Terry Murray quotes

I agree with coach on this one.
First two periods, our team looked like women on their period.

If we miss the playoffs by a few points, these tough losses will come back to haunt you.
They shouldn't let weak teams get the better of them.
Pheonix is beginning to get under my skin.
They seem to always beat us.
Why?

You'd think what the coach is saying would be obvious, but apparently not everyine on the team "gets it."

20 minute efforts should be a source of embarrassment for this young team. The equivalent of a 4 or 5 goal drubbing. This can't happen if they plan on being successful now or in the future.

The Kings are 1-10-4 when the opponent scores first. That's the WORST winning percentage in the entire league. Even worse than Tampa Bay.

A Rich, can you tell the Kings not to use that third Jersey anymore.
I think that's the four lose with that Jersey. Also no more drummer dudes also well. Thank You!!!

Anonymous- aside from the losing record with the 3rd jersey it's now my favorite.... i hope the team switches to it next season. reminds me of the good 'ol days.

anthony, i feel your pain man. the yotes have pissed me off for years. even when we were a much better team than them, they beat us, going all the way back to the mid-90's. i'm not sure why. they just have our #. its crap and i'm really tired of it.

Did they have too much Vodka yesterday??

I think TM has a new love interest....

Pack your bags JLB, I have a feeling you're the odd man out when Ersberg comes back.

On Kings Talk after the game I heard Darryl say that Quick was called up under emergency conditions, which apparently means that he is required to be send back to Manchester once Ersberg is given the green light. I guess (and hope) they could call him back-up, but he didn't seem to think that was going to happen.

Although, TM's last comment suggests he might lobby for Quick to stay.

Is it just me, or is Doan the worst King killer in recent history?

The Yotes are climbing my list of most hated teams very quickly. They may just now be second only to the Quacks.

I agree ethman, at first i was skeptical, but they great on the ice, I hope they switch as well they really look sharp out there.

I know there was so great difference of opinion on the new third jersey, but we can all just be thankful that we never had to endure this monstrosity.

http://img34.photobucket.com/albums/v104/newovad/AnaheimMightyDucksThird1995-1996.jpg

Yotes have always been No.2 on my hate list. I hate Doan (specially after he gave JMFJ a beating a couple of seasons back) and I hate Carcillo.

I don't hate doan for the JMFJ fight, I hate him for running our goalie that led up to the fight. Granted, it was Garon's last game as a King, but it was just a cheap play. That was JMFJ's second fight of that game. He lost both badly, but at least we know Johnson has courage and determination (not that this was ever in question, mind you).

JDM, that doesn't strike me as being true. He was called up to correspond with sending Ersberg to the IR, and I'm 99.9% sure it happened before the holiday roster freeze.

Kings Talk is wrong about the emergency recall process. Yes, Quick was recalled under emergency conditions (any team that carries only 2 goalies on their 23-man roster can do this when one of the goalies goes onto IR). When Ersberg is ready to come off of IR (emergency condition terminates) the Kings are required to submit a transfer form to the league indicating if Quick's status has converted to regular recall or that he is being loaned back to the Monarchs...

There is NOTHING in the CBA that requires a player recalled under emergency conditions to be returned to the minors at the termination of the emergency condition...

(Section 13.14(b)(ii) Page 74 CBA)

Coach is right on this one....they were sleeping in the first 2 1/2 periods. So was the crowd for that matter. I go to most games and man....nighty night! Both teams were sad but especially uncharacteristic of the Kings to play like that. Blame this one on the players. Quick played very well. Maybe that second goal could've been stopped but the first was pure defensive breakdown. Here's hoping tomorrow night they have their "after a bad game regularly scheduled come-back" and get a good win.

There have been a lot of "King killers" over the years. Modano has always had great games against the Kings. My personal "hate" King killer was Theo Fluery. I always wanted someone to squash him but he always seemed to rise to the occasion. How far back do you want to go? Bobby Clark always lit them up as well as Espo (but he lit everyone up).

It might be a good thread to ask who everyone sees as the worst King killer in the team history.

Good call Anthony and the rest....I don't know why, maybe its proximity, certainly being a division rival has a lot to do with it. I used to feel the same way about the Flames, Vancouver (still do about the Avs)... But PHX just seens to always give the Kings fits. We beat them 4-0 towards the end of last year at Staples and I actually felt REAL good about the victory even tho both teams were happless.

