FINAL: Avalanche 3, Kings 2
Colorado pushed its lead to 3-1 on a T.J. Hensick goal 5:28 into the period (assists to former King Kyle Quincey and Chris Stewart. Trevor Lewis scored his first goal of the preseason, shorthanded (assist to Brad Richardson) to pull the Kings with 3-2 with 2:12 to play, but goalie Craig Anderson and the Avalanche held on.
Some notes...
-- Erik Ersberg played the entire game and stopped 22 shots. Anderson stopped 31.
-- The Kings had only one power play and failed on it (the also failed on the aforementioned penalty shot by Marc-Andre Cliche). The Kings' penalty kill went 3 for 3.
-- Rich Clune got in two first-period fights and Matt Greene got in a third-period fight.
-- Jack Johnson led all Kings in ice time at 23:38, 14 seconds more than Drew Doughty. Justin Williams led all Kings forwards at 21:09.
-- Williams had a game-high six shots on goal. Rob Scuderi blocked three shots.
-- Trevor Lewis was the star in the faceoff circle, winning 7 of 11. Cliche lost 8 of 10.
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About the bloggers
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.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.
I am starting to think Trevor Lewis makes this club. He has had a good camp and those kind of face-off numbers are hard to ignore.
Richardson also sounded like he had a good game. I think there is chance he makes the club as well with Clune and Harrold being the healthy scratches/subs depending on the match-ups.
That gives us a line of Richardson/Lewis/Westgarth (preferably). Clicheis sent down and Ivanans with goes with him, is released or someone willing to take him.
Defense is a much more complex situation especially now with O'Donnell's suspension.
vegas o/u are out for total points
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/According-to-Vegas-oddsmakers-your-2009-10-play?urn=nhl,191499
I'll take Nuks over 96.5
Flames under 96.5
Habs under 93.5
Kings over 86.5, I know I said they's hit 86, I'm going up to 87.
Best bet: Hawks under 105.5 in the best division in hockey.
Should I stick to the lotto?
Glad that was a pre-season game.
It sounded much like too many Kings' games from the last two seasons: outplay the opponent for much of the game but don't score, make a mistake or two then fall behind, spend the rest of the game trying to generate energy/shots, outshoot the other team but lose.
Time for Williams et al to put the puck in the net! Effort has to translate into goals, especially on the road.
Also, sounds like the third goal scored on a brutal JFMJ turnover... Glad I can't see it! And, maybe Clifford finally played his way off the team tonight...
Back to MAN with you, Marc-Andre. 2 of 10 in the circle will not help your causes.
Re-posting this from the goodbye party posting:
Wow, I feel so late to the game. Thanks, Rich for all you have done for the Daily News. The fact that your blog outperformed such local juggernauts as the Lakers, Dodgers, USC and UCLA is an amazing testament to both your skills and the Kings fans.
Great to hear you will be on the road with the team. It's like the Jack Kent Cooke days all over again! (I kid. Seriously, I kid. I don't want to see that again.)
Anyway, now that you are besties with Luc, would you mind dropping the hint that the Kings need to extend their brand to the fashion pages? The producer Joker has an idea for where to start:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g231/nickandrews21/joker.jpg
Cheers and best of luck!
sounds like ersberg may have played his way on to the monarchs tonight. bernier should start hunting for an apartment in MB.
I didn't listen to the game (work) and I know it's only preseason. But how the heck do we lose to the freaking Avalanche? Aren't they projected to be the worst team in hockey? And wasn't this supposed to be the better lineup than the one in KC? So with Kopitar, Brown, & Williams in the lineup, how come our only goal scorers are Peter Harrold & Trevor Lewis? BTW, was there a specific reason Smyth wasn't in the lineup? Just curious.
Just sounded like a sloppy game by the Kings. Very poor defencive plays. Anyone at the game, how did schenn/clifford look? Sounded like they got good ice time.
Guys lets not panic here. We lost a pre season game...I'm pretty sure we're going to lose a few regular season games as well...that doesn't mean the sky is falling.
JW had 6 shots on goal and led the forwards in ice time...sounds to me like he was effective. The goals will come, just not every night.
Good for Harrold and Lewis to get a goal. We're down to just over a week to go before the regular season begins...Kings management has some tough decisions to make beause guys have played well during camp.
I'm confident in this group as we get near the start of the season. One loss isn't going to shake that confidence.
Really not so bad, especially since we didn't have any of our actual lines together. Purcell may not have the chemistry with Kopi that Smyth does, and the same could be said about Brown with Schenn.
Looking at the lineup, three of the lines, except for Brown, were populated entirely with players fighting to be on the fourth line. That said, 3-2 isn't bad. Plus, Anderson is a pretty good goalie, and Colorado only has 27 guys on their roster. Who played tonight for them is pretty close to what they'll be icing this season. So yeah, don't worry anyone. They'll be bad alright.