Nicolas Deslauriers
Photo: Scott Slingsby

Sure, I could have watched the All-Star draft (yawn), and I will watch tonight’s skills competition, the only redeeming spectacle during All-Star weekend. But with some extra time on my hands, why not see how the kids down on the farm are doing?

Indeed, the time has come to take a look at some of the Los Angeles Kings’ young prospects, and, in this installment, the focus will be on the blue line corps.

Deslauriers Already Making An Impact

In his first season in professional hockey, defenseman Nicolas Deslauriers’ development appears to be proceeding at a good pace, despite not being able to crack the lineup with the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, the Kings’ primary minor league affiliate, right off the bat.

“For anyone in my place, you know that with a veteran team, it’s hard to find a spot, [with the top six defensemen, including] guys who have played in the NHL,” said the 6-1, 214-pound native of LaSalle, Quebec. “I knew that, so I worked hard to earn a place in the lineup.”

“It was kind of hard at the beginning, because there were a lot of defensemen, but I got my chance with all the injuries [the Monarchs have been hit very hard by injuries this season], and I think I’m doing pretty [well] now, playing on the power play, and on the penalty-kill, so, for half of a season, I’ve had a great year,” added Deslauriers. “At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t playing a lot, so I was working hard in the gym to prove to the training staff and coaches that I could have a spot in the lineup.”

Deslauriers, who was selected by the Kings in the third round (84th overall) of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, is starting to turn some heads with his play.

“Nicolas Deslauriers is really coming on,” said Monarchs head coach Mark Morris. “He’s made huge strides for us. He’s one of the guys who’s made tremendous improvement since the get-go. He’s done a great job.”

“Nick is a beautiful skater,” added Morris. “He’s got a real heavy, hard shot. He’s an extremely strong guy, he’s becoming more positionally sound, and more poised with the puck. He’s not afraid to stick his nose in there—he’ll go into the fray.”

“He does a real good job of moving the puck up the ice, and rushing it himself, and he’s getting pucks to the net, too. He scored his first goal recently. We’ve seen tremendous strides in his game.”

As with any young defenseman, especially one with the offensive skills Deslauriers honed in three seasons with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and one season with the Gatineau Olympiques, both in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Deslauriers is learning that, often times, less is more.

“Nick just has to be more consistent,” Morris noted. “For him, it’s the finer details of the game—being a little more poised to support the rush, rather than leading it. It’s typical of guys from major junior and the [other] leagues beneath us, where they have the ability to go coast-to-coast. In the pro game, things have to be a little more predictable. There aren’t many guys in the game who can get the puck, and go the length of the ice, and it’s not really what we’re after.”

“We want guys to distribute the puck, and support the rush, instead of leading it,” Morris added. “We’ve seen him do a more thorough job of getting the puck to people, backing up his passes, and jumping into the rush at the appropriate times as a secondary threat, as opposed to trying to get it and go himself.”

Deslauriers appears to be making the adjustment.

“Mark [Morris] put it in my head that in junior, you can try to do a little too much [and get away with it],” said Deslauriers. “This year, I tried [leading the rush] a couple of times, but I sat down with Mark, and he agreed that I can rush the puck when we need a goal. But when we’re winning or tied, I usually don’t do it [because there’s no need to take that risk].”

“Just moving the puck and following the rush as a second wave is way better,” added Deslauriers. “You see the game easier, and I have more juice after, instead of just picking up the puck and rushing it all the way down. Don’t be afraid to join the rush. Just don’t lead it [unless there’s a clear opportunity].”

Deslauriers added that making this adjustment continues to be a challenge, but that improving his defensive play is the area where he needs the most work.

“[I have] to get it into my head to not rush the puck, because I’m more of an offensive defenseman,” he noted. “I need to [improve my] defensive [game].”

“I [do] think my defensive zone [play has improved],” he added. “That’s probably the biggest thing the Kings and the Monarchs [have stressed]. I got way better, and going to the development camp in Los Angeles helped me a lot.”

Lack Of Consistency Slowing Muzzin’s Development

Although defenseman Jake Muzzin has the physical tools and skill that would translate well to the NHL level, to this point in his professional career, consistency has been a major sticking point.

“Consistency is a concern we have with Jake,” said Morris. “He has all the physical tools—the shooting, the passing, the skating. His biggest challenge is to put it all together, and to have a consistent focus.”

Jake Muzzin
Photo: Steve Babineau

Last season, the 6-3, 217-pound native of Woodstock, Ontario, made the Kings’ opening night roster, while veteran defenseman Matt Greene recovered from off-season shoulder surgery.

Muzzin, who was signed by the Kings as an unrestricted free agent on January 4, 2010, showed flashes of what he could become in the NHL, but poor decisions and positioning mistakes landed him in Manchester after eleven games.

Despite suffering a concussion during the Kings training camp to start the 2011-12 season, Muzzin got off to a strong start with the Monarchs, but tailed off as that consistency thing caught up with him.

“I had a really good start to the year,” he said. “The concussion really didn’t affect me. But then I started to do a little too much, complicating things. Lately, I’ve been a lot better. I’ve been simplifying my game, and things have been a lot better.”

“Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of video, and I’ve seen how little mistakes can cost you,” he added. “I’ve learned a lot. Working with Mike O’Connell [who handles Pro Development and Special Assignments for the Kings], and going over video has helped me a lot.”

Morris pointed out that Muzzin is a prime example of how inexact the science of developing hockey players can be.

“Everybody has a different timeline,” Morris explained. “Some guys figure it out quicker. We’re constantly reminding guys to simplify our game, and that sometimes, the most obvious play is the right play, instead of looking for options two, three, and four.”

“We often complicate things by trying to do too much, but it comes down to simplifying things, and compartmentalizing our games, and learning how to play well in all three zones, all 200 feet,” Morris elaborated.

Simplifying and compartmentalizing is the immediate goal for Muzzin.

“I feel more comfortable on the ice this year, more confident,” he noted. “But, [at times], I’m trying to do too much [out there], trying to do other people’s jobs. That doesn’t get you anywhere. I have to focus on my job, and on what I need to do.”

“I have to come to the rink, play in every game, and try to improve,” he added. “It’s a long season, and sometimes you get tired, but you have to stay focused, and want to get better every day. It’s just a matter of bringing that consistency. You’ve got to want it.”

Will Hickey Ever Meet High Expectations?

Defenseman Thomas Hickey was selected fourth overall in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, and has had to bear the burden of the lofty expectations that most high, first-round draft picks have to deal with if they fail to make it to the NHL right away.

Indeed, out of the thirty players selected in the first round that year, only nine have not played in the NHL yet, including Hickey, leading many to claim that he is a draft bust, and that Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi made a huge mistake, wasting a high, first-round pick on the 22-year-old, 5-11, 190-pound native of Calgary, Alberta.

Despite all that, Hickey has turned heads this season, emerging as the Monarchs’ top defenseman.

“Thomas is learning the same things [Deslauriers] is, that is, to support the rush rather than lead it,” said Morris. “Sometimes, as a defender, it takes awhile. But, often times, less is more, and I think Thomas is a lot more predictable in delivering the puck to other players.”

“He’s improved his shot, he’s played in a lot of penalty-kill and power play situations, where he’s not trying to be too fancy,” added Morris. “He’s just moving the puck to the places it needs to go.”

Hickey has always been skilled at moving the puck, but, as players move up to higher levels, everything gets increasingly difficult. On top of that, the play must be faster and quicker as well.

“It’s always been about [increasing] my pace,” said Hickey. “You want everything to be a bit quicker, and I think I’ve done a good job with that. But it’s more about getting the puck, distributing it, and joining the play. That’s something I’ve gotten a lot better at.”

“In the NHL, [the pace is] crisp, it’s fast, and the puck needs to get places,” added Hickey. “Even if you have time to do more, often, the first play is the best one, and that’s something we’ve been working on. That’s helped my game. Get [the puck], distribute it, and then, get into position be open for a teammate.”

Many have pointed to Hickey’s physical stature, or lack thereof, as a major reason why the Kings should not have selected him so high in the 2007 draft. But, as seen during the Kings Development Camp last summer, and in training camp this past September, Hickey has added some muscle to his frame, and has continued to work on getting stronger.

“He’s a lot stronger than he was [compared to] the [last] couple of seasons,” Morris stressed. “The other day, I slapped him on the shoulder, and realized how thick he’s getting through the chest and back.”

“These guys are working hard down here,” Morris added. “They’re doing everything they can to try to be ready for when they’re opportunity comes.”

Thomas Hickey
Photo: Steve Babineau

“[My game has] come a long way since last year,” said Hickey. “The first year was a feeling out process, and I didn’t play a lot of hockey due to injury. Last year, you’re trying to get comfortable. There are times when things are easy, but there are stretches when they’re difficult. This year has been more consistent, and my confidence is up. I feel good every night. There’s no guessing to my game.”

“Maturing from a 17-year-old, I’m bigger and stronger,” added Hickey. “I’ve relied a lot on positioning, and I’ve learned a lot about it. I’m to the point where I don’t get myself into a lot of one-on-one battles, but when I do, I’m stronger, I’m able to push off and gain some ground, or hold it, in the tough areas of the ice.”

“I’ve gotten stronger, and I’ve learned to use my body smarter, where I don’t have to get in those battles. You’re in the right spot, you own that ice, you don’t have to fight for it. That’s probably the biggest thing.”

With the added strength, better positioning, and the ability to think the game better, Hickey’s chances to make it to the NHL are on the rise, and surprisingly, his defensive play may be the biggest factor—his +12 plus/minus rating certainly stands out.

“I think it’s huge, and I’m more impressed with that than any offensive numbers,” said Morris. “It tells me that he’s taking pride in his defensive game, he’s not risking as much now, as he had in past years where he tried to do too much. Right now, he’s learning the puck will come to him if he’s in good position.”

With better defensive awareness, Hickey now has greater responsibilities.

“I think [I have] more responsibility this year,” Hickey noted. “Guys have graduated, and moved on. Every year, my role gets a little bigger, and this year’s the same. In special teams, or five-on-five play, I think I can be counted on more than I was last year, whether it’s situations at the end of games, or handling a little extra ice time here and there. I’m picking my spots better to jump in, and to be involved in the offense, and the other side of the game has improved as well.”

“It’s a nice challenge,” Hickey added. “You get to go out there and try to kill off a penalty. I’ve done that all my life, coming into pro hockey, but to be able to help out is enjoyable.”

Nevertheless, there are still challenges to meet.

“Last year, I would’ve said consistency,” said Hickey. “You want to stay consistent, and I think I’ve done a really good job of that this year. You want to come in and play the same game every time you’re out there, the same style, and I’ve done a good job of that. But it’s a tough league, with the schedule we have, so just bringing it every night is a challenge, but it’s something that I think I’ve done well. You see the same game from me, night in, and night out.”

As mentioned earlier in this story, Hickey will represent the Monarchs in the AHL All-Star Game, and like most, he was honored to be selected.

“Every day, you have to concern yourself with your own game, and take pride in it,” he said. “That’s something I’ve been working on, and I’ve been really proud of myself for that transition I’ve made.”

“I’ve grown as a player a lot, and I’ve been a lot more assertive,” he added. “I can see that in my own game. But for other people to notice, and get selected, it’s an honor, because I just look after my game. I’m not concerned about what other people are thinking. It’s nice to see that other people are noticing. It’s a nice feather in the cap.”

Will Hickey ever fulfill the expectations that such a high, first round draft pick has, sitting on his shoulders, or will he be crushed under their tremendous weight?

Although many have concluded that he has already been crushed under the weight, in reality, that question has not yet been answered.

“I feel real comfortable down here, I’ve seen enough guys, and played with enough guys who went [up to the Kings], and have done really well,” said Hickey. “They [haven’t had] to stand out, but they’ve done well, and they’re everyday guys.”

“Just from playing against guys every night, and having teammates getting an opportunity to do that—I understand that they’re very good players—but I’m comfortable enough with my game to know that I could contribute the same way.”

Will Hickey’s confidence help him fulfill those expectations? Not necessarily. But it certainly can’t hurt.

Raw Audio Interviews

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Columbus Blue Jackets (February 1, 7:30 PM – Blue Jackets vs. Kings), the Phoenix Coyotes (February 16, 7:30 PM – Coyotes vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

In Episode 141 – Let’s Go Kings, Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski take a look back at games against Calgary, Colorado, and Ottawa, they discuss Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas’ refusing to attend the ceremony honoring his team at the White House, and more.

