FINAL: Rangers 3, Kings 2 (OT)

Moller on the line with Osully and Kopi during the third. Line change or injury? Also The back end of this team is not carrying its weight ie 4th line, 3rd D pair pair, and the backup goalie LaBarbera

I just want to say I HATE LABARBERA!

It wouldn't have mattered if the Rangers didn't beat us in OT, they would have easily beaten us in the Shootout.

Do any of you guys truly believe that Barbi would win it in the shootout?

Barbi has a poor glove to go along with his poor rebound control.

I'm so sick & tired of this B.S. with this guy. He let's that goal in & then glares at Doughty as if he made 50 saves & finally got beat. Lab's, look in the mirror...the guys give you all the support & more than ANY team in the league would give you. I have a hard time understanding how this guy is a goalie, let alone an NHL goalie.

Can someone name the last time you looked & said "Wow, what a save" or "thank god Lab's got that, keeps us in the game"?

It's always the same story & now 1/3 into the season I can probley point to 10 missed points & much more because of his ability NOT to show up when he's needed.

We talk about building a culture of winning with this team, get a fucking goalie & then start building, because I as a fan am sick of it, I can only imagin how thoes kid's are feeling after leaving everything on the ice.

Moller played first line because Murray wanted to role with 3 lines, and since Moller is off to World Juniors after the game, they played him instead of Purcell. Brutal loss, outplayed a tired team for 60 minutes and only a point. Well coached game by TM and hopefully they can continue to play hard when not getting the wins.

ugh.... sucks that they lost tonight, the team really played well!

on the good side, Brown is becoming a freakin monster. also, the team was really passing the puck well in the Ranger's zone to set up some nice shots. this is very encouraging.

on the bad side Labs is looking like the weakest link out there!!! i still can't believe he let that first goal in!!! what were the shots on net at that point in the game? 14-3 in favor of the kings!!! and the game was tied!!!????

the last few years the mantra has been, "the goaltending would be better when we have good d". well now the d is pretty good and the goaltending is sucking. can't wait for one of the minor leaguers to step in and take over....

I live in New York and saw the NY broadcast. The commentators had a lot of very nice things to say about the Kings. BTW they also commented that Labs should probably have had Drury's shot. Otherwise, it's the first time I've seen the Kings this year on TV. Wow. I don't even recognize them. I haven't seen a better Kings team in years..... oh, except for one phase of the game. I suppose I don't need to specify on this blog which position that may be. I feel for the guys if that's what it's been like all year. They could sure use something that would qualify as a "big save"... or even two.

Great game tonight. Kings played very well. Looked a little tired near the end of the third, but I liked the shortening of the bench. Labarbara was alright but was not spectacular (Steal us one game Jason). Thought of Roman Cechmanek when he dove for that one puck. Penalty shot call was a little bogus because O'Donnell shot the stick to the boards and not at the player. All in all very entertaining game just a bad result, but hey we can take the point.

As for the negativity if you do not believe me that it comes out, look at the posts below. A total of 2 for our goals and what 25ish for the two Ranger goals. Tell me I am wrong now.

wow wow... LaGarbarage is pathetic...can this guy win a game on his own?steal one for the team?dont think so.at one point i had faith in this guy and hoped for him to be the next kings golie but nah...he just doesnt have it..he is always letting soft goals in..looks like a headless chicken when makings saves...he doesnt belong in LA....LETS HEAR THE CHANTS FOR HIM TO GET BOOTED OUT OF LA....PLS JLB JUST LEAVE AHAH UR NOT GOOD

Son of a mutha grabbin jesus balls slap me silly stupid rangers and their fans ugly naslund mikal roszisuck holy blowhole LABS HAS TO GO.

Eeeeeh, if you can't tell, I'm a little frustrated.

Just leaving the game, really should of won this one. Outplayed them nearly all game. That penalty shot call was a load of crap. Ah I'm so mad. I love that we keep getting these OT points because they will add up over the season but ratface stinksuck we ncan beat these teams!

Atleast we could with a real goalie in net. Another game we outplay the opponent and lose.
This team is a goalie away from greatness.

Also props to TM for benching Purcell in the third for being invisible all game.

Grrrr, time to drown my sorrows.

If it went to a SO does anyone think TM would of thought of bringing in Quick (who is solid in the SO by the way)

IMO two things led to the OT goal by the Rangers. First Kopi was a bit lazy coming back up the ice and got beat to the puck by Stall, a defenseman. After Kopi recovered along the boards, Sully turned away from the play instead of joining the play. Hockey 101 is first man on the body second man on the puck. If he stayed in the play more than likely he would have gained posession rather than the Ranger player which led to the point shot. Barbie never saw the shot. An excellent game by both teams and a fun game to watch, it's just too bad the Kings couldn't pull it off.

