A stat that could be more encouraging

wow, I've followed the Kings since 88 and thought I remembered all the players from that time, but I dont recognize either name at all. Boy, Duncanson would have scored 10 goals over a season. With those stats he would be on our 3rd line.

Ah... memories... the 1985 draft, when the Kings had the 9th and 10th picks and took Duncanson and Dan Gratton, who were both huge busts. Granted, the first round also included guys that didn't pan out for Montreal (12th - Jose Charbonneau), Quebec (15th - David Latta), Calgary (17th - Chris Biotti), Winnipeg (18th - Ryan Stewart), Edmonton (20th - Scott Metcalfe) and Philadelphia (21st - Glen Seabrooke) --- but the Kings didn't stop there, taking Par Edlund with their 2nd round pick (30th overall) --- By the time they had taken Edlund, they had passed on a few 1000 NHL gamers: Dave Manson (11th), Calle Johansson (14th) and JOE NIEUWENDYK (27th) --- Eric Weinrich went 32nd.

ryan oliver - Duncanson was a 9th overall pick.

The Kings had two top-ten draft picks in 1985 and wound up selecting Craig Duncanson and Danny Gratton ninth and tenth overall, respectively. Duncanson played 38 games in the NHL, while Gratton played nine.

That's ancient history by now, but it is something to keep in mind when people claim that the Kings have never tried to build through the draft. The Kings have had their share of high draft picks, but wound up squandering them on poor selections like Duncanson, Gratton, Doug Smith, Aki Berg, Jamie Storr, etc. We seem to do much better when picking in the middle of the first round. (Drew Doughty being the very notable exception).

For as much as we all love Rogie Vachon. History shows us that he wasn't much of a GM.

Slightly better than "The Disaster" Sam McMaster

Wish we had OLD number 20 as the GM in the 80's instead..

Uh, JonG ---

There were 21 teams in the league in 1985. You can't get more "middle of the first round" than 9th and 10th. LOL.

NHL Hits of the week
# 7 Gauthier
# 3 Brown

http://kings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?type=fvod&id=23235&catid=5

Rich-

Thanks for doing that little bit of research! Just out of curiosity, when were the other times, how many times has this actually happened in franchise history? Did it happen more often in the 60s and 70s for it to be 'several'?

Marc - you're right, of course.

Anonymous - Rogie kind of made up for it by drafting a Norris Trophy winner in the 4th round (I think) - Rob Blake, and finding gems like Zhitnik and R. Lang in later rounds. Sydor did well, too, even if he never fulfilled his potential with LA. Throw in Jimmy Carson, Rem Murray, Martin Gelinas, and - was he the GM at the 84 draft? - Luc Robitaille and it looks ok.

Brown's hit #3? East Coast Bias.

Oh yeah, Anonymous, take a peek...

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00006664.html

Gauthier's was great. As has been his play.

There are too many hitters leaving their feet. Ovechkin seems to be always off the ice when he steps in. The NHL needs to review these hits and start penalizing if the hitter isn't in contact with the ice when he makes the hit. That's why Brown's should be No. 1. Open ice, skates on the ice, not only is it a great hit, it was great tactically and almost created an offensive zone turnover. I would imagine Pahlsson would give Brown the No. 1 hit of the week, too.

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrsssssssss

predictions for the lines friday night?

Gauthier is a -5, and although Preissing is the whipping boy, I think Murray knows his limitations as well. He's the first one gone out of this bunch as far as I'm concerned. He may hit like a rock, but he skates like one too.

Ah, if only Danny Gratton didn't show up to training camp fat and out of shape. What a wasted talent! He wound up going to England to play and was telling everybody that he was teammates with Gretzky.

Was Sylvain Coutourier in that same draft?

wow, 9th overall!! Granted I was 7 years old in 88, but still never heard of him.