You can watch this episode below:

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Columbus Blue Jackets (February 1, 7:30 PM – Blue Jackets vs. Kings), the Phoenix Coyotes (February 16, 7:30 PM – Coyotes vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Los Angeles Kings Forward Trevor Lewis earned some solid praise from head coach Darryl Sutter after practice on January 20, 2012, at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California.
Photo: David Sheehan

San Jose is third in the conference, and the Chicago Blackhawks, with 64 points, leads the West. As such, the Kings remain in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, and could still come out on top of the Pacific Division, even though the Sharks have four games in hand.

But the Kings could be in much better position if they could get out of the bad habit of getting themselves into three-point games.

Indeed, the Kings lead the league in games that go beyond regulation time, with 17 contests going into overtime or a shootout, and they are tied with the Minnesota Wild for the league lead in games that go into a shootout with ten.

If the Kings continue on their current pace, they will play in 29 overtime games, which would set a new franchise record (27 in 2003-04), and 17 will end up in a shootout, which would be one game shy of the club record (18 in 2009-10).

The problem for the Kings is that they have a losing record in those games this season, with a 3-4 record in overtime games, and a 4-6 record in shootout contests (Kings had a 10-2 shootout record last season).

With ten overtime/shootout losses, the Kings share the league lead in that department with the Florida Panthers.

If you do the math, that’s ten games in which they failed to earn the extra point in the standings. Even worse for the Kings, that extra point went to a Western Conference rival seven times.

Six of the overtime/shootout losses have come under new head coach Darryl Sutter.

Given how tight the Western Conference playoff race is, and will continue to be right down to the wire—just eight points separate the 12th ranked team from the fourth-ranked team—although no team is going to win every game, the Kings cannot afford to giveaway too many more points.

“[The playoff race in the West] definitely tight, but we’re getting one point out of it, instead of zero,” said forward Trevor Lewis. “It’s better to look at it that way. [But] we’ve played more games than a lot of teams, so we need these points to stay ahead of the teams who are behind us.”

“We just have to keep going,” added Lewis. “The energy is there, the effort is there. We just have to figure out the little ways to win in regulation.”

On January 19, the Kings suffered yet another shootout loss, this time, a 2-1 decision to the Calgary Flames, a team they had defeated rather handily in Calgary just five days earlier.

Flames goalie Miika Kiprusoff, and Kings netminder Jonathan Quick, were both on their games. But Kiprusoff came up with two big saves in the shootout, while Quick could only come up with one.

“The shootout losses come because you didn’t score enough goals in the first 65 minutes, right? So I’m not happy with the shootout losses, but what’s the big deal? Last night, they scored two and we scored one, and [Kings defenseman Jack Johnson] double-clutches one that was probably going to go in, because he made a great move,” said Sutter. “What more can you do? You just try to get the right guys and try and figure out who’s hot and who’s not.”

“I always take the high road and say we got one [point],” added Sutter. “You’ve got to get points, one way or the other.”

“Shootouts are important,” said Sutter. “Everybody’s saying, ‘let’s get the extra point.’ But those were two of the best goalies in the world last night, and on a straight breakaway, they’re going to stop 95 percent of them.”

In reality, what hurt the Kings in that game, was, like so many of their previous contests this season, was their lack of finish.

“I thought we out-chanced them, but we didn’t finish [our] opportunities,” Sutter lamented. “We had three empty nets in overtime, and when you’ve got [such golden] opportunities, it’s about second and third, bear down opportunities. We had the opportunities.”

The Flames did a solid job of clogging up the neutral zone, preventing the Kings from generating speed on attack, and neutralizing their forecheck on many occasions. That fouled up much of the Kings’ offensive attack.

“I don’t know if we got enough bodies around the net, and I don’t know if we had as many chances, but we had some real good, quality chances that [Kiprusoff] made some big saves on, and I had an empty net in overtime, and just missed,” said forward Dustin Brown. “It was one of those games.”

“Maybe we were a bit off, I don’t know,” said left wing Dustin Penner. “I had a chance in overtime, and in the first and second periods. Those have to start going in.”

More Needed From Third Line

Sutter had some fairly high praise for Trevor Lewis after practice on January 20.

“Trevor is, right now, carrying [the Kings’ third] line, he stressed.

But that was followed by a less-than-enthusiastic comment about the play of Lewis’ line mates, Andrei Loktionov and Brad Richardson.

“The other two guys can play better for us,” said Sutter.

Despite that, the trio is beginning to develop some chemistry.

“I think we’re going pretty good,” said Lewis. “We just have to bury one, and hope they keep coming. We get three or four chances a game. We’ve just got to keep going.”

“Our confidence is high,” added Lewis. “We just have to put one in the back of the net.”

Loktionov, who centers the line, has played some solid games, but has also looked overmatched, at times. Despite that, Lewis has confidence in his current center.

“[Loktionov] likes to make plays, [Brad Richardson and I] just have to get open when he has the puck, because we know he’s going to do something good with it,” Lewis noted.

In 27 games with the Kings so far this season, Loktionov has contributed four assists, but has not been able to find the back of the net.

“I think it’s coming,” he said. “I’m working hard, but I don’t know what’s going on. I shoot the puck, two or three times per game…I don’t know. I [just have] to keep going. I feel very good [on the ice].”

Sutter indicated that Loktionov has been an asset for the Kings, but added that more is needed from the 21-year-old native of Voskresensk, Russia, and from the third line.

“[Loktionov had] three or four scoring opportunities [against Calgary on January 19], but [scored] no goals. Our third line has got to start scoring some goals for us.”

“They’re working hard, they’re doing a lot of good things for, giving us energy. We want them to be better on face-offs, and we want them to be better at finishing.”

Raw Audio Interviews: Calgary Flames vs. Los Angeles Kings, January 19, 2012

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Raw Audio Interviews: Los Angeles Kings Practice, January 20, 2012

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming home games against the Ottawa Senators (January 23, 7:30 PM – Senators vs. Kings), the Columbus Blue Jackets (February 1, 7:30 PM – Blue Jackets vs. Kings),as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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Right wing Justin Williams has provided an offensive spark for the
Los Angeles Kings, playing on a line with Dustin Brown and
Anze Kopitar during their last five games.
Photo: David Sheehan

The first, most notable change was to move center Mike Richards to left wing on the first line, with center Anze Kopitar and right wing Dustin Brown.

Despite the move, the Kings’ offense remained locked in its deep freeze. But Sutter shuffled the deck again when the Kings hosted the Alexander Ovechkin-led Washington Capitals on January 9, at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

For that game, Sutter moved right wing Justin Williams up to the first line with Kopitar, while Brown skated across the blue line to left wing, where he prefers to be while on the attack.

The result: The Kings dominated the high-powered Capitals in a 5-2 victory, and have not looked back.

Indeed, since that game, the Kings have scored 17 goals in those five games, averaging 3.40 goals-per game (GPG), with the line of Brown, Kopitar and Williams combining for eight goals and ten assists for 18 points.

Although the Kings still rank dead last in the league in scoring with an average of 2.15 GPG, that 3.40 GPG clip would place them second in goals per game in the National Hockey League, behind the league-leading Boston Bruins (3.54 GPG).

Indeed, after struggling mightily for much of the season, the offense is finally coming around. But how?

“Maybe we’re more aggressive, which is causing turnovers,” said Richards. “But we knew that if we stuck with the system, we would, eventually, get some opportunities.”

“We’re getting goals from four different lines, and all six defensemen are contributing, so we’re not just looking at one guy, which is nice,” added Richards.

“I think it’s just that we’ve been playing a little different,” said Kopitar. “There’s a lot more energy in our game.”

Kopitar has put the team on his back during this five-game stretch, scoring three goals and adding four assists for seven points, with two goals and one assist coming on the power play, while shutting down the opposition’s top center, and killing penalties.

Speaking of the power play, which has been in snooze mode since mid-November, it woke up during this five-game stretch, with the Kings scoring six times during 19 power play opportunities, good for a 31.6 percent rating.

“We’re feeling good, we’re making plays, we’re getting the traffic in front, and we’re making the second effort,” said Williams. “That’s what’s getting us chances, and that’s what’s getting us goals. We’ve tweaked a few things [on the power play].”

Williams stressed that the Kings’ power play cannot go back into the doldrums.

“We’re still sitting at the bottom of the league [offensively],” he noted. “We need to keep [the power play] going and make it an offensive weapon for us.”

One such play was during their 4-1 win at Calgary on January 14, when Kopitar used his size and strength to park himself in front of the net, where he was able to use his body and quickness to beat his man to a loose puck and wrist it into the net on the power play.

The Kings also utilized good movement without the puck during that power play shift.

“It doesn’t really matter, even on the power play, where our positions are,” Kopitar noted. “Brown ended up on the half-wall, and it happens so quickly out there. Brown had control, and Williams and I were parked in front. We made a play off of that. We were fortunate that the puck squirted out [into the low slot], and I was able to put it in.”

As the old saying goes in the NHL, especially when a team is not getting good bounces of the puck, teams make their own luck. For the Kings, who seemed to be getting nothing but bad bounces since mid-November, it seems that the puck is finally starting to bounce their way for a change.

“We’re getting bounces,” said Richards. “It’s nice to get a couple, finally. [Williams’] goal on the power play [during a 3-2 shootout win at Vancouver on January 17], the puck ends up on his stick, and he makes a good play. Those were the bounces that we weren’t getting earlier. We knew if we just stuck with it, eventually, it would come.”

Brown and Kopitar have played on the same line for most of the season, so it is easy to point to Williams as the obvious difference-maker for the line. But it goes well beyond his presence.

“He brings a lot of composure and playmaking ability,” Kopitar emphasized. “He doesn’t give up the puck as easy as you [might] think. Granted, he’s not the biggest guy, but he holds onto it pretty good, and he protects it well.”

“He makes those five or ten-foot passes that are turning out to be huge plays—those that create a two-on-one, or a three-on-two.”

Raw Audio Interviews: January 18, 2012

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Colorado Avalanche (January 21, 2012, 7:30 PM – Avalanche vs. Kings), the Ottawa Senators (January 23, 7:30 PM – Senators vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

In Episode 140 – Jonathan Quick, Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski take a look back at recent Los Angeles Kings games against Dallas, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, they look at the play of goaltender Jonathan Quick, they bid a fond farewell to veteran right wing Ethan Moreau, and more.

You can watch this episode below:

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Colorado Avalanche (January 21, 2012, 7:30 PM – Avalanche vs. Kings), the Ottawa Senators (January 23, 7:30 PM – Senators vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Los Angeles Kings right wing Dustin Brown spoke extensively with the media following practice on
January 11, 2012, at the Toyota Sports Center
in El Segundo, California.
Photo: David Sheehan

That night, fans were so thoroughly shocked at the Kings’ offensive explosion that throughout the arena, they were pinching each other to make sure they weren’t dreaming. Some made appointments with psychiatrists, fearing that they were suffering from some sort of mental breakdown. Others were fearful that the end of the world was upon us, and began to get their affairs in order.

Seriously speaking, that massive offensive output from the Kings was a rarity this season. After all, they have only scored three goals or more (during regulation play) twelve times in 43 games this season (through games played on January 11).

And talk about extremes. Just one game prior, the Kings were shutout on home ice by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the worst team in the league, who handed the Kings a 1-0 defeat on January 7.

In that game, the Kings had eight opportunities with the man advantage, but really never came close to scoring.

“I don’t care how many power plays it is, as long as we get one, or two, or three—anything,” said forward Jarret Stoll. “We’re pressing. You could tell there, later on in the game. They were blocking everything. Three-quarters of our shots probably didn’t make it to the net. But every team does that. We’ve got to find a way. We all know we haven’t scored many goals.”

“It’s not like we’re playing badly, but we just can’t find a way to put that darned thing into the net,” added Stoll. “The power play was, obviously, the number one key to the game. We’ve got to score a goal there, or two, or three.”

Blue Jackets goaltender Curtis Sanford played a solid game. Nevertheless, with eight power play chances, a team must score at least once.

“We’ve got to find ways to score goals,” said right wing and team captain Dustin Brown. “He made some pretty good saves on our power play, but the bottom line is that you’ve got to find ways to score goals on the power play.”

Despite the loss, and his team’s utter failure with the man advantage, head coach Darryl Sutter was not disappointed in his team’s performance.

“We played hard,” he said. “We did everything we wanted to do, except score on the power play, so I don’t think you beat’em up over that.”

“I thought we dominated the play,” said Brown. “We just didn’t score a goal. We were ready to play, our preparation was there. I thought we were ready to go today, from a physical standpoint, from an emotional standpoint. It wasn’t like we walked through this game. We just have to find the back of the net.”

