Tomorrow’s game story tonight …
Anze Kopitar skated into the attacking zone in the opening minute of the Kings’ 7-4 victory Thursday over the Phoenix Coyotes at Staples Center. He and his teammates were on a power play and they buzzed around goaltender Mike Smith’s net in search of an early goal.
Continue reading “Final: Kings 7, Coyotes 4” »
The Kings pulled out a 2-1 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night, the first stop on a four-game trip. Dwight King scored a shorthanded goal late in the third period and Jeff Carter had the only goal in the shootout. The Kings won in overtime or a shootout for the third time in five games to start the season. Here are more impressions of another grinding victory for a team that excels in those types of games:
Continue reading “Three things about the Kings’ grinding shootout victory over the Hurricanes” »
Who will emerge as this season’s surprise?
The Kings’ lineup seems all but set in stone, which makes the notion of a rising star something of an impossibility. The coaching staff would like to see players raise the level of their play. Young defenseman Slava Voynov certainly did that last season, scoring 25 points (six goals, 19 assists) in 48 games. Is Dwight King next on the list? Or will it be someone from the minor leagues like Tyler Toffoli or Linden Vey or Tanner Pearson? King will get a chance when he lines up on the top line alongside center Anze Kopitar and right wing Justin Williams. Kings coach Darryl Sutter said earlier in the week that King had the best training camp of anyone on the roster. Toffoli, Vey and Pearson were unable to take advantage of the many opportunities Sutter gave them to shine during camp and earned a one-way ticket back to the Manchester (N.H.) Monarchs of the AHL. Time will tell if we see them with the Kings later this season. It’s a good bet one or more will be back. Stay tuned.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter stated the obvious Tuesday when he expressed concerned about the team’s lackluster play at left wing last season. Then he dropped a bit of a surprise on a gaggle of reporters when he said he would play left wing Dwight King on the Kings’ top line to start their regular-season opener Thursday at Minnesota.
Continue reading “Left wing letdown (Kings coach Darryl Sutter’s concerns and worries, part 2)” »
The Kings’ roster is remarkably unchanged from the one that won the Stanley Cup championship in 2012. Does that ease coach Darryl Sutter’s mind going into Thursday’s season-opening game against the Minnesota Wild at St. Paul, Minn? Of course not.
Continue reading “Any preseason worries? Yeah, Kings coach Darryl Sutter has a couple” »
Delayed postgame reaction due to technical difficulties …
The Kings played one of those grind-it-out games against a team with more speed and skill and still managed to pull out a 2-1 victory over the visiting Ducks on Tuesday. The Kings have won more of their share of these kinds of games because they seem to play more than their share of them. The Kings also showed off a little skill of their own on their two goals, especially on a flawless give-and-go from Anze Kopitar to Dwight King and back to Kopitar for the go-ahead marker early in the third period.
Here’s more:
Continue reading “Three things about the Kings’ exhibition victory over the Ducks (11/24)” »
The Kings won’t have team captain Dustin Brown when they face the San Jose Sharks in the regular-season finale Saturday night at Staples Center. Brown will serve the second game of a two-game suspension from the NHL for elbowing Jason Pominville of the Minnesota Wild during the Kings’ loss Tuesday. Brown is eligible to return for Game 1 of the playoffs next week. Until then, the Kings will be shorthanded.
Continue reading “Darryl Sutter: shorthanded Kings need more production from the left side” »
The Kings didn’t get their first shot on net until Dwight King’s backhander from the right wing at the 15-minute, 26-second mark of the opening period Monday. Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne turned that shot and two others aside in a period that required very little heavy lifting. Jonathan Bernier started in goal for the Kings and needed to make only five saves to keep the Predators scoreless.
The question Friday was specifically about the struggles of Kings forward Dwight King. But coach Darryl Sutter used it as a chance to speak about the overall lack of scoring depth from the Kings to start the season. He wouldn’t single out King.
Continue reading “Darryl Sutter talks about the Kings’ lack of scoring depth to start the season” »
The Kings held a relatively routine morning skate at Toyota Sports Center this morning. Here are the line rushes:
Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Simon Gagne – Trevor Lewis – Jarret Stoll
Jordan Nolan – Colin Fraser – Kyle Clifford
Dwight King – Brad Richardson – Dustin Penner
Brad Richards and Jeff Carter took the optional morning off. They’ll be in tonight, but who will skate at left wing on their line remains a question mark; more on that in a bit.
The D pairs were fluid — Rob Scuderi took the optional too — but you can expect the usual configuration against the Ducks tonight in Anaheim:
Rob Scuderi – Drew Doughty
Slava Voynov – Alec Martinez
Davis Drewiske – Jake Muzzin
Richardson and Andrew Bodnarchuk are the expected scratches.
Clifford is the team leader in points, as I pointed out in my game preview. Head coach Darryl Sutter wasn’t exactly effusive in his praise of the young winger, however.
“Our left side has a grand total of two goals this year in six games,” Sutter said. “He’s got one. Brown’s got one.”
Will Clifford slot in with Carter and Richards again? “We’ll see how the game goes,” Sutter said.
The coach also attempted to temper the high expectations for Dwight King, who made a memorable impact during the Kings’ run to the Cup, but has been all but invisible this season. The second-year left wing was demoted to the fourth line this week.
“He didn’t get here until January last year and he didn’t really do much until playoffs,” Sutter said of King. “We brought him up here because the team was struggling on left wing. We brought him up here and he played in the playoffs and he played well. He went back to the American League and leveled his game out and now he’s got to get his intensity back to the NHL level.”
If Dustin Penner stays in the lineup as expected — regardless of which line — expect King to be the odd man out. For now, it seems like less a comment on any individual than on Sutter’s dissatisfaction with the left wing position in general.