Marc Nathan mentioned Scott Metcalfe...
Growing up in Rochester, NY, and going to Amerks games (AHL), I can say that I'm glad Scotty didn't work out for Edmonton. He was one helluva player in the AHL, and a stalwart for us for more than a few years. He was a real classy guy off the ice, and a fan favorite on it. Check out these stats:
Games Played: 449 (6th in team history)
Points: 349 (8th in team history)
Goals: 137 (10th in team history)
Assists: 211 (8th in team history)
PIM: 1,424 (1st in team history)

One of our all-time top scorers, and *the* all-time penalty minute leader: What a guy!

Thanks for the reminder!
Pete

Off topic, but you have until 11 pm PDT tonight to vote in the LA Times poll for Bob Miller as one of the best sportscasters.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/sportscaster_poll/index.html

Pete,

Another Amerks fan! I lived in Rochester for a couple of years in the late '80s, and I went to many Amerks games. John Van Boxmeer was the coach, and they had some pretty good players too.

Some of the guys I remember from the 87/88 and 88/89 seasons were:

Jody Gage
Ken Priestlay
Mike Donnelly (yes, that Mike Donnelly)
Benoit Hogue
Mark Ferner
Jim Hofford
Richie Dunn
Jeff Parker
Darcey Wakaluk
Darren Puppa (I think he was on a rehab stint)
Scot Metcalfe

They had a couple of tough guys who played quite a bit in the NHL, but I can't recall their names right now.

that benoit hogue? or the other one? JK.

Ha Ha. Another former Rochester resident and Amerks fan here. I was there 91-94 and then again 1999-04 and I remember many of those guys. I remeber melrose too, the year he took adirondack to the calder. Anyways, I know a few of those guys at least stuck around cus i played against them in some of the adult leagues when i was there. I know many people don't think much of the AHL, but damn are those guys good.

Palin to drop puck Friday vs. Kings

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Ar1gqu8LiYJ6ccml15uaTU17vLYF?slug=ap-blues-palin&prov=ap&type=lgns

-J,

Did you play out at Lakeshore Arena? That was an interesting experience for me, going into an ice rink to get warm.

The Amerks still have one of the best logos in sports. It's a shame they're no longer affiliated with the Sabres.

Nick Nickson grew up in Rochester too.

#3 hit? total crap... agree on the east-coast bias. not to mention #1-2 were each a borderline charge.

Brown leads the league in hits annually and barely gets any recognition from the NHL, as usual. it was a rare feat of amazing skill and ultra-clean hit. the others were hard but as much luck as they were skill

I played a few times at lakeshore in highschool, and over at thomas creek. Later, I played over at ESL and played floor and roller hockey over at the now defunct All Star Sports Arena in Irondequoit- Randy Cunneyworth (at that time the Amerks coached) played in the floor hockey league there and occasionally would bring out some of the young Amerks. I heard from my teammates that Derek Roy came out when he was on the Amerks, but i wasn't playing for some reason then.

I don't miss the winters there, that's for sure. It's much nicer heading to the rink in shorts and T-shirt.

I don't get why Buffalo dropped the affiliation, but i guess it came down to $$. Back in the 90's, I caught a game between the Panthers and team USA at the War Memorial- it seemed quite random then but maybe there is some link between the Panthers and Rochester.

Cristobal - there was only one, and there will never be another, Benoit Hogue.

Seriously, Benoit Hogue, Mike Donnelly and Ken Priestlay were all speed demons and they played on the same line for the Amerks. I always thought Priestlay was the best of the bunch, but the other two actually spent a fair bit of time in the NHL. Mike Donnelly, of course, was on the Kings '93 Cup Final team.

Oh yeah, Keith Gretzky players for the Amerks too.

Interesting that someone should say Rogie wasn't much of a GM, he was only part of the biggest trade in hockey history, you know that Gretzky guy. He had a bit of a hand in building the only Kings team that went to the Stanley Cup final and only Kings team that won a divison, he might not be Ken Holland, but comparing him to Sam McMaster is so off you should retract that comment.

JonG - Benoit was a great player.