Sanford’s counterpart, Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, also played a solid game, allowing just one goal. But he got no support from his team’s offense.

“If he gives up one, we should be able to win the game,” center Anze Kopitar lamented. “It shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, so we have to fix it.”

“Our start was pretty decent,” Kopitar added. “We got a couple of really good kills, and away we went. But the power play was the story. We didn’t put it together.”

Fast forward to Monday night, with the high-powered Capitals in town, the Kings did a complete 180-degree turn.

“It was important to score some goals,” said defenseman Jack Johnson. “We didn’t score one goal in regulation in two games. That was pretty frustrating.”

After giving up on early goal off a turnover, Jonathan Bernier settled down, and played a solid game in goal for the Kings.

“It’s a great feeling to give our goalies some breathing room, finally,” Johnson noted. “They’ve been playing out of this world for us, all year. It’s nice to give them a break.”

What was behind the offensive juggernaut?

“I thought we were a little bit more creative tonight,” Johnson noted. “Our first option wasn’t just dumping the puck in, and giving it right back to them. We were looking to make plays, and gain the zone with possession, which should be our number one objective every time. When you dump it in, sometimes you’re just giving it right back to them. You can’t keep giving [the puck] back to skilled teams, and I thought we were really good at that tonight. Hopefully, that continues.”

“It’s a great feeling for all the guys. It’s been a frustrating year, not scoring,” Johnson added. “When you can have a night like this, it’s pretty nice. After the last two games, if you can’t score in regulation in two games, you’re ready to blow your brains out, so it’s a relief to have games like this. It’s a nice reward for hard work.”

“It’s good to score, and we got’em from all the lines,” said Sutter. “It wasn’t like it was from one guy, or just the guys who usually do that stuff.”

Indeed, contributions from unexpected sources provided a boost as well, and not just on the scoresheet.

“We got timely goals from our third and fourth line,” said left wing Dustin Penner. “ [Left wing Kyle] Clifford had a great game, and [right wing] Tim Hunter made a great play on that [goal]. We’ve had contributions from all four lines. Hopefully, we’ll get more from the top two.”

“I still think our top players can be better, but you’re starting to see our third and fourth lines starting to contribute in big ways,” said Brown. “That happened to be a couple of goals in the last game, but it’s not just our top two or three lines having those [long] cycle shifts. Our fourth line has been really good on the cycle.”

“If we have four lines doing that over the course of a game, you start to see it wear on the other team’s defense, and [on the Kings’ side], you’ve got guys like [defenseman] Drew [Doughty] who aren’t [spending] as much [time in the] defensive zone,” added Brown.

As Sutter indicated, what is most significant about the offensive explosion is that the Kings scored in several different ways, converting off the rush, after an offensive zone takeaway, and three times on players driving hard to the front of the net.

“I’ve been saying this for the last couple of weeks about getting that scoring mentality: when you look at Stoll’s goal, in particular, it’s not a pretty goal, but we need to get more of [that type] of goal,” Brown stressed. “Same with Clifford’s [first period] goal. That was getting the puck to the net and beating [his man] back to the net.”

“I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job [of going to the net],” Brown added. “It’s just that in previous games, those pucks weren’t going in the net for us. Then we have a night where we score a couple of goals like that, [along with] a couple of takeaway goals, and a power play goal, which hasn’t happened in…I don’t know how long.”

“It’s a matter of finding different ways to score. We’re not going to score five goals a game [all the time]. Where we can get two or three goals, it’s [from plays like] Stoll’s and Clifford’s. It’s just a matter of getting pucks to the net, being around the net, and having a scoring mentality while we’re there.”

Indeed, scoring off the rush, or capitalizing on a turnover is important. But scoring those dirty, greasy goals in tight is where it’s at now in the NHL, and the Kings have not been good at that this season. As such, scoring three such goals against the Caps is significant, and it is something the Kings are working on.

Penner said that the Kings are also more determined on the ice.

“We managed to get five goals,” said Penner, who played a strong game, contributing an assist on Stoll’s second period goal. “Hopefully, that’s a sign of things to come. We don’t want to jinx it, but in the games we were losing by a goal, 2-1, or 1-0, I think we’ve had similar chances, and just as many, but we just weren’t finding the back of the net. I think we had that little extra bit of focus and determination to get those goals.”

The Kings also imposed their will on the Caps, in terms of how the game progressed, dictating play from roughly the midpoint of the first period.

“We took our game to them,” Penner emphasized. “I think they had a tough time with the way we played.”

When was the last time the Kings did that?

Added emphasis on puck possession was a major factor in being able to control the game to the extent Penner mentioned.

“Dating back to when they let [head coach Terry Murray] go, [assistant coach John Stevens took over as interim head coach], and one thing he started preaching was holding onto the puck,” Brown noted. “That’s continued. We were a good cycle team before, and now, it seems like every game, we have two or three shifts where it’s extended. That’s the result of guys holding onto the puck.”

“The next step is getting around the net, bringing [the puck] to the net, and getting that scoring mentality,” Brown added. “It’s a work-in-progress.”

At practice on January 11, the final drill focused on net presence, and doing a better job of screening goaltenders.

“A lot of the drills in practice today was to give it to the defensemen, go to the front of the net, and find ways to score goals,” said Brown. “We have the skill set, and the type of players to do it, so it’s just a matter of working at it.”

Sutter stressed that getting in front of the goalie is not enough.

“We’re getting better at it,” said Sutter. “We just have to continue [to improve]. Everybody has to be better at it. It’s just not net presence and slot presence. Defensemen have to be quicker at moving pucks, and getting shots through, changing the angle on the goaltender. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but the defenseman can do a lot better [job] of changing the angle out at the blue line. That way, the goalie has to move quickly, instead of just looking around someone.”

Going back to those three goals the Kings scored by driving hard to the net…it was not just players without the puck getting their noses dirty, looking for a loose puck at the front of the net. Rather, the Kings were also taking the puck there aggressively, a rare sight this season.

Brown pointed to Stoll’s goal as one example.

“Penner pretty much made that happen with Stoll’s goal,” he said. “He just took the guy on his back, and brought it to the net. He’s one of those guys who should do that every time, with his size, and his mobility. We’ve got other guys who can do it in different ways.”

“I think we have certain players who do that really well,” he added. “It’s just a matter of bringing an awareness to it. Like I said, we’re a really good cycle team. [But you can’t] cycle, cycle, cycle, and never bring it to the net. We can cycle it all we want, but we eventually have to bring it to the net.”

The Kings have increased their focus on getting bodies and pucks to the front of the net in practice.

“We’re trying to get all of our top players to be in traffic more, [to be] more forceful players, instead of fade-away players,” Sutter emphasized. “Everybody can be better at that. I think we were really good [at that in our] last game, but we have guys who can be better.”

“It’s not something where suddenly, all twelve [forwards] are going to be better at it,” Sutter added. “Everybody’s different, but if your guys who play a lot of minutes can do it consistently, it sets the bar for the group.”

Penner indicated the players are buying in.

“We’re working on that every day, from the habits we’re developing in practice,” he said. “As far as the drills we do over and over again, we’re doing drills that we haven’t done since I’ve been here that may seem simplistic, from a spectator’s standpoint, but they drive home a point, because we are creatures of habit. When we start doing those things in practice, they seem monotonous. ‘Why are we doing this again?’ But we can see it helping us.”

“Everyone’s sniffing around the net now,” he added. “We have the defensive stuff down pat. We keep saying the offense is going to come, but now, it has to. The last game, it did. Now we want to keep that up.”

“It’s only one game,” said Johnson. “We’ve got to do [that] a lot more. We’ve got to do it consistently. You can’t just do it once every twenty games.”

Power Play Still In Doldrums

Despite scoring a power play goal against the Caps on Monday night, the Kings are still ranked just 27th in the league, with a measly 13.5 percent rating.

To say that the power play has been a drag on the Kings’ offensive production is not just stating the obvious. Rather, it is an understatement of almost Biblical proportions, as their zero-for-eight struggle against Columbus indicates.

“They’ve got to just keep banging away,” said Sutter. “It ain’t about being fancy. [We just have to] keep trying to score goals. I think we can do better with the kids at the point, shooting, especially [Johnson], he could hit the net more. Kopitar can curl and shoot more. Our net presence has to be square with the goalie more.”

For Kopitar to “…curl and shoot more” would mean that he would have to change his routine of holding the puck along the half-wall, looking for a teammate to pass to. The problem is, the Kings stand around on the power play, making it awfully easy for penalty-killers. But early in the season, the Kings were among the top six power play teams in the league.

So what went wrong?

“I feel that we get too stagnant where, not only are we not moving—everyone has their positions on the power play,” Brown lamented. “I’d like to be in front [of the net], Kopitar would like to be on the half-wall, [right wing Justin] Williams, or [center] when Mike Richards is playing with us, down low. But I’m pretty sure those three players could be interchangeable, and move around a lot more.”

Indeed, the movement without the puck that was present in their power play early in the season has vanished.

“I think [movement] is key,” Brown stressed. “We’ve got really good players. They need to be interchangeable and move around. We’re too stagnant.”

“If you look at our [power play] goal in the last game, I was on the half-wall, which doesn’t happen very often,” Brown added. “But it’s a different look for the penalty-killers. If you scout us, and say, ‘OK. Kopitar’s on the half-wall, and he’s going to be there the whole game,’ it’s pretty easy to defend. For now, it’s myself, Williams, and Kopitar. If Williams is on the half-wall on the other side, with me low, and Kopitar in front, [penalty-killers] start thinking a little bit.”

“All the players are capable of making plays off the wall. All the players are capable of making plays [down] low. That hasn’t always been the case here. Kopitar has been our half-wall guy, and he is our best half-wall guy. But now we have some other guys who can actually make some plays there, so I think it’s about movement, and getting teams thinking a little bit.”

Raw Audio Interviews: Washington Capitals vs. Los Angeles Kings, January 9, 2012

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Raw Audio Interviews: Los Angeles Kings Practice, January 11, 2012

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Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Dallas Stars (January 12, 7:30 PM – Stars vs. Kings), and the Calgary Flames (January 19, 7:30 PM – Flames vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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KingsCast is starting off 2012 with a bang, with two new episodes featuring Dancing In The Reign blogger Alex Kinkopf’s analysis of the Kings, joining hosts Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski.

In Episode 138 – Drew Doughty for Norris, the three look at trade speculation surrounding Kings defenseman Jack Johnson, they push goaltender Jonathan Quick as the team’s most valuable player in the first half of the season, and more.

Episode 139 – Ovechkin is Still a Douche harkens back to an earlier episode, when Washington Capitals superstar forward Alexander Ovechkin gave our boys from KingsCast some attitude a couple of seasons ago. But in this episode, they look at the games against the Columbus Blue Jackets, along with the Caps. They also look at Kings prospects down on the farm with the who were named as American Hockey League All-Stars.

You can watch these episodes below:

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Dallas Stars (January 12, 7:30 PM – Stars vs. Kings), and the Calgary Flames (January 19, 7:30 PM – Flames vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter (right) talks with
goaltender Jonathan Quick (left) during a recent practice at the
Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California.
Photo: David Sheehan

Indeed, the Kings are supposed to be contenders for the Pacific Division title, and for the top spot in the Western Conference. But heading into action on January 7, the Kings are seventh in the conference, just one point away from falling out of playoff contention.

But the Kings are also just one point out of the division lead, and from third in the conference, and they are just six points behind the Vancouver Canucks, who lead the conference with 53 points.

Last season, the Western Conference was ultra-competitive, with ten points separating the conference champion Canucks from the eighth-place Chicago Blackhawks. There was also just a two-point difference between fourth place and eighth.

Fast forward to this season, and it’s the Wild Wild West all over again.

For some of you, that phrase might bring you visions of actors Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. For others, that vision might be one of old school rap artist Kool Moe Dee. But whatever the case, the West is, once again, wild, with only six points separating first place from eighth, and with just three points between fourth place and eighth.

The close quarters has teams feeling the pressure, and the Kings are no exception.

“We can’t afford to let anything slip,” said right wing Justin Williams. “We know where we stand. We’re six points out of first, but we’re also [one point] out of ninth.”

“It’s a fine line,” added Williams. “If you win a couple in a row, you’re in there, but for how long? We’ve got to keep the push going to get ourselves where we want to be.”

“The real math is…tonight is game 41, halfway,” said head coach Darryl Sutter, following his team’s 1-0 overtime victory over the Phoenix Coyotes at Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 5. “You can see what the numbers would be to be a playoff team. If [everything] holds, whomever is in eighth place tonight, whatever [their point total is], that has to be your goal.”

