• Brian

    About time.

  • anthony

    He deserves it.
    I hope they put him on the top line and involve him in offensive situations.
    No use putting him on the 4th line with a bunch of scrubs (as they did with Bolye), that won’t accomplish anything.
    Its hard to produce offensively when you’re put in that situation.

  • JS

    How about putting him on the 1st line and moving Calder down to the 4th to replace Army???? Then, how many people actually think this will happen????

  • Ersberg

    Nice. Now, to modify their system with an added offensive-hybrid twist. And if TM insists on playing Lababs, get him good and pissed off before each start.

  • Cricket

    Given that Murray already said the team didn’t have an ideal winger for the first line, maybe Purcell will at least get a nod. I find it hard to believe that he would put the top scorer on the Monarchs on the 4th line, but stranger combos have been thrown together so far, I guess you could say. I’m excited to at least see what he brings, hopefully he’s hungry enough by now.

  • Irish Pat

    Good. It’s about time.

    JS,

    They shouldn’t move Calder to the 4th line, they should waive/trade him. If they move him to the 4th line Murray will just plug him on to the 1st line after the Kings next loss anyway. They need to get rid of him. I don’t mean for this to sound like a personal attack on Calder as I’m sure he’s a great guy (what else can explain TM’s fascination with him), but his tenure with the Kings needs to end. Like right now.

  • Quisp

    Goody. Well, he’s got to try Purcell with Kopitar and Brown. (I don’t think Murray is going to bust up those two yet, though I think it’s a good idea; and I’m not knocking those two; I just think it would help them.)

    Purcell/Kopitar/Brown
    Frolov/Handzus/Moller
    POS/Stoll/Simmonds
    Zeiler/Calder/2x shift Brown-POS

    or, how about…
    2nd and 4th same as above, but then:
    POS/Kopitar/Purcell
    Simmonds/Stoll/Brown

    I still say Trevor Lewis. But there’s still 14 shopping days till Xmas.

  • anthony

    Irish Pat,

    Amen to what you said about Calder. Especially your comment about TM plugging him back on the top line first chance he gets.
    Calder needs to go away yesterday.

    I’d like to add more, but I’m afraid to get deleted.
    So i’ll stop here.

  • Irish Pat

    anthony,

    It’s funny how little resistance our fellow commentors have shelled out defending Calder. Normally when a strong opinion is voiced on here people defend the other side of the fence in a heartbeat (as they should, by the way). Again, I hate to sound like I’m ragging on Calder, but if you’re going to play the kids- PLAY THE KIDS!! Why this young team is taking its lumps with Calder riding shotgun with Kopi and Brown is baffling. Alright, I’m done. I’m just passionate about the direction of my hockey club. If I’ve offended anyone that wasn’t my intention.

  • EAT THE RICH

    Irish/Anthony – I barely noticed Calder in the game last night, to say nothing of O’Donnell, but I’ll take a shot at defending him.

    In game 1 against San Jose I wondered, “what’s with this guy?” I didn’t catch every game last season due to an new obsession with the best sports league on the planet (the EPL), but I think he’s been OK since Murray put him back in the lineup. I don’t know why he’s on the first line as it’s, IMO, making Murray look bad, but if he’d create this ‘grind line’ I and a few others are hoping (Calder/Stoll/Simmonds) Calder’s more than capable of being an asset to the club.
    Like I said, the first game against San Jose was a bad one for Kyle, but he’s shown a willingness to skate hard and he does have a modicum of skill that would work well on a grind line.
    Detroit saw him as worthy of acquisition and I think despite how poorly the team is playing right now, there’s something there, it’s just putting him in the correct position to bring it out.
    Hopefully we’ll see that grind line tomorrow with the injuries and flu kinda forcing Murray’s hand.

    Other than that, I don’t know why we’re not going with the Kids if this is a rebuild; or why TM makes a point of embarrassing players for small mistakes but not seeing that the overall picture is suffering. I was never sold on Murray and he’s not doing much lately to keep me on the fence. It’s up to him to make the most out of this lineup and so far I think it’s been a downhill ride.
    Good Day, Sirs.

  • vicarious

    just to take the other side, Calder has played better lately.

    I think Calder does play hard, which I think should be valued before bashing any player too much. The NHL compete level sets a pretty high bar for atheletes.

