FINAL: Kings 4, Phoenix 0

Great win for the Kings.
What a way to come back from last nights loss.
Humiliate the other side in their own building.
Not just humiliate, but shut out as well.

Yeah, keep squirming Shane Doan, you pig.
I thought Ryan Smyth was the player I hated the most.
Now its Doan.
They both are annoying.
They both are cheap shot artists.
They both look feminine.
They both have long hair.
They both look like girls.
F_ck'em both.

Hard to believe that was only 26 shots against.
Quick was unbelievable and really won this game.
There were some saves he made early that should have been goals. He was just fantastic. I've never seen a Kings goalie that I can remember so cool and undercontrol while moving.
Ivan scores with under 5 minutes ice time. Crazy stuff.
And, Zeiler could be said to have had an impact as well by getting in that fight - also played under 5 minutes.
It's crazy how hot/cold this team is. Some of the goals tonight seemed to just deliver themselves, whereas last night there were really no great chances manufactured.
I'm still negative on that 4th line, but tonight they definitely won the round. Part of Murray's goal must be to keep things fresh for the players. Sometimes it almost looks like their bored playing together.
Pretty damn good game but it should have been a lot closer or worse. It's great to get a ray of hope, but with Kings goaltenders it's one day at a time.
Purcell was really great tonight as well and seems to be carving out his place and getting some nice looking PP time.
I think Calder has used up his praise we've been giving him lately and needs to seek to make more of an impact. He just never really looks like scoring right now. Maybe a fight, maybe a big hit. Time to do something worthy...
I'm still concerned about the tendency of Murray to return to the familiar, despite tonight's result.
We'll see what happens.

Great game for Quick, Purcell and Lewis. My Xmas present is working out pretty well, eh? Quick is (if my math is right) 1.88 GAA, SV% .933, and two shut outs in 4 starts.

That reversal by Zeiler in his fight was beautiful. I expect that to show up in some highlights.

the kings were dominant the first 2 periods. the first line was mostly absent, but the other 3 were definetely on tonight. raitis looked good, zeiler looked good (nice fight) and simmonds continues to look good. quick was radiculous. his 2nd shutout in 3 starts! are you kidding me? he may not give the starting job back to ee when he's healthy if he keeps playing like that.

the kings were taken out of the 3rd period by the officials. i guess its only fair for the officials to give phx 5 pp's to help them try and tie the game since the nhl is paying all of the coyote's bills and salaries. why would they want their own team (sort of) to lose?

huge win for the boys tonight. we already have 10 more points than we did last year at this time. even though some of the teams ahead of us have a game in hand (or two) we are only two points out of 8th place in the conf. not bad.

A good solid victory. The Kings beat the Coyote's in every area of the game. Even strength, Power play, Penalty killing, and for once in goaltending. Bryzgalov is not so invisible after all. The man is human.
Shane Doan was a non factor. Finally the Kings found a way to neutralize him.

Roger

Crazy! Ivanans has 2 goals this season and both have been game winners!

It was a nice bounce back win for the Kings, especially since it was an all important road win. But, let's not get crazy here. Yes, Quick made some big saves, but he also got very lucky a few times. And the Kings can't have a non-stop parade to the penalty box and expect to be teams like Detroit or San Jose.

Good win. Could be much better.

The game was essentially over when the score was 3-0 in the first period?

LOL. You're talking about the Kings right?

I have to reiterate again. Labs has been bad since day one. He had a stretch of about 5-7 games 2 plus years ago and then suddenly disapeared because of "Personal Problems" Then a stick to the mid section that we are still saying he has not fully recovered from. The only thing he has not recovered from is the reality of not being an NHL goalie. Come on people wake up! He must have some serious dirt on the Kings upper management to have stayed this long. We have Wayyyyyy to many goalies looking for a spot. They need to release labs into the wild and be done with it. Quick can flat out play and Ersberg has done nothing but get us points in almost every game he has been in. Bernier and Zakitoff are waiting in the wings and Taylor, well we will see. We are right there and playing these two for the balance of the year will get us over the hump. We could use a Heatly or the Russian from Atlanta. We are not just under the cap we are just over the minimum. Look at it as the glass as half full. Well I leave you now have to get back to a famous recipe of Nanny Cakes. Your thoughts?

RjB -

Don't forget Martin Jones, who plays for the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL. This, from Hockey's Future:

Martin Jones appears to be an enormous steal for the Kings[...] [s]igned to an entry level contract during training camp as an non-drafted 18 year under the rarely used section 8.9(b)(ii) of the collective bargaining agreement. The early returns on their newest prospect reveal Jones to be at the top of the WHL in both wins and goals-against average and third in save percentage. There does not appear to be any let-up in Jones’ progress as he is already in his third full season with the Calgary Hitmen and the clear no. 1 netminder for arguably the best team in the entire WHL. With a tried record of success, at least two more years of major junior eligibility, and a packed Kings farm system in terms of goaltenders, Jones need only refine his game with Calgary and wait for the goaltending pipeline to clear out before moving on to the professional ranks."

From the Hitmen website:

Martin Jones [awarded Hitmen player of the month] was 9-0 in the month of November while posting a 1.86 goals against average. He was also named the Canadian Hockey League goaltender of the week for the week of November 10th to 16th.

