Murray, on the goaltending plan

Idon't know how he even gets outa bed sometimes,afterall the options are endless but I'm scared of getting out that side I've never been that way before.I YIE YIE is it gonna hurt? J.C.

Maybe someone can explain this if they know, but it seems to me you don't REALLY know if a goalie is ready to play in the NHL until he actualy PLAYS in the NHL. They're coached, they play in the minors, they work their tail off, then they finally get the call up and then...uh...we're not sure if he's ready to play? Also, didn't DL say they talked about who to bring up and after carefully considering everything, they gave Quick the call? So, what's to think about? Give the guy a game! Geez.

I just read Elliot's stupid article in the Times online about the goaltending situation with the Kings and I feel the need to comment here because it seems everyone here agrees with her that Jason Labarbera sucks.

Some of the blame for the Kings' inability to defeat the Sharks and Rangers in the last two games belongs with the forwards who seem incapable of scoring. Two goals a game is not enough to be successful in the NHL. If you are only going to score twice when you get forty-one shots you simply cannot blame the goalie unless two of the goals he gives up are absolute jokes. Such was not the case with the last two games.

The Kings absolutely should have won those games but that is because they had lots of shots and should have buried another one of them. Labarbera has done everything he could to get the Kings points, but the forwards have to pull their weight too. And for that matter so do the defensemen who fail to clear rebounds, let forwards jump around them with the puck to get breakaways, or bat broken sticks at opposing players to give them penalty shots.

What a load of crap to blame those two losses on Labarbera!!

Like many of you I am terrified by the prospect of JLB playing another minute between the pipes. This could be a terrible choice by TM, although I understand he is in a bad spot.

We've got to give one of the kids a chance at some point, otherwise our season, which has been so promising, may colapse under the weight of poor goal tending. Every time I see Labarbara start a game I get nervous knowing that our chances of winning have just dropped well below 50-50.

Rich, maybe a poll this afternoon to see how many people here think Labs will win one tonight?

GO KINGS!

Whether we like Murrays decisions or not, I really do admire his honesty. He just lays it out there for us to read. Thanks for being honest TM.

UM SERIOUSLY?!?!?!

There's obviously some kind of office politics going on here that we're unaware of. This is more than just goaltending. Labs is barbequing on the weekends with Murray's family or something.

JEEZ give the kid a chance!

whatever Terry ... give us a break for the love of God ... a HIGH SCHOOL goalie would give us a better chance than Labs at this point.

You DONT KNOW?!?!?! What the hell does that say about YOU?!

My respect for you is heading towards a downward spiral on that one. Just say you'll give him one game at least for cryin out loud.

Just to throw a little gas on the fire...on September 24th, the Kings beat the Avalanche in OT 4-3 in a pre-season game. Guess who stopped all three attempts in the shootout? Yep, Jonathan Quick!

I didnt see this posted yet, thought you guys might want a look.

Hockey's Future Fall 2008 Organizational Rankings, 1-10

1. St. Louis Blues

2. Los Angeles Kings

Strengths: Depth is not a concern and with a potential franchise blueliner and goaltender leading the way, things are looking good in LaLa Land.

Read the rest here:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/10786/hockeys_future_fall2008_organizational_rankings110/

Forgot to mention...

Playing JLB is really starting to piss me off.

Memo to TM: The first instinct is usually the correct. Give Quick a shot. Better, still, give him 3.

So the Kings have two goalies in their entire system that the coach is comfortable with playing in the NHL and LaBarbera is one of them. That's pretty funny...

"To be quite honest, I don't know if he's ready to play in the NHL and go out and do the job for us."

Note to TM: Jonathan "don't know if he's ready to play in the NHL" Quick is, by default, a better option than Jason "know that he's NOT ready to play in the NHL" LaBarbara.

These are some good teams that the Kings are going to play on this road trip. TM does not want to throw the kid into the lions den to be torn apart. He wants to see how Labs is going to respond tonight, if Labs has a bad game. You know Quick is going to be in the nets tomorrow against Detroit. That's what TM was comunicating, if you read in between the lines.

Roger

Let hop we outshoot the other teams 25-0. And NOT go to a shootout.

