Game thread

At a boy Ritas

Ivanans!!! Way to go Fourth Line!

Is it my imagination, or are we dressing 7 D-Men tonight.

Okay we all need to take a step back and laugh and applaud. Harrold on the RW, Zeiler not dressed. Both sides a little right, both a little wrong. Either way, way to go Ivan! Nice shot!

Also, love how Lewis looks to shoot. That's a sign of a comfortable player. Good shots too. 1 each shift.

you aren't imagining anothony.

Preissing in... can you say audtion?

... and, lo and behold, the fourth line scores!

playing well so far. let's keep it up.

wow! 4th line gets another grade A scoring chance, Ivanans almost had another, Harrold shot the rebound wide on an open net.

So far it looks like the 4th line is their best line.
Maybe they are reading this Blog.

and Ivanans/Harrold had another great chance. what is this?!?!

It's ultimate irony Kingzzfan, the kind of irony I enjoy.

Serendipity if you will.

You've got to be kidding. Ha.
After all that Ivan gets his first goal in over 30 games. Unbelievable.
Nice work by Harrold dumping in and screening Mason on the shot.
I wonder how many goals Ivan would get playing with Fro and Zus?

SULLY!

That was a beautiful goal. Way to go boys

Remember last season when Crow had Ivan playing with Kopi on the top line, Kopi gift wrapped Ivanans a few (4?) goals in a chunk of games.

So True JDM
I like Harrold on that 4th line beleive it or not

KINGS BUOYED BY SCRATCHING OF ZEILER, film at 11.

THIS SUCKS BEING IN MY OFFICE AND MISSING THE GAME.

Somebody, describe the Sully goal.
Will they change this one to Lewis too.

wow, amazing combined effort by the first line. perfect play off the boards by Lewis, great pass by Kopitar, great finish by Sully. i'm definitely not gonna complain about switching Purcell and Lewis...

PK comin on.

I'm so up and down on Harrold. He plays well, but he's supposed to be a puck moving dman but he's not great at getting pucks through, tho he manages the point in terms of holding the puck in pretty well. I think I like him at even strength, either on RW or on D, but I don't like him sharing the 1st PP on D with Doughty. I'd rather that be Doughty/Quincey (I hope that's what we get tonight), or at the least Doughty/Preissing (more likely).

Amazing that even Harrold can tip the balance of that line.
It is Columbus, but there is a sense of urgency throughout our team.
Why didn't we hit Detroit like this?
Even Handzus is throwing his body around REALLY well.

anthony,

Lewis skated the puck out of the zone off a short pass from a dman, not sure who, but after getting out Lewis chipped the puck past a Columbus player, Kopi picked it up breaking into the zone on the RW, held it till just below the hash marks and passed it over to Sully who was wide open coming down the left and buried it into the open net on a one-time I believe. Nice goal, Lewis creating the 2 on 1 and Kopi/Sully finishing.

I wish we were this physical against Detroit EAT,

someone earlier said we gave them too much respect, and I think that's true. Columbus gets no respect and we are more or less controlling and dominating the play, definately getting the better chances. Curious to see how many shots Columbus ends up with.

I agree, we are really throwing our bodies around. Not to mention Quick is playing well

dumb penalty by Greene. if we can kill this 5 on 3 for 27 seconds, thay'd be huge.

Thanks Ciccarelli,
But I'm not a computer genius.
Screw it, I'm leaving work early,

Great job boys, Great job Quick, way to get out of the 1st up by 2

leave now anthony, first period just ended, nows your chance!

It's not bad going into the intermission with a 2-0 lead... goals by O'Sullivan and IVANANS!!! Except for that last stupid penalty that Greene took, everything is going our way so far... Which is right when everything starts to blow up in our faces.

wow, a fantastic defensive play by Zeus. great period.

Quick follows the puck well, only lost it momentarily during the second PK, but Greene bailed him out.

They really need a win tonight. They certailny deserve one, we haven't played so bad as to be 0-2-2, though for one reason or another we are. Kings have had jump in them like this to start the game each of the last three games.