I can't get over how Barbs looks at Doughty w/ disdain after the GWG. Sure Doughty was on the way, really though, Barbs couldn't have made that save if it was only him and Rozsival. I just love his inconsistency.

Did anybody notice LaBoobra looking at Doughty right after he lets the ot goal get by him, As if he was screening him? Time for this guy to go back down to the minors where he belongs. Come on give us somebody between the pipes that can carry this team to the playoffs. This team deserves it, we deserve it......

Its time to get on the bandwagon and trash Barbie doll. Drurys goal was fairly weak and his shootout record speaks for himself. With the way the team is playing as a whole, how could it hurt to bring up both Quick and Bernier. Just put Barbie on waivers...no one will claim him and let him rot away in Manchester.

The hard working boys deserve a better net minder and Lombardi needs to do something.NOW!!

This team will make the playoffs with JJ coming back.

Come on - be honest. The last goalie who played between the Kings pipes who actually had the team's confidence was ... Kelly Hrudy. And how long ago was that?

Very true BCam.........Alotta heart wih Hrudy and made some big time saves for those defenseless years.

I believe Iceberg is more than adequate for this year. He is most likely out 3 weeks, that could kill us.

Dear Santa,

Do you think you can get Dustin Brown traded to the Rangers? Lord Stanley would definitely be returning. Maybe someone can spike DL's eggnog so he'll get goofy and do the deal.

I have frequently said that I believe DL's plan has always been to showcase JLB and deal him before the trade deadline, using the time to season Bernier, Quick, Zatkoff, Ersberg, whichever two are the most ready by February. I don't think the showcase is going very well.

DL is simply not going to be able to trade JLB for anything meaningful. Even if he puts a couple of games together. He seems mentally unsound. Easily rattled. Adding that to his positional difficulties, there isn't a lot to recommend him. And I'm saying this as someone who was a big supporter of Jamie Storr and Robb Stauber, two goalies who showed flashes of brilliance (and both of whom were more skilled than JLB) but who cracked under the pressure.

It's especially glaring the JLB is a huge problem when the Kings play so strongly -- dominantly, in fact -- against two of the best teams in the league, maybe the two best teams. I don't think DL is going to deal for a goalie -- yet -- but will try to get Quick and Bernier (maybe even Zatkoff) into some games, just to see if he can get some stability out of any of them.

JLB might end up getting waived after all. Or he might hang on as a back-up. Either way, the decision on his fate will be made when Ersberg recovers from his groin pull. And Quick will have to get some games in before then, in order to make that decision even remotely informed.

Re JLB's dirty look at Doughty:

I didn't want to comment until I rewound the tape and looked at it, but, yes, it's true that JLB gives not one but two exasperated looks at Doughty after the goal. My first reaction: that's just pathetic. This isn't a beer league and you're on national television. Keep your reactions to yourself. My second reaction: JLB is mentally unraveling; to look for someone to blame like that, it suggests a player at the end of his rope. My third reaction: prior to this, JLB's non-great play just made me feel bad for him; now I actively dislike him. It was a classless move. I have to assume that JLB is under such emotional strain that he just couldn't control himself. And that's about all I need to know about Jason LaBarbera.

Also -- and you can say I'm reading too much into this -- but if I'm Dean Lombardi looking at that replay, I'm thinking "you don't f***ing do that to Drew Doughty, you belly-flopping minor-leaguer (whom I didn't draft)." Or words to that effect.

after the game in vegas in late september, i made the comment the kings should waive jlb. i was serious then and i'm still serious now. how many times does he have to let this team down before they move him? his record sucks. his #'s suck. my god man. stevie wonder could see this guy is rotten. with the kind of team d the kings play anyone from quick to bernier can step in and give us a few wins to stem the tide until erik is back in. then just give erik a break every 4th game as to not where him out. seems simple. its probably not that simple, but frustration is setting in... big time with jlb already.

I can't believe I'm saying this so early in the process, but this team is real close to that crossroad, where DL might have a tough decision about going after a decent goalie. I didn't think it would happen this year, but if the Kings keep playing like they are, we have a good chance of making the playoffs, if we have a legitimate goaltender. I don't know if we should give away this year by waiting for one of the prospects to flourish. These kids deserve a chance on making the big show. I would hate to be DL right now.

Team played another solid game. Can't ask for more.

Quincey might have had his best game so far. Where would this defense be without this guy.

LaLarb has got to be the most non-athletic professional athlete I have ever seen. Anthony is correct, his glove hand is atrocious. He truly has hands of stone, He can't catch crap, which leads to most of his rebounds. I actually feel bad for him, because he tries his ass off, but he just doesn't have it.

