Kopitar on shortcomings, O'Sullivan
It's been a fairly rough go for the Kings' top line so far this season. The left-wing spot has been inconsistent, Anze Kopitar has one goal in 10 games and Dustin Brown has three goals in 10 games. More production is expected from that line, something that Kopitar realizes. He also discusses the situation involving his good friend and former linemate, Patrick O'Sullivan...
Question: It's safe to say your line probably hasn't been producing the way you'd like to. Do you have any theories about why that is?
KOPITAR: ``I don't know. I'm sure if I knew, I'd do something about it. It seems like we can't get our line going, but if we work hard, I'm pretty sure that's going to come through. I think we had a pretty strong game (against Calgary) and we had a couple really good chances. Unfortunately, they didn't go in the net, but I think if we play hard, do the right things and stick to the system, I think the chances and the production is going to come through.''
Question: Are teams playing you guys differently this year, especially you and Brown?
KOPITAR: ``Yeah, we're facing checkers every night. It's Terry's philosophy too, I think, to put us out there against top lines too. We were playing against Iginla (on Saturday) pretty much all night. We've got to have that mindset, to go out there and work hard and I'm pretty sure the points and goals and chances are going to come.''
Question: It seems like O'Sullivan is getting moved around quite a bit. As someone who knows him and his game pretty well, what are you seeing there?
KOPITAR: ``I mean, he's a good player. I think he's a little frustrated right now because he's getting moved, and maybe all of us expected to play with each other from the get go, but that's obviously not the case. But we've got to deal with it and play without each other and just go for it.''
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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looking for a breakout game for these 3 vs. the Ducks... what better timing would that be? you know it's bound to happen any day now. Go Kings!
Ok, three muskateers! Time to pull the feathers out of your caps and actually do your job instead of worrying about "playing" together!
You can still "bro-down" after the game! Come on Kopi, please show us you deserved that "A", because right now, even this comment is pretty lame!
Frolov Kopi Brown
Sully Stoll Moller
And then play Simmonds every 5th shift. The rest of the forwards on this team are useless. Especially Handzus.
MasterAL99
Interesting...this morning Fro and Moller are skating with Stoll, and Calder is skating with Brownie and Kopi. Sully was in a red sweater so I guess that's, what, a scratch for tomorrow's game against Anaheim?
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If Sully misses camp, and he's a known quantity as far as skills, work ethic, and motivation are concerned, wouldn't a sensible coach want to play him more to make sure he's adopting the system and getting the opportunities to prove his value?
I was at the game against Calgary the other night, and I thought the Kings held their own on the whole. I didn't find that either team skated with much urgency, but the Kings less so than the Flames.
Today they were out there working really hard. Nice to see that.
Handzus is useless? LOL
he's been probably our 3rd or 4th best forward so far this year. it's kind of an indictment against the poor play of some of our top guys (Kopitar especially), but Handzus really has been good. I'd put Brown and maybe Frolov ahead of him right now. O'Sullivan was great out of the gates but he's definitely hit a rough spot the last few games (not sure the demotion to the 4th line really helps, we'll see). Kopitar has struggled, Stoll has been up and down... maybe Moller has actually been better than Handzus, but it's close. Calder, Army, Ivanans...you know what those guys do. Simmonds has had his moments and I certainly like him, but he hasn't been more effective than Handzus. Moulson has sucked (esp. given the role that was handed to him). So there. either #3 or #4.
Just for the record...that's the same way they skated yesterday as well. The red jersey typically indicates fourth line. The green jersey typically indicates players who are not in the lineup...
Well to me, best forwards are 1.Frolov 2. Handzus 3.Osully 4. Brown 5. Moller ,,,,.
"Just for the record" I think it's a little dramatic to use the words "former linemate" with regards to O'Sullivan and Kopitar. Teammate works just fine. These guys played on a line during the powerplay in the Calgary game, so "former" is a little bit of gasoline on the fire.
previous linemate?
ex- linemate?
once and future linemate?
sometimes linemate?
exiled linemate?
frustrated, non- linemate?
one, true linemate?
I think Rich means "former" in the sense of "occuring earlier in time."
oops - thanks for the correction Rich!! :-)
No problem. I appreciate you posting the update...
Some people need to realize that a players production point wise is not the only thing to look at when evaluating how "good" someone is.
Zus is NOT an offensive minded forward and NEVER will be. He is an extremely good two-way forward, meaning he is solid on both ends of the ice. Zus is more defensive minded but does have the skills to produce.
Sure, he is paid a lot of money(some think too much), but he is also an established veteran who has earned respect across the league with his solid play.
I've backed the Handzus signing from the beginning but am very disappointed in his hair style these days.
As far as Kopitar and Brown. They should be able to produce with whomever is the other winger. They are just slumping(or adjusting to having more attention focused on them) and will hopefully come around.
PS. It's amazing how bi-polar Kings fans are, but i guess that's the product of the team we follow. When the team is playing great Terry Murray is a genius. When they aren't, he's a moron, right?