Calder ought to maul that creature Dorsett.

i meant past 5 games.

Sully is sounding like a captain.

Great interview. Certainly sounded like he has at the least a general awareness of the fans' frustrations and feelings.

Quick hasn't seen many shots, but he looks more relaxed.
Wow. Just got to the Greene play.
He's been getting his/blocking a lot of dangerous shots lately.
What a battler.
It wasn't a bad play pulling down his man as he din't know where the puck was and a short 5on3 is better than a goal against.
Ivan looks more intense than I've seen him this season - almost like he's got a point to prove. Will he get the Gordie Howe H-T?
This is a game where Pursle has been invisible, but that's not a bad thing.
He's doing the little things right, so far.
I think the 4th line has looked much improved with the change. Zeiler is a poor skater and Harrold is a great skater - the little things add up.

JDM - It WAS a great interview.
Usually the thoughts are coached and semi-scripted with athletes in all sports, but this was off the cuff (at least the 2nd half of the conversation) and shows that these guys need to believe they are good enough.
If you've got the lead against Detroit, NY, and San Jose, it should tell you that we're good enough, but the faltering late really destroys those positives.
This is part of the reason I hate the shootout.
It really punishes young improving teams when they put in 60 tough minutes and lose a game because of a skills competition, especially if you have problems in net or your starter is injured?!?!

So does the performance to this point support my 4 balanced lines theory, or go contrary to it?
In my opinon, it's hard to forget this is Columbus and not Detroit or Buffalo, but the balance of that line is, for me, clearly much better without Zeiler.
It's also highlighted, to a point, because Murray was playing the IPZ 4th with Harrold/Gauthier almost every time they were on.

Ha, Harrold scores but the whistle had blown. Drew a penalty tho!

Man that line looks reborn. Hard to tell how much is Harrold and how much is Murray calling them out.

I'm sure it't a bit of both. Harrold is passing well where Zeiler didn't so much.
EAT: 4 lines? your correct

I do agree with you EAT about not playing the 4th line with the 3rd pairing, that's counterintuitive.

1st pairing should be out with the 4th line the majority of the time in my opinion. Though you can't always get the matchups you want.

Harrold definately adds more offense to that line than Zeiler, but the cost is having Preissing on D, who already looks a little shaky and has made some stupid passes, though he is a +1 so I won't strip him of all credit. I just feel safer with Harrold now on D than I do with Preissing.

We can have it all when JMFJ Gets back.

Looks luike Percel is starting to play as well

Good point Kingzzfan!

I keep forgetting about JJ, so excited for him to come back with a point to prove.

PS, another quality stop by Quick!

Wow.
I'm far behind you on my DVR (thanks to a good No. 2) but that cycling against our 4th line was getting tight, and Pursle made an error getting caught on the boards and stripped of the puck (rookie mistake, don't bench him for it, please) but they came out of the zone with speed, thanks to strong work down low by Harrold, and Pursle leads a rush that almost pays off on the rebound.
Good stuff by that 4th line and a good learning experience for Pursle. In one shift he made a mistake, learned the lesson, and stuck with it to create a scoring chance.
If someone can find a way to track shots by the 4th line over the past 3 weeks, I'd bet they have more shots in this game than they have in the previous 10 games.

See you in the future.

some great stops there by quick around the 12 minute mark

Can't wait for Rich's in depth interview with Terry Murray where he talks about how Tom Preissing has been "waiting patiently" for this chance, and how Peter Harrold was "tremendous" on the wing. Granted, there may be some truth (at least to the Preissing part...) to what he says, but he's so finely tuned to the International House Of Cliches...

Jackets really look mediocre at best tonight. Kings seem to have their number.

Rich and the gang,

Merry/Happy Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa!

The Kings are doing well half way through the third and it is time to leave for the holidays. I hope all of you have a healthy, happy, safe holiday season.

Go Kings!

Good to see Murray experimenting with Pursle on the PP with FroZoos. If we get another goal I'd like to see more experimenting with the lines to see the potential.
Maybe Brown with FroZoos and Calder/Stoll/Simmonds.