    It may also be Calder is handling other responsibilities which are hard to discern, such as screening the goalie. While that may not receive a point, it often leads to a score.

    Also in Calder’s favor is how Murray treats him. With all Murray’s coaching experience, he should (probably does) have some reasoning as to what he is doing with Calder. Not to say the decisions worked out well, just to say maybe they were reasonable choices–like a desire to balance scoring out the lines; desire to see which combinations work; a hope Calder can play back to his earlier scoring levels if paired with Brown and Kopitar, etc.

    Also, it seems like Murray wants to see people play himself, whereas fans have seen the players for a few years and have a different viewpoint.

    The team needs veteran players and Calder is a stronger player at this point then Army. So Calder plays ahead of him. We’ve two rookies in the forwards.

    Strange that Calder has not built up from his early career numbers. Last year Calder was injured. Harder to make excuses for him this year. Wldn’t be surprised to see him traded to free up space for a rookie, especially towards the end of the year.

  • Anonymous

    Huzzah for Purcell!

    Hopefully he can make more of an impact this time around than he did during last years call-up. How awesome would it be for him to take ownership of whatever role he is given and stay here for the duration of the season? He’s got such an interesting style, I just hope he plays all 6’3″ of his frame.

    I agree with you though EAT THE RICH (just figured out who you REALLY are! Promotion and relegation… ;) …btw, nice Motorhead reference)
    Calder does have a place on this team and could be used well. He just shouldn’t be in any sort of a scoring role. I bet he’d score more on a grind line than he ever could or will with Kopitar and Brown. Calder is a workhouse and every team needs those. Hell, Kopi and Brown are minus players, while Calder is a plus 1 playing most of the season on the same line, don’t know what that means, but something. Kopi and Brown need a game apart from each other. I’m hopeing for tomorrow’s line-up to look like this -

    Frolov-Kopitar-Moller
    Sully-Stoll-Brown
    Purcell-Handzus-Simmonds
    Calder-Richardson (assuming he’s healthy enough)-Zeiler

    If Richardson can’t play then –

    Frolov-Kopitar-Brown
    Sully-Moller-Simmonds
    Calder-Handzus-Purcell
    Harrold-Stoll-Zeiler

    Tomorrow night is big. The Kings have responded well to these few but horrible blow-outs so far, it is very important to follow last nights crushing effort with a big win. You just know Ersberg is ready to shake off his last start and dominate. Crossing my fingers…

  • GoKings09

    Quisp,

    I like your lines just I would swap Calder and Simmonds. I like Calder a little more than Simmonds with POS and Stoll on that 3rd line. And for those calling to dump him, its not Calder’s fault that he isn’t an elite winger and probably shouldn’t be on the first line. He’s played well and does his job of doing the dirty work. We shouldn’t release him as he is a good member of the team. People calling for the release of all these players don’t know what they are talking about(with the exception of possibly Zeiler(although I like the effort he gives) and Ivannas if we get another enforcer since it is useful to have but not dress him every game) and should leave those kinds of decisions to DL.

    P.S. that was cool parentheses inside of parentheses. ok im done now

  • EAT THE RICH

    Huzzah(mr. anonymous) – sorry to disappoint but my name is a pun on someone’s name (hint – it’s a name on this page) more than an honest social statement or homage to Motorhead. I was always partial to Ace of Spades like most people, though. Not many have gotten the pun, however, so I guess it wasn’t all that witty.
    Oh well.

    Good Day, Sir. <— that’s my new thing.

  • JDM

    Mr anonymous would be me, forgot to sign in for that post.

    And a good day to you! And hopefully an even better day for the Kings against the Blues.

  • Bring Back the Shield Jersey

    (You should not use parenthesis inside parenthesis [brackets are the proper choice] when writing.)

  • Fighting Mad

    there is a place for Calder on this team just not on line 1 or 2, and those of you posting line-up’s without Ivanans need to get over it, I know you will the first time it happens and one of the kids get’s mauled, there HAS to be at least one guy that puts fear into opponents otherwise they’ll take advantage. I wish we had guys like the Ducks have, you know, that can fight and/or play it tough when needed but until we get players like that, R.I needs to play or least warm the bench.