Here are Anze Kopitar’s thoughts on the “second half” of the Kings’ season. The Kings entered today 13th in the West, but only six points out of the three-way tie for sixth place. Given the road-heavy schedule on the horizon, things aren’t going to be easy for the Kings, but Kopitar seems optimistic given the way the Kings played before the break…

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Question: How do you guys look at this second half of the season? Obviously you’re not in a position of strength in the standings, but you’re not out of it either.

KOPITAR: “To be honest with you, the big games might already be behind us. That road trip that we went on, that was huge for us. To get five points out of (a possible) six, that was huge for us. Obviously there is still a lot of work to do, but if he lost those last three games, that would have been hard on us. But there is still a lot of work to do, and I think everybody in here is looking forward to it.”

Question: Was it the way you won those games as well, by breaking out of that offensive slump?

KOPITAR: “Yeah. If we can build on that, we’ll be good. We need to tighten it up a little defensively. We maybe got a little loose in Colorado, but two points are two points, so we’re going to take that.”

Question: Obviously everyone wants great offense and great defense at the same time, but is there a little give and take there? Do you still have to find the right balance?

KOPITAR: “I think so, definitely. If you look at clubs that are more offensive-minded and score a lot of goals, they usually win 5-3 or 6-4 or something like that. When you look at low-scoring teams, it’s 3-1, 2-1, maybe 1-0. There’s always a fine line between having a great offense and a great defense. That’s just how it is in hockey. I don’t know if you can do anything about it. Obviously you want to do something about it, but maybe that’s just the way it is.”

Oscar Moller, who suffered a fractured clavicle at the World Junior Championships, was back in practice Monday for the first time, but still hasn’t been medically cleared. Terry Murray kept Moller out of a late-practice 3-on-3 drill that featured a lot of physical play. Moller said he would be examined again either this afternoon or tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem likely that Moller will be cleared to play by Thursday. The timetable for any fracture is typically 4-to-6 weeks, and Moller is just about at the four-week mark right now…

Question: How does it feel out there? Almost back to normal?

MOLLER: “It feels good to me. I haven’t had any contact yet, so we’ll see about that, but motion wise and stuff like that, and shooting, I don’t have any problems.”

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Question: Update on Moller’s status?

MURRAY: “Oscar is close. His injury goes back to about the first of the month. It’s a broken bone, so he’s going to be a little while yet, but he’s able to participate in the drills. There’s just no contact allowed. It’s getting close.”

Question: If he does get cleared in the next day or two, is there any chance he could play Thursday?

MURRAY: “I don’t think he’s going to get cleared. It’s a bone issue, and there’s a pretty definite time frame on that. I can’t say it’s definite, but he will come with us on the road trip, I’m pretty sure of that. Because it will be better as we get into that trip.”

Here are some comments from Erik Ersberg and Terry Murray about Ersberg’s health. Nobody is officially saying what is ailing Ersberg, but playing junior detective here…Ersberg said his groin is fine and that he hurt himself when his skate blade got stuck in the ice during a shootout attempt. That leaves knee or ankle as possibilities, and given that Ersberg has been rehabbing using a slideboard, it’s most likely a knee issue. Regardless, it’s not serious, and it sounds as though Ersberg is roughly 50-50 for Thursday’s game. A decision will be made after Tuesday’s practice whether to call up Jonathan Bernier.

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Question: All things considered, it seems like the all-star break did you some good…

ERSBERG: “Yeah. It looks like I’m just missing two games. It would have been fun to go to Montreal (for the YoungStars game), but the team comes first.”

Question: It looked like the sophomore team could have used your help out there…

ERSBERG: (laughs) “I don’t know. Maybe it was good that I missed it.”

Question: Do you feel stronger now? Back to normal, pretty much?

ERSBERG: “It’s hard to say. I’m a little…not scared, but you know it’s there, so we’ll see how I feel tomorrow. I’m going to ice it down now and see how I feel tonight and see how I feel tomorrow on the ice. But it was a pretty good first day.”

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MURRAY: “(Ersberg) went through the practice and, for most of it, he was comfortable. There were a couple situations where he had to get overextended sometimes, just on a reaction play, and he could feel it, but it goes away. It’s not a lingering pain, so he’s very, very close.”

Question: Are you confident enough that you can go with the two guys here and not have to call up Bernier?

MURRAY: “I talked to Ersberg just a minute ago. It’s something I want to relay along to management, and pass the conversation along, for them to be on guard and be aware that we might need somebody after tomorrow’s practice. I think I’d like to go that far. We’ll get Ersberg through tomorrow and see if there’s improvement after that. I know that we need to go into the game against Chicago with two goaltenders who are ready to play, so we’ll make that decision after the practice tomorrow.”