I think there's a danger of our little Army (cheers duckhunter/hulka) getting too expectant of this team. I know I'm imagining a golden run to the Stanley Cup after how this team has looked over the majority of the 1st 1/3 of the season. But when I settle down and think about things, maybe getting too much too soon can ruin everything. I'd rather have a team that is strong for decades than make a valiant run after a Cup once or twice - i.e. Murray's Panthers and Caps, the Canes (even though they won it, they've fallen on more struggles, Edmonton, even Calgary or the Flyers of the mid-90's.
I'd love to win just one Cup. If the option is 1 or 0, I'd choose 1.
But if adding a veteran for the rest of the season would create turmoil and expectation, maybe we'd be better just accepting what we've currently got and just being patient.
As a long time Kings fan, I have my inbred doubts about Bernier, but he's not the only prospect and I don't know the first thing about developing a promising goalie into a dominant one.
There are some young goalies out there I'd love to have in our system - Ben Bishop topping my list, or Hiller - but until our young guys are truly tested, we may be better just waiting.
Personally, I think Roloson (jedi-he's a solid guy, is there an injury I don't know about?) or Gerber for a 2nd or 3rd rounder may be a viable option, but then again, if we got close in the playoffs, would we be able to stomach struggling with youth next season?
As far as Murray's comments today go - I'm just going to start trusting him.
I think he's treating Labs like an old pair of work boots - If you think you might be stepping in shit for the day, you'd want to wear your old one's because you're going to be rid of them soon. The new one's never get soiled with dung while they're brand new.
I would like to see Quick perform behind our boys, though.
I think it'll happen.
Murray's just playing diplomat.

Barbie in net, I'm glad I will miss this game. I wonder if the San Jose Sharks were thinking like TM when they threw Nabokov in a game and into the fire. He was a freakn 9th rounder that got a shot, look at him now. Vesa Toskla was a 4th rounder, I bet nobody knew he was ready until he got a shot. Mika Kiprusoff was a 5th rounder and he got a shot. How come the Sharks can provide the NHL with 3 starting goaltenders and we can't produce 1?

On a sidenote, Quick already beat Buffalo once in his career. Quick isn't a NHL goaltender and he probably will never be a starting goaltender in the NHL but does TM really think Jason is any different?

Some of you guys make me laugh. Office politics? Millions of dollars, Murray's reputation, and a Stanley Cup are on the line in the business of NHL coaching. You think he is going to play politics? Please.

LaBarbara is a sieve, there is no denying that but Murray is absolutely right here. You give the guy who has played at this level the opportunity to show his stuff and then you go from there.

I know you guys are going to say LaBarbara has had his chance, and that's true. He had it and didn't capitalize and that's why Ersberg had been getting more minutes lately. But you certainly defer to LaBarbara over Quick. Additionally, I know a lot of you are fans of the extreme, but LaBarbara is not the worst goalie in the NHL or the world. He ain't good, but there's certainly worse out there.

This year's team wasn't supposed to do anything. If we make the playoffs, great. We'll get knocked out early and the team can learn from that. If we miss the playoffs, great. We get a better draft choice and the team will be bitter and hungry to do better next season. Save your angst for a year or two from now.

Save your angst for a year or two from now.

OK.
Angst is a controllable feeling.
I don't know why I've been UPSET about all the losing for the last 6 years.
If I'm Angst ridden over this team in 2 or 3 years, I'm out for good.

We've had four years to see what LaBarbera can do, and I think it's apparent to most people now why he had been a career minor leaguer up until that time. He's still a career minor leaguer who's totally overwhelmed and probably too emotionally fragile to ever be a significant contributor to a playoff team.

Garrett

You don't make any sense. If we take 40 shots on net, why can their goalie make 38 saves and win the game, and if the other team is only taking about 24 shots dont you think our goalie should be able to make more than only 22 saves and lose the game?? I still blame it on Labarbara......

tantrum4, have you ever considered the possibility that Garrett's last name is LaBarbera?

Nice choice with Labz in goal. Once again we take more shots other team scores.

Seems to me Quick looked pretty good last year when he played, but it's been a while. Frankly, Barbs hasn't looked all that bad, most of the time, but I would agree that Ersberg has been more consistently impressive (particularly, stopping the tough shots, and especially when the game is on the line.) I'd blame the inability to score at least as much as the goaltending, on the balance. There was a stretch when the Kings finally managed to get a lot of traffic in front of the net, but most of the season, that's been a big problem. I'm getting the idea the Kings are actually going to miss Moller a lot.