“That’s how close it is, and it’ll be like that at the end,” added Sutter. “It’s all within three or four wins, and three or four points.”

Sutter has stressed improving their record at home, given the fact that the Kings have often struggled within the confines of Staples Center.

“That’s one thing Darryl has really been harping on—that when we’re at home, we’ve got to get those points,” said defenseman Drew Doughty. “We’ve got to get two points every night. We know we let one [point] slip the other night [in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche on January 2]. That was a pretty disappointing loss, so we came out hard here tonight [against the Coyotes]. We knew it was a division game against an opponent we play a lot. To get the two points was huge.”

“Every day [on the dry erase board in the Kings dressing room at their practice facility] is ‘homers, homers, homers,’ [referring to home games],” Williams noted. “He didn’t make us feel bad, but he made us upset that we lost that last point to Colorado. He said that we let one slip there, let’s make sure we push right back, and get it back tonight {against Phoenix].”

“We’ve established a pretty decent home record, but we want Staples Center to be a [more difficult] place to play [for opposing teams],” Williams added.

Is Doughty Finally Heating Up?

Scoring a goal in a game is not necessarily an indicator of anything for any particular player. But after scoring the overtime game-winner against the Coyotes, perhaps there is some light finally shining through from the end of the tunnel for the struggling Doughty.

“[That] was huge,” he said. “I haven’t been scoring a lot this year, and I was finally able to contribute on the scoresheet for the team. But, most important, we got the win.”

“I just wanted to get into the play,” he added. “I saw that we had control of the puck, so I raced up to the blue line. [Center Jarret] Stoll made eye contact, and he made a nice pass. Then, I just tried to drive [to] the net. Sometimes, you’ve got to score those dirty goals like that.”

With just three goals so far this season, Doughty is one among many Kings who need to score a lot more dirty goals.

“I guess it’s a little surprising, but, for me, it’s mostly frustrating,” Doughty said of his lack of production. “I know they come in bunches, and now that I got this one, and got the monkey off my back, I think a lot more will come in these next few games.”

After the game, Sutter noted that the dirty, ugly goals look just as good as the pretty ones on the scoresheet.

“[It was a] one-inch goal,” said Sutter. “Thirty years from now, he’ll say he went end-to-end, deked [Phoenix goalie Mike Smith] out, and slid it under him.”

Kings Pulling Out The Kitchen Sink To Fix Offense?

Earlier this week, former Kings star right wing Bernie Nicholls, who still holds the team record for most goals in a season with 70 in 1988=89, arrived at the Kings practice facility in El Segundo to work with the team.

Although no one expected overnight success, Nicholls did receive some friendly ribbing for the Kings’ “improved” offense in their last game {against the Coyotes], when they scored just once.

As pure a goal scorer as they come, Nicholls could help the Kings, especially on their struggling power play, which started the season in the top ten, but has nose dived to 27th in the NHL, with a dismal 13.8 percent rating.

Center Mike Richards expects the power play to improve, but, as stated earlier, it will not happen overnight.

“The power play is all about reading and reacting off of each other, and building chemistry,” he said. “It’s not going to happen right away, but through the course of a year, if you keep doing it, and keep the communication going, that’s when things start paying off.”

Despite the Kings’ seemingly overwhelming offensive woes, Richards is preaching “stay the course.”

“[We] just [need to] do the same things we’re doing,” Richards stressed. “We’re getting better, as a team, and that’s what you want to do. You always want to get better as the year goes on. When you do that, you hope to peak at the end of the year [heading into the playoffs].”

“It’s all about getting better, and we can get better in a lot of different scenarios,” Richards added. “Scoring goals is [an important factor], but, at the same time, keeping [pucks] out of our net is also a concern. We don’t need more goals if we’re going to win, 1-0 or 2-0. That’s why there’s an emphasis on turnovers and defense. As long as we keep getting better at those things, everything’s going to come along with it.”

The Kings are currently dead last in the NHL, scoring a measly 2.07 goals per game. Without more scoring, goaltenders Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier will be under excessive pressure to channel Georges Vezina, Patrick Roy or Rogie Vachon, night in and night out.

But Richards brushed that notion aside.

“You could put [the pressure] on the defense or the offense,” he noted. “It’s six in one hand, half-a-dozen in the other. We know the system that is going to give us success.”

“Defense wins championships,” he added. “I’m a firm believer in that. If you can play good defense, we’re going to play less of it, and we’ll play less of it if we play [more] in the offensive zone, which is going to allow us to score more goals.”

When asked what his team needs to focus on heading into the second half of the season, Sutter echoed Richards’ remarks, but added that developing chemistry on his forward lines is also needed.

“[We need] to work on finding ways to score more goals, and not give up any,” said Sutter. “It’s pretty clear, when you think about it. It’s to find ways to get more opportunities, and to find the right fits.”

“We’ve already moved guys around a lot,” added Sutter. “Other than the Stoll line, everybody’s played with different partners, different lines. We’ll continue to work at it.”

Jonathan Quick: Team Leader, Best Player?

After practice on January 6, Sutter had very high praise for Quick, who earned his sixth shutout of the season against the Coyotes.

Heading into action on January 7, Quick is ranked fourth in the league in goals-against average (1.95), sixth in save percentage (.933), sixth in wins (18), and first in shutouts.

“He’s in the top five or six in every category, he’s got six shutouts,” Sutter noted. “We just have to manage him properly. I think he’s in the top four in minutes played. We’re going to have to be careful with that. But we’re fortunate to have the young goalies that we have. He’s a real good athlete, a real good competitor”

But Sutter went even deeper.

“He’s one of those goalies who you think has really good leadership skills,” Sutter emphasized. “He’s a big part of the [team] identity, maybe the major player in that.”

“He doesn’t get enough credit,” Sutter added. “It’s normal for cities like this to jump on the star wagon, that flash-and-dash stuff, [yet] he’s clearly the team’s best player.”

Sutter’s Enthusiasm Having The Desired Impact

Although he has not changed the Kings’ system, Sutter’s approach is a bit different, and his enthusiasm appears to be infectious.

“It’s just something different,” said Williams. “It keeps us fresh, it keeps us on our toes, and we’re enjoying the up tempo style he’s bringing here, the excitement and the enthusiasm. We’re feeding off of that.”

“I think you can tell in practice,” added Williams. “Guys are smiling, guys are excited, and they’re skating pretty hard. His enthusiasm is rubbing off on us.”

Sutter has also stressed keeping the players together.

“There’s just a little more structure to their routine,” Sutter explained. “They do more together, especially on game days. We’re trying to keep them together more, trying to get everybody communicating more, interacting a little bit more, as a staff, and as a team.”

Since Sutter took over as head coach on December 20, Kings are unbeaten in regulation play, with a 5-0-3 record, earning 13 out of a possible 16 points.

“The boys are playing great right now, he’s doing a great job,” said Doughty. “He’s making sure we’re hard on pucks, and he’s not letting us step off the pedal one bit. He’s making us work hard, and be faster on pucks, whichever zone it’s in. That’s been a key reason for our success.”

Raw Audio Interviews: Phoenix Coyotes vs. Los Angeles Kings, January 5, 2012

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Raw Audio Interviews: Los Angeles Kings Practice, January 6, 2012

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Washington Capitals (January 9, 2012, 7:30 PM – Capitals vs. Kings), the Dallas Stars (January 12, 7:30 PM – Stars vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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Los Angeles Kings right wing Dustin Brown (center) scored his tenth goal of the season, but it was not enough, as the Colorado Avalanche won a 2-1 shootout decision over the Kings on January 2, 2012, at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein/NHLI via Getty Images and the LA Kings

Dustin Brown scored his tenth goal of the season to give the Kings a 1-0 lead at the 1:34 mark of the second period to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Prior to that, the ice was tilted towards the Colorado net, as the Kings put heavy pressure on the Avs in their own zone, often cycling and holding onto the puck for what seemed like an eternity. But Varlamov was brilliant, making four or five breathtaking saves, robbing the Kings each time.

That set the stage for Avs forward Ryan O’Reilly, who took advantage of a neutral zone turnover by Kings left wing Kyle Clifford to score his tenth goal of the season, tying the game at the 14:17 mark of the third period.

Avs forward Milan Hejduk scored the lone shootout goal to give the Avs their eighth win in their last nine games, and their tenth straight shootout victory, going back to last season.

Early in the first period, Kings right wing Justin Williams deflected a point shot past Varlamov, but the goal was immediately disallowed, with officials ruling that the puck was deflected in with a stick above the height of the crossbar.

Video review at the National Hockey League’s “War Room” in Toronto did not have conclusive evidence to make a ruling on the play, so the call on the ice stood.

NOTES:

• The Kings have earned points in nine of their last ten games (6-1-3), and are 4-0-3 under head coach Darryl Sutter.
• The Kings extended their season-long point streak to eight games (5-0-3), and they are 3-0-1 in their last four home games.
• The Kings have killed 27 straight penalties and 74 of their last 77 overall.
• The Kings have allowed 42 goals in the last twenty games (2.10/game).
• The Kings have allowed two goals or less in 23 of 40 games (15-3-5 in those games).
• The Kings are 70-0-5 in their last 75 games when leading after two periods (12-0-2 this season).
• Jonathan Quick is 5-0-2 in his last seven games with a 1.37 goals-against average and a .951 save percentage (31 saves in this game).
• Quick is now 7-1-1 in his career against Colorado.
• Brown has five goals in the last ten games, and has 68 hits in the last twelve.
• Anze Kopitar has seven points in the last eight games (one goal, six assists; one assist in this game).
• The Kings are 12-2-4 when Mike Richards records a point (one assist in this game).

Raw Audio Interviews

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Phoenix Coyotes (January 5, 2012, 7:30 PM – Coyotes vs. Kings), the Columbus Blue Jackets (January 7, 1:00 PM – Blue Jackets vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar ended a 17-game goal scoring drought during a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Staples Center
in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve 2011.
Photo: Victor Decolongon/Getty Images via the Los Angeles Kings

Indeed, things have looked pretty bleak with an anemic offense, the worst in the National Hockey League. But, somehow, the Kings never dropped out of the picture in the Western Conference standings, and after handing the high-powered Vancouver Canucks a 4-1 drubbing at Staples Center in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, they not only ended the year on a high note, but…hold onto your party hats…they now find themselves in sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division and third place in the Western Conference.

Although the game turned out to be a decisive victory for the Kings, they got off to a very sloppy start, with two blatant turnovers, the second one leading directly to a glorious scoring chance that Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa converted at 3:06 of the first period, blasting a one-timer past Kings netminder Jonathan Quick from the high slot.

But the Kings quickly settled down and took over the game, dominating play at times, especially in the first period.

Kings forward Brad Richardson scored his third goal of the season at the 9:13 mark, picking up a loose puck in front, and lifting it over the left leg pad of Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, taking advantage of some lazy defensive play by the Canucks in front of their net.

The Canucks outshot the Kings in the second period, 14-12, but do not let that deceive you, as their quality scoring chances were few and very far between.

Approaching the midpoint of the period, there was a bit of a scrum to the right of Luongo, causing him to lose his stick behind the net. A teammate pushed it back to him in the crease, but before he could grab it, the puck went to right point where Kings defenseman Matt Greene quickly fired a one-timer, beating Luongo just inside the right goal post at the 8:20 mark for his second goal of the season, giving the Kings a 2-1 lead.

Kings center Anze Kopitar ended a career-high 17-game goal scoring slump at the 13:08 mark, converting a pass from right wing Justin Williams on a three-on-two rush. On the play, Kopitar easily skated around Bieksa from the left circle, moving in front of the net. Luongo tried to poke the puck away from Kopitar, but missed. Kopitar put the puck on his backhand, and moved across the low slot. With Luongo down and out, he lifted the puck into the net from along the goal line, about two feet to the right of the crease for his 11th goal of the season.

“It was a quick three-on-two, and Williams made a great play on the blue line,” Kopitar explained. “I was able to stay onside, and I made up my mind before that I was going to pull it to my backhand. I was able to stretch it out pretty long, and I was able to put it in.”

“The whole way, I was going to my backhand,” Kopitar elaborated. “I just didn’t know if I was going to slide it five-hole, because he always stretches out. I just figured I’d drag it a little more, and try to put it over his pad.”

Williams scored his fifth goal of the season on the power play at 9:33 of the third period, deflecting a point shot by Kings defenseman Slava Voynov, to close out the scoring.

“The power play [goal] in the third period—it was still a two-goal game,” Kopitar noted. “They didn’t play their big boys after that, so it was a huge goal for us.”