Hey Quisp,

That's a great article/blurb about Jones. I really like this newfound strength of youth.
Quick is still such a kid, too.
It's amazing when I see him interviewed how young he still looks.
I don't want to get too hopeful with him, but man he looked amazing the other night.
I don't think any Kings goalie prospect has ever started off so well. Granted, the Detroit game was a bit messy, but for his first start of the season to be followed up with two shutouts and a damn good loss where he gave up 2, is unprecedented.

Quisp....wow...I am very happy with the youth..Tell the Boo-Linn Wall to re-up his lease in Chicago. who needs him? As for this kid Quick his start in Detroit happened to be bad timing. By that I mean O'D - Drew - Kyle & The Goat had their worst games all at the same time. If two of them just played half way decent they come away with at least 1 point maybe 2. Lets keep the youth movement and bring in Meckler and Westgarth to go with Purcell for the 4th line. Scrappy Meckler likes to drop them but also has a nose for the goal, Westgarth can enforce and purcell needs to battle better in the corners (Like Sat. Night) As they see if you can get a little production from your 4th line (Bonus) good things happen. I heard Hossa to the Kings next season if he wins the cup this year.

After reading RjB's post, I'm left wondering if we have any more depth available on defense? If we no longer have anything to bring up that can help on defense, should we be searching for some help, be it veteran or prospect in nature?
We've got Cap room and there are some guys like McLaren that could probably be had. There also may be more "quinceys" out there, young talent teams may be willing to move for their own Cap reasons or to bring in help at the deadline.
It seems if we're willing to play an injured O'D over a healthy Preissing we are a little too short in this area.
I really kinda wish we'd have gone after Commodore or Montador.
Anyone have any ideas on this?
Should we just stand pat?

Eat:

Yes we have an abundance on defense. Voynov is getting rave reviews and might be a great fill in this year if needed and after the World Jr tourney. Martinez was quite poised as well when he got the chance this pre-season and could be another sleeper. Bewmeister is the guy if we can nut up and grab. I would send Johnson (Love him, but still needs to prove himself)for the big guy in Florida. He is only 25 and huge in all zones. I would not go get a aging defenseman at this point. Hicky & Truebert will be ready next year. A good problem to have huh? Once Mollar gets back we can juggle the lines again and get another scorer on the top two lines. Caldar just is not the guy. All thoughts welcome

A Voynov call-up would not appear to be out of the question, even though he still looks like he's 14. Martinez would be a probably more solid, but less exciting call-up. It certainly seems possible if not likely that Voynov, Hickey and Teubert will all make the team next year.

I wouldn't move Johnson for Bouwmeester. But maybe that's just me.

Quincey/Doughty
Johnson/Greene
SOD/Harrold
Gauthier

two years from now:

Quincey/Doughty
Johnson/Greene
Hickey/Teubert
Voynov

next year? If Teubert looks even remotely like he's ready, I think Gauthier will not be re-signed. Or maybe it's SOD who doesn't get re-signed. I don't know. Harrold might hang onto his job next year if either Hickey or Voynov falter.

Let us dream now that Boyle does get his groove back in Manchester, as he appears to be doing.

The only problem might be...Ivanans is now within one GWG of being one of the league leaders. Maybe he'll end up being Boyle's wingman after all. (I'm only half kidding; we know that TM has been trying to get this kind of look from Ivanans all season; TM must be feeling pretty flush about that right now... Ivanans is scoring, Calder is not sucking, wait...is TM a good coach???)

RjB - I'd love to see those guys impress, but I don't know if we can call them depth until we know they can step right into the NHL and play as well as what they replaced. I'm content if we wait for them, but also would welcome some low/no-cost help on defense of the proven variety.
It's a shame we couldn't have possibly tried to reclaim Boucher as he was traded from Dallas last month. I don't have a sense of what Pittsburgh gave up in that deal, though.
I'd probably NOT trade JWTFJ in a deal for Bouwmeester. It's not that I wouldn't want to acquire JayBo, but if he shat himself and wanted out it would set us back. I'm willing to allow Johnson to NOT become a top 4 NHLer because I think his odds of success are good. If that wording was confusing I'll try and simply say I think Johnson is going to come good and that it'd be a shame not to have him here for the next 15 years.
I'm all in favor of packaging expendable players, however, if the door is open for Jaybo or anyone else Lombardi thinks could be a franchise player. While we need defensive depth now, I think ultimately what we'll really want in the next few years is a guy that scores 50 goals like clockwork.
Maybe we can find that in the draft, or maybe he'll come from somewhere else in the league.
A 50 goal guy is a huge component in success, though.
WHo knows, though. I think Brown is capable of scoring 50 a few times in his career. Maybe we need that set-up guy to play alongside him. Maybe it's Boyle.
For right now, though, I'd like to see McLaren's name mentioned or someone solid on the blue line pursued, just not with any big names from our squad/prospects.

Quisp,
I think Calder is disappearing a bit right now.
I'd like to see him with some more jump and I'm still waiting for that grind-line.
While he's done a good job this season, I want him to step up again. I think he's getting a little too comfortable.