Happy Holidays and a safe trip to you Brent!

Go Kings!

Goal by Nash waived off, a call went our way for once.

Double Wow.
If that's what the Lambs bashers mean by making a game altering save, that was it.
Quick with 12:35 left in the game robs Klessla and maintains the 0-2 lead for the team. Brilliant.
- a little confusion from the 4th line center (Pursle) but not for a lack of effort. He just doesn't pick up Ivan's pinching defenseman coming from behind. Those plays happen and Quick saved the day. Thank God. Still +1 for the 4th line and still in control of the game.

Harrold scores!!!!!

shutoooooooout!

Good for Quick. I think he earned himself another start for Christmas.

LOL... I CALLED IT IN AN EARLIER THREAD when I asked "Who will be playing with O'Sullivan and Kopitar in the 3rd period"... For the final three shifts, it was PETER FRIGGIN' HARROLD. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT.

TREMENDOUS! (wink)

Congrats to Quick on the shutout.

Merry Christmas to everyone that posts and especially to our MVP "poster" Rich Hammond.

Go Kings Go ! Happy Holidays boys !

Damn. 3:50 left to go and O'Donnell's trying to ruin a perfect game.
It's a shame for Hockey that Nash's reflexes and hand/eye coordination aren't rewarded with a goal right there.
But we can't have every Jonny on the block waving their sticks in people's faces.

Shame on you Sean O'Donnell.

Nice Job Boys, Shut out for Quick (24 shots), Goal for Harrold, Ratis & Sully. It must be Christmas. Looked a bit slow in the third but no complaints here.

Merry X_mass all

kopitar to harold... wow what a sweet goal.

harold looked good at forward tonight. great passing from him all night long.

maybe his family should come to all of his games if this is how he's going to play in front of them.

HOLY SHIT.
PRINCE HARRY IS THE BLOODY MESSIAH. (i wish my exclamation point worked. There's your first line winger.
Lewis, back to the new 4th line.

Rules are rules, doesn't matter who you are. anybody would have been called on that one

Cheers, Brent.
Safe and Happy Holidays to you.
JDM, Happy Hannakuh(sp?) and good cheer for the new year.
I know this was Columbus, but they played well tonight and we dealt with it.
I think the team looked incredibly balanced tonight and but for a few errors that will, with time, lessen in frequency.
I think this game shows what this team is capable of doing against any team in the league if they believe in themselves, and the coach puts them in a position to thrive.
Brown was a little absent from the battle, in a sense.
I'd like to see him tried with some different combos.
Something like
Brown/Zoos/Simmonds
or
Frolov/Zoos/Brown.
I think there is more quality in this team to be mined.
Consider that some of our guns were quiet on offense.
Brown and Frolov, in particular, but Zoos, Stoll, and Calder as well.
They were pretty damn tight defensively, but think of what is possible if we can get four lines clicking with great defense and consistently scoring a goal per game per line.
That's 4 goals a night and even Lambs has a good shot at getting wins if they can discover this.
I'll keep praying.

Cheers.

Is Quisp Clarke Kent?

Nice shutout by Quick and the Kings, good defense, good, crisp passes. Overall not bad but Columbus is hurting, not much puck movement. 42 shots on goal for LA, we'll take that and holding CBJ to 24, right where we want to be. Quincey seemed to be back on his game, thank goodness. Like TM said, the little things that cost them the Detroit game and a couple of days practice to work things out. Overall a good effort. Trevor Lewis....the second coming of Teddy Purcell? He looks good. Possibly DL will have another decision to make when Big O gets back from the World Juniors, Purcell goes back to Manchester? Lewis is making plays and will make it difficult for DL to send him back down.

Have a very Merry Christmas to all and a joyous (Kings victories) holiday season. On to Phoenix for a home & home, see y'all Friday night!

Back on 11-17, Rich asked where we thought the Kings would be in six weeks. I couldn't remember what I predicted, so I looked it up:

"17-15-5 (39 pts)

[...]I don't see Purcell, Lewis, Clune and Quickier getting their shots until around Xmas, and that's assuming they do their 'homework' and earn their call-ups.