Also, loose the 3rd jersey. Sorry guys & gals but when they come out on the ice with that "shield" jersey I just get the feeling something bad is going to happen. They don't seem to play as well in those jerseys. This of of course is aside from the fact that I hate the bloody things......

Lets hope for a quick turnaround tonight. If there were two "must wins" for LA this season so far, it was these two against the Yotes, the teams are too close in the standings and too close in ability. Actually LA has a much better team, they just need to play like it against Phoenix.....We'll see...

JDM, don't say that. That's not what I want to hear. Even if that were true, there has to be a way to get Quick on the roster. I have a idea, waive JLB, better yet, we can trade him for a 20th round pick:-) Anyway, I would be bummed if they sent him back down.

Also, besides Doan, there's the guy I dislike the most, the King killer from San Jose, Cheechoo.

Hey, I just now finished watching Canada vs Czech and lets keep losing and get this John Taveres guy. That guy has some scoring touch. This was my 1st time to see him. Texas is not big on showing the Canadian junior leagues on TV for some reason? We are fine on D once our prospects season a little longer, we just need some more offense and of course goaltending.

PS. I was down to 5% of disk space and the Kings game looming so I had to power thru the USA/Germany game on my Tivo. Were we that much better or did Germany just suck?

The Coyotes own us. Always have. Shane Doan, in particular, makes the Kings his door mat.

Kings better win the second game!

did anthony really just write that? one word ... wow.

Recent King killers:

1. Ryan Smyth

2. Shane Doan

3. Paul Kariya

May they all burn in hell! ;)

Fairly tame Kings team last night.
I'd sure like to see Simmonds and Brown switch spots in the lineup.
Also like to see Lewis and Harrold switch spots in the forwards lineup.
My initial reaction, however, is that O'D has been really poor of late.
That first goal was played all wrong and a defenseman must take away the cross-ice pass.

I disagree on the Uni's, too. I like this design more than the regular dark jersey, but of course I'd REALLY like to see the Kings go Gold.

As for Kings Killers, in my 20+ years I'd have to say one of the worst, and most unrecognized as a King Killer is Patrick Roy.
His repulsive personality makes it even tougher to take because it's almost like The Dark Side having our number.
I also have to agree that Ryan Smyth is definitely a big King Killer, especially RIGHT NOW.
But a few of the toughtest Kings Killers were actually done in tandem:
Geoff Courtenall and Cliff Ronning had this teams number at at time when we really thought we had something.
Also, IGOR LARIONOV and Sergei Makarov seemed to be able to score at will and destroyed the Kings almost single handedly. This, also, occurred when the Kings were a good team and looking to go places, but Mak and Lars doused the fire.

Of course, Theo Fleury was a bit of a King Killer, too. What a rivalry we had with Calgary then.

Hey, I hope Darryl is totally wrong about Quick. I want him up. I was just relaying what I heard. Nothing would make me happier than labs getting waived, you should all know that.

Big Rob, I watched the whole USA/Germany game.

Germany sucks that bad.

They had decent goaltending, ok defense, players who moved and could hustle, but virtually no talent, finesse or skill.

USA did seem to have a pretty decent team though. That McDonagh guy is gonna be good. Colin Wilson and some guy named Rust I think are really good players, and VanReimsdyk is a beast among boys.

I wouldn't mind drafting that Schroeder kid though, who is currently ranked 6th I think, which means we have more of a chance at grabbing a guy like him than Tavares, who holy crap has incredible. But that Schroeder kid, man was he fast, patient, could pass and had a wicked shot. He had the first assist on USA's first goal and scored the second goal at the start of the second period, a nice breakaway (or 2 on 1?) goal.

Having this tournament on NHL Network is simply awesome!

Back to the Kings... they win tonight, or I cry. At the very least they could friggin try.

Also, when is the puck going to start going in for Doughty? He's so close so often it must be grinding on his nerves more than it is mine.

I think the Kings need to come out physical at the beginning of every game.
The Coyotes can skate and are much like the Kings, in a way, coming at you in waves.
We've used our physicality in EVERY game we've been effective in.
We just didn't have the Fight we had in Columbus.

Forgot.
Weren't we a bit more effective with Quincey and Doughty paired up on our first D-line?
I wonder if we'll see last night's pairings again.
Consider that one of our best scoring chances early in the game was Simmonds setting up Ivan for a one-timer.
Should Murray, perhaps, play Ivan with some guys like Zoos/Fro, or Stoll/Simmonds?
Calder wasn't too ON last night.

