBarbera stopped 23 of 26 shots.

--The Kings killed all five Carolina power plays and are 19-for-19 on the penalty kill this season.

-- Sean O'Donnell and Drew Doughty were both plus-2 tonight.

-- O'Donnell played a game-high 24 minutes, 15 seconds.

-- Kyle Quincey debuted for the Kings and played 21:43. He had one assist.

-- Brian Boyle took only seven shifts, not because of injury...

-- The Kings were credited with 35 hits, including six by Denis Gauthier.

Jill should have quotes from the locker room...

Michal Handzus scored 3:21 into overtime to give the Kings their second win of the season. More later.

After several deflections, Anze Kopitar scored while Carolina goalie Cam Ward was down midway through the third period. Kopitar got the puck through the right side, and Kyle Quincey had his first assist as a King.

Carolina's third goal was changed and credited to Ray Whitney, who was the last Carolina player to touch it since it went off his leg, then Preissing's skate.
Carolina leads 3-2 after two periods.

Dustin Brown scored from the top of the slot and beat Cam Ward glove side to pull the Kings within 3-2 at 17:55 in the second period.

Matt Cullen took a shot from the top of the slot, and it hit Ray Whitney's leg, then was redirected off Tom Preissing's right skate and into the net.
Carolina leads 3-1.

Dan LaCouture redirected a shot from Niclas Wallin from between the faceoff circles to give Carolina its first lead of the game.

Ryan Bayda scored for Carolina to tie the game at 1 midway through the second period. Bayda got his stick on a rebound in front of the net and poked it between Jason LaBarbera's right food and the post.

The Kings scored 56 seconds into the game on a goal by Michal Handzus, his first goal of the season. Wayne Simmonds made a nice pass to Handzus, who was in front of the net, and immediately after, Simmonds took a huge hit. THe Kings scored 56 seconds into the game. But, 31 seconds later, Jarret Stoll was called for high sticking and the Kings were on the power play. Again, the Kings killed the power play. They have yet to allow a power-play goal this season.

G - Jason LaBarbera
D - Sean O'Donnell
D - Drew Doughty
C - Anze Kopitar
LW - Matt Moulson
RW - Dustin Brown

Scratches for the Kings tonight are Peter Harrold (which Rich already reported), Brad Richardson and Kyle Calder.
Kyle Quincey will play in place of Harrold tonight.

Thanks for chatting tonight everyone!

In an article in today's Union-Leader, Teddy Purcell talks about being one of the Kings' last cuts in training camp and what he thinks he needs to do in order to make it back to Los Angeles. A quote from the story...

``Obviously I was disappointed at first," Purcell said. "I was kind of in a similar position last year (during the season). I was called up and feeling pretty comfortable, then got sent down again. So it's not my first time being sent down. Obviously it's upsetting but you have to have a positive attitude.''

Purcell a scorer waiting to happen

Also, here's a story from the Calgary Herald about goalie Martin Jones, one of the surprises of Kings training camp. Jones came in on a tryout, as one of eight goalies in camp, and earned a contract at the end. He's back with his junior team in Calgary and just earned the No. 1 goalie job. It's been a good few weeks for the 18-year-old Jones...

Jones gives No. 1 effort for Hitmen

In his first two games with the Kings, Jarret Stoll had zero points, three shots on goal and four penalty minutes. On Tuesday against the Ducks, Stoll had a power-play goal, an assist, three shots on goal and zero penalty minutes. Terry Murray talked about Stoll's stronger game against the Ducks...

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Question: Jarret Stoll, the game he played Tuesday, is that more of what you expect from him?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, that was Stoll's best game to date. He used his speed, he was on the puck, he battled to come up with pucks along the boards, loose pucks. He attacked more often with the puck on his stick. He's got great speed and if he can just take it to the net more often, that's going to be a real asset that he should go to more often. I like what he did.''

Tonight's opponents, the Carolina Hurricanes, are off to a 2-1 start. They have scored 11 goals and allowed 10. Carolina has three former Kings, Joe Corvo, Tim Gleason and Frantisek Kaberle, on defense, and this is the first game of the Hurricanes' six-game road trip. Here's what Terry Murray said about preparations for tonight's game...

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Question: Has the energy level been pretty good in practice this week?

MURRAY: ``The energy level is good, it's very good. We haven't played a lot of games, mind you, and we haven't been traveling and everybody is sleeping and eating at home, so that helps. But I think there was a good feeling after the game the other night against Anaheim. The guys worked hard and there was a lot of `compete' for each other. After the game, there's no doubt that they looked at each other and said, `I played hard for my team here tonight.' They're pretty excited about it. So there should be some good carry-over, and there is. We have to bring it to the game tonight, and we're against a good hockey club, a real good skating team. I know them well from the East, and we're going to have to be very alert to defend against this team, that's going to be on the attack.''

Question: Do you change your style much for them?

MURRAY: ``No, we're not going to change our style. It's really important that we get a foundation in place and stick with it and have real consistency. The focus will be on ourselves. We do talk about the opponent, not a lot. We show a couple clips, but it's more about what the L.A. Kings are doing right now with our rebuilding process. That's the way it will be, right through maybe the all-star break, before we start to give the opposition a little more focus in game preparation.''

Matt Greene's new contract, which starts next season, is for five years and $14.75 million. That's an average of $2.95 million per season.

Matt Greene has signed a five-year contract extension with the Kings. I'll try to get the money figures soon...

Oscar Moller is three games into his nine-game tryout, after which the Kings must decide whether to keep him or return him to his junior team for the rest of the season. So far, so good. Moller has one assist (on the power play) and an even rating in three games, and he's playing a fairly big role on the team. Here's what Terry Murray said regarding his impressions of Moller's play...

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Question: You talked yesterday about being impressed by the young guys, especially Moller and Simmonds. Are you thinking that Moller will stick around?

MURRAY: ``You have 10 games (to decide) on a player who still has junior eligibility. Quite honestly, it hasn't crossed my mind that he would do anything else but stay here. Things change, but I hope they don't. He has played very well. He's playing 14, 15 minutes a night. He's on special teams. He's actually a very good power-play player on that half-board. He's been impressive from the first day, and he just continues to handle the pace of the game and the intensity of the game with great composure and a lot of confidence. He wants to do things when the puck is on his stick, and that's probably what attracted my attention to him right from the very beginning of the training camp. I hope he continues to grow, and he should. He's put in situations where he has that opportunity to get better every day.''

It's been a good start for Wayne Simmonds, who scored his first NHL goal in Tuesday's victory over the Ducks and who already has earned an important role. Simmonds is playing on what can be called the Kings' ``stopper'' line, with Michal Handzus and Alexander Frolov. It remains to be seen how effective that line can be, but the ``stopper'' line is something the Kings have really lacked in recent years.

Simmonds' mother and brother were in Los Angeles to see his first goal, and his father also spent some time in town at the start of the season, so SImmonds has felt pretty comfortable all around. Plus he has earned some solid praise from coach Terry Murray. Here's what he said about the start of his NHL career...

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Question: Has playing in the NHL been different from your expectations of it?

SIMMONDS: ``Oh yeah. I think, in the first couple games, I started slow. It takes time to adjust. It's a totally different game and you've got to learn from your mistakes as quickly as possible. Now I think I'm getting more comfortable and more confident.''

Question: They've already put you in an important role, that sort of defensive-stopper line. Is that something you feel pretty comfortable with?

SIMMONDS: ``Yeah. I feel I'm pretty defensively sound. I try to keep it simple in my own zone and just play our system. It has worked out so far. I played a lot against Joe Thornton, as well as (Ryan) Getzlaf and (Corey) Perry. I think we fared pretty well and I think I've fared pretty well, to this point. I've just got to keep building on what I've done so far.''

Question: That's quite an introduction to the NHL, playing against Thornton and those guys...

SIMMONDS: ``It's something different. Your first game in the NHL and you're playing against Joe Thornton and (Jonathan) Cheechoo and (Patrick) Marleau and those guys. It's a good learning experience, so I'll take the positives from that and learn from the negatives.''

Question: Are the coaches pretty quick with the feedback, in terms of what you're doing well and need to improve?

SIMMONDS: ``If you're doing something wrong, Terry is going to be the first person to say something, or Jamie (Kompon) on the bench. As the game goes along, if you make a mistake, they will be the first people to point it out to you. It's good. It's all positive feedback and I can learn from that. You can't take it negatively; you have to be positive about it.''

Question: Did they give you the puck from your first goal yet, or do they still have it?

SIMMONDS: ``They're keeping it. I'm pretty sure they're framing it or something.''

John Zeiler, who suffered a groin strain in training camp, then aggravated it when he tried to skate a couple weeks later, was back on the ice this morning. Zeiler isn't yet on the verge of returning, and it's unclear where he will play when he does return, but here's what Zeiler said this morning about being back on the ice...

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Question: Is that the first time you've tried to skate on it?

ZEILER: ``Since I hurt it, yeah. They just want me to get back into it nice and easy, not too intense of a practice where there's a lot of stops and quick movements where you can hurt your groin again. It was nice to be out there for 20 minutes and just get some flow drills going and striding it out, getting a feel for how it feels.''

Question: And how did it feel?

ZEILER: ``It felt good. I was surprised and happy, obviously, because the first time I hurt it, I went out after a week and a half and I hurt it again. So I was kind of nervous that it would happen again, but it was nice. Hopefully, I'll just keep getting it stronger and I'll get treatment and just keep taking it slow the next couple days. Then hopefully I'll get back at it full speed in the next week.''

Kyle Quincey, claimed off waivers from Detroit this week after Jack Johnson's shoulder injury, will be in the lineup tonight against Carolina in place of Peter Harrold. Quincey has 13 games of regular-season experience over the past three seasons with the Red Wings. He will play alongside Matt Greene, who gets his third defensive partner in four games. Here's what Terry Murray said about the addition of Quincey...

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Question: Any changes tonight?

MURRAY: ``One change, on the blue line. We're going to put Quincey in and take Harrold out. I thought Peter's game was pretty good in the second half of the game the other night, but it's also important for us, as a coaching staff, to take a look at Quincey and see where his game is. I have not seen him play in the past. I know he's got games under his belt. He has played in Detroit, so he has to be a pretty good player to fit in and play with that organization and that team, so he will get in tonight.''

Question: Any other shuffling, or will you just put him in that spot (next to Greene)?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, we'll just put him right in that spot. Left shot, play with the right shot, with Greener. It keeps the other pairs consistent, and I think he and Greener together will hopefully work out pretty well.''

Question: Anything particular you're looking for from Quincey?

MURRAY: ``I don't hesitate to put him in. He's only 23 but he has a bunch of games under his belt. He has played at a high pace with Detroit, played in the playoffs a couple years ago there in Detroit. He has a calming sense on the ice himself, just in the practices. He has good vision. He moves the puck and he lets the puck do the work for him. He's not going to get overwhelmed by trying to do too much. When you look at Detroit, and system play, they invite pressure and then make the little plays. He has learned that from an organization that has won a lot of games in the last 10 years. I hope that it's ingrained enough that he can just bring it to the game tonight.''

Some quick notes from the morning...

-- Kyle Quincey will be in the lineup tonight, in place of Peter Harrold. Quincey will partner with Matt Greene and play the left side.

-- Barring unforeseen changes, Calder and Richardson will be the scratches again. Drew Doughty, as expected, will play.

-- Terry Murray said he hasn't given any thought to the idea that Oscar Moller might go back to junior. He seems very impressed with Moller's game.

-- As previously posted, John Zeiler skated today, but took it relatively easy. He will continue skating for the next couple days but isn't on the verge of game action or anything like that.

Quotes to follow...

John Zeiler, out since late in training camp with a groin strain, is back skating this morning and wearing No. 13. Also, the Kings have signed Andrew Campbell to an entry-level contract. You might remember the story from a couple days ago about the contract dispute with Campbell...

More notes and quotes coming after the skate...

Terry Murray was asked a simple question about what has surprised him about this Kings team, and it led to an interesting answer about the development of young players...

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Question: If you could pick one thing that has surprised you about this team, what do you think it is?

MURRAY: ``It's hard to put your finger on one thing. It's easy to say the hard work, but that's kind of a cliche...''

Question: Is there a skill level that surprised you?

MURRAY: ``I kind of knew there was a skill level coming in, just looking at the lineup and talking as we went through the summer. The biggest surprise, clearly, has been the two young guys up front. Doughty, we knew he was probably a sure thing coming in, that we were going to put him in the lineup if he just came out and did a good job in the training camp. If you're the No. 2 pick overall, you're a pretty good player. But the young guys have been a real good surprise for me. Moller and Simmonds, and we talked about Moulson, those guys have really done a great job, and that's probably been the biggest surprise, the level of skill from the young players that are in the organization. There's a couple guys who have gone back to junior and there's a few guys who have gone down to Manchester that are going to be knocking on the door real soon. If not this year, they certainly will be there again next year at training camp. That's been probably the biggest surprise, the depth of the talent level that's in this organization.''

Question: That's something Dean talked about, how the top guys, like Brown and Kopitar, were here, but you always had to go outside to get the second- or third-line guys. Now you're starting to develop those guys yourselves.

MURRAY: ``Exactly, and that's a real compliment to what Dean has done with the development camps in the summer and with the scouts that have drafted. I know what it's like to scout. I did it for a year with the Flyers when I got fired there. I was out pro scouting, and that's a tough road. You're on your own, you're traveling and you've got to beat the bushes looking for players. These guys are doing that every year, and it's starting to pay off. They've got some good people in the organization now.''