With the win, the Kings are 6-1-2 in their last nine games, and 4-0-2 since Darryl Sutter took over as head coach, and since center Mike Richards returned to the lineup. The Kings also have points in a season-high seven consecutive games, with a 5-0-2 record.

“It was a huge win for us,” said Kopitar. “We needed those two points, and to end the year on a good note.”

Whether you credit the arrival of Sutter, or the return of Richards to the lineup (both happened at the same time), the Kings are moving in the right direction again. But they cannot afford to rest on their laurels.

“It’s still a work-in-progress, but we’ve been having some success over the last little bit, with Darryl coming in,” said Greene. “This was a good game for us, but we’ve got to keep rolling. We can’t rest on this game.”

As reported earlier, Kopitar finally got the monkey off his back, ending his long goal scoring drought.

“[The goal] was big,” he said. “When you go through struggles like that, it always feels good when you get it off your back, and there was no better place and time to do it than, I guess, [against] Vancouver.”

“I had that feeling [that he would score in this game], and I was feeling pretty good,” he added. “I was playing decent—it wasn’t like I didn’t getting any chances. I’ve been getting a lot of shots lately. I just couldn’t find the back of the net. Tonight, I just went in there, and did my thing, and it worked for me.”

“He scored a big goal, so that makes him feel good again,” said Sutter. “He’s been struggling to score, but he’s getting lots of shots. That’s what we’ve been trying to reinforce, keep shooting.”

Even though Kopitar was not putting the puck into the net, he was still very effective, doing everything but score.

“[The media] has been making a big deal about it, but [Kopitar has] been doing everything for us,” Greene stressed. “He hasn’t been scoring, but he logs twenty-something minutes on the ice, plays well, and does everything. He’s on the ice in every situation.”

“If you ask anyone in here if his play has dipped at all, I don’t think so,” Greene added. “It’s just that he’s not finding the back of the net. He’s been our best player the whole year.”

The Kings’ penalty-killing, now ranked third in the NHL with an 88.3 percent rating, was stellar once again, including killing off a four-minute Canucks power play after Richards took a double minor for high sticking at 8:59 of the second period.

“Quick has been great for us, and he shut the door there,” said Greene. “That was huge, especially [after] losing Richards. He’s a big part of our penalty-kill. We had to patch that together. Getting that kill was big for us.”

Kopitar’s goal came right after that kill.

“I don’t know what it was…we had 1:40 left on the four-on-three, and to come right back and score a goal was huge,” said Kopitar. “It flattened them out.”

But Kopitar noted that their defensive effort was at least as important as their offensive outburst.

“Any time you can score, it’s nice, but it’s a pretty big thing to hold them to one goal,” Kopitar emphasized, knowing that the Canucks are among the best offensive teams in the league (third in goals scored per game). “Quick was great in the net, as always, for us. The bottom line is that we got the two points.”

Although former head coach Terry Murray emphasized rolling four lines, he often shortened his bench in critical situations. In contrast, Sutter has given his third and fourth lines greater responsibility and more ice time, at least for now.

“We’ve been having success rolling four lines, and that’s what we did,” said Greene. “We got a big goal out of our third line tonight, and that’s what it takes sometimes. They scored [the first goal early in the first period], and then we get one right away. That’s a confidence boost.”

Sutter Tinkers With Line Combos

With his team struggling mightily to score goals, Sutter tinkered with his line combinations, moving Richards to left wing with Kopitar at center and Dustin Brown on right wing. The other lines were:

Dustin Penner – Jarret Stoll – Williams
Richardson – Andrei Loktionov – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Colin Fraser – Trent Hunter

Although conventional wisdom dictated that the opposition would be able to key on Kopitar’s line with the second line being much less of a threat without Richards, these line combinations worked…for one game, anyway, and the Kings got significant contributions from Loktionov and Voynov, who contributed two assists each.

“We’ve been playing pretty good,” said Sutter. “If you watched the Chicago or the Winnipeg game [last week], there are a lot of steps that we’ve tried to make. I think we got contributions from different guys, which is really good.”

“We had two or three of those types of plays [like the one Kopitar scored on],” added Sutter. “Mike Richards had that same type of play. Stoll’s line had a lot of those opportunities, too. Loktionov’s line—they were all good. If we don’t play [like that, the Canucks] will kick your [rear end].”

Sutter may go back to a more conventional lineup, moving Richards back to centering the second line, but if Loktionov continues to contribute while playing at center, his natural position, he may not have to.

Indeed, he will try his somewhat unconventional line combinations again.

“We talked about it,” Sutter explained. “Loktionov prefers to play center, but he has to do what we want him to do as a center. I’m going to trust that [he will] try to do that, and we’ll try it again.”

“It’s easy to switch guys around, Mike Richards, Colin Fraser,” Sutter elaborated. “Tonight, there was a lot more of using three as a group than, probably, in any other game we’ve played [under his tenure].”

Attitude, Confidence Are Keys

With the Kings on a roll to start 2012, what has been the difference?

Greene pointed out it is not their system that has changed. Rather, the difference is their mindset.

“It’s just a different attitude,” he noted. “Maybe we needed a little change, and that’s what we got. [Sutter is] getting a lot of good play out of a lot of guys right now.”

Kopitar went a little deeper.

“It says we have a lot of character, and that we can definitely do it,” said Kopitar. “Now it’s just a matter of doing it night in, and night out. That’s what Darryl is pushing for us. We have to recognize it, build on this win, and get going.”

“It shows a lot about our game right now, because Vancouver is always aggressive, they’re always on the puck pretty quick,” added Kopitar. “Tonight, we matched their intensity, and every time you do that, you spend a lot more time in the offensive zone than you do defending.”

“We have to build on that. Darryl’s been saying that the whole time. We have to be quicker on pucks, we have to recover more pucks, especially in the offensive zone. When you recover, you have possession time, and you get chances off that. You want to build on that, and keep going.”

The trick is to get everyone to do that consistently.

“We’re just trying to get everybody to do that,” said Sutter. “It can’t be hit and miss. We all have different levels, or a different skill set, right? If they all can all try and do a little bit more of a push, they can all play at a higher level. It’s just getting everybody to do it.”

“As long as we get the commitment to what we’re trying to do, then we’re going to be fine,” added Sutter.

Sutter emphasized that confidence is always key.

“The greatest loss you can have is a loss of confidence,” he noted. “If anybody was struggling with confidence, it’s not my job to pile dirt on them. It’s to try to help them out of it.”

“It doesn’t mean you’re always going to win, but as long as they’re going in the right direction, that’s a good thing.”

NOTES:

• The Kings have won three straight at home.
• The Kings have now killed 26 straight penalties. The team record is 46 in 2001-02.
• The Kings have killed 73 of their last 76 penalties (96.1 percent).
• The Kings have allowed 41 goals in the last 19 games (2.16/game).
• The Kings have allowed two goals or less in 22 of 39 games (15-3-4 in those games).
• The Kings are now 10-0-0 when scoring three-plus goals in a game.
• The Kings are 13-5-1 when scoring a power play goal in a game.
• The Kings are now 70-0-4 in their last 74 games when leading after two periods.
• Quick has a 2.02 gaals-against average (GAA) and a .933 save percentage in his last 15 games, and is 5-0-1 in his last six games with a 1.44 GAA and a .951 save percentage.
• Williams has seven points in the last eight games (two goals, five assists).
• Loktionov had his second career-multi-point game (first multi-assist game).
• The Kings are now 6-8-3 all-time on New Years Eve (tonight was only the second home game on New Years Eve, both against Vancouver).

Raw Audio Interviews

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Colorado Avalanche (January 2, 2012, 7:30 PM – Avalanche vs. Kings), the Coyotes (January 5, 7:30 PM – Coyotes vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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KingsCast blogger Alex Kinkopf joined Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski for a look back at the end of the Los Angeles Kings’ recent road trip, the firing of head coach Terry Murray, the hiring of Murray’s replacement, Darryl Sutter, and more.

You can watch these Episode 137 – Darryl Sutter is Not a Wizard right here:

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Colorado Avalanche (January 2, 2012, 7:30 PM – Avalanche vs. Kings), the Coyotes (January 5, 7:30 PM – Coyotes vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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When it comes to concussions, Los Angeles Kings
defenseman Willie Mitchell speaks from experience.
Photo: David Sheehan

In no particular order, the NHL has lost stars like Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers, Milan Michalek of the Ottawa Senators, Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators, all to concussions.

Most notably, the league has also lost Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger, who is expected to miss the rest of the season, and Pittsburgh Penguins superstar forward Sidney Crosby is out indefinitely after a recurrence of post-concussion syndrome.

Crosby, who is, arguably, the best player in the league, missed 41 games last season, and has played in just eight this season with no timetable for his return, after a high hit by then-Washington Capitals forward David Steckel during the 2011 Winter Classic, followed by another big hit by Victor Hedman on January 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Here in Southern California, Los Angeles Kings center Mike Richards recently missed eight games due to a concussion. Without him, the Kings went into a nose dive, losing five straight before winning a 2-1 decision at Columbus on December 15, on their way to a dismal 2-6-0 record in those eight games.

Since returning to the lineup on December 22, the Kings are undefeated in regulation play, earning a 3-0-1 record in their last four games.

The Kings most recent concussion victim is left wing Simon Gagne, who suffered his injury on December 26 against the Phoenix Coyotes at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Gagne, who has a history of concussions, was placed on injured reserve, and did not make the Kings’ current two-game trip to Chicago and Winnipeg. The earliest he can return to the lineup would be on January 5, 2012, when the Kings host the Coyotes.

Those who follow the Kings should be rather familiar with players going down like flies due to concussions. After all, from 2000-01 to 2002-03, eight Kings players suffered concussions, including Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh, a total of 433 man-games out of the unfathomable total of 1,742 man-games the Kings lost to injury over those three dreadful seasons.

Despite all the concussions, the NHL is working to protect its players, and has added a new rule this season:

48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted. However, in determining whether such a hit should have been permitted, the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was avoidable, can be considered.

The NHL has also been more proactive than at any point in their history with supplementary discipline decisions under this rule to this point in the season. But there has been some push back against the new rule, as many claim that it is taking hitting out of the game.

But don’t bother trying to convince Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell of that.

“When we got rid of obstruction, it was the same thing,” said Mitchell. “Everyone was bitching about it, saying it was ridiculous, especially as a defenseman. That affected us the most of anyone. We couldn’t hold [guys] up for our partners.”

“It’s just like anything else [when dealing with] change,” added Mitchell. “As human beings, we have a real narrow comfort zone. Sometimes, we really don’t adapt to change. It’s the same thing with the new rules [regarding contact with the head]. ‘We’re taking too much hitting out of the game.’ No, we’re not. There are still great hits, big hits. It just that same thing where guys are used to a certain way, so they’re slow on the uptake.”

“They’re doing a pretty good job on suspension length, and when it hits you in the pocketbook, you think twice about it.”

When it comes to concussions, Mitchell, 34, speaks from experience, having suffered three concussions during his 13-year career in professional hockey.

His last concussion forced him to sit out the last 34 regular season games of the 2009-10 season with the Vancouver Canucks, along with all post-season contests.

“You can’t do anything,” Mitchell emphasized. “You can’t read, you can’t drive your car. It hurts. You’re living in pain.”

“It gives you a little snippet into a terminal illness, because it not only bothers you physically, but there is an emotional aspect as well, when you wake up every day, and you don’t feel better,” Mitchell added. “That can take its toll. What does stress do? It gives you a headache, and the thing you’re trying to get away from is the headache.”

Mitchell suffered for a long time, wondering if he would ever recover and play hockey again. But one man and an audio CD changed everything.

“A guy named Ryan Walter—[he] played in the NHL for a long time—he’s a really good motivational speaker,” said Mitchell. “He coached in Vancouver. He gave me a CD called Maverick Mindset. I never picked it up. I had my concussion, and I was going into the hyperbaric chamber all the time, because I heard that oxygen was good for cell repair.”

“[One day, he] thought, ‘I’m going to try this,’ because when you’re in a chronic state of pain, you’ll try anything to get healthy,” added Mitchell. “You’re sitting in there for an hour doing nothing, so I thought, ‘I’ll pick up this CD he gave me.’”

That CD totally changed his focus and approach.

“There’s a lot of external factors,” Mitchell explained. “They play a role in how long a concussion [persists]. The CD was all about controlling the things you can control, and not worrying about all the small stuff in life. When you expend all your energy on that, you [add] stress, and waste all your energy on that, instead of [focusing] it on what you can control, and it’s probably one of the best things I’ve picked up in my life.”