A couple notes after a long, long practice with lots of conditioning skating:

— Oscar Moller practiced but has yet to be cleared for contact, so it’s highly doubtful that he will play Thursday. The Kings plan on bringing him on the road trip, with the anticipation that he might be ready in the next week or so.

— Erik Ersberg feels better but isn’t quite 100 percent. The Kings will decide after tomorrow’s practice whether to call up Jonathan Bernier. It’s still not official, but it seems that Ersberg twisted his knee on that final shootout attempt.

— Lots of talk about sustaining the momentum of the pre-break games. I’ll have some quotes on all this stuff a bit later.

Not that it matters much, since Brown isn’t here, but in case you’re curious, here’s how the Kings forwards are skating today:

Frolov-Kopitar-O’Sullivan
Calder-Stoll-Moller
Richardson-Handzus-Simmonds
Ivanans-Armstrong-Zeiler

Oscar Moller and Erik Ersberg are both back on the ice at practice right now. It appears to be a travel/rest day for Dustin Brown and Drew Doughty.

Since it’s been a few days, and there were a couple transaction during the all-star break, here’s where the Kings’ roster stands at the moment. You can expect Brad Richardson to be activated soon, and hopefully there will be an update on Oscar Moller’s status soon.

The Kings return to practice today at 2 p.m., so hopefully we’ll get an update on Erik Ersberg’s status as well. The Kings next play Thursday in a home game against Chicago.

FORWARDS (11)
Derek Armstrong
Dustin Brown
Kyle Calder
Alexander Frolov
Michal Handzus
Raitis Ivanans
Anze Kopitar
Patrick O’Sullivan
Wayne Simmonds
Jarret Stoll
John Zeiler

DEFENSEMEN (8)
Drew Doughty
Denis Gauthier
Matt Greene
Peter Harrold
Jack Johnson
Sean O’Donnell
Tom Preissing
Kyle Quincey

GOALTENDERS (2)
Erik Ersberg
Jonathan Quick

INJURED RESERVE
F — Marc-Andre Cliche (separated shoulder)
F — Oscar Moller (fractured clavicle)
F — Brad Richardson (lower-leg laceration)

Dustin Brown was named the NHL’s “first star” last week…

FIRST STAR — DUSTIN BROWN, LW, LOS ANGELES KINGS

Brown scored the game-winning goal in consecutive road games, helping the Kings (19-20-7, 45 points) move within six points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. He tallied the game-winner, posted a +3 rating and was named the game’s first star in a 5-2 victory at Minnesota Jan. 20 and notched the winner, an assist and a +1 rating in a 6-5 win at Colorado Jan. 21. The Kings captain completed the week by making his first career NHL All-Star Game appearance Sunday at Montreal, posting an assist for the Western Conference in a 12-11 shootout loss to the Eastern Conference.

SECOND STAR — CAM WARD, G, CAROLINA HURRICANES

Ward stopped 67 of 68 shots in posting road victories on consecutive nights, lifting the Hurricanes (23-20-5, 51 points) to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference entering the All-Star break. He stopped 35 shots in recording his second shutout of the season and eighth of his NHL career in a 2-0 victory at Toronto Jan. 19 and made 32 saves in a 2-1 victory at Pittsburgh Jan. 20. Ward improved his season record to 18-14-3 with a 2.57 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 36 appearances.

THIRD STAR — ALES HEMSKY, RW, EDMONTON OILERS

Hemsky thoroughly dominated his lone game last week, recording two goals and two assists — including the game-winning goal with 34.9 seconds remaining in regulation time — in the Oilers’ 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets Jan. 20. He posted a +2 rating and was named the game’s first star. The victory was the Oilers’ fifth in six games and improved their record to 24-19-3, sixth in the Western Conference. “That was unreal, I haven’t seen anything like that in a while,” Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish said of Hemsky’s performance. “Two goals and two assists. We’ve seen that before. But not where all four are world-class plays.”

Want to read about Dustin Brown’s All-Star Game experience? You can do it in two places. The Kings’ website has a story on Brown’s day, and USA Today has its final installment of Brown’s diary from Montreal.

Brown sums up his experience

L.A.’s Brown earns assist; hoping for 2010 Olympic bid

“I ended up deciding against hitting someone. I saw Zach (Parise) today at lunch and we talked about it briefly then. I told him, `Keep your head up. We’ll see how it goes.’ I had a few shifts against Zach and there was one opportunity where I could have hit him, but I laid off.”

Dustin Brown played 14 minutes, 11 seconds, in today’s All-Star Game and assisted on Shane Doan’s third-period goal. In a back-and-forth game, the East scored with 3:39 remaining to tie the game 11-11, then won in a shootout with goals from Kovalev and Ovechkin. Brown had two shots on goal but was not credited with any hits in the game, but Keith Tkachuk got one…