It's still quite a ways down the road, but Feb. 3 will be a special day, when Terry Murray and his Kings face the Ottawa Senators, whose general manager is Terry's older brother Bryan. There shouldn't be much conflict, given that the Murrays can only face each other twice in any regular season, and Terry Murray talked today about how his relationship with his brother has been impacted since he joined the Kings...

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Question: Do you and your brother Bryan get to talk a lot during the season?

MURRAY: ``We haven't since the start, yet, but yeah, we do get in touch and talk.''

Question: Phone or e-mail?

MURRAY: ``Both. We do both. Sometimes I have people e-mailing me for tickets to the Ottawa games, so I pass those along. But yeah, we talk, and we will pretty soon here, now that we've got our season underway.''

Question: Do you commiserate about things, or just general chat?

MURRAY: ``Most of the time, it's just about how things are going family-wise. A little bit of the hockey, but not much, even when we get together in the summertime and go golfing, there's not a lot of hockey usually. It's, `Let's play golf and have a beer after and talk about family.' We kind of catch up that way. I missed the big family reunion this summer (in Quebec). He had everybody out at his place on the lake. That's kind of been an annual get-together, and I wasn't able to make it this year because of this opportunity coming along. So I missed it. It's such a big family, with all the grandkids and great-grandkids, there's over 100 (people) that show up to this thing. It's a great opportunity to keep in touch with everybody.''

Question: Is it a law that every Canadian has to have a cottage on the lake?

MURRAY: ``I have one on the same lake that Bryan is on. It was pretty nice there for a couple years. If you're going to be a Canadian, you better make sure you have a piece of land on the end of the lake. Absolutely.''

If we're taking a vote, based on the first three games, Michal Handzus would have to get strong consideration. Last season, Handzus played 82 games -- impressive, given that he was coming back from major knee surgery -- but underachieved by most everyone's standards, with seven goals, 14 assists and dwindling ice time. Handzus seems to be enjoying a resurgence this season. He has two assists in three games, looks to be a more confident skater and is playing strong defensively.

Terry Murray, who served as an assistant coach when Handzus played with the Flyers, had this to say about Handzus' game...

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Question: Handzus is a guy who struggled quite a bit last year, for whatever reason, but looks a lot stronger now. Is he closer to the guy you remember from Philly?

MURRAY: ``Yeah. Michal has gone through a tough couple years. He goes to Chicago and blows his leg out. He came from Philly the previous year and he had a shoulder issue and he had that taken care of. I know last year he had some problems coming in at the start of the year too. So he never really got on track. He didn't have an opportunity to work out in the summertime last year because of the rehab work that he had to put in. You just don't get your body ready to become an athlete again. You're always on the mend, and that wears on you mentally. So as a result, you're off to a bad start and you can't gain any ground as the season goes on. This year, it's been totally opposite. His time away from the game this summer has been toward getting ready to play and getting himself back in top physical shape, and mentally he's ready to go. So you do see a newer player, a fresher player, and I like a lot of the things he's doing, like he did back in Philly a few years ago. He's been assigned the top offensive lines, he's a checker, he's a penalty killer, he's playing the power play, lots of minutes and he does thrive on that kind of a workload.''

And here's an interview from this morning with Handzus...

Question: Many people watching the games have commented on how much stronger you look this year? Do you feel better?

HANDZUS: ``Yeah, I feel stronger, for sure. My skating is better, so I think that's key for my game. I was working hard all summer to get better than I was before. I'm getting there. I'm not there yet. I think I still have a ways to go but I think it's on the right track.''

Question: People talk about athletes coming back from ACL surgery, and how much stronger they get in the second year back. Have you experienced that?

HANDZUS: ``I don't know. I wasn't good last year, and I don't want to put everything on my knee. I don't look back and I don't think about my knee. I knew I had a good summer. I worked out hard and I don't look back. I think that's a key. So I don't really think about last year or the surgery or the knee. I just look forward to this year and getting better.''

Jason LaBarbera will get the start tomorrow against Carolina, and perhaps the game after that, and perhaps the game after that, and... You get the idea. Terry Murray likes what he has seen from LaBarbera, who has a 2.36 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage in his first three games, and Murray is likely to keep going with LaBarbera, even though it means delaying Erik Ersberg's first start. With all the days off and home games early in the season, the schedule sets up for a heavy workload for LaBarbera. Here's what Murray said today about his goaltending situation...

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Question: Do you have something penciled in with the goalies, as far as how to use them?

MURRAY: ``You know, I had something penciled in when I was looking at the schedule in the summertime. Even through the training camp, I kind of had an idea of wanting to get Ersberg in quickly, to keep going what he did in the training camp. But right now I want to keep going with Barbs (Jason LaBarbera). He's going to play again tomorrow. I'll take a look at it as we get on the road the next couple games. We got out for two, back to back with travel. Maybe there's an opportunity for (Ersberg). But -- and I always say `but' -- if Barbs is playing like he is, and he's sharp and alert and feels good and feels fresh, he's my No. 1 goaltender and I'll keep going with him.''

Question: Based on feedback you might have gotten, what do you think is the biggest change in him from last year?

MURRAY: ``I don't know Barbs from before. What I've been told is that he's lost a lot of weight. He's physically in top shape. He's put in a great summer with a huge commitment to nutrition and working out. That's why he looks so fresh every day, I believe. Last year, I know there were some situations that maybe popped up in games too often, with grade-one scoring chances against. So we've tried to put a big focus on the defensive part of the game, to have some respect for our goaltenders and give him the support, so that we can get a true evaluation of who these guys are. I think it's starting to come together for him. I like a lot of the things that he's done so far in the games.''

The Kings searched long and hard this summer for a veteran, left-shot defenseman and eventually landed Sean O'Donnell from the Ducks in exchange for a conditional draft pick. So far, it looks like a solid move. O'Donnell has one assist and a plus-2 rating in three games, but more importantly, he's serving as a mentor to Drew Doughty and provides a steady, calm voice in the locker room. Here's what Terry Murray said today about what O'Donnell has brought to the Kings...

``Sean has been a real good addition to our team. The experience...he's a winner. He has a real calm personality. He spends time, on the bench and in the locker room, talking to the young defensemen, in particular Doughty. I think he's got some great feedback in some of the team meetings we've had, as we get organized and ready for a game. That attitude has a real effect on the blue-line corps, especially. Not only on the younger guys but on all of the defensemen. He just knows how to get things done. He knows how to say things and he knows how to react the right way to pressure situations that are out there. He knows it's a composure situation. There's lots of time to make plays and look around. Lots of talk, help each other out. It's having an effect on our team already.''

The most surprising thing about the Kings' first three games? Certainly the perfect penalty-killing unit, which is 14-for-14. Quite startling when you consider that the Kings finished with the worst penalty-kill percentage in the NHL last season. It was a point of emphasis for new coach Terry Murray from the start of training camp, and it seems to be paying off so far. Here's what Murray said today about the PK unit...

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Question: Three games don't make a season, obviously, but you can't be any better on the penalty kill than you've been. What have been the biggest improvements there?

MURRAY: ``I'm very pleased with the competitiveness and the work. You always look at your penalty killing and you say, well, the best penalty killer on the ice is your goaltender. And (Jason LaBarbera) has been very good. But the structure is in place, and that's where Mark (Hardy) was working hard with the penalty killers, right from the beginning. He has asked them to perform in certain ways in different areas of the ice, offensive zone and neutral zone, and I think everybody is starting to respond. I think there's some good pressure on the puck, we're jumping guys at the right time, reading the opportunity to be able to put pressure on the offensive players, and we're creating turnovers because of it. When you have that kind of reaction from one guy, everybody else is jumping in and doing the same thing. They're reading off each other, and that's the key to having good penalty killing, in my mind. You have four guys there, five with the goalie, that really react to the opportunity. (It's about) close support, five-foot and 10-foot support, to be able to make little hand-off plays and get the clears.''

It had been widely presumed that Patrick O'Sullivan would reclaim his spot on the Kings' top line alongside Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, but in the mind of coach Terry Murray, there's no need to make a change right now. Murray has been impressed with the play of winger Matt Moulson, who scored an outstanding one-time goal in Tuesday's victory over the Ducks. Moulson, 25, had five goals and four assists in 22 games last season. He's doing pretty well for a guy who was drafted in the ninth round by Pittsburgh in 2003...especially considering that there is no ninth round anymore. Here's what Murray said today about Moulson's play...

Question: What have you seen from Matt Moulson so far?

MURRAY: ``Matt has impressed me. He was talked about in the summertime, during our meetings obviously, and I did end up watching several -- more than several -- games from Manchester. He was on a line with Boyle and Purcell. Quite honestly, I was watching Boyle and Purcell, and Moulson was doing real good things as far as complementing the line and being creative, scoring goals and playing the game, what I thought was the right way. He was getting to the net. So I was really looking forward to seeing him in training camp and he has played very well. He's smart, he works hard, he's very opportunistic and plays with good players. He's able to, because of his skating ability, get to the right places at the right time. I think we saw that on the goal he scored the other night. Brownie made a tremendous effort on that goal, to get down the ice and grab a loose puck and make the play. But that's a pretty special player, to score glove-side on that kind of a look. He's been very impressive.''

Question: The question seemed to be if he could keep up with those guys. Now it's whether they can keep up with him...

MURRAY: ``Yeah, I agree. That was one of the things that I was looking at, as we went through the training camp. Was this something that we could work with and develop some chemistry, and was speed going to be able to be maintained? So far, so good.''

Kyle Quincey skated today as the Kings' seventh defenseman, which would seem to make it unlikely that he will play tomorrow against Carolina, but after practice, Terry Murray said he was undecided. Here's what Murray said about Quincey...

``I don't know. I want to sit down with the coaches here, after we get through the early afternoon, and talk about that. I want to bring him to the game with the thought in the back of my mind that I might put him in the lineup. I'll probably get him in the warmup tomorrow night, then make a decision almost at that time. I like what I see out there. He's moving very well. He's got a nice head on his shoulders. He sees the ice and he's taking a look when he has the puck on his stick. I'm very interested to get him in the lineup and see how he performs in a game.''

And here's a quick post-practice interview with Quincey, who will wear No. 27 with the Kings:

Question: Happy to be here so far?

QUINCEY: ``Oh, for sure. It's a great opportunity. It's a young team and a great group of guys and it's great to be a part of it. Hopefully I can get in some games and show the boys that I can help the team out.''

Question: What has Patrick (O'Sullivan) told you about the team? Has he been filling you in on different guys?

QUINCEY: ``Yeah. Things are a little different than Detroit, but I'll get used to it and hopefully be a part of this team. Sully has just been saying how great it is to play here and how it's a great spot, so I'm just glad to be here.''

Question: It has to help, to have a good friend on the team...

QUINCEY: ``Oh for sure. Even, I played with (Brad Richardson) on an under-17 team. I played against (Dustin Brown). I played with (Kyle Calder) in Detroit. It's nice to have guys to get along with right away.''

As previously posted, Drew Doughty was back on the ice today and didn't seem to have any ill effects from the flu symptoms that kept him off the ice. Doughty said he had experienced significant weakness during Tuesday's game, but it has subsided and he feels better all around. Coach Terry Murray said after practice, ``Doughty is OK, yes. He's feeling good, back into practice and he will be back in the lineup tomorrow.''

Here's the skinny on today, with more in-depth notes and quotes to follow...

-- Drew Doughty completed practice just fine, without any of the weakness he said he had in the last two days, and is on track to play tomorrow.

-- Kyle Quincey practiced again but isn't likely to play tomorrow, as he's still trying to get acclimated to the team and vice versa.

-- Jason LaBarbera will start tomorrow, and likely Monday as well. Terry Murray said he initially planned to get Ersberg in a game early but has been impressed by LaBarbera. Ersberg likely won't start until one of next weekend's back-to-back road games.

-- No line changes today, as Matt Moulson remains on the top line with Brown and Kopitar. Murray had some praise for Moulson today.

More notes and quotes to follow...

Drew Doughty is back on the ice practicing this morning. Everyone appears to be accounted for. I'll have a full report after practice...

Here's the fourth and final set of answers. Thanks to everyone for all the great questions. I hope I was able to answer them to everyone's satisfaction...

The next set of answers from this morning's open forum questions...

Here's the second set of ``open forum'' answers, on a wide variety of topics. Thanks again for all the good questions...

Drew Doughty, who left last night's game after the second period with flu symptoms, did not practice today but did cardio work on a bike and is likely to practice tomorrow. Word is that he felt better today.

Apparently there was no injury issue with Wayne Simmonds, who practiced today as normal.

Kevin Provencher of the Union-Leader did a Q&A with Manchester Monarchs coach Mark Morris, whose team opens its season Saturday. The Monarchs have made the playoffs in each of their seven seasons, and once again they'll feature several of the Kings' top prospects. Here's the interview...

Five questions for Monarch coach Mark Morris

Sorry I didn't get this up as quickly as I would've liked...But here are the
postgame quotes from Terry Murray:

Here's the first set of answers from this morning's questions. Great questions so far. Keep `em coming and I'll try to get through all of them today. Here's the first set...

Keep the ``open forum'' questions coming. Lots of good questions so far...

For those who watched last night's game at home, what did you think of the ``rinkside view''? There have been a lot of comments posted already, and I will let the Kings and FSN people know what you think...