“For a brain injury, it’s the same thing,” added Mitchell. “I couldn’t control when I was going to get better. I worried about that, and, therefore, took longer to recover. I just [concerned myself with] controlling what I could control. Enjoying the day, doing the best I could every day, getting massages, and just being happy and thankful for all the little improvements I saw, because sometimes, you [worry] about it when things don’t happen quick enough.”

“That was the number one thing for me in getting healthy.”

But it took more than a CD for Mitchell to get himself back on the upswing. In fact, he needed total isolation.

“Some of those external factors that you can’t control—sometimes you want to ignore them, but sometimes, you can’t,” he noted. “I was in Vancouver, we were in the playoffs, and I’m a [British Columbia] boy, so I was kind of a fan favorite up there. Whereever I walked, it was, ‘how’s your head?’”

“That was the last thing I wanted to talk about or think about,” he added. “I just wanted to disconnect from that. So I went up to my place in the middle of nowhere, in the forest, and just chilled. It wasn’t until [the Canucks] got knocked out of the playoffs—all those external factors—there was no more pressure on me to come back, no more pressure on myself to help my teammates. All of a sudden, [he lost all the stress generated by those factors].”

“Like I said, stress gives you a headache. Stress is tough on the brain, on the body, it ages people. It does all those things, so if you can find a way to disconnect from all that, it helps.”

Mitchell shared his experience and wisdom with Richards during his recovery, but he made sure not to overdo it.

“I talked to him a couple of times,” said Mitchell. “It’s something that you don’t want to talk to him too much about, because, like I alluded to earlier, if everyone’s asking him, ‘how are you doing,’ he’s going to be in a stressful state, and he’s not going to get healthy.”

“I talked to him about my experiences, and just said to be smart, take your time, and don’t push it, because you see it all around the league from the guys who push it—the recurrences.”

Progress Being Made, But More Must Be Done

If there was anyone the NHL should look to for guidance on what to do to protect its players from concussions, it’s Mitchell. Indeed, an early December interview turned out to be fascinating and a bit mind-boggling because it was quite clear that he has a great depth of knowledge on the subject for someone who is not a doctor.

In fact, Mitchell did some rather extensive research during his recovery, and is one of the most well-versed NHL players on the matter of concussions, if not the leader among his peers in that area.

Mitchell maintains that even with all the concussions across the league so far this season, things are not as bad as they might seem.

“It’s getting better,” he stressed. “It’s a double-edged sword. I think we’re seeing them more because we’re doing a better job diagnosing them. We’re also seeing more because the [players are] bigger, faster and stronger, and there’s less clutch and grab.”

“That’s just the reality of it,” he added. “That’s not a knock on the guys who played in the generations before us. They were tremendous players. But now, it’s year-round. Guys are in the gym all the time.”

That said, Mitchell could not stress enough that more has to be done to protect the players. But he added that things are getting better, and that it is a work-in-progress.

“We have to find a way to make our players safer, and I think they’re doing a good job,” said Mitchell. “It doesn’t happen overnight. This game has changed a lot over the years, in many different areas. With the head injuries, you’re seeing the change there.”

“It’s not like you’re going to flip a switch, and no one’s going to walk around with a concussion,” added Mitchell. “It’s going to be a progression. Last year, even though everyone thought it was a terrible year, it was actually a progression, and that progression was awareness. This year, you’re seeing implementation of it. Is it a perfected art yet? No, but it’s getting there, and I think they’re doing a great job.”

Mitchell also stressed that helmets need to improve.

“These helmets—I’d like to see them go more custom [fitted],” he lamented. “They’re all just generic helmets. We all have differently shaped skulls, so they don’t fit you perfectly. If you have a helmet that fits you, it’ll disperse that energy more, instead of shaking your brain.”

“There’s a genetic component, too,” he added. “You have your brain, then your skull, then the spinal fluid around it. If you don’t have much room there, your brain hits the inside of your skull, so some are more susceptible than others.”

“Our heads are not made to take huge blows. They’re made with the biggest, strongest bones in our body—the skull—to protect us. It’s made that way for a reason. [But] we don’t fully understand it yet. The human body is quite complex.”

Once again, Mitchell speaks from experience, having switched to the custom-fitted M11 helmet from Cascade Sports last season.

Mitchell also put the physical component of the game into a rather different perspective.

“We play this great game [in which] I get into a car wreck six times a night, 82 times a year, plus playoffs, now in my 13th season at the professional level,” he noted. “The rest of my teammates do, too. How many people get into a car wreck in their [entire] life? Hopefully never, but maybe once in their life?”

“[Hitting is] part of the game. We accept that, we know it can happen. It’s a physical game. We go out and play the sport knowing that, and that’s what makes it great, fast, [and] exciting. I’d just like to see us take away all the things that are in our control to not have my peers susceptible to [concussions].”

Stick tap to Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner, and to Jordan Clarke of Nucks Misconduct for mentioning this story on their sites.

Raw Audio Interview with Willie Mitchell

(11:37; Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

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LOS ANGELES — It took them 15 games, but the Los Angeles Kings finally scored three goals in a game on Monday night, defeating the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3, in front of a sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center.

The last time the Kings scored three goals (in regulation time or overtime, not in a shootout) in a game was on November 22, a 3-2 victory at St. Louis. From that point forward, until Monday night, the Kings never scored more than two regulation/overtime goals, earning a poor 5-7-2 record over that span, two of the wins the result of shootouts.

Kings goal scorers were Rob Scuderi and Brad Richardson in the first period, followed by Willie Mitchell and Dustin Brown in the third period.

The Kings got a couple of “assists” from Coyotes goalie Jason LaBarbera, who allowed soft goals to Mitchell and Brown, and was yanked at 7:06 of the third period, immediately after Brown scored.

LaBarbera allowed four goals on 29 shots, and was saddled with the loss. Jonathan Quick went all the way in goal for the Kings, stopping 26 shots.

Kings center Anze Kopitar contributed two assists, earned a +3 plus/minus rating, and was on the ice for 21:18, leading all Kings forwards. He was, by far, the best player on the ice for either team, even with Coyotes forward Raffi Torres scoring two goals, capitalizing on a turnover on his first goal at 5:58 of the first period, and taking advantage of a defensive blunder by the Kings to score on a breakaway for his second goal of the game at 13:03 of the second period.

NOTES:

• The Kings are 2-0-1 under head coach Darryl Sutter, and are 4-1-1 in their last six games.
• The Kings have killed 63 of their last 66 penalties, dating back to November 19 vs. Detroit). They have killed 16 straight penalties, dating back to December 17 at Detroit).
• The Kings are now 9-0-0 when scoring three or more goals in a game, and are 12-2-3 when scoring first.
• The Kings are 8-3-3 vs. Pacific Division teams this season.
• Brown recorded his fifth game-winning goal this season. He has scored nine goals this season. He also has five points in the last six games (four goals, one assist).
• Drew Doughty extended his assist streak to four games, tying a career high. His career high point streak is five games.
• Kopitar has assists in four straight games, and has nine assists in the last ten games.
• Scuderi scored his first goal since February 5, 2011, at Calgary (65 games).
• The Kings are now 16-9-5 with Mitchell in the lineup, and 15-8-5 with Mike Richards in the lineup.
• The Kings have averaged 36.1 shots in their last ten games.

Post-Game Raw Audio Interviews

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming homestand against the Vancouver Canucks (December 31, 7:00 PM), the Colorado Avalache (January 2, 2012, 7:30 PM), the Coyotes (January 5, 7:30 PM), the Columbus Blue Jackets (January 7, 1:00 PM), the Washington Capitals (January 9, 7:30 PM), and the Dallas Stars (January 12, 7:30 PM), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

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Los Angeles Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi (left)
and newly-hired head coach Darryl Sutter (right), shown here
during a December 21, 2011 press conference.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

For the Los Angeles Kings, they are hoping that Santa will bring them the extra goal or two per game that they have sorely missed all season long. They are also hoping that they have found their savior in new head coach Darryl Sutter, the 53-year-old native of Viking, Alberta, who was hired on December 20, replacing Terry Murray, who was fired on December 12, after the Kings slipped and slid their way through the last few weeks.

The 24th head coach of the Kings, Sutter has earned a 409-320-131 record in 860 regular season games. He is tied for 27th among all-time National Hockey League head coaches in games, and is ranked seventh among active coaches). He is also tied for 24th all-time among NHL head coaches in wins, seventh among active coaches.

Sutter is also one of only nine head coaches in NHL history to lead three different teams to 100 wins. Only Scotty Bowman and Ron Wilson have coached four different teams to 100 wins.

Despite having a losing record (47-54) in 101 post-season games, Sutter’s teams have qualified for the playoffs in ten out of eleven seasons, leading the Calgary Flames to the seventh game of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals.

“We’re the same age, but we grew up in different environments, one, the son of a factory rat, the other, the son of a farmer,” said Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi. “But the values are the same. You work hard, you’ll be rewarded. You have an identity, you stand for something, and, as long as you work hard, and you’re a good teammate, we’ll have all the time in the world for you.”

As reported above, Sutter has some pretty lofty credentials.

“As a coach, he’s seen each end of the spectrum,” Lombardi noted. “When he took over the Blackhawks, it was a good team, and he led them to their second highest point total in their history. When we were in San Jose together, we took over a bad team, and improved it six years in a row, while getting younger every year.”

“In his last tour, at Calgary, he took over what was probably not a very good team, and willed them to the Stanley Cup Finals,” Lombardi added. “With this type of background, what I’m really excited about is, I think this guy is in his prime, and I really think the best is yet to come.”

“As far as what Darryl has accomplished, and what type of man he is, you just have to look at his background. Coming out of junior hockey with the Chicago Blackhawks, an 11th-round draft pick. They didn’t want to sign him out of junior, so he went to Japan to play. He had a scholarship to Princeton University, [but] turned it down to pursue his dream as a player. After the Blackhawks signed him, where did he end up? A forty-goal scorer in this league, a captain of one of the most storied franchises in the National Hockey League.”

Lombardi had three potential candidates for the job, but quickly narrowed his list.

“I had a very small list, and it went down in a hurry,” he said. “There were three guys I had in the back of my mind.”

“I was looking for a certain [mode of operation], and they kind of fit,” he added. “I really believe that he’s in his prime. Being familiar with him, and believing the same things, in the end, it made the most sense.”

Sutter, who was introduced at a press conference on December 21, was hoping for an opportunity to return to coaching in the NHL. But he was more than a bit surprised when the Kings called.

“I always told my family if I had a great opportunity, that I was going to go back and coach—stay in the game in that capacity,” he said. “I wanted to go with people I was familiar with, and think the same as you do, and it’s a good hockey club.”

“I’m not the kind of guy who was sitting there, hoping there would be a [coaching] change somewhere,” he added. “I certainly didn’t expect the Los Angeles Kings to be looking for a head coach, that’s for sure, because of the team that they have.”

“I think we have, it goes without being said, five or six of the best young players in the game, and a good, solid core of veterans, a lot of guys who have won championships, and that’s important—a lot of guys I can identify with, I think. I know it’s been a tough couple weeks for them, but at the same time, I know we’ve got lots of ground to cover, and I know they’re capable of doing that.”

What Ails The Kings?

The bottom line is the Kings are not meeting some very high expectations, sitting in fourth place in the Pacific Division through games played on December 24, and 11th in the Western Conference, even though they have managed to keep their heads above water, remaining just four points out of the division lead, and from third place in the conference.

One thing is stands out like the proverbial sore thumb is that they are dead last in the NHL in scoring, averaging an anemic 2.09 goals-per game (GPG).

To put things into perspective, the Boston Bruins lead the league in scoring with 3.52 GPG, 1.43 GPG more than the Kings.

Despite that glaring problem, no one should expect Sutter to toss out the Kings current system like the proverbial bath water, replacing it with fire wagon hockey, or anything even approaching that.

“I think, number one is you don’t want to over-emphasize that,” said Sutter. “There are players who have had trouble scoring this year, but they aren’t guys who are going to have trouble scoring over their careers. There are small things involved in the game…little areas of the game we can be a lot better at.”

“We’re going to try to be a more high pressure team, without being a risky team,” added Sutter. “We have the personnel to do that, putting more pressure on pucks.”

Sutter took note of how the game is being played these days.

“A big part of it is that this is a 3-2 league,” added Sutter. “It’s not a 5-2 or 5-4 league, so there’s a tremendous impact by being good defenders, not spending as much time in your own zone, and spending more time in the offensive zone, controlling the neutral zone. There’s lot of parts to it. It’s not just because we haven’t scored enough goals.”