You know EAT, last night going into the third, I was actually telling my buddy at the game that it might be cool to see Brown and Simmonds switched in a game like this where the team needs a spark, totally ripping off your idea, haha! I gave you credit in my mind, but thought starting a sentence with a non-Kings insider blogger with "EAT THE RICH thinks..." wouldn't go over so well ;). So I give you credit now.

However, I was thrilled to see our real top line reuinited last night, and I liked seeing Purcell and Lewis rotated in Brown's spot. I know why you want Harrold on the first line, but until we get another dman, ESPECIALLY with OD being so shaky lately, we sadly and badly need Harrold on defense. Preissing is awful and scares the crap out of me and OD is making some dumb decisions and moving his feet so little he's making Gauthier look quick.

Greene is still great. Doughty played really well last night. Quincey was OK but made a couple of really poor plays. OD we just discussed. Gauthier has been great on the PK and adequate even strength. Preissing is only decent on the PP and just horrible at even strength. That's two out of six defenseman who are questionable. One whole pairing. We need Harrold on D. The only other thing I could think of would be to drastically switch up the pairings...

Doughty/Quincey
Greene/Preissing
Gauthier/OD

Problem with that is Preissing's ice time is increased, which cancels out the decrease for OD, which he clearly needs. Atleast with Harrold on D we have someone with some speed and who doesn['t seem to make a ton of mistakes.

Harrold has made such great strides lately. I think he may have just broken through a platuea. I could care less for him last season and to start this one, but he is making a big case for himself as a part of this teams future in one role or another.

We badly need Johnson back so we can ice this D,

Doughty/Johnson
Greene/Quincey
Gauthier/OD
Harrold

Harrold playing forward until the bench is shortened, so he can take either spot on the 3rd pairing, depending on who is playing worse that game.

Eat - to be fair, O'D was stuck with Pressing, who got caught deep in the O zone which allowed the 2v1. POS also missed on his shot from between the circles, but Pressing has to be more responsible. Pressing also got caught deep in the second period, giving the Yotes another 2v1. Typical of an attacking Dman fresh off a 9 game rest.

Turris looked like he interfered with Handz coming out to the point on the second goal. It looked like the refs were letting them play and the Kings were just slower to adjust.

JDM,

It sucks to see the team SO hot in that last road game followed up by a rather flat performance in a pretty important game.
Just when I think this team is about to break out, they fail to even look like lifting the lid.
There was a terrible lack of "drive the net" mentality last night.
We need the same defensive responsibility to combine with some scoring chemistry.
And, I mentioned that our PP coaches need to see that the young Canada squad can work the puck around down low on the PP and find a goal.
We desperately need some scoring consistency on the PP to help us win these close games.
Yet another 1 goal game in which we have some PP opps late in the game and don't really look like scoring.
Sound off on my Khabs vs. Labs debate:
http://worldhockeydaily.wordpress.com/

jet,

I'm not the biggest Pricey fan, but on that 1st goal I can't really blame him for getting caught up ice like that.
Sometimes it's going to happen and you can't blame him for heading to the net.
If anything, it's a poor decision to take that shot by O'Sullivan because if it's not buried, it's coming back real quick.
Of course, I don't know if Murray really wants his d-men going to the net like that even if they're leading the rush.
It's a shame O'D has really looked so poor lately, however. Even in our strong outings he's looking like the weakest link.
I thought that shot he took on the foot from Souray last month was hobbling him a bit, but I doubt it would still be an issue, thought I could be wrong.
I'm starting to think about the last half of the season and what's going to be happening at the deadline.
What will teams be looking for, or letting go, with guys like Shanahan and McLaren still out there?
It's a little hard to believe we may be able to move guys like Pricey or O'D at the deadline considering that there are some, arguably better options out there for cheaper.

Perhaps EAT. Preissing has some trade value to a contender I think. There are several teams that need a PP specialist, and that's all Preissing really is. We could probably get a mid prospect or 3rd round pick for him.

