FINAL: Kings 2, Oilers 1

I noticed late in the second period, and in some of the third period, that Calder was playing on the line with Kopitar and Brown, and that O'Sullivan was playing on.. well, I can't remember which line, but it wasn't the #1 line. Do you know any reason for this, Rich? Especially since the O'Sullivan-Kopitar pair each were 1-1=2 in the first two periods while on the same line?

Solid game again defensively. PLEASE someone explain to me what Calder is still doing on the top line. Both goals tonight were when Sully & Kopi were on the Ice. Caulder has 1 goal. I could score more with Brown and Kopi on my line. Even by accident he should have 3 or 4 goals by now. I though Labs was average tonight gave up way to many rebounds. The team bailed him out of this game, a better offensive team would have put some of those in the net.

Great win...no coincidence that we allow only one goal (even with Labs in net) with Gauthier sitting in a suit in the pressbox. Hurry up and get back Jack!

I don't know why anyone worries what line Sully plays on. He led all forwards in ice time tonight, scored and played a good defensive game as well. He seems to be able to play well with everyone...what a great problem to have!

And nice to see a solid win after the Calgary mess. Shows their heads are in the right place. Nice job boys!!!

Moller continues to impress me. He was on the ice with Kopi, on O'Sull's goal. If it wasn't for that kid, what's his name....Oh ya, Doughty, we'd be talking about Moller. What a solid year this young man is having.

I am glad that LaBarb made that last save. Could you imagine this site if that puck would have gone in. There would have been a public lynching. Finally, LaBarb had some luck on his side.

Good job Kings. Only one point out of a playoff spot right know. Can you believe that? Just wanted to say that out loud while I had the chance.

Glad Labs got the bounces tonight, but is there any doubt now after seeing him play tonight, that the Iceberg is clearly the number one goalie?

Labs was really shaky. There were so many moments when a better team would've buried the Kings tonight solely because of Labs that I just had to cringe.

However, the team played very well in front of him tonight.

O'Sullivan never really played on a line with Kopitar. He played with Kopitar at 4-on-4 and scored his goal (which was set up by a fantastic play by Kopitar driving to the net) and then a weird shift for a Sully-Kopi-Moller line. Sully was playing with Moller and Army for most of the night. He did see time on the top unit with Kopi/Brown despite not playing with them at full strength.

anthony will be happy to hear/see that Ivanans registered just 4 minutes on ice (and still managed a minor penalty against him, possibly could've been called for another). He also didn't see one shift in the third period. Gauthier finally sat in the press box for a game. I guess it takes his worst game of the year to make it happen, but it's no coincidence that we were better defensively without him. I'm not huge Harrold supporter, but he's a lot better than Gauthier.

Preissing was weak again. He made a few mistakes on the PP which is usually the only thing he's good at. Looking forward to getting Jack back...

Kopi had, imo, his best game of the year. The drive to the net to set up Sully's goal was fantastic and it's really the first time I can remember this year that he showed any confidence with the puck. Shot it from the top of the slot and then took two guys out of the play by forcing his way to the front of the net. Left Sully with a tap in. His goal was nice too; Sully sauced it out of the corner and Kopi batted it out of mid-air. Great play. Sully had his best game in a while too.

PLAY SULLY WITH KOPI ALL THE TIME,STOP MESSING WITH THE PP 1ST UNIT.

Terrific defensive game by the Kings, with only 12 shots against during the last two periods. I'm sure it was a really dull game to watch for any non-partisan fan, but this die-hard Kings fan just loved seeing our great defensive zone coverage.

Peter Harrold surprised me by playing very well tonight. Kopi's goal was a thing of beauty, picking the pass right out of the air. I think he's starting to get his timing back.

I kind of liked what I saw from Richardson tonight. He played less than nine minutes but showed enough to get rewarded with another start soon, in my opinion.

Bottom line, your top guys like Kopitar, O'Sully, Brown, Frolov, etc. should be able to play with anyone in any situation. If you people really believe that Kopitar and O'Sully can't play with anyone else, well that says a lot about the Kings young forwards and I don't mean that in a good way. Thank goodness I think you're wrong.

that's exactly what we were all looking tonight. They played a sound defensive game and were rewarded with a well deserved 2 pts. Not only was it great to see after the Calgary debacle, but it was also the perfect road win. Play sound in your own end and keep the crowd out out of it and capitalize on your opportunities.
There really wasn't much for Barbs to do tonight. The same as it has been for the most part when Ersberg has been in net. He came up big at the end..I think...It was hard to tell if any of those shots at the end were saves or not. Doesn't matter...nothing went in and we got 2 points in Edmonton.