Im going to get crucified for saying this, Im not a "barbi" supporter and i agree with quispy that he is easily rattled. Lets face it, in the SJ game, he came off the bench with no warm up, and gives up a goal to a great player on a fluke play, otherwise I think he played decent the rest of the night. Again tonite he's a lil cold cuz he didnt see many shots. Yes, eventually he needs to come up and make a big save, but it was on a turnover, also we werent playing very good D when the OT goal went in. Barbs wasnt that bad in penalty , shot/shootout situations until this year, I wonder what happened. Hey we hung with 2 of the top 4 teams in the league and Barbs kept us in the game..... alot better then last season. Maybe one day we will have a goalie who can make clutch saves.... GO KINGS! 6 out of 8 points possible on the homestand isnt bad.

Ersberg is probably out three weeks. That's ten games. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that TM has seen all he needs to see from JLB. Give the next ten to Quick.

Do any of you remember when Tim Cheveldae was booed right out of Detroit and wound up in Winnipeg and he was 10 times the goaltender that "What's hisname" is. I fell off the couch when he gave Doughty "The Look".

"The Looks." Sorry. That's pee-wee s**t. And not even pee-wee AA, or A, it's non-travel-team house-league pee-wee s**t.

And TM, being old school and a true "team" guy -- I wouldn't be surprised if he sits JLB as a result of this. Am I reading too much into this? I keep thinking I must be. [pause while I look at the replay.] No. F*** him. What I now want for Xmas is that "the look" is the last we've seen of Jason LaBarbera.

I was at the game and I didn't notice that till I rewatched it and wow Barbie is an idiot. So this guy isn't just worthless but he wants to lame Drew on that ? WHY?? they played their hearts out and gave a hell of an effort. This monkey gave up a soft goal and now he is staring down Drew? Someone kick this monkey off the team. Wtf is that? guys play so damn hard, put on a clinic in the 1st oh man. Go to hell Barbie, you're a damn fool.

Quisp -

I think you're making mountains out of molehills. Goalies get that look every time they give up a goal. Besides, I don't think there was anything in it anyway. It's just frustration. Labs is probably happy it didn't go to shootout.

I thought we should have outscored the Rangers in regulation. I thought we looked the slower, more tired team with about 10 minutes to go. I mean, we were still dominating, but were slow and not really getting anything dangerous for the most part.

I thought it was a great game by the Kings but I'd love to see more finishing. I think Moller replacing Pursle was more shortening up the lines than benching Pursle, but I don't know if it was effective. Moller didn't look familiar with the line and maybe Pursle could have had a game winner if he weren't sitting. Again, the 4th line's weakness forced us into changes.

But, I'm not disappointed at all. I don't expect anything of Labs anymore, but I'm not willing to crucify him. It's not his fault we don't have anything better and I think it's horrible the things everyone is saying about him. I'm sure he's more disappointed than any of us. The saddest thing of all is that I think he could be much better but he's not got the mindset for it. He's not weak minded, but he's not a pillar of strength, either.

Maybe there's a King's Curse on goaltending in LA. Garon looked like a shell after his time in LA - a ghost story?

And we thought Mr. Beach Ball had left town - NOT. Labs doesn't seem to ever think "he" lost the game for the Kings.... it's always the "team"

Just get rid of this guy - send him east - to Europe.

I didn't notice the look, but I tend to think these things are overblown. It may have just been his own frustration over being the worst G-damn goalie in the NHL.
I thought if I slept on it I wouldn't be as pissed as I was after the game...WRONG!
I think I have given Barbs more than his fair share of props over the last 2 years and defended him when everyone was going after him...but he just sucks.
Make a G-damn save...any kind of save...stick your face in front of the puck and block it.
He looked amateurish on the penalty shot. He was beaten cleanly by a defensman. It wasn't a great move by Rozival, just a lousy job of covering his own net.
All 3 goals were marginal at best. The OT goal was a direct result of him not controlling the rebound. A good NHL goalie would have come out of that game with a shutout...not a loss.
The team played unbelievably well in front of him. Brownie had his most dominating game as a King last night. He was everywhere. The Ranger announcers couldn't believe he was THAT good. All of them had extreme high praise for the Kings now and the future of the Kings...Except for the goalie. Nothing good to say about his lousy performance. He was completely outplayed by Valiquette.

I was wondering what happened with Purcell? He didn't look good at all earlier in the game. He seemed to be multiple steps behind Kopi and Sully. I know it's really early in his career, but I'm not overly impressed with him. He has skills with the puck around the goal, but the rest of his game seems to be lacking.

I still think we're sitting in a pretty good spot right now. We're playing outstanding hockey and I think it will continue. We have 2 tough back to back games on the road with Buffalo and Detroit. You know Quick will get in one of the games...Let's hope he plays well. The Kings don't give up too many chances. It's not like we're throwing him to the wolves with the way our D plays. He just needs to play a tight game. As far as the other game goes..the one Barbs plays...Hey, we're due for an 11-10 win this year.

