Defense leading the way
After consecutive rough games against Buffalo and Detroit, in which they gave up a total of 11 goals, the Kings have put up two shutouts and a 2-1 loss. Defenseman Matt Greene talked about the Kings' ability to bounce back and put together three consecutive strong games.
GREENE: ``I think we've put together a few good games now, after giving up a bunch of goals there in Buffalo. There are going to be ups and downs over an entire season, and we definitely have to cut out those five-goal games every once in a while.''
Greene also talked about his shot-blocking ability, and was asked whether it was something he prided himself on...
GREENE: ``Oh yeah. If you're not scoring goals, you might as well be keeping them out of your net. It's a good way to stick around, and I think it helps out a ton. There's really nothing more frustrating, for myself when I'm at the point, when I get a shot blocked. I think it gives our goalie some help, as long as you're getting out of the way of the ones he needs to see. It's a good attitude.''
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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.
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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
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Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
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When Jack Johnson gets back in the lineup the Kings top 4 defensemen will be: Doughty, Quincey, Greene and Johnson. O'Donnell will be number 5. Harrold, Gauthier and Preissing rounding out the top 8.
Seems like a pretty decent group, maybe ranked in the upper half of the league, certainly the starting point for a very good group in the future. Thankfully, all the gloom and doom commentary of the off season is now a faded memory.
Who would you rather have now - Vishnovsky or Greene & Stoll? I chose the later. I love the new defense we have now & I love watching Greene shove people out of the way. But most of all I love his acting on the All Star comercial. LOL.
RICH and FANS: We have a good team,we are getting good goaltending and good defense.My question is this:We are still out of a playoff spot,How do we and what do we need to do to take the next step..????
BallPointHammer,
It gets even better than that. All we need is one of our four top defensive prospects (Hickey, Teubert, Voinov and Martinez) to make it and then we'll be in great shape on the back end.
O'Donnell won't last forever, but it's not that hard to find another vet to fill his role. Harrold's recent play (and especially his end-to-end rush the other night) tells me he can be valuable on the third pairing.
Preissing will probably be dealt at the deadline. I don't see him moving sooner because of his salary.
Neil...To me, the goaltending has been good but not great. The answer is simply to elevate the goaltending to "great". How?...I don't think a trade is the answer. Quick might be strong right now, but he is a rookie and rookies learn tough lessons along the way. I'm trying not to get excited until he plays this way for a 10-15 game stretch. Then we know we have something real. As far as the rest of the squad goes, leave it be. If we make a trade or make too many changes, it could dissrupt the lineup. If I were in charge, i wouldn't change a thing right now. Ride it out. Perhaps towards the trade deadline we can revisit the trade question. My 2 cents...
Neil...IMO...turn those 1 goal losses into 1 goal wins.
With the amount of road games this team has coming up...it's a tall task to make the playoffs.
BRS - I was watching an Edmonton game a few weeks ago and the color guy mentioned how much the team missed having a big defender (who could skate). Later, in the broadcast they mentioned how MacT missed having a center to take faceoffs in the third period when they had the lead.
Also, I think Quincey would not have had the opportunity to grow this year without Vis being moved.
The worst would be to barely miss it. Out of the playoffs w/o a lottery pick is not good. It would point to signs of improvement though...
Neil, to me the next step(s) that need to be taken are:
As mrbrett says, turn those close losses into wins. How? While some of those losses can be attributed to poor goaltending, some can also be blamed on lack of experience as well. There's obviously a learning curve when it comes to winning tight games, and (#1)experience can certainly play a role in that. Couple that with (#2)better goaltending and (#3)consistency in play, not just from game to game, but from period to period as well. We must also keep in mind that this is the first year that the core players of this team are playing together as a unit, taking into consideration that we're not just talking about up front, but back at the blue line as well. Once this team gets to the point where they're challenging for the top spots in the West with the likes of the Wings, Sharks, etc., look for DL to (#4)inject some notable UFAs to complete the puzzle. I don't see this final step happening until a year or two from now.
Don't know if anyone else caught this or not. Quick was named the #3 star of the week by the NHL for last week.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=400619
Frantisek Kaberle is on waivers. He has another year on top of this one at 2.2 million. Great passer/puck mover. Was a negative with Atlanta, but on the plus side in Carolina mostly. Rotting on the pine in Carolina this year for the most part.
I'm not sure if Lombardi wants that kind of cash to a 35/36 year old player next year, but trading him into the line-up in place of Preissing would be a huge help in my opinion.