Thanks to Rich for running the live chat yesterday. Looks like it was quite a success. I think you guys already know this, but much of Rich's coverage of the Kings is done on his own time. You've proven an insatiable appetite for anything Kings, and Rich is doing a great job trying to meet that.

As promised, here's my quick interview with Kyle Quincey from before yesterday's game.

On being claimed by Kings
``I'm thrilled. I couldn't get the smile off my face. I'm so excited to be here. It's a new challenge for myself. I met all the guys today. It's a great organization.''

On his friendship with O'Sullivan...
``He picked me up at the airport. Hopefully, he'll show me around. We'll be roommates for a little bit. Sully's a great guy. I know he's a great player. I played with him in juniors. We know each other so well on the ice, so that's huge.''

On the state of the Kings' organization
``The way I look at it, it's a chance for me to be a part of that foundation. It's exciting. I look at it as a challenge. It's a good way to start my career.''

On whether he was caught up in numbers game in Detroit
``Detroit's a very special place. Guys take pay cuts to stay there. Winnings is what they do there. They had 10 defensemen join camp. That's a pretty hard lineup to crack. I'm grateful for my time there and being part of the Stanley Cup, their tradition and winning ways. I learned so much.''

On his conversation with Lombardi before game
``I talked to him before the game. He welcomed me to the team. I got to see the room. I'm in awe right now, meeting everybody and trying to remember everyone's name.''

On what type of defenseman we can expect to see...
A Stay-at-home defenseman who jumps up in the rush and sticks up for his teammates and makes the other team pay the price.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the live chat last night during the game. It was fun and we'll try to make it a regular thing as the season gets going.

A lot of stuff has happened with the Kings recently, so I thought I'd throw it open with an ``open forum.'' Feel free to ask any questions you think I might be able to answer, and I'll start with the answers today. Thanks!

There was no news on Wayne Simmonds, at least in the injury department. He wasn't on the ice at the end of the third period, but Terry Murray heaped a ton of praise on Simmonds for scoring the goal to make it 2-1. Murray said that goal turned the game around for the Kings.
I'll post more from the locker room tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, here's a couple of thoughts from Terry Murray on the Kings' first victory this season.

"I think what turned the game around for us was being able to respond with our goal. Right after they scored their second goal about 30 seconds later coming down [Wayne] Simmonds gets his first goal in the NHL. That was huge."

"It's nice to see us score some goals. That's where confidence comes from and that's where you can build a team a lot faster, when you have that kind of result."

Some quick stats/thoughts as Jill gets the scoop in the locker room...

-- A strong effort tonight for the Kings against a very undisciplined Ducks team. The Kings kept their composure and played well to earn their first victory and drop the Ducks to 0-3.

-- The Kings go 3 for 9 on the power play after going a combined 1 for 9 in the first two games.

-- The Kings kill all five Ducks power plays and are 14 for 14 on the PK this season. Huge, huge improvement.

-- Ducks outshot the Kings 13-5 in the third period to take a 26-23 advantage for the game.

-- Drew Doughty left the game with flu symptoms. Wayne Simmonds had only one third-period shift, so hopefully they'll have some news on him downstairs.

-- Tom Preissing and Jarret Stoll each with a goal and an assist. Anze Kopitar and Michal Handzus each with two assists, as Handzus impresses again. Jason LaBarbera stopped 23 of 26 shots.

Alexander Frolov scored an empty net goal at 18:12 and the Kings win their first game of the season, 6-3 over the Ducks. What did you guys think?

Drew Doughty is not feeling well and has flu-like symptoms, according to a Kings spokesman. If it's just the flu, that's much better for the Kings than an injury since they just lost defenseman Jack Johnson for 2-3 months.

Who knew the Kings would get another 5-on-3 opportunity so quickly. The Kings got another opportunity at a 5-on-3 in the second and they took advantage of it as Jarret Stoll scored in front of the net.
Also, Matt Moulson scored on a two-on-two breakaway on a pass from Dustin Brown to put the Kings up 4-2 51 seconds into the third. The Ducks are on the verge of starting the season 0-3, and the Kings are primed to win their first game of the season.

The Kings failed to score on a 5-on-3 power play 7:19 into the second period. As time was about to expire, one fan yelled loudly: ``there's only three of them.''

I spoke to a Kings official who confirmed that Jack Johnson had successful surgery earlier today to repair a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder. Johnson will be out two to three months.
Also, I spoke to Kyle Quincey just before the game started and will have more on that later tonight after the game.

We'll see if this works... In a few minutes, I'll set up a live-blogging window, with the capability to chat real-time throughout tonight Kings-Ducks game. Other blogs have used it and it seems to work well, but we'll see. If nothing else, it's a good test to see how many people are really online as they watch a game. Gotta start somewhere, right? So check back and chat as we get ready for the game to start...

Matt Greene talked to reporters today about the improvement made by the Kings' defense after the first game and the need to continue to improve despite the loss of Jack Johnson...

Here's what Terry Murray had to say to the media this morning. Peter Harrold will take Jack Johnson's place in the lineup and most likely play the left side next to Matt Greene.

The loss of Jack Johnson in the first period of Sunday's game left the Kings with only five defensemen, and 18-year-old rookie Drew Doughty ended up with the most ice time of any King, at 23 minutes, 56 seconds. Doughty appeared much more comfortable on the ice in his second NHL game, as he explains...

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Question: Is there a big difference between the first NHL game and the second?

DOUGHTY: ``Yeah, it was a pretty big difference. It was great playing at home. I was a little more comfortable, and just getting that first game under my belt was good. I was a little nervous and stuff like that. The second game came a lot easier. The game pace kind of slowed down in my mind and I felt a lot better out there.''

Question: Is there anything in particular that Sean O'Donnell points out to you, or is it just little things along the way?

DOUGHTY: ``It's just little things along the way, things that I don't even think about until he says something about them. I think that's what makes him such a good player. He thinks about the game so well and just sees every little thing that's happening. He helps all of us defensively, and I think that's the area I need the most help. So it's great.''

Question: Did you ever anticipate that you'd be leading the team in ice time in your second NHL game?

DOUGHTY: ``No, I didn't. It was kind of a surprise, a shock. Jack, unfortunately, got hurt, so we were down to five defensemen. I had to step up to the plate and play a couple more minutes, which I enjoyed very much. I was used to it, from playing last year in Guelph, and I knew coming here that I was definitely going to be shortened a lot, but I felt great and it was good to play that many minutes.''

It's a big night for Sean O'Donnell, who faces the Ducks, the team that traded him to the Kings during training camp. O'Donnell discusses his first game against his former mates and also shares his thoughts about how the Kings must make up for the absence of Jack Johnson, who underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Here's what O'Donnell had to say...

Kyle Quincey, claimed off waivers by the Kings from Detroit yesterday, arrived in Los Angeles last night and spent the morning taking his physical away from the rink. He didn't practice, so he won't play tonight, but he will already have a certain comfort level when he arrives. Quincey is one of Patrick O'Sullivan's closest friends, from their days playing junior hockey together in Mississauga of the OHL. Here's what O'Sullivan had to say about having his friend come to town...

Question: I understand you're already pretty familiar with Kyle...

O'SULLIVAN: ``I played with him for three years in junior. We trained together in the summer in Toronto. We live about 20 minutes apart. He's one of my best friends. Me, him and (Daniel) Carcillo, who plays in Phoenix, those two guys are probably my best friends outside of this team. He's a good guy. I was real happy for him, really happy that he was coming here and that we're going to get to play together again. He's a really good player. He plays hard and he sticks up for his teammates. That's a great pick-up for our team. He's going to help our team.''

Question: Style of play?

O'SULLIVAN: ``He keeps it pretty simple. In junior, he was more offensive, but guys obviously have to adjust, depending on what level you play at. He makes a good first pass and he's a good pick-up, I think. It's good for our team. It's unfortunate for Jack, it's too bad, but that's a good guy, and even when Jack comes back, I think Quincey will be able to add a lot to our lineup.''

Question: It seemed like he just got caught in a numbers game on that Detroit roster...

O'SULLIVAN: ``In Detroit, it's so hard to get in there. A guy like Chelios is not going away any time soon. He would probably play on any other team but Detroit, so I'm happy for him. I know it's been tough for him so far, not really getting a chance in Detroit, so hopefully here he can take advantage of his opportunity. He's a good player and, more importantly, he's a good teammate.''

A couple quick things, with details to follow...

-- Jack Johnson will have his shoulder surgery today.

-- Kyle Quincey is in town but spent the morning taking his physical, so he won't play tonight.

-- No lineup changes expected, other than Peter Harrold stepping in. Scratches should be Calder and Richardson with LaBarbera starting in goal.

-- O'Sullivan was skating with Brown and Kopitar this morning.

More quotes and notes to come...

Now that the Kings have resolved Patrick O'Sullivan's contract situation and Anze Kopitar's contract situation, there's...Andrew Campbell's contract situation?

Campbell, who had signed an amateur-tryout agreement with Manchester, is back with his junior team in Sault Ste. Marie until, his agent said, he gets ``a contract that compensates him fairly.''

The Kings took Campbell, a 20-year-old defenseman, with the 74th overall pick in the third round. He had 13 goals, 22 assists and 64 penalty minutes in 68 games last season with Sault Ste. Marie. In the interview with the Sault Star newspaper, his agent, Kyle Dubas, also said, ``My job is to ensure he's taken care of fairly. I'm still hoping we can come to a fair agreement, but some fundamental differences need to be bridged.''

According to the paper, Dubas is seeking a standard three-year, two-way entry level contract while the Kings have offered a one-year contract with Manchester.

I'll have updates from the morning skate about all the day's relevant topics a bit later...

I think we all had a bit of fun -- me probably more than I should have -- with the ``Terry Murphy'' thing from last night, but I also wanted to make it clear that David Courtney is a true professional. As I just finished writing to David, I'm well aware of his history as a very well-respected announcer in L.A., and he shouldn't take personal any fun I/we might have had with the momentary slip o' the tongue. Mistakes happen and they're quickly forgotten. For all the Bryzgalovs and Kuznetsovs he's pronounced perfectly over the years, he should get a prize. So, cheers to David...

I know this isn't a Kings story, but it is a sad story from the hockey world. The Rangers' top prosect Alexei Cherepanov, 19, died of an apparent heart attack during a game in the KSL outside of Moscow last night. You might not have heard of Cherepanov, but he was certainly expected to have a lengthy and successful NHL career. Click here to read the story from ESPN.

The Kings and Ducks both enter Tuesday's game with 0-2 records. Only once in franchise history, in 1969-70, have the Kings started a season with three consecutive regulation losses. The 1985-86 team started with two regulation losses and one overtime loss. Neither season turned out well. The 1969-70 team finished with 38 points in 76 games and the 1985-86 team finished with 54 points in 80 games.

The Ducks have had two 0-3 starts in their 14-season history, in 2003-04 and 1998-99.

Here's what Terry Murray had to say about the prospect of preparing his team for the first of six games against the Ducks, tomorrow night at Staples Center...

``There's always special attention to the Ducks. They're another one of those teams in this division that has an opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. You've got to do the right things. You've got to make sure that you're having pucks in right positions on the ice and not giving them opportunities to use their speed, especially a guy like Selanne. You have to make Niedermayer go back, and make Pronger go back 200 feet every time, if you can. We can talk about what we need to do against the opposition, but right now with this young hockey club, I've got to keep the focus on who we are, what we're doing and where we're at, and what we have to continually work on to improve our game. We talk a bit about the opposition, but most of the focus is on us.''

Here's what Terry Murray had to say today about the news that Jack Johnson will miss the next two to three months with a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder...

Question: Did you get a chance to talk to Jack today?

MURRAY: ``No, I didn't see him. He went to the doctor very early this morning and when he got to the building here, we were on the ice. So I will follow up with a phone call here. It's very unfortunate. He was just starting to get going here and then this happens. It was just sort of a flukey thing.''

Question: Were you able to watch the film and see exactly what happened?

MURRAY: ``There was a puck that was flipped up into our zone. He fielded it and played it with his hand and tried to bring it down, and the San Jose player was coming at him with a lot of speed. (Johnson) turned to avoid him but he caught his shoulder. It's very unfortunate.''

Question: Are you familiar at all with Kyle Quincey?

MURRAY: ``No, I don't know him at all. Obviously our scouts have been out there watching him and they liked him and he was available. He's a big-bodied player, and after losing Jack we needed to bring a guy in here who could give us some minutes. We also have Peter Harrold here, and we're going to have to get somebody playing on hat side. That will be the decision here as we get going for tomorrow's game.''

Question: With another game tomorrow, does it help you to have all these games early, or would you rather have extra practice time?

MURRAY: ``The games are important. As you go through the training camp, you get to play a lot of exhibition games, and it's maybe too many sometimes. When it comes down to it, the process of pulling your team together is done through playing games. The intensity level is different and everyone reacts differently to that pressure. After games, you're able to review with the team on video and point out different aspects that we're seeing. Really, there is nothing like games. In practice, you try to simulate the situations of games, but you can't replace the game itself. So this should help us in the long run.''

According to Terry Murray, Jack Johnson has a partial tear of the labrum in his left shoulder. A few quotes from Murray coming in a bit...

After being claimed off waivers by the Kings, Kyle Quincey told the Detroit Free Press, ``"It's another challenge and hopefully a good opportunity for myself. I'll just try to make the best of it.'' GM Ken Holland told the paper, ``We expected it. We'd talked to five, six teams the last week that had some interest. I thought we were close on one front on a deal that fell through. In the end, we really decided to put him on waivers because we wanted to have flexibility with the cap.''