Jon, J--
Funny to find fellow Rochesterians out here! I moved out here at the beginning of the summer, it's nice to find some other like-minded hockey fans out here.

I remember mostly players from the 90s, guys like:
Ollie Kolzig!!, David Littman, Martin Biron, Pete Civaglia (I attended the Jody Gage Hockey school with Pete Civaglia one year and Peter Ambroziak the next), Darcey Walkaluk (remember when he scored a goal?), Matthew Barnaby!!!, Philippe Boucher, Steve Shields, Craig Charron, Curtis Brown, Jay McKee...

The list goes on...

I grew up in Lakeshore on the weekends when I was a kid, and I played high school hockey at Gates Chili.

The Amerks dropped Buffalo (well, they dropped the Amerks) last year because the current owner, Steve Donner, owes a ton of money to them, and everyone else. At one point, he was $4million in the hole on the ESL Sports Centre too. So we picked up Florida.

I am a big Brad Richardson fan, I watched him when he played for the Quinte AAA Bantams in Belleville Ont. I also drove him and a few others including my son to Ontario Golf Association tournaments. As I am now in Manitoba I don't get a chance to watch to many Kings games. I see Brad has played in 2 regular season games and the last game TOI was less than 7 minutes. Why is that? He is an excellent faceoff man and is a proven goal scorer and setup man. He has the speed and the intensity to be getting a lot more ice time than he is. Is on the bubble to get sent back to the AHL? What's the story?

DellaNooch said:
Interesting that someone should say Rogie wasn't much of a GM, he was only part of the biggest trade in hockey history, you know that Gretzky guy.

You can't honestly think that Rogie Vachon had anything to do with that trade, right?

That was 100% Bruce McNall.

I thought I remember reading near the end of the last season that Donnelly is somewhere in the Kings organization ... scout or assistant coach somewhere maybe?

SAPPER1: it seems like Richardson is still finding his line and where he fits with the Kings. it's so early in the season still.

the Kings may send a youngster or two back to juniors after the usual 9 game routine or demote them to Manchester for more seasoning ala Purcell. I would expect Richardson to see around 9-10 minutes a game or so going forward assuming he's not scratched. I think Murray is still looking for something impressive from him, but he seems like a solid 2-way player and certainly better than Zeiler et al.

DellaNooch & Anonymous,

With respect, I stick by my previous post. With one addition.

JANET JONES was "THE ULTIMATE DECIDER" in the Great One coming to LALA land.

I can't belive the amount former upstate new yorkers on here! If y'all lived in rochester then you will know canandaigua. that's where I'm from, and i'll never go back. I enjoy playing golf in january in my shorts to much.

Glad to see that Kings fans come from all over!

Lou-
I went to Keuka College for undergrad, I know the area well!

JonJ, PETE,-J, and Lou, that's some pretty cool stuff. Reading you guys going back and forth about the old days, got me thinking about mine. I just called up some of my playing day buddies and we're all getting together this weekend to have some fun. I kid you not, you all motivated me to get in contact with some old friends, Thank you.

Sorry JonG about the spelling above.

Pete,

I remember the Darcey Wakaluk goal very well. In fact, I was listening to the game when it happened. It was the first goal by a professional goalie in many years, perhaps just the second one ever. Unfortunately Ron Hextall scored his first NHL goal a couple of weeks later, so Darcey's moment in the sun didn't last too long.

Earlier today I remembered that Rob Ray played for the Amerks when I was there. (At least I think he did -- my memory is really bad).

Duckhunter, I'm glad this reminiscing inspired you to look up old friends.

JonG
Are there any bars that people go to to catch Kings games? I'd like to meet up with some people and catch a game or something (I can't afford actual tickets!). Does anything like that ever get set up on here?

Pete,

That's a good question for the whole group. I live down in Orange County and I'm assuming that most of the local fans live up in LA. I would definitely be up for catching some games at a nearby watering hole, at least on weekends. It's tough during the week because I have two school-age kids and homework comes before hockey. (I often miss large portions of the weeknight games as a result).