Forum answers V

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Question: What's the word in the organization about the players in Manchester, who's playing well and who's not? Who has a realistic chance at being recalled this season? Are they going to put more prospects in Ontario ECHL? Who do you think is the odd defenseman out when JJ gets healthy?

Answer: 1) It's been a while since I've heard about who is impressing in Manchester. Just from looking at the numbers, Gauthier has been consistently strong, Purcell has been coming on, Voynov looks good and both goalies, Bernier and Quick, seem to have rebounded fairly well from slow starts. 2) There aren't any plans, necessarily, to put more prospects in Ontario. That's just the way the organization is set up right now. The top prospects are either at the AHL level or in junior. Zatkoff is in Ontario and Taylor is in Reading. Perhaps next season it will be a different situation. It just depends on where the prospects are, development-wise. 3) At this point, Gauthier and Preissing are passing that baton back and forth, although Harrold's position isn't solid either. Too much can happen in the next six weeks to make that call now, but if it WAS right now, I'd say Preissing.

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Question: Is is me or is the Gauthier/Pressing pairing very weak defensively? Are they that much better than working with the young kids sent down?

Answer: It's hard to argue that any combination of Gauthier/Harrold/Preissing has been effective for long stretches this season. The question is, who would you have replace them? The two most obvious candidates would probably be Voynov or Martinez, and neither of them have ever played an NHL game. So that's a tough situation, given that the Kings already have so many young/inexperienced defensemen.

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Question: Can you try to do a "whatever happened to Tomas Sandstrom" article? With your contacts with the Kings i thought maybe you could track him down.

Answer: It's a good idea. I'm sure there are a few players from that era who people would be interested in reading about. I'll see what I can do.

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Question: Do you see the Kings teaming up with Metro rail to provide an alternate family pack that would supplement the current one that includes parking? I think it's a great way to show the Kings care about going green, it helps ease some congestion downtown on game nights, and could potentially draw more families out to games who otherwise would not have attended due to the drive.

Answer: I admit that I'm not real familiar with the Kings' promotions, but didn't the Kings recently have some time of Metro promotion? I'd prefer that they actually build those rails to go places where people actually go, like say the Westside or the South Bay or the Valley. What a concept! But that's a tangent. I agree that promoting as many public-transportation options is a good idea.

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Question: How short is Ivanan's leash when it comes to when he can/can't fight? He's had more than his share of opportunities to go the last few games, so is it the case that he's backing down, or is he explicitly told to keep his gloves on in those situations?

Answer: There's definitely no team-imposed ban against Ivanans fighting. If there was, I'm not sure what the point would be in keeping him on the ice. I'm sure he's instructed, as any player would be in that situation, not to do anything stupid, but it's up to him (and the other guy) to decide when to go.

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Question: Is there any talk of moving a couple of AHL teams out west so that teams in the Pacific Division have better access to their players?

Answer: The Kings would like nothing more than to have a West Coast AHL affiliate. It's something that's been discussed, and sought, for quite a while. Problem is, you'd need a handful of teams west of the Rockies, and how many markets out here could support high-level minor-league hockey? Not many. It's possible to draw a couple thousand in Bakersfield or Las Vegas or places such as that, but it's hard to see the West Coast supporting the AHL, at least at this point.

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Question: Would winning be a big part of learning how to win? Say Murray plays Frolov in those last minutes and he works hard and then makes something happens that ties the game. Shouldn't that be what Murray is teaching?

Answer: Your point, which I cut down for publication here, is absolutely valid. That's why I ended my thought by saying perhaps Murray could have handled it in a different way. You could certainly make the argument that by punishing Frolov, he punished the rest of the team by diminishing their chances of winning that game. It's a solid point. In this case, we can only assume that Murray felt so strongly at that moment, that he needed to make the move.