Duckhunter,
you're right on about Moller. This kid is going to be a special player.
I can't see why this team shouldn't compete for a playoff spot this year.

Murray don't play Calder on the 1st line.Sully should be with Kopi especially on the PP.

Great game by Labs. He had a few clutch saves especially in the second on some of those power plays. It was good to see him take control of his chance to play.

Kopi and Sully were clutch even though they were on separate lines. I guess I can understand spreading your scoring around but I'd like to see one line scoring consistently before you break them up.

What has Calder done at all this season to earn this much time on the first line?

Ivanans needs to sit. Too many bad penalties and not that many heavyweights to play against.

Moller is going to be a stud.

Great game by Handzus again after a bad one the night before.

Lets not start counting our playoff spot yet...these guys are still over achieving and shouldn't really be in the playoffs this year...next year is the time.

nykingsfan- i'm not sure that Labs even knew he had the puck on that sprawling save at the end of the game. ersberg really needs to be the #1 guy for the time being. labs just looks too shaky.

Meg- i DO think it matters what line sully plays on. did you notice who he teamed up with on the king's two goals last night??? kopitar!!!! he should be playing with those guys on a regular basis. every time calder got the puck i couldn't help wishing it was sully out there instead. it seems fairly obvious that the top line should be left in tact. as much as i like what murray has done with this team, i don't understand this line juggling with sully.

oh well, at least they won.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!

I just want to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of you KINGS posters on here, Hope you have a great day and we should all be thankfull that we are will win more games then last year, Have a great day!!!

Marc Nathan on TERRY MURRAY: "It was so important for me to take O'Sullivan off the top line at even strength and replace him with Kyle Calder. Both have been waiting patiently for me to make this move. It had been three whole games since Patrick had been put back up on the top line, and although he scored goals in the first two games, in the last game I saw one thing that didn't sit well with me, so we put him with Army and Moller. Both had been waiting patiently for their chance to play with Patrick. Kyle has been waiting patiently after doing absolutely nothing with Zeus and whoever I spun the wheel of insanity to play with them, usually Simmonds, but Ivanans was waiting patiently for the chance to play with Richardson, who finally got back in the lineup , replacing Boyle, who hopefully now will be waiting patiently to get back in there, like Preissing, who replaced Gauthier, so that I could keep Harrold in the lineup because he had been waiting patiently after he had sat a few after the handful of games he played at right wing, when I called his work "Tremendous."

Nice win, and O'Sullivan managed a goal and an assist NOT being out there with his two new even strength linemates, and Calder managed to screw up at least two scoring chances with his new/old even strength linemates.

LaBarbera made what the HNIC announcers called a "tremendous" save, but I think they meant "tremendous" in the way Terry Murray called Peter Harrold's work at right wing, "tremendous" --- there was a 95% chance he had NO IDEA what the hell he was doing, and a 90% chance he would have kicked the puck into his own net with his skate, but a 10% chance the Gods would allow the puck to stay out of the net despite his incoherent out of position flailing about. The Gods were on LA's side. TREMENDOUS!

I'm waiting patiently for the next game.

Great game, and even better time at the redondo beach cafe. it was cool meeting jim fox and his soup was great. they gave away stuff and i won 4 tickets for saturdays game in section 208 and a FSN shirt. Place was packed and the waitresses were hot. GO KINGS!

I agree with Dan.
What kind of coach rewards a player (Calder) for doing nothing. And demotes another player (POS) for being a point per game producer.
What experience.

Geez, poor Terry Murray can't catch a break.

The team wins a hard-fought game and yet it is not enough for Marc Nathan, who was last seen crying like a baby as the Ducks were lifting the Cup. Marc is after all, "a Southern California hockey fan and not just a Kings fan." But just as he can rip Calder's efforts, Marc can tell you all of the lines the Kings have rolled out since 1967.

Hey Marc, get over the "tremendous" quote and get over yourself.

This team is playing "tremendous" defensive style hockey and certainly at times will have a horrible effort (see Tuesday at Calgary). What coach do you want for this team?