Quincey's salary-cap hit for the season is $525,000.

Wings lose Quincey to Kings on waivers

Jack Johnson will undergo shoulder surgery this week and will miss two or three months. The Kings haven't announced what the specific injury is yet, but it's definitely shoulder-related. I don't believe Johnson will be made available for comment today, but I should be hearing from Terry Murray soon...

Since Kyle Quincey has played only six NHL games, it's impossible to evaluate him on that level, but Quincey played 66 games with Grand Rapids of the AHL last season and totaled five goals, 15 assists and 149 penalty minutes. That should give a pretty fair indication as to what type of player he is. Quincey actually played for the Red Wings in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series, due to injuries.

The Kings have claimed defenseman Kyle Quincey off waivers from Detroit, no doubt to take the spot left vacated by Jack Johnson's injury. Quincey, 23, has appeared in 13 games over three years.

Initial reports are that Jack Johnson will be out for an extended period. TSN is reporting it could be three months...

I'll pass along the injury update on Jack Johnson when I get one...

Here's what Jason LaBarbera had to say after last night's game. The Kings are 0-2 but it's hard to pin that on LaBarbera, who has stopped 56 of 60 shots in the two games...

Question: It's not fun when you lose, but are you pleased with your first two games?

LABARBERA: ``Yeah, it's not fun to lose, obviously. I felt pretty good in both games, so I can personally build off that, I guess, but I think the biggest thing is that we played better as a group (Sunday). (Saturday) night we were standing around, we were flat-footed and it seemed like we were watching them skate around us all night. (Sunday night) was kind of the opposite. We moved our feet, skated and moved the puck a lot better and it was a big difference.''

Question: Was it a case of respecting them too much in the first game?

LABARBERA: ``I don't know. I think we just got caught on our heels a couple times, especially when they started getting momentum on the power plays and stuff. (Saturday) night, like I said, we just weren't skating. We just stood around and they just blew by us. (Sunday) night was a little different. We moved our feet better. We have speed, we just have to utilize it better. I thought we did that better (Sunday).''

Here's what Kings coach Terry Murray had to say after tonight's game...

Question: Any word on Jack Johnson?

MURRAY: ``The word that I got, just a minute or so ago, is an upper-extremity injury. He's going to go to the doctor and get evaluated tomorrow, and we'll have more information then.''

Question: Anything in terms of how serious it might be?

MURRAY: ``No. I was not told to what degree the injury was. Maybe even I wasn't told exactly what it was. It was just very quickly, when I was in the coaches' office before I came in here.''

Question: Did he try to give it a go there at the start of the second period?

MURRAY: ``He did. He tried to come back and get going. It happened on that play when the puck was flipped into the air and he was trying to knock it down just inside of our own blue line. Hopefully there's nothing serious.''

Question: How frustrating is it when you lose by one and you get two taken off the board?

MURRAY: ``Well, the two taken off the board, that's the way it is. Goals that are scored when you're in the crease are not allowed, and you're not allowed to kick the puck into the net. So that's a ruling that's thoroughly reviewed by the league, so I don't have any problem with that. Those things always have a tendency to work out in the long run. The 1-0 game was... I really liked the way we played, especially in the second half of the game. The third period was tremendous. We started to see something that I haven't seen yet, and that was that compete for each other, playing hard for your teammates. There was a lot of blocking shots and playing real hard and heavy on pucks on the boards and in front of the net area. It was great to see that. That's kind of a bar that's set, and I'm going to try very hard to keep them to that level. It's something to build on.''

Question: Your thoughts on O'Sullivan?

MURRAY: ``O'Sullivan's a very skilled player. I haven't got a good read on him yet, but he's a very skilled player. He handles the puck in traffic with high speed. He sees the ice to make plays. He took it to the net the one time, to the goal line, and threw it off the goaltender's right pad and had a little rebound and he just about got to it. I'm hoping that the next game, he does get to that kind of a play. He's a special kind of player, there's no question. Some of the things he attempts to do, you can see that there's a lot more in there and that it's going to start to happen for him real quick.''

The things the NHL is doing with their website are really good. I'm still exploring all the options to incorporate stuff into the blog, but here's the official highlight video from tonight's game...

Anze Kopitar drew a 10-minute misconduct penalty in the the second period when, while skating to the bench, he smacked his stick against the glass and cracked it.

``I could probably hit it a million more times like that and it's not going to break, but it was stupid for me,'' Kopitar said. ``I was just frustrated it can never happen again.''

Terry Murray quotes to follow, for those who want to stay up...

Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan had to say about his first game back...

``It felt like I hadn't played a game in four or five months, but felt better as the game went on. I'm glad to get that first game out of the way and live past the fact that I missed training camp. There's definitely some positives and I have a lot to improve upon, but it's definitely something I can develop.''

O'Sullivan talks about the disappointment of having two goals disallowed and his impressions of how the Kings can improve on offense...

``You know, they were against the rules, so at the end of the day that doesn't matter. We had some good chances. I think we have to continue to get traffic at the net and stuff like that. They're going to start going in the net. We have too good of players for it not to, but we need guys going to the net and getting traffic and getting more shots on net, getting pucks to the net. I think we were much improved defensively tonight. I'm not going to say that we weren't thinking about offense as much, but we definitely needed to clean up some things from last night. Goals are going to come. We just need a little bit more urgency around the net, but we're not worried about that, I don't think.''

Here's what Matt Moulson said after the game about his second-period goal being overturned by video replay, after it was determined that he kicked the puck into the net...

``I think I got it with my skate. I thought maybe I got a piece of it with my stick after, but I guess not. It clearly went off my foot, but I was just trying to kick it to my stick and jam away at it. I was hoping they would say it maybe went off my stick afterward.''

Moulson talked about the disappointment of having two goals disallowed and losing by one...

``We had a lot of pressure there and we were playing well. It's a real hit there, to have two goals disallowed, but we had a solid team effort tonight. We have to keep bringing that determination and compete level to the next game against Anaheim.''

-- Ran into Jack Johnson briefly in the hallway after the game, before a team employee quickly whisked him into the coaches' room, and he said he was ``fine.'' It's apparently some type of arm injury that will be evaluated again tomorrow.

-- With Johnson out, Drew Doughty led the Kings in ice time with 23 minutes, 56 seconds. He appeared to be much more confident on the ice tonight and had significant time both on the power play and penalty kill.

-- The Kings have killed all nine of their opponents' power plays this season.

-- Patrick O'Sullivan totaled 19 minutes, 21 seconds, of ice time and recorded three shots on goal, tied for the team high. He was also charged with four giveaways.

Kings outshoot the Sharks 21-19 but it doesn't matter much. Notes and quotes from the locker room to follow...

Jack Johnson sustained an ``upper-extremity injury'' -- please don't get me started about this terminology -- late in the first period and will not return tonight. He took one shift in the second period and tried to play but couldn't go. I'll try to get an update after the game.

Jack Johnson had only one shift in the second period. I didn't see any injury take place but I'll try to get an update. It's the second intermission now, still 1-0 Sharks.

The Kings just had a second goal disallowed in the period. Matt Moulson put it in, after a scrum in front of the net, but a video review showed that the puck crossed the line due to a famous ``distinct kicking motion.'' So it's still 1-0 Sharks, with about 3:30 left in the second period.

Anze Kopitar just got a 10-minute misconduct penalty because he slammed his stick against the glass next to the Kings' bench, and cracked it, as he skated off the ice.

The Kings just had a power-play goal waved off, 10:41 into the period. Stoll's point shot beat Boucher but Dustin Brown was ruled, correctly and immediately, to have been in the crease.

San Jose takes the lead on what looked like a pretty soft goal. The Sharks had a 3-on-2 break and rookie Lukas Kaspar pulled up and took a long-range shot to the far post. It rang off the bar and went into the net for Kaspar's first NHL goal, 9:56 into the second period. Patrick Marleau got the assist.

Patrick O'Sullivan is now back on the first line with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar early in the second period.

Handzus is still with Frolov and Simmonds, so I presume Moulson takes O'Sullivan's place with Stoll and Moller.

It's scoreless.

The Sharks outshot the Kings 8-6 and had the better of the chances. In a couple of cases, with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, the Kings appeared to have decent scoring chances but waited too long to shoot. The Kings killed two penalties and are now 8-for-8 on the PK this season.

So far, cheers for the Ice Girls, boos for Blake.

So far for the Kings it's:

Moulson-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Handzus-Simmonds
O'Sullivan-Stoll-Moller
Armstrong-Boyle-Ivanans

O'Sullivan has joined Kopitar and Brown on the first power-play unit though.

At least at the start, Matt Moulson stays on the first line with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. Rob Blake was met with an expected level of loud boos in pregame introductions. And coach Terry Murray was introduced correctly the second time.

It's LaBarbera vs. Boucher in the nets.

During pregame introductions, Staples Center public-address announcer David Courtney just introduced coach Terry Murphy. Yes, Murphy. Courtney is a pro who has been doing the job for years and years, but...wow.

In for the Kings: Patrick O'Sulllivan and Brian Boyle.

Out: Kyle Calder and Brad Richardson. Peter Harrold is scratched again.

I mentioned last night that I couldn't locate the last time the Kings had fewer than 14 shots on goal (they had 13 last night against San Jose). My colleague, Graig Woodburn, pointed out tonight that the franchise record for fewest shots on a goal is 12, ``achieved'' on Oct. 28, 1997, at Florida.

Mike Milbury had some interesting comments on Hockey Night in Canada last night...

I hope everyone is looking forward to tonight's Kings home opener. Remember, faceoff is at 6 p.m., a bit of an odd time. Plan accordingly for traffic, as I'm told there's a little baseball game up the street... Anyway, it's good to get back to regular-season hockey.

Also, Lisa Dillman of the Times, who did a great job covering the Kings the last two years in her most recent stint, captured this exchange on yesterday's CBC broadcast involving former Kings coach Marc Crawford.

Counting Crows

-- The Kings totaled 13 shots on goal and, wow, that's a low number. So low, in fact, that I can't determine the last time they recorded that few shots. The game-by-game listings on ESPN.com only go back to 2003-04, and I can't find any Kings total lower than 14. The Kings had five shots (and one goal) in the first period and four shots each in the second and third periods.

-- The Kings allowed 41 shots on goal, an unsightly number that they reached only five times last season.

-- Jason LaBarbera stopped 38 of 41 shots.

-- The clear positive for the Kings? They killed all six San Jose power plays.

-- Numbers-wise, at least, a rough debut for Jarret Stoll. He took two penalties and lost six of the seven faceoffs he took.

-- Jack Johnson led all Kings in ice time, with 23 minutes, 5 seconds.

-- How did the rookies fare? Oscar Moller played 13:38 and seemed to get stronger as the game progressed, as did Wayne Simmonds, who played 12:02. Drew Doughty played an uneven 17:40, to be expected from an 18-year-old kid making his debut.

What else stood out to you?

The Kings drop their season opener and the Sharks improve to 2-0 at home. The glaring number, of course, is the shot total...41-13 in favor of the Sharks.

Some notes on the game to follow...

Your thoughts?

Welcome to the NHL, Drew Doughty. He got caught up ice and lost the puck, which led to a 2-on-1 the other way. Joe Pavelski kept the puck and took the shot, and it might have deflected off Jack Johnson before it beat LaBarbera. The goal came 63 seconds into the third period.

San Jose 2, Kings 1

It could be much, much worse for the Kings at this point. They're being outshot 31-9 and they've killed four Sharks power plays. Of course, they just allowed a shorthanded goal too, so this game is really all over the place. The Sharks look like a team that has already played a regular-season game, which it is -- the Sharks beat the Ducks on Thursday -- and the Kings look very much like a team playing its first game, which it is.

Go figure. After keeping the game tied in a ridiculous second period in which they have generated almost no offense, the Kings fell behind on a shorthanded goal. A long outlet pass found the stick of Tomas Plihal, who made a quick move on Jack Johnson and beat Jason LaBarbera with a wrister. The Kings are being outshot 17-2 in this period.

The Sharks tied it up 1:12 into the second period. They parked two guys in front of the net, against one Kings defender, and Devin Setoguchi whacked in a rebound to tie the game. Vlasic, who took the point shot, and Thornton get the assists.

Kings 1, Sharks 0

A fine period for Jason LaBarbera, who stopped 14 shots and helped kill two penalties. The Kings put five shots on Nabokov but beat him once, on the power play.

Michal Handzus with the cross-ice pass, Alexander Frolov with the one-timer and the Kings take the lead on a power-play goal 6:34 into the game. Preissing gets an assist as well.

No surprises for the Kings, as Patrick O'Sullivan, Peter Harrold and Brian Boyle are the scratches. Certainly that's a disappointment for Boyle, but not entirely surprising given that it seemed to be heading in that direction in practice.

By the way, don't forget, the season starts in about an hour...

Today's signing of Anze Kopitar to a seven-year contract extension is arguably the Kings' biggest and most notable transaction since a certain Great One came to town. Kopitar and the Kings have committed to each other well into the next decade, even in these uncertain times, with uncertainty surrounding the Kings' building plan and uncertainty all around financially. It's a bold move and one that should infuse the organization. What will it mean on the ice? Maybe nothing. We'll see.

The reason this big deal is not a surprise is that the Kings love Kopitar. They consider him a great player, a great teammate and a hard worker, a respectful kid who represents himself and the organization well. If you're a GM looking at the possibility of shelling out almost $50 million, you definitely want to feel good about those areas just mentioned.

