Postgame notes (3/3)
-- The Kings have now lost four consecutive games and are 1-6 in their last seven. The Kings fell to 26-28-9 and fell two games under .500 for the first time since Jan. 20.
-- The good news for the Kings? They scored four goals in a game for the first time in almost two weeks. The Kings had scored a combined four regulation goals in their last four games. The bad news? Obviously it's that they allowed five goals, an unfortunate plateau they have reached three times in their last nine games.
-- In their final meeting of the season, the Kings and Blue Jackets broke a trend. The three previous games between the teams this season had all been shutouts. The Kings beat Columbus 3-0 on Dec. 6 in L.A. and 3-0 on Dec. 23 in Columbus, and lost 2-0 on Dec. 29 in L.A.
-- Of the Kings' 18 skaters, 11 had at least one point in the game. Jarret Stoll, with one goal and one assist, was the only multi-point player. Stoll now has scored goals in two consecutive games, after going six consecutive games without a point.
-- Oscar Moller wasted little time getting back in the NHL groove, as he scored a second-period goal, which temporarily gave the Kings a 4-3 lead. Moller suffered a fractured clavicle while representing his native Sweden in the World Junior Championships in December and was playing only his second game for the Kings since Dec. 17. Moller returned for a Feb. 12 game but then went on a two-week conditioning assignment in the AHL.
-- Teddy Purcell got moved down to the fourth line on Tuesday, to make room for Moller, but it didn't seem to bother Purcell, who second a second-period goal.
-- Jonathan Quck had another rough outing, at least statistically. Quick stopped 20 of 25 shots, coming off a game Sunday against Chicago in which he allowed four goals. Quick now has a 2-4-2 record in his last eight games and has allowed at least three goals in five of his last seven starts.
-- Jack Johnson and Denis Gauthier each had minus-2 ratings.
-- Tom Preissing was placed on waivers by the Kings on Monday morning and cleared waivers on Tuesday morning. The Kings have not announced what they intend to do with Preissing. Preissing, a healthy scratch on Tuesday, has three goals, four assists and a minus-7 rating in 22 games this season. He has often been a healthy scratch and recently missed 14 consecutive games because of undisclosed issues involving dizziness. Preissing was activated from injured reserve on Sunday.
-- The Kings outshot Columbus 26-25.
-- The Kings went 1-for-3 on the power play. The Kings took only one minor penalty, Denis Gauthier's first-period hook, but the Blue Jackets scored a power-play goal.
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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Put the CBS line back together. This team was scoring and winning with that line. Sully blows. He either wants off of this team so he's playing like crap on purpose or last year was a fluke. Kopi will not pass the puck to Brown unless it's his last resort. He's out for himself and his scoring title. He doesn't give a shit about this team's success. Don't blame Brownie for lack of leadership when there are guys on this team who don't show up to play every game. The POS,Kopi,Brown line is about as effective as the Fro, Kopi Brown line. NOT. Maybe there are some uneasy feelings since it's trade time and things will change after tommorrow is over. God, I hope so.
Someone needs to remind Jack Johnson that the D next to his name means he is supposed to play defense. -14 in 22 games played. Just flat out ugly.
I don't like making threats like this, because all opinions are valid, but Anthony, your rope is getting very short. All you do is hop on posts and hit-and-run with inflammatory criticisms that you know will generate attacks. Vary it up a little. Quickly. Thank you.
Dear NHL, please don't recognize when Kings goaltenders are playing well. You jinxed Quick with your 1st star of the week, you did a similar thing with Labarbera and Garon.
I've thought this for a couple weeks now but isn't it about time Jon Quick takes a break for a while? Yes he was really good for a while and there have been moments of brilliance but he has also single-handedly lost some recent games. It doesn't matter if he is going to stop almost every shot if he is going to hand the puck off to the opposing team right behind the net so they can score when he's not standing in front of the net.
For a coach who claims that he does not have a #1 goalie Murray sure has ridden Quick. One would think Ersberg had been just awful when he has played. Quite the contrary, in just 3 less games Erik's GAA is slightly better (2.55 vs. 2.49) and his Save Percentage is slightly worse (.913 vs. .901) and those numbers are form espn.com so they are probably before today's game where Quick's numbers dropped even further.
I know Quick is not the reason the Kings have dropped out of the playoff chase, and I'm not kidding myself anymore- making up 8 points in 19 games in impossible. But I do think Ersberg earned more of a look than he has gotten from Murray.
I will say this about Jon Quick though- I have never seen a goalie who was worse at handling the puck outside the crease. He has mishandled the puck at least once in almost every game he has played and on several occasions really has handed it right to the other team who immediately scored on him. If Murray is going to insist on continuing to play him over Ersberg I hope he will at least tell him to stop handling the puck and just let the defensemen do it!!
The good thing about the Kings current struggles is that everyone else at the bottom of the Western Conference is struggling, so the Kings haven't lost a lot of ground. If they can get hot, anything can happen.
More soft goals - at least 2 maybe 3-is it just me or have others noticed it - OM def injects some much needed off creativity to whatever line he is on- his pokecheck about 5 min in behind to jackets net to keep the puck in and led to more off zone time was just one example of how his speed helps us- Simmonds to me looks to be getting better every game he has a nice well rounded game his growth is going to be exciting to watch- I forget just how young this team is- I think we can turn the page on this yr sad to say-what a great ride it has been- I thought E would have been a better matchup w/ his quickness against columbus -still would like to see him get more starts in net