[...]Murray needs to get [...] the bugs out of his system between now and Xmas. That's twenty games to end the Calder experiment and find someone to play on the first line, twenty games to make a decision on Labarbera, twenty games for Calder, Armstrong, Richardson, Zeiler and Ivanans (also Harrold and Gauthier) to make their case(s), before Clune, Lewis, Purcell and one of them goalies are ready, followed soon after by the return of Jack Johnson.

There's really two divergent paths this season can take, and we'll see which path we're on in the next month:

1) Murray never gets the offense going, the Kings lose a lot of one goal games, Calder sticks around the whole year, LaBarbera keeps getting chances, reinforcements are not forthcoming from Manchester and the Kings are out of playoff contention before the trade deadline.

2) Murray gets the offense going. Purcell and Lewis play great in Manchester and are called up before the All-Star break. Calder is waived or traded. Bernier or Quick is called up before the All-Star break. LaBarbera is waived or traded. Johnson returns after the All-Star break. Gauthier, Preissing or Harrold are out of a job (I'm guessing Gauthier, but Preissing is more attractive to other teams -- I think -- so he might get traded, sparing Gauthier). Clune is called up, Zeiler is sent down, and Ivanans is scratched more often."

Okay, so the Kings are 14-14-6, 34 points. Will they get five points out of their next three games, against Phoenix, Phoenix and Columbus? Maaaaaaybe. Maybe not. Either way, I think the Kings have already pretty much gotten out of December without the catastrophic meltdown of years gone by. Who knows, maybe they'll meltdown in January this time, but maybe they simply won't melt down.

However, it appears that the Kings are still at the crossroad of those two divergent paths, although there is certainly reason to be hopeful given that several of the events of option #2 (the good road) have either happened (Lewis, Purcell, Quick) or appear to be about to happen (goodbye Jason LaBarbera).

Anyway, I'm glad we didn't deal for Khabibulin; I'm optimistic that the LaBarbera chapter is just about to close; and I'm looking forward to JJ's return (hard to say which D that's going to be bad for; Preissing, I guess).

Now it's time to gear up for Hickey, Teubert, Voynov and Moller at the WJCs.

Talk about fundamentals! Quick has 'em. He's pretty sharp. It seemed like we had a real goaltender out there tonight, shutout notwithstanding.

I don't need to say anything about him compared to Labs, but I can see the possibility of good competition between Iceberg and Quick for ice time. Different styles to be sure, but both good players.

In the last game I thought Quick had trouble seeing the puck when it was off the ice, but this game he seemed to have no problem tracking it. Maybe it was just that he got tossed into the big game in Detroit and was a bit shell shocked.

The Kings are "thinking" Wings and Rangers and Sharks so the Jackets' comparative lack of cohesion was very plain. The Kings pretty much dusted them. It's a winning mindset. I see this mindset in most games now, and it's really encouraging.

I don't mind when the Kings drop a game or three, UNLESS they don't give it their level best. Bless 'em for giving it a real go on a consistent basis. Who knows, soon enough I may actually be surprised when they lose.

I've been a Kings fan for 25 or so years and that will not change (as long as they're in Los Angeles), so the obnoxious fair-weather fandom that some of the other posters show is getting really old.

Let's go Kings!

Hey Ciccarelli, there's no way to get around the content filter on your SonicWall without explicit access. Sorry dude.

Way to go Kings, and a big hats off to Quick for his first NHL shootout just two starts into the season. Nice.

Ivan scores, what's not to like. No Zeiler tonight, sort of surprise. All in all, they looked good tonight.

I'm starting to get scared. I was so used to losing in recent years that it stopped upsetting me, I just kind of accepted it for what it was. I don't know if I'm ready to accept that the Kings are going to be legitimate contenders soon. I'm not sure if I can handle the heartbreaks...

Markisonfire.....That was bloody funny! You think just like a real Kings fan. I've been one since 67-68, yep I've had plenty of heartache, you hit it right on the head...I like the sound of that, legitmate contenders.

Merry Xmas to all!