My thanks to Jill for chatting with Kopitar, on a day when you already had another assignment. I'll be blogging during the game, for anyone who needs updates or just wants to humor me...

I just talked to Anze Kopitar for a few minutes on the seven-year contract he just signed. Here's the interview:

Q: What's your reaction to the contract you signed?
A: I'm really happy with the Kings. The Kings were willing to show the commitment to me. Hopefully, I can (meet) their challenge to have a great team. I'm really looking forward to start this season. I'm really happy to sign the deal.

Q: Was a long-term contract what you were looking for?
A: I was thinking 5-6-7 years. It turned out to be seven years. It's good. When my deal is up, I'll still be 29. It's good that I got it done before the season so I can focus on hockey now and play the way I can and lead the team to a couple of victories for sure.

Q: What was the negotiation process like? Seems like it went smoothly.
A: The Kings were really professional and so was my agent. I think we got together pretty quick. I'm really happy about it.

Q: What do you think about the Kings locking up young guys like you and Brown to long-term contracts?
A: That's the reason I signed too, because I see a great future in L.A. We got Brownie, Jack and all those young guys locked up. Hopefully, they'll lock up Jack. We've got O'Sullivan for three years. That's why I signed. I see a bright future in L.A., and I want to be part of it.

Q: Do you think the foundation is in place for a bright future?
A: For sure. I think that's what it is. I want to be a part of that. It's really nice to be here in L.A. and I want to stay here.

He gets $47.6 million over seven years. It's different amounts each year but I don't have the breakdown yet. I believe Jill will be getting quotes from Kopitar a bit later.

Anze Kopitar got a seven-year contract extension today, for those who haven't already seen (apparently the Kings don't believe in press releases anymore). Hopefully I can get the dollar amount soon.

EDIT: I guess the Kings' policy now is to put media releases on their website for a half hour before they...release them...to the media...

I'm heading out for a while, but I'll do my best to pass along details about Kopitar as I receive them. For now, please check out the two Kings stories I wrote for the Daily News today. One is the feature on Dustin Brown, written from the long interviews posted yesterday, and focuses on the great strides he has made as a team leader. The other is a season preview that centers around the new attitude brought in by coach Terry Murray. Thanks for reading!

Brown's progress with Kings is loud and clear

Kings find themselves in a comfort zone

If the excitement of tonight's season opener isn't enough for you, this should get you going...late last night -- very late -- Anze Kopitar agreed to a contract extension with the Kings. I don't know the length and value of the contract yet, and I'll be away from a computer for most of the morning/afternoon, but I'll do my best to keep everyone updated. Just wanted to pass along the good news...

Want to know why this Kings team is different? There's a ping-pong table in the dressing room. The hand-eye coordination of ping-pong might help on the ice, but more important is the fact that the table is there in the first place. I have a hard time imagining that Marc Crawford ever would have allowed a ping-pong table in the room.

The mood in the dressing room seems decidedly more relaxed. Now, people can go around and around and debate the positives and negatives of having a ``looser'' dressing room, but the players seem much happier and at ease. Several have mentioned it without much prompting, as you've read in some of the interviews here (and will below). Watching practice, I've yet to see him yell at a player, never mind some of the cover-the-kids'-ears moments that used to take place with Crawford.

From a writer's standpoint, Terry Murray has been great to deal with. He's very pleasant to deal with, he has a bit of a sense of humor and he gives thoughtful answers. Of course, at this point he hasn't yet lost a game, so he doesn't have any reason to be defensive, but he seems to be a good fit, personality-wise, for this team. We'll see if he can use that personality to get his guys to play the way he wants.

Along these lines, here's what goalie Jason LaBarbera had to say today about the change in atmosphere around the Kings...

-----

Question: I've heard, from several guys, about how different Terry's style seems to be. What have you seen from him, and what's been the biggest difference?

LABARBERA: ``I would say it's a little more relaxed, in a good way. It's not as high strung. Terry is definitely an intense guy, there's no doubt about it. He has a quiet intensity about him. Crow kind of wore his emotions on his sleeve and it kind of wore off on everyone. Their approaches are a little different, as far as that aspect of it goes. Guys seem more relaxed, and so far it's been refreshing.''

Question: It would seem to me that, as a goalie, you would want the guys playing in front of you to be more relaxed and not playing in fear all the time...

LABARBERA: ``It makes it easier for me too, because I kind of feed off that. There were times last year where you could just feel that tension. I felt it. We were down one or two goals and you could just see it and feel it on the bench and in the room. That's not condusive to winning. It's really tough to play like that. It's just more of a quiet confidence now, I think.''

Three players -- Drew Doughty, Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds -- are expected to make their NHL debut tomorrow when the Kings open their season in San Jose. Terry Murray talked about what they should expect and shared some memories from his NHL debut...

Question: You have three guys playing their first NHL game tomorrow. Any particular message to those guys?

MURRAY: ``Well, we'll talk about that in our team meeting, what we, as a team, need to be ready for. We were fortunate to be able to play San Jose in a game near the end of training camp, so we saw most of what their lineup would be. They were missing a couple players. But we all know that once you get into the real deal, that the intensity and the competitiveness go to another level. So being ready for that is most important for the young players who are going to be in a game for the first time. There's going to be a lot of pressure. (The Sharks) are very aggressive on the forecheck team and they come at you with a lot of speed and a lot of pressure. So they have to be ready emotionally and mentally, physically be prepared for a hard battle.''

Question: Do you remember your first game?

MURRAY: ``I sure do. Minnesota North Stars vs. Oakland Seals. I took it end to end a couple times but it just wouldn't go in for some reason. (laughs) It was fun. It's pretty exciting. The adrenaline is going, the energy is high and you're really looking forward to getting your pro career underway. So I'm sure it's a very exciting day for these young guys, just waiting for tomorrow to come and the drop of the puck.''

The Kings will get real familiar, real quick, with San Jose. The Kings and Sharks play Saturday (there) and Sunday (here) and the Sharks opened the season Thursday with an impressive 4-1 home victory over the Ducks.

Question: Did you get a chance to watch San Jose last night?

MURRAY: ``I watched it this morning. Very good team, one of the premier teams in the league. They took the level of play to another level in the middle part of the first period. They got on the power play in the second and, wow, they moved the puck around and they were tremendous on the power play. They've got Blake back there last night and he's loading up with seven shots on net, and they end up with 40 as a team. They have a real strong mentality right now, that they have something to prove, and they have started off in the right direction.''

Terry Murray talked today about his short-term plan for the Kings' goalies. Sounds as though Erik Ersberg should plan on getting comfortable at the end of the bench...

Question: With three games in four nights, do you have a specific plan for the goalies?

MURRAY: ``My plan is to play Jason. He's my No. 1 goalie. We're coming out of the training camp and he's ready to go. I don't see any reason, right now, why I should look any other way, other than playing him at the beginning.''

Question: Do you have a number, in your mind, of how many games you like your No. 1 goalie to play?

MURRAY: ``That's a tough one. I want him to play a lot. I don't know what that really means, but if you have a No. 1 goaltender, he's the guy that you've got to go with. I want to go with him in a lot of the games. Certainly you want to look at plus-60 games. He loves the work. I know, from talking to the other coaches and getting feedback from them, that he's a hardworking guy who does a lot of extra (work) in the morning skates. He really thrives with that kind of workload, so I'll go with it. As long as things are going well for him, we'll stick with him.''

Here's what Terry Murray had to say today about setting his lineup, plus the impending return of Patrick O'Sullivan...

Question: Any last-minute lineup changes, or are you set?

MURRAY: ``It's set, as long as everyone comes to the game tomorrow feeling good and nothing happens over the evening here with flu, the lineup is set and ready to go for the game tomorrow.''

Question: Is O'Sullivan not ready yet?

MURRAY: ``No, he's not ready. He feels good and he had a good workout yesterday and again today. A little bit sore today, because of the hard skate at the end of yesterday's practice. We'll get him through a good workout tomorrow. I think there's a nice opportunity here for him to review what we're doing -- the style and system -- and to be able to watch a game from up top and get a good look at it and get himself ready to go. He feels that Sunday would be a good chance for him to get going. I wouldn't say he's apprehensive about two (games) in two nights, but maybe I am. I think it would be a little too much to demand of him, after missing most of the training camp, so we'll get him into the game Sunday if everything goes well and according to the plan we have in place now.''

Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan had to say today about his return to the lineup, which, barring a last-minute change of mind, will take place in Sunday night's home opener against San Jose...

-- The team had an abbreviated skate before its flight to San Jose for tomorrow's season opener. Nothing too intense and it ended with a fun shootout drill.

-- Patrick O'Sullivan will not play tomorrow, but it seems almost certain that he will play Sunday. O'Sullivan agreed with Terry Murray that it would be wise to not push the issue and risk getting hurt while playing in back-to-back situations.

-- No changes in the lines today in practice, as O'Sullivan and Boyle were wearing the green jerseys indicating a ``spare'' forward. It seems likely, then, that a fourth line of Armstrong-Richardson-Ivanans is in store, at least tomorrow.

-- The Kings play three games in four days to start the season, but Terry Murray gave no indication that Jason LaBarbera will sit. Murray said he likes to play his No. 1 goalie a lot and that he feels LaBarbera thrives under a heavy work load. So we'll see how it goes.

More notes and quotes to come throughout the afternoon, but this is the short of it...

I'll have a report from practice a bit later this afternoon, but for now I figured I'd get your thoughts on this subject... As we all know, Rob Blake is coming back to town Sunday with San Jose. I'm curious to see what people's thoughts are on Blake, four months after the whole situation went down...

As part of the feature story on Dustin Brown, I talked to Dean Lombardi to get his thoughts on Brown. The question came up a few days ago about who selects the captains. It's up to team management. Coaches can seek input from players, and there's certainly a lot of talking involved, but in the end, it's up to the coaching staff. Lombardi has seen Brown for two full seasons now, so here you can read his thoughts about the development of the Kings' new captain...

Here's the second half of the long interview with new team captain Dustin Brown...

Here's the first part of a long interview I did with Dustin Brown a few days ago. You'll note the question, ``What would it mean to you to be team captain?'' I did the interview before he was announced as captain, so that's why it's worded the way it is. Anyway, there will be a big story on Brown in tomorrow's Daily News, but this is the first part of the long-form interview that I did for the story.

I consider Brown to be a really interesting story on the Kings. He arrived at age 18 and basically sat in the corner and didn't say anything. Over the last five years he has really evolved, not only as a player but as a man and a teammate. It's no coincidence that his emergence, in both areas, coincided with the departure of Sean Avery, who really was a miserable teammate to Brown in particular. So I hope you enjoy the first half of the interview with Dustin Brown...

This is one of those things that I'm just going to have to report without context, because I'm not sure what to make of it. The Kings announced today that Brady Murray has been assigned to HC Lugano of the Swiss National League. I really can't speculate on why Murray would leave Manchester, but I'll try to get an answer. Murray spent two seasons in the Swiss league after he left the University of North Dakota.

The Kings and Fox Sports WEST added Kings Vision host Heidi Androl to select Kings telecasts on Fox Sports WEST and PRIME TICKET broadcasts this season. Androl will serve as a roving reporting during Kings home games.
Here's the press release:

OK, time to go on the record everyone...

1) Where will the Kings finish in the Western Conference?
2) Who will lead the Kings in goals? How many?
3) Who will lead the Kings in points? How many?
4) Which Kings goaltender will win the most games? How many?
5) Pick the Stanley Cup finalists, and the winner...

Jack Johnson is one of the more interesting guys to talk to on the team. He's young, and very good to deal with, but he's also not shy about speaking his mind. He gave some interesting answers here, and I can't help but get the sense that he feels a bit unshackled by the departure of Marc Crawford. Give it a read and see what you think...

Longtime hockey scribe Mike Brophy, formerly of The Hockey News and now of Sportsnet, wrote a column full of praise for the Kings and the building efforts of Dean Lombardi. Brophy even predicts that the Kings will make the playoffs.

Some love for L.A.

Here's a brief interview I did with Anze Kopitar, who yesterday was named one of the Kings' two alternate captains. This has the potential to be a huge season for Kopitar, who is very comfortable with linemates Dustin Brown and (eventually) Patrick O'Sullivan and who, at age 21, has the potential to improve upon his strong numbers in the last two seasons. Here's what Kopitar had to say...

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Question: What does it mean to you to have a leadership role on this team?

KOPITAR: ``It is an honor, for sure. It feels really exciting right now, and I take it as a compliment for sure. Being 21 and being one of the leaders on the team, it's something special, and I can't wait to get started right now. I'm sure everybody feels that way. It was a long summer for us. We didn't play a lot of hockey, but here we go. We're going to try to do better this year.''

Question: With you and Brown getting leadership roles, the message seems clear that the young guys are taking over. Is that how it feels to you?

KOPITAR: ``Yeah, I think it is a new era. I think the young guys are trying to take over here. That's what we're building on. Me and Brownie and a couple of the other young guys, we've got to make this team ours. We've got to lead the team, of course, by doing the right things and leading by example and once in a while speaking up too. That's how it is, and I'm really looking forward to it.''

Question: As far as this year, let's face it, not a lot of people are predicting big things for this team. Do you guys accept that as a challenge?

KOPITAR: ``I don't know. People can think what they want. We know we have a pretty good team in here. If we perform consistently every night, I think we can catch some teams by surprise, for sure, and win some important games too. First of all, the start is going to be big. Playing a lot of games at home at the beginning of the season, that's going to be key for us. Hopefully we can get off to a good start.''