Or is it his inability to craft a quote that you find suitable that really bothers you?

I would think that someone who has been a fan for so long could live with the odd quote every once in a while and see that the team is getting results due in large part to a coach who actually has a system that the players are buying in to.

As for the "wheel of insanity;" I'm wondering if you would prefer a Mark Crawford approach, perhaps a stick-chucking Tommy Webster style, you know, the years of alienating players while also shuffling lines?

Nah, I think you'd rather sit back and be happy with the results, and criticize Murray when the Kings lose and assume it was pure luck when they win.

What a great fan.

I'm amazed at how Labs can flail around so much..

Marc

In regards to the tremendous save that Labs made. Initially they said it was a tremendous save but when they saw the replay they did mention that Gagner hit the side of the net before it ended up under Labs. Good play by the D to tuck it under his pad. Regardless the fact is that it stayed out of the net and the Kings won the game.

And as far as POS managing the goal and the assist, I thought on both plays he was on the line with Kopi or am I wrong? I could go on about the fact that if not for Kopi's play on both goals POS would not have any points but who cares...the KINGS WON!!!

Hey "anonymous," last night was pure luck on a number of levels, but it was still a nice win considering the pasting they were given the night before.

What makes you think Terry Murray isn't "alienating players" ala Tommy Webster and Mark Crawford? You think all is rosy for this .500 hockey team?

I'm more than satisfied with the group effort, and I'm still reasonably certain this team ends up 14th or 15th in the Conference come April (hey, that's an upgrade... I was 100% certain it would be 15th at the start of the season...) and I'm now convinced that this "top 6" group of defensemen (with or without Harrold and/or Gauthier) is a quantum leap over "Modry is our best defenseman" group from last season.

I am a great fan... of the game. I'm a financial supporter of the Kings, and I'm a pretty good judge of talent, and I'm satisfied with my comment from earlier in the morning, even if you are not... the coach, however well he has taught "team defense," is a trainwreck when it comes to his public statements regarding lineup changes. I'm waiting patiently for his next set of cliches.

Went to the Redondo Beach Cafe. A great place for hockey and Montreal style smoke meat. It was pleasant to be in a setting where you didn't to need to ask to watch hockey instead of that other competing "sport", poker

I am amazed that people say Murray is a stabalizing effect on the team ,yet he panics with the line combinations after a loss.A win against Edmonton with just 2 goals for is nothing to write home about either. There is areason the better NHL teams have set lines--they score and win more games.If the Kings are ever to rise above their mixed results they have now,it is imperative to solidify the top 6 and play them accordingly in a scoring capacity.Just as important is to identify your 3rd and 4th liners and also play them as to not hurt the teams odds of winning.That means not over playing defensively weak players that take in opportune penalties as well.This means playing your skilled scores every PP.Tell me why it is so hard that Murray fails to see this and do it?

I've never been so thrilled by a boring hockey game.

It's hilarious that nearly every time during the play I thought "Wow, Labs made a great save!", they would show a replay and that thought instantly changed to "Wow, Labs got lucky!"

That was an incredible defensive effort, and it was great hearing Parm talk some good about our team. Kopi was on top of his game every shift!

Kyle Calder is useless!

Richardson needs to play with some halfway decent linemates.

Sully's game is getting smarter. Whatever TM has been doing to him mentally with all the line juggling has worked. Sully is playing better defense, not making dumb plays, passing when he should and deking when he should. I loved the one shift of Sully-Kopi-Moller!

Why not try -

Sully-Kopi-Moller
Frolov-Stoll-Brown
Army-Handsuz-Simmonds
Calder-Richardson-Boyle

I was also pleasantly surprised that the pairing of Harrold/Preissing wasn't a huge defensive liability, Harrold had a really solid showing.

Greene had one of his best games, that man is a warrior, a more vocal Norstrom in the making!

Here's hoping Ersberg is in net against the Hawks... I cringe at the thought of Kane-Toews flying across the blueline at Labs.

Battle of the young teams, looking forward to it!

Great event last night in redondo! We should do somthing like that again.... I even won tix for sat nights game!...... Great win, and great to know we have some dedicated fans

4thlinechecker,

Note that Saturday's game starts at 1PM, not at night as mentioned in your post.

With some of the comments in here, you would think they lost!