All right, I'm gonna come at you with a different perspective. One that the glass is half full. We've just played two of the top teams in the league and we proved that we can play with them. I didn't think we were going to make the playoffs this year, and it's fair to say that a lot of people felt the same at the beginning of the season. This is the year of the close but not good enough year. We are going to be in the games but somehow manage to lose them. Next year is where we take that leap and win these types of games. If we had a top talent scorer like a Hossa maybe we get that 3rd goal and the game does not go to overtime! To be fair if we had a top talent goalie, maybe he stops Drury or the penalty shot. I think we did OK. I think we are on the right track. We just need to develop a little bit longer let Bernier or Quick season in the AHL. Hopefully, one or two of our forwards will go to the next level. We're not off by a lot. Like I said we are just one goal shy or one great save shy from becoming playoff contenders. If only we could play St. Louis 82 times a year!!

Nice to see Big Rob with a decent post. I think we should ban IP's that come from LGK.com to post here since it seems we have an infusion of hate and name calling infants.

First off Labs stopped 27/30. That's average and not a bad game. He did have several great saves but nobody here will admit that because they think Ersberg is the savior (besides that HORRIBLE game a couple of weeks back that got him benched that everyone blamed bad goals on).

Playing devils advocate here the Kings played two amazing games against top teams and were right there and should have won both. They should have scored 2-3 more goals last night easy, they need to learn to finish.

The penalty shot call was horrible. O'Donnell clearly pushed it straight to the boards and not at the player.

The OT goal when you saw the replay, Labs was in good position but couldn't see it because Drew screened him and that blast was a nice shot. I don't blame Drew, he's trying to make a play but if the goalie doesn't see the release it's tough to make a save.

The game tying goal against San Jose...Drew gave up the breakaway and instead of taking his guy out of the play he layed a weak hook on him. Rookie mistake.

Drew is a great player and will continue to grow.

Labs isn't a top tier goalie but averaging under 3 goals a game and keeping the team in these games is all you can hope from him and he's doing that. I'd like to see one of our two step up but neither has so it is what it is.

Hopefully Quick, Bernier, or Zatkoff will pan out and be top tier goalies but their stats in the minors don't look like it yet.

On the up side the Kings played two great games in a row and if they play that well against mid level and lower teams they'll be winning a LOT of games.

It's funny. . .all this frustration being vented after a game like this. You know what that is telling me? There is finally HOPE spreading through Kings Nation out there! We can all see "The Plan" coming together. The team is ahead of where almost all of us thought it would be and we are beginning to believe that maybe, just maybe, the Kings are/could be a playoff team. We've seen them outplay the Sharks and the Rangers now in consecutive games. Who'da ever thought that was going to happen?? Unfortunately, it also makes the teams weaknesses even more glaring now that the whole team doesn't suck collectively anymore. And those are the lack of a pure goal scorer (especially on the PP) and Jason LaBarbara.

I'm not going to launch into an obscenity-laced tirade about JLB this morning after having a chance to sleep on it. Look, we all know what the guys limitations are. His advantage is size, not athleticism. The guy was drafted in the days of the "old NHL" and maybe would have found more success then. In this day and age, and with the shootout being a part of the game, his lack of lateral movement and poor glove are exposed and exploited. JLB is an okay backup if you have a real stud as your #1 so that he only has to play maybe 15-20 games a year. Let's all hope Quick can show us something and hold the fort until Ersberg can come back.

I don't mean to jump on everyone's bandwagon but....

Lababs....*sigh* In my own humble opinion, the Kings should have won both games. They clearly outplayed two of the best teams in the league for a full 65 minutes (64 for the Rangers, sorry....) only to lose due to poor goaltending. I was sick, especially after the loss to NY. Lababs should have had every goal they scored. Breakaway No. 1, deep sigh, Jason can't stop a breakaway. Breakaway No. 2, the penalty shot, Jason still can't stop a one on one. The OT goal...I tend to disagree with everyone, I didn't think Doughty screened Lababs; Jason knew where the puck was and where it was coming from. He should have had that one too and could see the puck coming. The shot that went off his glove hand and into the net, that was just a soft goal and totally mis-played, period. I just can't believe The Iceberg would have allowed any of those goals.

I'm hoping that Quick gets some time in the net and this weekend he should. Like most, I don't think Lababs has earned a spot on an NHL roster. And yes, it is very reminiscent of the way Clouts used to play. I think Lababs is a very good AHL goalie but that's where it stops. Unfortunatly, he can't stop anything from going in the net....I believe he's UFA at the end of this season.