The Kings started training camp with eight goalies, an astounding number. Here's how they have sorted out, at least for now:

KINGS: Jason LaBarbera and Erik Ersberg
MANCHESTER (AHL): Jonathan Bernier and Jonathan Quick
READING (ECHL): Danny Taylor
ONTARIO (ECHL): Jeff Zatkoff
JUNIOR: Linden Rowat (Regina) and Martin Jones (Calgary)

In other minor-league news, forward Justin Azevedo signed a one-year contract and will play with Manchester, as will defenseman Andrew Campbell, who signed an amateur-tryout agreement.

Fox Sports has released the schedule of the 10 Kings games it will broadcast in high definition this season. Of course, they're putting all of the Lakers and Clippers(!) home games in HD, so 10 seems a bit ridiculous, but apparently that will change next season.

Tuesday, October 14 vs. Ducks, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Monday, October 27 vs. Detroit Red Wings, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Tuesday, November 4 vs. Ducks, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Saturday, November 8 vs. St. Louis Blues, 7:30 PM (PRIME HD)
Thursday, November 20 vs. Washington Capitals, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Monday, December 1 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Wednesday, December 17 vs. NY Rangers, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Thursday, January 8 vs. Ducks, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Saturday, January 10 vs. New Jersey Devils, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)
Thursday, January 15 vs. Detroit Red Wings, 7:30 PM (WEST HD)

There's no debate about which player was the surprise of training camp. Wayne Simmonds showed potential 12 months ago, but he seemed to be a raw talent in need of a lot of development. Simmonds came in this summer, starting at the development camp, and impressed team management with his improved strength and puck-handling skills. He earned a spot on the roster and will get third-line minutes when the season opens. Of course, with Patrick O'Sullivan returning, Simmonds will need to immediately show that he should stick in the NHL. Here's what Simmonds had to say about his memorable training camp...

Here's what Drew Doughty had to say today about making the Kings as an 18-year-old defenseman. Doughty had the inside track to a roster spot all along, but he passed every test the Kings put in front of him in rookie camp and training camp, and now he has a veteran partner in Sean O'Donnell. Here's what Doughty had to say about how things have gone for him...

The return of Patrick O'Sullivan means that, at some point, the Kings will have to make lineup moves. O'Sullivan will all but certainly regain his spot alongside Kopitar and Brown, which will bump down Matt Moulson to...somewhere. Murray doesn't have to make that decision just yet, of course, but here are his thoughts about the way O'Sullivan's return might impact the rest of the players, particularly the young ones...

Question: You seemed pretty sure about what you wanted to do with the lines a couple days ago. With Patrick coming in, is that going to require some shuffling at some point?

MURRAY: ``Yeah. I met with a couple of the young guys yesterday and just congratulated them for making the team and being here, but I prefaced that by saying, `There is a player out there that is still unsigned, and whenever that does happen it is going to make a change.' So we just have to prepare ourselves for today, for the start of the season, and we'll see what happens as we go forward. It will make us take a look at what we have for line combinations and we'll have to make decisions whenever it's time for him to get in the lineup.''

Question: So the competition isn't necessarily over here...

MURRAY: ``Competition is never over. We have a couple extra forwards here that are out of the lineup, so the evaluation process never ends. We're always trying to push the players to another level, and if things start to slide because of youth and (them) not being used to that consistent performance, then we'll sit people down and take them out of the lineup and put other guys in and try to keep the gas pedal right to the floor boards at all times.''

Murray talked a bit today about his impressions of Anze Kopitar, who received the title of alternate captain today...

Question: What has impressed you, so far, about Kopitar?

MURRAY: ``Well, he's a lot better player than I knew. Man, he's big, he's strong, he's young, he's got incredible vision on the ice, he can take players on 1-on-1, even 1-on-2 in the offensive zone and he's just a player who, I think, is waiting to break through to the next level, to really blossom and become a dominant center iceman. He is a clear-cut No. 1 center iceman in the league right now, there's no doubt about that. I think as we get through this process of pushing younger guys to the next level, we're going to see a fantastic hockey player come out of this whole thing.''

Question: Does he seem a lot older than a guy who just turned 21?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, that's amazing. His awareness of the group, of the players on the team... He cares about people. You can tell that just from the way he handles himself and the questions he asks. He's asking how things are going, `How are you doing?' and `How am I doing?' He really takes on that leadership and that caring part of the business that sometimes is overlooked by people in the game. He's just got great character, and that's one of the reasons why he was selected as one of the alternates on the team.''

Since his hiring, Murray has been stressing the importance of improved defense. Here's what he said today regarding the Kings' progress on defense during training camp...

Question: Are you happy with what you've seen defensively, in terms of the grit?

MURRAY: ``Defensively, it's been moving along pretty good. I think there's a good buy-in by everybody. Coming into training camp, we talked as a camp about what our focus was going to be. When you look at the numbers from last year, the goals against and the quality chances against, it's not a tough sell. The players want to be responsible, they want to do a good job and they know that there can be some dramatic improvement on your hockey club if you really shut down on the defensive side of things. So, we want to get there and we want to do it right, and I like what I've seen so far on the defensive side.''

Here's what Murray had to say about the selection of Matt Greene as an alternate captain. Early in training camp, Jarret Stoll seemed to be the favorite to earn the second ``A,'' and while Stoll did nothing wrong, Greene impressed the Kings with his leadership potential both on and off the ice and, as Murray explains, the Kings thought it was important to recognize a player who represents the style of play they have been emphasizing...

Question: Can you talk about the decision to name Matt Greene an alternate captain?

MURRAY: ``The decision for the alternates, especially for Greener, it was a difficult decision because there are other people that fit in to what we were looking for. We made the decision to go with Greene, a younger guy, a guy whose role is pretty much (aligned) with the style of play that we're looking to hang our hat on right now. That's the defensive part of the game. He's a player that's going to play in the 5-on-5s and he's going to be a penalty killer. He's a defensive guy, he's a big-bodied guy that plays hard and gritty and I think, with that kind of an example, it's good for our young players on the team. Also, on the bench and in the locker room, he's a verbal player. He has good things to say and he's always encouraging the players, so just kind of putting the whole thing together during a short period of time in the training camp, that was the reason why we came to him.''

Here's what coach Terry Murray had to say about the return of Patrick O'Sullivan to the Kings...

Question: How does it feel to have Patrick here and the whole team intact?

MURRAY: ``Yeah, it's good to have everybody here, and everybody is healthy coming out of the training camp, with the exception of Zeiler with a pulled groin. So we're pleased that Sully got his deal done and that he's in camp. I spoke with him this morning before we got on the ice and he has been working out. It's a little difficult to get all the work done that's required when you're out there skating by yourself, but he's been going at it, probably four days of the week, and he feels pretty good. He looked pretty good in the first part of the practice and the skating is a little demanding at the end, so there's some catching up to do but it will come along.''

Question: How much do you know about O'Sullivan's game?

MURRAY: ``I'll be very honest. I don't know him as a player. I look at the stats, I listen to the other coaches and what they have to say. Obviously, everybody says really good things. He had a great finish to the season last year and put up some great numbers. We'll watch him closely. I'd sure like to get him into a game and get a look at him as soon as possible, so we'll see, over the next couple days, and have another conversation with him and make a decision for the weekend.''

Question: Is it realistic for Patrick to play this weekend?

MURRAY: ``It's probably realistic. Certainly, I will be looking toward that as we get through the next couple days of practice. Maybe not back to back, but one of the two (games). We'll have that conversation after another day or two of practice and see how he's feeling. If things are good and he feels like he's far enough along to at least get in and play some minutes -- it might not be all that he would like or normally would get -- then I'd get a start with him.''

Patrick O'Sullivan returned to the ice today, one day after he signed a three-year contract. He couldn't be missed out there, wearing a bright green jersey, and he made it through what seemed to be one of the Kings' more rigorous practices of the last month.

There will be quotes from Terry Murray later, but Murray indicated that it is ``realistic'' to think O'Sullivan could play this weekend, although possibly not in both games, as the Kings play both Saturday and Sunday. Here's what O'Sullivan had to say about his first day back with the Kings...

``It was the first day but I felt pretty good. My legs were burning a bit there at the end, but obviously while I was missing camp, I was making sure that I was training as hard as I could and skating as much as I could, because I realize that that's a big part of getting ready for the season and I missed out on that. But I put as much effort in as I could, every day, to try to be ready when I did show up, and I was surprised. I actually felt not bad today. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow.''

On whether he had been skating with any teams over the last month...

``Not really. I skated with some college guys and some pro guys that hadn't left for AHL camps yet, stuff like that. I also skated by myself a couple times. I was on the ice four or five times a week, which obviously isn't the same as being here with the team and NHL players. Certainly it will probably take a little time to get my timing back. That's the biggest part. I really tried to focus today on the news systems. I asked a lot of questions. So I'm going to take it a day at a time, try to take in as much as I can and just try to get better every day.''

As previously posted, goalie Erik Ersberg had a bit of an injury scare today. While going down to try to block a puck in the crease, Ersberg was struck on the knee by a puck. He stayed on the ice for a longer-than-comfortable period of time but completed practice, albeit with quite a bit of knee flexing. Afterward, Ersberg said he was fine and, with a smile, chalked it up to ``just something that goalies go through.''

Here's what Ersberg had to say about his training camp, and the fight for the second goalie position...

``I didn't start off good. I got sick there in the beginning and missed a couple days, two or three days. It took a couple days to get back into the physical part of it and get my health back. I'm usually kind of a slow starter at the beginning of the year, and this whole thing of having to battle for a spot was kind of new to me. But I'm really glad I made it. Obviously my goal was to take one of the two spots, so I was just working hard and trying to get as many games as I could.''

Here, Ersberg talks about the confidence he gained from his time with the Kings late last season...

``It gives you an extra bit of confidence, absolutely. Also, coming into the second year, you know lots of the guys and you know how everything works. It's easier, but still, you come here and there's eight goalies in camp, so you can't be sure of anything, but I was really hoping to get a spot and that was my goal, so I'm happy for that.''

Here's how the Kings skated today:

Moulson-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Stoll-Moller
Calder-Handzus-Simmonds
Ivanans-Armstrong-Richardson

Patrick O'Sullivan and Brian Boyle were the ``spare'' players today in the green jerseys, but these lines are likely to shift a bit when O'Sullivan is ready. It's more stable on defense:

Johnson-Greene
O'Donnell-Doughty
Gauthier-Preissing

Then Harrold is the extra. Of course, LaBarbera and Ersberg in goal. Cliche, Clune and Zeiler start the season on injured reserve.

Two notes about Dustin Brown becoming the new captain of the Kings. At 23, he's the youngest captain in team history, and he's also the first American-born captain in Kings history (Brown is a native of Ithaca, N.Y.). Mattias Norstrom is a native of Sweden and all the previous captains -- Bob Wall, Larry Cahan, Bob Pulford, Terry Harper, Mike Murphy, Dave Lewis, Terry Rushkowski, Dave Taylor, Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake -- were natives of Canada.

Here's what Brown had to say about the process of being selected captain...

``I had meetings during the summer with Terry about it, and he basically said he would make his decisions in training camp. He asked me if I was interested in it, and I told him at that time that I was. He made the decision, obviously, based on things in training camp.

``I've been here for five or six years now, and I think once I got comfortable here, over the last couple years, I could kind of come out of my shell a little bit and take on more of a leadership role. Last year, I tried to lead by example, game in and game out. All great leaders, I think that's the first and most important thing they do.''

And here's what Terry Murray said, in the press release, about his leadership decisions:

``Dustin has impressed me a great deal with his leadership. He comes to the rink each day prepared and his on-ice work shows a great deal of focus. He has total commitment to this team.

``Anze is a high-performance player, not only on this team but in our league. He shows great leadership through his effort and the way he plays the game. Matt is very vocal and he is energetic on the bench, on the ice and in the locker room. His tough, gritty work in the defensive zone is also a great example for all of our players.

``This was a difficult decision to make as we have a lot of quality candidates, but we, as an organization, are excited about the three players selected, and we believe they will help lead our club both now and in the future.''

Thanks to the lack of wireless connection in El Segundo, I wasn't able to provide a quick practice update, but here's the quick and dirty...

-- Patrick O'Sullivan participated in a full practice and there's a good chance he could play in at least one game this weekend. The lines did not change today, but we'll see what happens in a couple days.

-- The roster situation has essentially resolved itself, as John Zeiler tweaked his previously strained groin yesterday. He will still be out a while.

-- Erik Ersberg took a shot on the knee in practice and appeared to be in quite a bit of pain, but afterward said he was OK.

There are a ton of quotes for me to sift through today, from Brown, O'Sullivan, Kopitar, Ersberg, Johnson, Doughty and Terry Murray, so stay tuned.

It's Dustin Brown with the C (surprise!) and Anze Kopitar and Matt Greene with the A.

Dustin Brown will be announced as the Kings' new captain tomorrow morning. The Kings are doing a webcast of the announcement on their official website at 10 a.m. The alternate captains will also be announced. I'm still expecting them to be Anze Kopitar and Jarret Stoll, but that's not 100 percent confirmed.

Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan had to say about his new contract...

Just got off the phone after a quick interview with Patrick O'Sullivan, so I'll have quotes up shortly. For those who are interested in his frame of mind, he sounded very fired up to have the contract done and to get back on the ice tomorrow. He was at the airport, getting ready to fly to L.A.