JDM,

I don't know that many contenders have almost 3 million dollars worth of cap space and our PP struggles make it difficult to consider him a PP specialist.
I do think he's capable of helping out on a good team, but that price-tag really will make it difficult.
This is a strange period in the season.
Really, there's no telling where the team is going to be in early March, or if we'll know what should be the direction at the deadline.
While I've been a proponent of trying to sign Shanahan and a goalie, I'm really wondering if it may be a better idea to try and stock up on some more quality if possible.
Will we be looking at Bouwmeester?
Should Gaborik or Kovalchuk even be a consideration based on the types of players they are and what Murray is trying to do here?
Do we possibly move a "core" player in an attempt to get something we're lacking?
How deep is next years draft and what will be on the shopping list?

So many questions...

re Quick: if he keeps playing the way he's playing (i.e. solid, and every once in a while a game-saving stop) I don't think he's getting sent down. Here's my logic:

DL has always known that JLB is a place-holder for Bernier. While Bernier was incubating, three other prospects materialized (four, if you count Martin Jones, and we probably should). That simply galvanized DL's belief in his goalie-nurturing strategy (given his experience in San Jose, he probably thinks pretty highly of himself in this regard).

And JLB is a free agent this summer. And we know what that means to DL: groom JLB for a trade before the deadline. Which is why I have long argued that JLB was getting the #1 label as part of a campaign to showcase him.

The showcase was a bust.

Now, the only way he's going to be able to deal JLB is if they give him another block of 10-15 games and he's able to turn everything around and become attractive to another team. Does anybody think DL thinks this is a good idea? There's simply no way. If the season was a total washout, it might be worth it (why expose the prospects to the horrible experience of playing on a cellar-dwelling team, etc.). But the season is very much in play, and the defense is solid. So it's clearly not worth it to give JLB another shot.

Now let's look at the language of TM and DL lately. TM has all but said that JLB sucked in the games prior to Quick's first start. And, on the heels Quick's first couple of games, TM has been full of praise for him. Simultaneously, stories start appearing all over the place saying that DL has been back in the Khabibulin sweepstakes. It now appears that DL was pursuing this most of December (per the LA Times story). This either with Ersberg's first losses (and the thought that he might be tiring) or with JLB's picturesque shoot-out performances and subsequent all-around bad-showings.

Nobody ever thought of JLB as the long-term solution. Now (given the previous paragraph) it looks like no-one thinks he's the short-term solution either.

I have to agree with Patrick Roy as the biggest King killer. Who can ever forget all those overtime losses in the finals when we were clearly the superior team on the forecheck.

That's what makes Detroit such a good team. Every year they seem to go out sign the guy that was killing them the previous year.

Quisp,

With the team looking Jekyll and Hyde, I wouldn't be surprised if JLB DID get that block of games you're talking about.
If we don't go after a playoff spot right now, the JLB showcase may get another shot so that he CAN be traded. I think there will be interested parties at the deadline. Even a team like St. Louis may want to bring him in to spell their injury prone guys. Or, if the Khabs deal goes down, does Chicago want him sent their way for backup purposes?
If Ty Conklin still has a career, there's no reason JLB is rubbish.

It will be interesting to see if Quick gets the start tonight.

If labs gets the nod, it could be final test. However, it seems like he's had several 'final' tests lately.

I hope Quick gets the start, obviously, but if anything just to test his resilience and endurance.

EAT....I was wondering if anyone would remember what Ronning and Courtnall did to the Kings. They were KILLERS! I'll never forget the run that Courtnall made at Jamie Storr in the playoffs. Storr wasn't the same goalie after that, he allowed 3 or 4 goals late in the 3rd period of a game the Kings had in the bag. The Kings lost the game and eventually the series. His brother Russ ended up with LA before he retired. Ironic for Cliff Ronning too who also killed the Kings repeatedly and also ended up playing for them. Kinda funny the way things work out. Modano has had his moments, same for Kariya.

We will soon see what DL has in mind. When Ersberg is re-activated. I am hopeful.

NYKingsfan, Moondoggie, Duckhunter, JonG, please see the thread "It's World Junior Time" where I have compiled your midterm grades into one report card (and added my own).

Moondoggie,
I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed in a trade-deadline guy as I was in Ronning. For as many times as he killed the kings in different uniforms, it's almost like he just hated the kings, cuz he didn't do d*ck for us.
Ronning/Courtenal and
Larionov/Makarov
were two big deals for the Nucks and Sharks respectively. They went in and changed the team by themselves. That's something the Kings may need to find before they ever win a Cup. I'd love for LA to bring in Igor in some sort of coaching capacity.