“If you [look at] all the goals for and against in the league, [games often end in 3-2 scores]. That’s basically what it is. You might win, 4-1, one night, and then lose 2-1, or 2-0. But the fact of the matter is, it is a 3-2 league. We have some ground to cover to get to that.”

Fortunately for Sutter, he has inherited a solid defensive team from Murray, one that is ranked sixth in the NHL defensively, allowing just 2.34 GPG.

“In terms of what Murray put in place, stabilizing this franchise, is immeasurable, and I don’t want to lose the things he taught,” said Lombardi. “It’s about adding to our game. What he put in place, as far as defensively top [six] in the league, that has to stay. We have to add to our game. Part of that is we’re going to make it more difficult on you. That’s going to be a transition.”

If Sutter is not going to make wholesale changes to the system, what will get the Kings heading back in the right direction?

More heart, attitude, emotion, and accountability.

“[I will be] really honest, firm, [and I will work] to get the most out of them,” Sutter emphasized. “You hear about overachievers and underachievers. Really, overachieving is getting the most out of yourself, and I think that’s what I can help a lot of guys with. There’s a lot of young guys, who’ve got a lot of growth [ahead of them], and there’s a veteran group we have to push to help our young players to get better.”

“We met with the team prior to going onto the ice [on December 21] for quite awhile,” Sutter added. “We reviewed their season—where they’ve been, what’s going on, where we’ve got to go, what we have to do, sort of the ‘seize the moment’ type of thing, how we have to approach it, all while being really straightforward, and understanding their input.”

Emotion just might be the biggest thing the Kings need more of.

“Players need to be pushed and pulled,” Sutter noted. “Sometimes, they need to be pushed. Other times, they need to be pulled, and they want it. They want success, and they know they’re good.”

“I think, X’s and O’s, this team is as good as there is in the game,” Sutter added. “The one thing that hasn’t changed is that this is men playing a boy’s game. There is some emotion involved in it, and I think that’s what I have to get out of them.”

Right wing and team captain Dustin Brown addressed that very same issue.

“As Darryl said to us, everything’s going to be the same in terms of our system and our personnel,” he said. “It’s our attitude that’s going to have to be the difference-maker. Our approach, in terms of the X’s and O’s, is going to be very similar. It’s more about the attitude, and having it every night. We have players in here who kind of wear their heart on their sleeve. I think he wants more of that.”

“It’s different for every player,” he added. “Some need a kick in the [rear end] to get going. Other guys can do it on their own, pushing themselves. One thing he preached was that this is a group. When you’re going through tough times, you’ve got to lean on each other.”

“If you look at our [most recent] road trip, we had three games with forty shots [or more]. I don’t know if we had a game prior to that with forty shots. We didn’t change our system. We didn’t change our forecheck. We didn’t change our neutral zone [play]. We changed our attitude. Yeah, in Detroit, we got [blown out]. But, in the other three games, nothing had changed, except our attitude.”

Sutter also emphasized the concept of team.

“We had a meeting in here today, where he laid out his thoughts, and where we need to go,” said Brown. “One thing that came across to me was that we’re all in this together, so we’ve got to pull together here.”

“We’ve got to be together, as a team,” said center Jarret Stoll. “We need complete buy-in from everyone on the team, whether they’re playing, or sitting out. That was the major message. The one thing I took out of it was complete buy-in, 100 percent, on and off the ice, intensity, work ethic—everything the Sutter [family is] all about.”

“He’s going to bring intensity, he’s going to bring a work ethic, game in, and game out,” added Stoll. “[He wants us to] be a tough team to play against.”

Sutter needs to find a way to get his new team to display that attitude on a consistent basis.

“If we can find a way to have that attitude every night—we haven’t scored three goals in a game [in a long time], and everyone’s aware of that,” said Brown. “But at the same time, if you can continue to shoot more than forty pucks on the net, you’re going to score more than two goals in a game.”

“I don’t think there’s going to games where you see players take nights off,” added Brown. “That’s happened too much around here.”

Sutter also pointed to the need for consistency.

“I don’t think it’s a lack of emotion,” he noted. [Rather], you’re trying to get a consistent level in. You’re looking for a consistent pattern, and that’s where I think I can help. I know I can. From a technical standpoint, they’re a very good hockey club, so I think there’s something else there that I have to pull out of them.”

Sutter is also expected to give the Kings a greater sense of identity.

“I think the one thing he immediately gives your team is an identity,” said Lombardi. “You know he stands for something, and usually, when you have an identity, and you stand for something, some people are going to like it and some people aren’t. But you’re going to stand for something. That was the experience I had with him in San Jose, [and] I think he clearly did that in Calgary.”

“As soon as he comes in, your team starts getting an identity,” added Lombardi. “So, if you ask me for that intangible, that you can’t define or you can’t put into numbers, and I think that’s critical, I really do think that we’ve struggled with that a bit this year, and I think if we’re ever going to get to the level that we want to get to, I don’t care how good your players are, you have to establish an identity and stand for something. ‘This is the way we’re going to play,’ and away you go.”

Sutter is known to have a fiery, in-your-face side. But he downplayed his emotional tendencies.

“I don’t think it comes into play at all,” he said. “As long as we’re all on the same page, it’s not that big of a deal. I know a lot of the veteran guys, and some of the kids, though national programs. So that’s a side issue, and will always be a side issue. That’s not what we’re thinking about at all.”

“I think the biggest problem I had with players was that they couldn’t hear me,” he added. “I wasn’t loud enough. ‘You’ve got to talk louder, because we can’t hear what you’re saying.’”

Lombardi indicated that Sutter knows when to turn it on and off.

“[Sutter] isn’t a raving lunatic,” Lombardi noted. “Actually, a lot of [a head coach’s] best moments are just calling you in and looking you in the eye. That’s more powerful than screaming at them. He’ll have his moments, but you’re talking about a guy who could’ve gone to Princeton here, and he’s smart enough to know it’s not all about [ranting and raving]. He knows when to take the pedal off the metal.”

“It’s more about holding players accountable, and I totally agree with him,” Lombardi added. “I get it that [players] have changed on the outside. But deep down? I’m not buying it. They want to be pushed. You have to get the athlete to do want he doesn’t want to do so he can become what he wants to become. It’s just harder to get there today.”

“At times, they’re not going to like [being pushed]. But if you ask the guys who played for him, to a man, whether it was the hard-nosed [Jeremy] Roenick, or guys who, maybe, are a little on the softer side, [they all say that]. ‘The guy made me better, and I’d play for him in a second.’”

Sutter will use different methods to motivate his players, both loud and not so loud. But no matter what, they had better straighten up and fly right, or they will likely run afoul of their general manager.

“After I let [Sutter] go in San Jose, we played in Phoenix,” Lombardi explained. “The team won that night. Our players, equipment managers and trainers got off our plane and sought him out. So this is not a popularity contest. This guy instills the belief, and I think these players want that. They might not like the process, but, in the end, they want that.”

“Quite frankly, if they don’t [like the process], they’re just entertainers. They’re not amateurs, [so] I’m not going to buy that.”

Pre-Season Expectations Too High?

Heading into the 2011-12 season, the Kings were expected to contend for the Pacific Division and Western Conference leads, and to at least reach the second round of the playoffs, if not the conference finals.

But were those expectations too high?

“I think what happened this year, when you bring in Mike [Richards], whether they learned enough last year, now the bar gets raised even higher,” said Lombardi. “But, it’s like I told them in Columbus [on December 15, this is where you wanted to be. You don’t want to be a Cinderella team.”

“A big part of it is that everything is so close,” added Lombardi. “Certainly, the expectations have risen here, and rightfully so. But even then, the ability to get that separation, like when the New York Islanders were so much better, or, like before the lockout, Detroit and Dallas—they had no holes. Just look at you guys [the media]. When you were doing your beginning of the year predictions, would you have picked Minnesota to be where they are? No.”

“The expectations [and the Kings not meeting them at the moment] certainly exasperates [a lot of people]. They want that immediacy [snapping his fingers rapidly]. But that’s the way it is in life now, anyway.”

Lombardi admitted that his team has not yet made the adjustment to the higher expectations.

“We’ve still got a ways to go to go where we want, which is to be a favorite, a contender,” Lombardi noted. “There’s still some process involved. Let’s face it. The core of this team is still, by far, the youngest in the league, and that’s going to be a process.”

“As we see in the playoffs, it’s still about competing, and yes, we still have to make some adjustments,” Lombardi added.

Indeed, perhaps the expectations were too high.

“There’s not much difference in everybody’s expectations [across the league], and there’s no difference in the teams, so there’s a fine line, and you have to be able to manage them,” said Sutter. “When you have a bunch of young guys, who are still on the way up, when expectations get a little bit higher than, maybe, they should be, maybe they lose their focus a bit.”

“When you look at the changes in the team from last year to this year, the only changes were made at forward,” added Sutter. “The big trade to bring Mike Richards in. [Simon] Gagne replaces Ryan Smyth. You know what? Maybe that hasn’t come together for them yet.”

Blame Aimed At Murray Misguided

Popular belief among many is that Murray was to blame for what ailed the Kings, resulting in him being dismissed as head coach. But if you ask the Kings, to a man, they say that was not the case at all.

Brown indicated that he believed in Murray’s methods.

“I can only speak for myself, [but] was I happy with the way I played, was I happy with how everything went for me? No. I could’ve been a better player under Terry,” he said. “I believed in the way he approached things.”

@LAKingsDru I would package sone D depth for offense, look at a team like WAS or TB.

—
Dennis Bernstein (@DennisTFP) December 12, 2011

Guess again. For the scoring needed, price will be higher. RT @aaronamberg: @DennisTFP @LAKingsDru Martinez the guy that could go other way?

—
Frozen Royalty (@frozenroyalty) December 12, 2011

Ding ding ding! We have a winner, but it's because of rise of Voynov RT @aaronamberg: @DennisTFP @LAKingsDru #3 would be the guy they'd move

—
Frozen Royalty (@frozenroyalty) December 12, 2011

Yes, but only because of Voynov. RT @Ninerboy14 also because JJ has favorable contract, Doughty doesn't, Amart not enough to get anything

—
Frozen Royalty (@frozenroyalty) December 12, 2011

“The one thing about this group, and I think it’s critical, there’s no question they care,” Lombardi noted. “If you don’t care, then you can’t push and you’re never going to get to where you want to go. [Last] Monday was hard on all of us. Then, meeting with them again on Wednesday, I don’t doubt that they [felt] accountable.”

“I think they all respected Murph, as we all do,” Lombardi added. “There was no question, to a man, they thought he was a good man. In the end, I think I like the way they handled it. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t an easy meeting on Wednesday either. But, there were no punches pulled. Sometimes the ones you get maddest at the most are the ones you love the most.”

In the end, it was all about results.

“In the end, we’re at the point that when you have expectations, it comes down to wins and losses,” said Lombardi. “It’s easy to pinpoint the coaches, but yes, it’s the players, too. Throw in [the fact that] Doughty was hurt, Richards was hurt, but the bottom line is that it wasn’t getting done up to expectations.

Coaching Change Probably Not Enough

Although Sutter is expected to give the Kings a jump start, chances are that more than a coaching change is needed to help the team generate more offense, which means a roster shake-up may be forthcoming.

As reported here on Frozen Royalty on December 13, and as I posted on Twitter on December 11, if the Kings are going after any of the top snipers in the league, they will need to give up a roster player with high trade value, and the only player they can afford to give up who fits that bill is defenseman Jack Johnson, or, perhaps even younger defenseman Slava Voynov.

Although there is no indication that a trade is in the works, no one should be surprised to see a move made at any time, even right after the holiday movement freeze lifts on December 27.

Matt Reitz, who writes for NBC’s Pro Hockey Talk,, and is the Editor-In-Chief of View From My Seats, contributed to this story.

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming home contests against the Phoenix Coyotes (December 26, 7:00 PM PST), the Vancouver Canucks (December 31, 7:00 PM), the Colorado Avalanche (January 2, 2012, 7:30 PM), and for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski have, apparently, been busy little elves during the 2011 holiday season.

On December 20, they looked back at the coaching tenure of Terry Murray, who was fired on December 12, in Episode 135 – Terry Murray, LA Kings Head Coach (08-11).

Although you should probably watch this one with the audio muted (Keith and Chris sing in this one…you have been warned), at least they were creative in The Most Miserable Time of the Year For The LA Kings.

After you’ve been released from the hospital (if you watched that one with the audio on) after suffering from bleeding ears, you can then watch Episode 136 – KingsCast Holiday Flight of Fancy, when Keith and Chris look back at the Kings’ last road trip, and much more.