Here's the rest of what Dean Lombardi had to say this afternoon about the signing of Patrick O'Sullivan. I put a call in to O'Sullivan this afternoon, but since he's traveling, I might not catch up with him until tomorrow morning. Here's what Lombardi had to say...

On the importance of getting this deal done...
``I think it's a relief because it makes your team better. That's always a help. Sully was the most urgent, in terms of where his status was, and obviously his age fits with this group. Stoll, his age fit with the group. We're going to continue pounding away on the other guys and staying with the plan, trying to keep these guys together. So it's not only looking at what it does for the team now, but fitting it into the whole. I'm as relieved about that as I am about getting him in. If you don't get him in right, then what good is it?''

On how it sets the table for future re-signings of Jack Johnson and Anze Kopitar...
``That's the problem. I'd like to think it does, but we've seen how the market has changed over the last three, four, five, six months. I think it works for us, but you're asking me if I can predict the market. There's an argument out there that with the economy, the cap might go the other way (down). It's kind of a moving target. I can't tell you what's going to happen. It's awful hard sometimes, because should be look at the economy? Should we look at revenues? Should be look at the value of the dollar? I don't know. Nobody can answer that question. Certainly you have a range that you can estimate within, but with any certainty, given the way this works? It's tough. It's made it, in a lot of ways, more difficult than what I experienced the first time I tried to put a group together. (Jeff Solomon) did a great job on this. It's a lot of work and we've been pounding away for a lot of days on this. He did a great job.''

On whether he's concerned about lingering bitterness, similar to the Cammalleri situation...
``(O'Sullivan) is here for three years, so that's the great thing. Any time you go through something like this, it's important for both sides to sit down and say, `OK, now we've got to be a team.' We will, I know we will, sit down and talk. It never got personal, for lack of a better term. The thing with Cammalleri went to another level in terms of some of the stuff, but I don't sense that here. I do think we will sit down, just to make sure. All the grinding that was done in the last couple days, that's where (Solomon's) experience really comes in, because he had more patience than I did. That's why it makes a good team.''

Here's the first part of what Dean Lombardi said about the signing of Patrick O'Sullivan, and the question on so many minds: what took so long?

``Part of the difficulty is that the market for young players is changing so rapidly. It's hard, because we don't know where we're going with it. This is one of the difficulties of doing contracts for young players right now, because it's all over the map. That's the first thing that can hold these up. Secondly, as I've said before, at this stage I just think terms are important, especially when you're far apart. Because of the CBA, we've lost a lot of creativity. In the past, you could get over these things by coming up with options or escalators or things. It takes away all the creativity to bridge gaps, so you're stuck with, OK, we've got to keep hammering away at this in a more confined area.

``We got to a point where we said, we're going to get this done and we're going to get it done right, so that it's a fair contract for him and also fits within our group that we're trying to put together. Both sides compromised. That's usually the case. It's not as much as he wanted and maybe higher than we wanted, and that's usually how contracts go.''

O'Sullivan is flying in from Denver tonight and is expected to be on the ice for practice tomorrow morning. Any decisions about when O'Sullivan will play, and on which line, will be made by Terry Murray, so we'll see what he says tomorrow.

I'll have more comments from Lombardi transcribed in a bit...

O'Sullivan will get $2.925 million over each of the next three seasons. The contract is front-loaded a bit and brings the Kings up to their $40-million cash budget. The contract takes O'Sullivan through the 2010-11 season and he would be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2012. I should have quotes from Dean Lombardi very soon.

It's a three-year contract. I'll have some quotes from Dean Lombardi soon, and hopefully the money figures as well.

It appears as though the Kings have reached agreement on a contract with Patrick O'Sullivan. I should have more information within the half hour.

According to the Kings' site, here's what it will be...

Forwards
7 -- Derek Armstrong
9 -- Oscar Moller
11 -- Anze Kopitar
15 -- Brad Richardson
17 -- Wayne Simmonds
19 -- Kyle Calder
22 -- Brian Boyle
23 -- Dustin Brown
24 -- Alexander Frolov
25 -- Matt Moulson
26 -- Michal Handzus
28 -- Jarret Stoll
41 -- Raitis Ivanans
56 -- Rich Clune *
67 -- Marc-Andre Cliche *
73 -- John Zeiler *

Defensemen
2 -- Matt Greene
3 -- Jack Johnson
5 -- Peter Harrold
6 -- Sean O'Donnell
8 -- Drew Doughty
21 -- Denis Gauthier Jr.
42 -- Tom Preissing

Goalies
31 -- Erik Ersberg
35 -- Jason LaBarbera

* - injured reserve

The NHL has released a video, which has been shown to players as well, detailing the rule changes for the 2008-09 season...

Former Kings winger Brian Willsie today got assigned to the Lake Erie Monsters, the AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche. Willsie signed a one-year, $600,000 contract with Colorado over the summer.

While there is still some tweaking to do among the Kings' lines, the defensive pairs appear to be set. Jack Johnson with Matt Greene, Drew Doughty with Sean O'Donnell and Tom Preissing with Denis Gauthier. Peter Harrold serves as the extra defenseman, at least at the start of the season.

In each case, Terry Murray sought to pair a puck-moving defenseman with a more physical presence. In Doughty's case, Murray and Dean Lombardi thought it was important to pair Doughty with a veteran. Thus the interest in Mathieu Schneider and several other defensemen during the offseason. The O'Donnell trade was an offshoot of the Schneider talks. Lombardi and Brian Burke couldn't reach agreement on Schneider, then turned to O'Donnell.

Will it work? Tough to say. The Kings have a new system under Murray, and none of these pairs has ever played together before. The Kings gave up at least three regulation goals in five of their eight preseason games. Will it work out better than last season?

Dean Lombardi had long one-on-one talks with Patrick O'Sullivan's agent yesterday that went well into the night. Lombardi left the office around 9 p.m. but said he expected talks to continue later. When the GM and agent are negotiating directly, that's a good sign, so today could be a crucial day in terms of getting O'Sullivan aboard before the start of the season.

The Kings' roster, as presently constructed, includes 22 players. Terry Murray said that, at the moment, he considers John Zeiler to be the 23rd player on the roster when Zeiler recovers from his groin strain. Of course, that could be subject to change if the Kings decide to make a roster move or should they sign Patrick O'Sullivan.

Terry Murray said his decision to keep Erik Ersberg over Jonathan Quick came down to Saturday's preseason game. Quick started and allowed four goals on 24 shots. Ersberg played the third period and stopped 9 of 10 shots against Phoenix. Here's what Murray had to say about the choice...

``The difference ended up being that game. It's hard to put it all on one game, but that's kind of where it was. It was based on the performances the other night. But the fact that Quick was here today, sitting here talking with us coaches, is a real compliment to him. I can't imagine that last year at this time, anyone in the organization would think he would be here this late in camp, pushing for this position. That's a compliment to him and he will continue working hard on his game. There's no question he will have a breakthrough in the NHL at some point.''

Terry Murray talks about the choice to have Matt Moulson play win alongside Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown...

``I liked what I saw there. You're right, I've been moving different people around there. Moller was there and I even had Ivanans there briefly and he did a good job. We've been looking and trying to put the person in there who might have chemistry with them. Moulson looks pretty good there right now. They had a lot of offensive-zone possession time, they cycled the puck well and they created great opportunities. I like what Moulson has done in training camp. He looked good in the games and he's been good in all situations.''

Murray talks about the second line...

``We'll look at Frolov, Stoll and Moller. Frolov is a premier player for the Kings. He has played a lot of left wing with the Kings and that's where I want to get him over in practice tomorrow. We have some days here, four days of practice before the first game. I think that line could be a very good line. Both Moller and Frolov are puck-possesion players. Stoll is a player who has a tremendous shot and I think the two wingers can find him and use him as an asset.''

On which winger might play with Michal Handzus and Wayne Simmonds...

``Richardson played there quite a bit and Calder has done a good job in the last couple games. I'm still bouncing that around. We're not firm on it yet. It would be one of those two at the beginning. We'll kind of let that play itself out in practice this week.

``The great thing is, with guys like Calder and Richardson and Armstrong, we have what you might call utility players, guys who can play in different places on lines. It's great to have that kind of flexibility when you do have a young team, young players. On any given day, one of those young players might be off his game and you can always make a change in the middle of the first period, if need be.''

Here's what Terry Murray had to say about the decision to keep both 19-year-old Oscar Moller and 20-year-old Wayne Simmonds on the NHL roster...

``What we're doing, coming out of camp, is keeping the players who did the best for us. We want players who can contribute and showed us they understand what we're trying to do and can execute the proper way. We made a decision, going back to the summer, that we were going to have some young players here and have a solid foundation and grow together. We're very surprised and very happy with how these young players performed in training camp.''

Murray talks about Simmonds' development...

``(Simmonds) progressed enough that he earned a spot on the team. He's been doing a good job and handling himself well, with composure and professionalism on and off the ice. One area you worry about is, are these young players physically mature enough to handle the load in the NHL? We evaluate them on talent and ability, and these guys are top performers in the junior ranks, but the physical play in the NHL is much more demanding. We're aware of that, but it certainly looked like Simmonds is ready to handle it.''

On the roles that Moller and Simmonds will play on the team...

``Whenever you have young players, it's important that they play and that they not get lost in lines that aren't taking on responsibilities. We're looking at Simmonds on the right side with Handzus. He's a veteran who can read off these young players. At the same time, Simmonds will complete Handzus' game because of his awareness. He showed his ability to read the play and handle the puck.

``We'll have Moller with Stoll right now. I really enjoyed watching (Moller) last night. After sitting out one game, he came back and showed a lot of creativity and imagination. The bottom line is, he earned the right to stay here. The luxury is, you have 10 games after season begins to take another look at that situation.''

On whether Moller is on a 10-game tryout, before a decision is made to return him to juniors or not...

``I wouldn't sit down and talk to him that way, but it's out there and everyone knows it. We just want him to relax and play the way he's been playing. He's been growing with this and doing a good job.''

According to Terry Murray, the Kings will start the season with a top line of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Matt Moulson. The second line will be centered by Jarret Stoll, with Alexander Frolov on left wing and Oscar Moller on right wing. Michal Handzus will center the third line, with Wayne Simmonds on the right and either Kyle Calder or Brad Richardson on the left. Murray isn't yet firm on his fourth-line rotation...

I just got off the phone with Terry Murray, who gave an update on all of the decisions he made today and the thoughts behind them. To start, here's what Murray had to say about two of the toughest cuts he had to make, Teddy Purcell and Kevin Westgarth...

``They're very difficult decisions. It's very tough to talk to hockey players about not making the club. It's probably the most difficult decision you can make. Getting down to the final roster number, I looked at it from the coaching point of view, and I tried to relay that to the players I talked to today. I tried to stress to them that it's a positive, because they're some of the last players here to talk to. The most important thing is that their attitude going down is correct, so that they can continue to work on their game. That's the attitude I tried to leave, for all the players to have.

``With some guys, like Purcell, I tried to be specific in things I saw and things I'd like to see a big focus on. Same with Westgarth. I thought he did a good job in his role. His role is a very difficult one. Not a lot of guys can do it, but what we need is for him to upgrade the playing part of his game, puck control and making good decisions with it in the neutral zone. Don't get too cute, just play straightforward and get it in deep. If he does that, coaches will trust him because we like to have players who can play that role.''

The Kings have made their final preseason cuts:

Assigned to Manchester (AHL):
Alec Martinez - D
Teddy Purcell - RW
Jonathan Quick - G
Kevin Westgarth - RW

Returned to Junior Team:
Thomas Hickey - D (WHL)

Placed on Injured Reserve list:
Marc-Andre Cliche (shoulder)
Rich Clune (chest)

That actually takes the roster down to 22, and the day's big winners are...Wayne Simmonds and Oscar Moller, who both stand to make the opening-night roster. The Kings haven't officially announced the season-opening roster, and probably won't until late Wednesday morning, but barring changes, this is it...

The Kings are going through their final meetings now and are expected to release their season-opening roster sometime in the next couple hours.

All-but-meaningless stat of the day: In six games, Dustin Brown recorded 33 shots on goal, the most of any NHL player in the preseason.

Completely-meaningless-but-fun stat of the day: Vladimir Dravecky tied for the NHL lead in shooting percentage during the preseason. He scored one goal...and took one shot. Who said the Kings couldn't achieve perfection?

Final roster cuts could come as soon as today, and there's only a little drama left in the situation. The Kings need to be down to 23 players on the active roster, which means four cuts need to be made. That's not including injured forward Marc-Andre Cliche, Richard Clune and John Zeiler. So here's a look at how things could go.

FORWARDS

The following are assured of roster spots: Dustin Brown, Kyle Calder, Alexander Frolov, Michal Handzus, Raitis Ivanans, Anze Kopitar and Jarret Stoll. Brad Richardson is a very good bet as well. That leaves seven players in contention for six spots, assuming the Kings choose to keep two spare forwards.

Derek Armstrong will stick around, because he's a veteran and because of his newfound versatility. Brian Boyle seems to have stuck as the fourth-line center. Due to the absence of Patrick O'Sullivan, Matt Moulson might end up as the first-line left wing. That takes it down to four players for three spots, and that's where it starts to get interesting.