People...it does not matter what line O'Sullivan skates with. It does not matter who skates with Kopitar, ect.

Why? Great players make those around them better. If Kopitar is the God we all make him out to be, he doesn't need O'Sullivan to score, to be the player he is. If O'Sullivan is the player we make him out to be, THEN YOU MUST PLACE HIM ELSWHERE, to spread around the scoring.

Here's a scenario for you. Your defending the Kings, and you effectively shut down the O'Sullivan/Kopitar/Brown line. That is the line everyone wants, right?

Okay...so they have been shut down. Okay...who scores now? If you don't spread around the scoring potential, your screwed.

Now, as for Calder, why is he playing here he is playing? Unless you put O'Sullivan there, Murray has nobody else to put there.

Now...with O'Sullivan playing on other lines, what is the Kings record? What is their record with him playing with Kopitar? I'm going to venture a guess here, and say the Kings are over .500 when he is elsewhere, and under .500 when he skates on the "1st" line.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather win than see O'Sullivan skate with Kopitar ever again!

I can't believe the negative comments after a win. What is wrong with some of you people?
I'll leave the line juggling to the experts (coaching staff) they know more of what's going on than all of us combined.

Marc Nathan...Since you're Nostradamus and you know exactly where the Kigns will finish, how about a tip for the 5th at Aqueduct?
I'm trying to figure out how you can say the Kings will finish 14th or 15th based on their play? They are playing a sound defensive system..limiting the oppositions chances. That means that they'll be in most games, with a chance to win them.
Whatever...there are always going to be haters...no matter what.

Anthony...Sully was demoted?????? When you're demoted, doesn't that usually mean your ice time is curtailed? He sure seemed to be out there an awful lot..especially for someone who you think has been demoted. This is not pee wee hockey where the lines are stacked with the best on the 1st line and so on... This is the NHL where you are trying to develop balanced scoring from all of your lines.

nykingfan

I wasn't sure about the demoted part either because he played the most minutes of any forward in that Edmonton game. And he was on the line with Kopi for both of the goals so i'm not sure where that came from.

I also found it funny to that so many negatives could come out of a win. Labs was lucky....who cares? POS didn't skate on the top line all night....who cares? We got the two points didn't we? Isn't that the main goal...to win games?

nykingfan,
Your argument is well taken.
But answer this.
Why is POS being replaced with Calder.
What has he accomplished to earn a spot on the #1 line. ZERO
Against the Oilers he was open in front of the net twice - and lost the puck.
POS was open in front of the net once - and buried it.

Why not put Frolov, Moller, or even Handzus and Simmonds on that line. Instead of a zero like Calder.
Last 2 years I thought Wilsie was the worse pickup. I was wrong. Its now Kyle Calder. He's completely hurting Kopi and Brown.
Do I make a point.

Anthony,

I really don't know why TM has Calder playing with Kop and Brownie. I'm not a huge fan of Calder and I'm also tired of seeing him miss golden opportunities in front of the net..BUT
We all look at things through the eyes of a fan...not as a coach. That's a huge difference. A coach or coaches see things that we will never see..not only in games, but in practice as well.
I can't agree that he's hurting Kopitar and Brown though. I though Kopitar had his best game of the year against Emonton. He played with Calder and with Sully. He was great playing with both wingers. Brown and Kopitar have enough talent between the two that they could have me on their wing and still score plenty.

I also have to agree with JDM that I loved the shift with Kopitar/Sully/Moller. I think the Kings are slowly getting to the point that they can interchange a lot of players from line to line and still get good production from them.
We're still only in the 1st quarter of the season. We need to give TM time to figure out what's best for the team as far as personnel and line combinations. While he's figuring it all out, we're playing .500 hockey. That's better than any of us thought going into the season.
PATIENCE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nykingsfan,
I agree. If the team can interchange players from line to line effectively, they will be dangerous to play agaist.
You make a good point.
Just keep Calder, Ivanans, and Gauthier out of my face!
Or else.

lol...or else.

After all the garbage Anthony brings a good laugh. Good stuff man.

I have nothing to say, but I do have a question. Why is there a pretty powder blue design next to my name, and a few others? Are we getting presents for Christmas, or are we on the ban list for next year.

I meant the banned list. Good thing nobody grades grammar on this site or I would be in a world of hurt.