Oscar Moller has been the surprise of training camp and it seems as though he has earned a spot. If nothing else, the Kings can keep him around for 10 games before they must decide whether to return him to his junior team. Kevin Westgarth is a physical presence who has already spent one year in Manchester, so he could fill a ``spare'' role and see some occasional time in the lineup. The Kings hoped Teddy Purcell would outright claim a regular spot, but Moller impressed them more.

Wayne Simmonds is another surprise player, but he will benefit more from time in the American Hockey League, so that's probably where he will end up.

DEFENSEMEN

Barring a surprise, this seems pretty set. Jack Johnson will pair with Matt Greene, Drew Doughty with Sean O'Donnell and Tom Preissing with Denis Gauthier. Peter Harrold is a natural to stick around as the long-term spare defenseman and should see some time in the lineup as well.

The only question is, do the Kings start the season with one or two spare defensemen? If it's two, it's likely that Thomas Hickey would stick around for 10 games before being returned to his junior team. That likely would mean an AHL start for either Purcell or Westgarth. If the Kings keep one spare defenseman, they could also keep Hickey around for the first couple weeks, then recall Harrold. It seems logical that Hickey will get a chance to wet his feet in the NHL at the start of the season.

GOALIES

Jason LaBarbera has already been designated as the opening-night goalie, but the Kings have been tight-lipped in regard to who his backup might be. Erik Ersberg and Jonathan Quick both had their moments in the preseason. All things being equal, Ersberg will probably get the nod. He fared well in his NHL tryout at the end of last season, but this could easily go either way. If the Kings feel Quick is making good progress, they might choose to give him the confidence boost that comes with being in the NHL.

Thoughts?

The Kings finish their preseason with a 3-2-3 record and will now look ahead to Saturday's season opener in San Jose. It's impossible to tell from the radio, but it seems that Nabokov played an exceptional game.

So, the next couple days should be very interesting. The Kings need to cut one goalie and three skaters, by my math, and it's even more confusing if you follow the theory that tonight's lineup might be the season-opening lineup. Tonight's healthy scratches were Purcell, Simmonds, Westgarth, Harrold, Hickey and Martinez, and with the exception of Harrold, none of those players are really considered ``extra'' players. They're young/inexperienced guys who either need to play in the NHL or get big minutes in the AHL/junior. So, we'll see. It could be that tonight's game was a final tryout for guys such as Moulson and Moller and, to some extent, Armstrong on the wing.

The defense is more stable, and you'll probably see Harrold staying as the ``extra'' defenseman. In goal? It's hard to say. Either Ersberg or Quick will stay around. If all things are equal, Ersberg will probably stay, but they've been pretty tight-lipped about this one. No indication tonight, as LaBarbera went the entire way.

There's no on-ice activity scheduled for tomorrow, but we'll see if any cuts are made...

San Jose 3, Kings 1

Seems as though the Kings didn't generate much offense in the period, although Alexander Frolov did have a shorthanded breakaway that got saved. The Sharks are outshooting the Kings 21-17 after two periods.

Yes, two goals, in the span of about one minute late in the second period. Brad Lukowich scored a 4-on-4 goal to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead, then Patrick Marleau scored a power-play goal 53 seconds later...

On a rush, Jarret Stoll drove to the net and flipped a backhand shot on net. Kyle Calder tipped it in to tie the game on an even-strength goal a couple minutes into the second period.

San Jose 1, Kings 0

The Kings had a power play at the end of the period but couldn't convert. One interesting note, the two point guys on the power play were Drew Doughty and Jarret Stoll.

That didn't take long... After a turnover in the Kings' zone, Joe Pavelski scored 54 seconds into the game to put San Jose up 1-0.

Interesting moves by Terry Murray tonight in the final perseason game. Michal Handzus will center a line with Brad Richardson and Alexander Frolov. Matt Moulson gets a turn up top with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown. Oscar Moller stays in the lineup, as does Derek Armstrong at wing. The defensive pairs, it seems, are fairly set, with Johnson-Greene, O'Donnell-Doughty and Preissing-Gauthier. Jason LaBarbera is expected to go the whole way in goal.

Moulson-Kopitar-Brown
Richardson-Handzus-Frolov
Moller-Stoll-Calder
Armstrong-Boyle-Ivanans

Seems as though the people have spoken, with 80 percent of you, so far, choosing Dustin Brown as captain over Anze Kopitar in a head-to-head choice. To be honest, that's how I would vote as well, and I've heard strong informal indications that when captains are announced this week, it will be Brown with the ``C'' and Kopitar and Jarret Stoll wearing the ``A.'' Of course, that's not official until Terry Murray declares it so, but that's the informal word.

I think it's the right choice. That's certainly not a knock on Kopitar, who is an exceedingly hard worker, a good communicator and a strong teammates. Brown just fills all those roles slightly better. The one knock on Brown, in his early years, was the fact that he could be very timid in the locker room. It's something that Brown acknowledges and something he has worked hard to improve. He has made tremendous strides in that area. In his rookie year, I'd try to talk to him, and while he was always polite and pleasant, he rarely had anything to say. Conversations were rare. Now, he's a clear team leader and a magnet for the media. He's more mature and not afraid to speak his mind, and having the ``C'' on his jersey would only reinforce for him the importance of being a leader. It's a role he could hold for a very, very long time.

Regardless, Kopitar will have an important leadership role on the team, and I think it's also important for a more-veteran player to have a formal leadership role. I thought, going in, it might be Derek Armstrong, but Stoll has earned rave reviews for his attitude and locker-room presence.

It seems that Murray is only going with two regular alternate captains, which is a shame because I think Jack Johnson deserves a look. Of all the Kings, he has the most natural leadership ability, at least in terms of a forceful personality, but he's younger and it's only nature that he's in line behind guys such as Brown and Kopitar.

Anyway, it's an interesting decision...

The final preseason game is getting underway soon, so I'll try to keep tabs here...

The Kings will soon announce their choices for captain and alternate captains, possibly as soon as Tuesday, I would think. Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar are the two names that seem to be coming up for captain, and the conventional wisdom is that Jarret Stoll will be an alternate. I have some thoughts on this, but I want to get yours first. Out of those two, who do you think would be a better captain? Feel free to comment also and explain your thoughts...

I also asked Anze Kopitar about the guys he and Dustin Brown have been paired with in the absence of Patrick O'Sullivan. For the most part, it's been either Oscar Moller or Teddy Purcell...

Question: What have you seen from these two guys?

KOPITAR: ``First of all, they're both really good players. They see the ice really good and they want to play hockey. That's the most important thing. They're not scared of making plays or anything. I'm sure they will be really good players in the future.''

Question: You made the roster as a young player a couple years ago. Do you have any particular advice for these guys?

KOPITAR: ``I think just to learn the game and see how things turn out. For me, coming here in my first year, I didn't really know what to expect, so you learn from other guys and away you go. You work hard every day and that's pretty much all you can control. Then everything else comes to you with hard work and dedication.''

As part of a quick interview I did with Anze Kopitar, here's what he had to say about his linemate, friend and former roommate, Patrick O'Sullivan...

Question: Do you guys feel the fact that he's not around, or do you just adjust to what you have?

KOPITAR: ``Oh yeah, I'd say we miss Patrick. I'm not saying that any of these guys are not as good as him, but it's just that we've played together for a year and a half and we have some chemistry going and we're really good friends. That's the most important thing, and it's tough to see him in this kind of situation and hopefully he will be back soon.''

Question: Have you talked to him at all? What are his thoughts?

KOPITAR: ``I've talked to him just a little bit. I know he's really frustrated, but that's how it turns out sometimes. Like I said, hopefully he will get back as soon as he can.''

In two non-surprising moves, the Kings assigned defensemen Davis Drewiske and Joe Piskula to Manchester. They also placed John Zeiler on injured reserve with a strained groin, which takes him out of the mix for the opening-night roster. That leaves the Kings with 27 players on the active roster (15 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies).

I fully understand that these things don't qualify as ``news,'' but I figured I should pass along, from time to time, the ``update'' on the Patrick O'Sullivan situation. There's no deal, obviously, but Dean Lombardi reports that the sides have been talking more frequently in recent days. He cautioned, at the same time, that it shouldn't lead people to assume that a deal is close. There has been one face-to-face meeting. O'Sullivan spoke with assistant GM Ron Hextall when the Kings were in Denver last month for the preseason game.

John Zeiler missed practice with a strained groin. I believe he's the only active injury situation, other than Marc-Andre Cliche and Richard Clune. No timetable on Zeiler's return although it certainly doesn't help his chances of making the team

The Kings changed things around a bit today with the lines. Here's how they skated...

Purcell-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Stoll-Moulson
Simmonds-Handzus-Richardson
Boyle-Armstrong-Ivanans
Calder-Moller-Westgarth

Not sure exactly what to make of it. Moller had been skating with the top guys of late and Purcell got a chance today. The Kings are definitely still taking a long look at Moller but they seem a little uncertain about whether he's better suited at center or wing.

The defense pairs were Johnson-Greene, O'Donnell-Doughty, Gauthier-Preissing, and frankly that's how I would expect them to look when the season starts. The other dedicated pairing was Harrold-Piskula. That's probably not great news for guys such as Thomas Hickey and Alec Martinez.

Cuts are expected later today...

I'm out at the last practice before the final two preseason road games, so there should be plenty of updates later about end-of-camp issues. The team is headed to Phoenix this afternoon.

The Kings have assigned defenseman Viatcheslav Voynov and center David Meckler to Manchester and returned goalie Martin Jones to his junior team in the Western Hockey League. But first...Jones got a three-year entry-level contract from the Kings. A great day for him, no doubt.

What do the others mean? Voynov impressed the Kings enough to earn a spot in the AHL, meaning they felt he didn't need to go to juniors. There had been some talk that the Kings might send Voynov to juniors, not necessarily because his game needed work but because it might be easier for him to culturally adjust that way. As for Meckler, he looked good in the rookie camp but I didn't hear a lot about him in the last couple weeks. That doesn't mean he wasn't doing well. It just means I hadn't heard his name come up.

It's not a Kings preseason game without overtime, right? Once again, the Kings got a point but fell short in overtime. Chris Pronger scored his second goal of the game, 3:04 into overtime, to win it. Erik Ersberg went the whole way for the Kings and made 27 saves.

Down in Anaheim, the Kings and Ducks are tied 2-2 after two periods. The Ducks are playing more of a NHL lineup -- Pronger, Niedermayer, Selanne, etc. -- while the Kings are a bit younger than last night. Pronger scored 59 seconds into the game for the only goal of the first period. Michal Handzus and Brian Boyle scored power-play goals in the second period to give the Kings a 2-1 lead and Chris Kunitz scored a power-play goal with 6:20 remaining to tie it. Erik Ersberg played the first two periods in goal and stopped 19 of 21 shots. J.S. Giguere has stopped 18 of 20.

The Kings have assigned forward Andrei Loktionov to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League. Windsor selected Loktionov in the CHL Draft. Windsor's general manager, former Kings forward Warren Rychel, said on the team's website, ``We are extremely pleased to add a player with Andrei's offensive ability to our lineup and we are also excited to have him suit up for us in our game against the Peterborough Petes tomorrow. Andrei participated in the Los Angeles Kings training camp in September and was assigned to us from the Kings today after the IIHF approved his transfer.''

After a few days of movement, I thought it might be helpful to list the remaining players on the Kings' training-camp roster.

FORWARDS (19): Derek Armstrong, Brian Boyle, Dustin Brown, Kyle Calder, Marc-Andre Cliche, Richard Clune, Alexander Frolov, Michal Handzus, Raitis Ivanans, Anze Kopitar, David Meckler, Oscar Moller, Matt Moulson, Teddy Purcell, Brad Richardson, Wayne Simmonds, Jarret Stoll, Kevin Westgarth, John Zeiler

DEFENSEMEN (12): Drew Doughty, Davis Drewiske, Denis Gauthier, Matt Greene, Peter Harrold, Thomas Hickey, Jack Johnson, Alec Martinez, Sean O'Donnell, Joe Piskula, Tom Preissing, Viatcheslav Voynov

GOALIES (4): Erik Ersberg, Martin Jones, Jason LaBarbera, Jonathan Quick

Remember that Clune and Cliche are out with long-term injuries.

(updated after Loktionov was assigned to juniors...)

After the trade, Sean O'Donnell received a text message from Todd Marchant, which he said caught him off guard. Marchant told him he enjoyed playing with him and wanted to stay in touch. Then he said he'd never forget that he was the one that passed him the Stanley Cup in 2007.

Matt Ellis has been claimed off waivers by Buffalo, reducing the Kings' training-camp roster to 35.

The Kings needed a veteran defenseman like Sean O'Donnell - who's 36 - to help the Kings crop of young defensemen. He believes the Kings are on the path to success.
``Obviously, Anaheim and L.A. maybe aren't in the exact same position. To anyone that will listen, I really think that in L.A. it's not a popular move with the fans, but I really think you have to take two steps backward to build a foundation to be good for a long time. I think (The Kings) have built themselves where it's going to be competitive for a long time. They have great young, players. Great, young defensemen.''

Hi. Jill Painter here. Just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be helping Rich Hammond bring you Kings news this season. I've helped out on the Kings beat before, so I look forward to it.

Sean O'Donnell really must have been shocked that he was traded from the Ducks to the Kings on Tuesday. In response to one question, he said he was shocked, then said that nothing shocked in the NHL.
``It was a bit of a shock,'' he said. ``I figured something had to happen with all you're hearing about the cap. Anaheim has some good, young defensemen coming in. Something had to give. I was a little bit surprised. I've been around long enough that nothing shocks me.''