You can watch these episodes right here:

Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming home contests against the Phoenix Coyotes (December 26, 7:00 PM PST), the Vancouver Canucks (December 31, 7:00 PM), the Colorado Avalache (January 2, 2012, 7:30 PM), and for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Photo: Argenta Press

Author and scholar Brian Kennedy, Ph.D., a native of Montreal, an Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College, and a freelance hockey writer who covers the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks for Inside Hockey, previously wrote two books, Growing Up Hockey: The Life and Times of Everyone Who Ever Loved The Game, and Living The Hockey Dream: Interviews and Personal Stories From NHL Superstars and Other Lovers of The Game, in which he gave readers a good look into how hockey is so deeply rooted in Canadian culture and in the psyche of Canadians.

But in his new book, My Country Is Hockey: How Hockey Explains Canadian Culture, History, Politics, Heroes, French-English Rivalry and Who We Are As Canadians, Kennedy goes for the jugular in that regard, taking great pains to point out how hockey is inextricably intertwined with just about all things Canadian, heavily influencing Canadian thought, behavior, politics, and so much more, while also looking at how the purity and simple joy of the game is being lost.

“For Canadians, this game is so much their identity, and so closely tied to who they are, you really can’t think much about anything—Canadian politics, regionalism, the French-English issue, violence, identity—without hockey being at the center,” he stressed.

Although the book is written for readers beyond the borders of the Great White North, it will resonate strongest with Canadians.

Indeed, Kennedy’s words about his days playing road hockey after moving to Ontario from Quebec will certainly resonate with Canadians, not to mention others who grew up in cold climates.

“When I moved to Ontario I was [the new kid on the block],” said Kennedy, who moved to the United States twenty years ago, and has lived in the Los Angeles area for the last 15 years. “I moved there in the Summer, or late in the Spring, so the on-ice season was over. I remember—kids do this—bragging about growing up in Quebec and Montreal, and how good the hockey was there. There were a few other, little, weird things about the way these guys played road hockey, like one of them used a lacrosse stick for a goalie stick.”

“I thought that was really funny, and I was feeling really superior, coming from Montreal,” added Kennedy. “But when the on-ice season started the next Fall, I realized that the house league there was a lot better than the one back in Quebec. Every team had a game and a practice every week. Back in Quebec, we often didn’t have practices, because there was so much demand for ice time. I sure got my comeuppance quickly.”

“Now, my father lives in another city altogether from where I lived in Ontario. When I go home, and take a jog around the neighborhood, I see all the kids, with their games going on. If I had a stick, I could walk into any game, and no one would be asking, ‘who’s this grown-up?’ That’s the feeling I get. It’s just what we do.”

Playing on a frozen pond as a child is something that sets most Canadians, and those living in other cold climates, apart from those who live in areas where ice hockey can only be played on indoor rinks, something Kennedy illustrates so well that readers can almost experience it for themselves.

“The difference is that in those moments on the frozen pond, you’ve got nature, the elements [to deal with],” said Kennedy. “I’ve got a line in there somewhere about skating alone on a frozen pond, the snow swirling around you, with the puck magically attached to your stick.”

“When you’re doing that, it’s the sound, it’s the cold, it’s the fact that it’s you against nature, which could kill you if you weren’t careful,” added Kennedy. “But there’s also the fantasy element. When I’m alone on a pond, skating around, I’m untouchable. I’m going to win the Stanley Cup. You’re the king when you’ve got the puck on your stick. There’s no one who can stop you. When you’re doing that, it’s hard not to say to yourself, ‘this is who I am.’”

During his childhood in Montreal, the National Hockey League moved into Vancouver. In this book, Kennedy wrote of the cultural shift that occurred in Canada as a result, something many may not realize or understand.

“In the 70’s, the perception of the ‘old league’ people, the Original Six, was that the expansion to twelve teams [in 1967], with two teams in California, was strange, but that was just the Americanization of the game,” Kennedy noted. “But moving into Vancouver was another thing altogether. It was, ‘wow. So we’re big enough for more hockey? It’s not that teams should just go to the States?’”

“Yet there was some resentment from the east, particularly in Montreal and Toronto,” Kennedy added. “I remember, as a kid, thinking, ‘this team is the worst. They’re awful. Why are they putting a team there?’ That was ‘kid prejudice,’ in a way. But if you look at the history, the psyche of Canada changed when the game expanded [into Vancouver]. The mental map of Canada expanded on that day. Suddenly, the west was no longer just this frontier.”

The Purity And Joy Of The Game

In today’s NHL, virtually all of the players have moved away from the traditional wooden sticks, opting instead for the composite sticks that break far too easily.

Kennedy blasted the use of these sticks, asserting that hockey has lost one of its best traditions.

“The stick has a tradition that goes back to native culture, the Mi’kmaq culture [one of Canada’s First Nations], so it’s really important,” he emphasized. It’s also important to me because all the iconic images of the heroes I had in hockey had a wooden stick. There’s also a bit of resentment that the [composite sticks] are an over-complication of the game. I just don’t see the point.”

“We’ve lost an element of the game,” he added. “The sound, like the crack of the [baseball] bat is still the purest sound in sports. Hockey has lost that.”

But even more has been lost from the move to composite sticks.

“It also goes back to how the game is played in childhood,” Kennedy lamented. “$200.00 for a hockey stick for an eight-year-old? C’mon. Where’s the purity of this game?”

Even before the composite sticks became all the rage, Canadian kids were already losing a lot of the purity and joy that was once a huge part of hockey.

“The unstructured game, kids just playing for fun, a lot of that’s gone,” Kennedy noted. “A lot of their ice time is consumed with drills, and much of that is a reaction.”

“When Canada lost the World Junior Championships a bunch of times in the 1990’s, our people began saying that our players aren’t as well tutored,” Kennedy added. “Hockey Canada, a government agency, got involved. They set up guidelines for coaching, and that sort of thing. But it does take the purity and the pleasure out of the game.”

“Being a kid was stick, puck, and skate around, pretending you were an NHL star. But a lot of kids today don’t get to do that. Just the idea that, after school, you grab your skates and your stick, and you go down to the corner, much of that has been lost, and I think that’s a shame.”

The Pivotal Moment For Canada

Kennedy points out that the 1972 Summit Series, featuring a team of Canadian all-stars from the NHL against the Soviet Red Army team, led by forward Valeri Kharlamov and goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, was a pivotal moment in Canada’s history and culture.

Prior to the eight-game, “friendly” series that was played in September 1972, prior to the start of the 1972-73 NHL season, the Soviets made themselves out to be vastly inferior to the Canadians.

Indeed, Canada was not only supposed to win the series, blowing out the Soviets in every game, but they believed the Soviets did not even belong on the same sheet of ice.

Guess again.

“They were fit, they had trained all summer, and the Canadians hadn’t [NHL players were accustomed to using training camps to get into shape back then],” Kennedy noted. “They were scientific in their approach. They never gave the puck away, and the Canadians did.”

“The Canadians were completely fooled by the messages from the Soviets, which were, ‘we’re here to learn, we know you’re the best, our equipment is terrible, we really don’t know how to practice, and we’re just hoping to admire how you play,’” Kennedy added. “None of that was true. “They were fit, smart, tough, and they could play hockey.”

Boy, could they.

The Soviets skated circles around the Canadians in the first game, winning it, 7-3. At that point, the Canadians knew they were in a tremendous dogfight.

“The way the [Canadian] players described it, they got better as they went along, and they bonded as a unit because of adversity,” Kennedy noted.

The series was tied entering the eighth game, and only a win was acceptable for Canada.

“[Goaltender] Ken Dryden said that while sitting in the locker room in Game 8, with the series tied, 3-3-1, and that game being the deciding one—they were between periods two and three, down 5-3, he knew they would win,” Kennedy explained.

Canada won the game when Paul Henderson scored at 19:26 of the third period, beating the legendary Tretiak, giving Canada a 6-5 win.

But did the better team win?

“You’ve asked the Canadian the ultimate question, and I find it very hard to admit that [the Soviets] were the better team, but the Canadians had the better superstars,” Kennedy admitted. “That’s what it boiled down to.”

“The Russians were a good team,” Kennedy added. “Every guy knew what he was supposed to do, and they had their superstars. Kharlamov was probably the best player in the world at that time, and Tretiak was spectacular. They had a deep team, their defensemen were big and tough, and they played a different game than we did.”

“That is the moment. It’s like the Apollo moon landing, or John F. Kennedy being shot. That series encapsulated the ‘us versus them’ thinking, the Cold War, maybe a little of Canadians coming of age in the world. We knew the Americans were fighting communism, and, in this series, the communists suddenly had a face. They were right there in our building.”

But for Canada, the 1972 Summit Series brought forth a more humbling reality.

“[Hockey is] not Canada’s, and even in Canada, it’s not Canada’s, in a way,” said Kennedy. “Since September 2, 1972, when they dropped the puck in Montreal, Phil Esposito grabbed it, went down to the other end, and scored on Tretiak. The Canadians ended up losing that game, 7-3. But that was the night, and it took years for Canadians to admit it, but that was the moment where we had to admit that other people could play the game, too, and it’s only continued.”

“There is this feeling that Canadians want to believe this game is theirs, and they want to preserve it, so there are times when I talk about that kind of stuff,” added Kennedy. “What I’m trying to do is plug into a debate that matters a lot to Canadians, along with some paranoia. For example, our retail used to be different from [in the United States]. Now, it’s the same. One example is the Zeller’s franchise, which was kind of a Target-type store. Target bought them so now they’re going to be Target stores, and Target is, actually, a lot better, and a lot of the things the United States gives Canada are a lot better than what Canadians might’ve had, or, at least, more. But it’s not Canadian.”

“If there’s one thing we always believed is ours, it’s this game, so if I try to jealously guard it, I guess I’m just defaulting to the Canadian way of thinking. But I also critique that idea [throughout] the book. The introduction has some of that in it, but, near the end, I flip the whole thing on its head, and that’s a very Canadian strategy, to poke fun at ourselves, to show that the thing we thought we were so right about, we’re really not right about at all.”

Americans Will Get More Out My Country Is Hockey Than Canadians

Kennedy displays the tremendous sense of pride that Canadians have for what they feel is their game. In fact, throughout most of the book, he practically hits you over the head with the claim that hockey belongs to Canada, and no one else, even though he later turns that claim upside down.

So what if you’re an American, or from another country? Don’t we have our own thoughts about that?

My advice: you might feel a bit put off as you read the book, but, if you read on to the end, you will find that it was worth it.

“American hockey fans [especially those close enough to the Canadian border to receive Canadian television and radio broadcasts], should have enough familiarity with the stuff I’m talking about,” Kennedy noted. “But even if I’m not talking about their issues, they might still be curious enough to want to know more.”

“I open the family closet, and let the strangers next door have a look at what we say to each other when we don’t think anyone’s listening, the kinds of things that motivate us, and that we’re passionate about,” Kennedy added. “For an American hockey fan, this makes sense of some things that didn’t make sense before, and maybe it reminds them of some things they knew only a shadow about.”

“Maybe it gives them a look into ‘those people up there,’ who they know are massed along the border—ninety percent of Canadians live within fifty miles of the border. You guys know they’re up there, and you know they’re doing something. Now you’ll know a little bit more about what they’re doing.”

On a more rudimentary level, My Country Is Hockey was written to show how much more there is to hockey than what we all see on NHL ice.

“I mention the different eras because older readers will enjoy remembering,” said Kennedy. “But it’s also to educate younger readers. ‘My country is hockey’ seems like an easy formula with all these binaries in Canada—East-West, French-English. This book is full of me complicating that simple way of life. [Canadians] think we have this thing figured out, but we don’t. Let’s figure out why.”

“When it comes to the history of the game, part of what I’m trying to say is, if you think this game is the same game that you’ve watched before, it’s not,” added Kennedy. “When the inevitable next re-invention comes—maybe we’re having one now, trying to get the hits to the head out of the game, and all that—I guess I’m making the argument that hockey has changed more than we think it has.”

As mentioned earlier, Kennedy is an academic, and some of that is apparent in the book. But do not let that fool you, as the book is not dry and boring. Rather, it was written in a comfortable, entertaining style that grabs you, and pulls you in, while still teaching the lessons the author wants the reader to learn.

“Any professor who is doing his or her job well isn’t just delivering material so that students can just regurgitate it on a test,” he stressed. “You want them to be passionate about it, think about it at night when they go to bed, or when they’re driving. [Good] teachers distill the message in forms they think really matter, and that students will get and keep, not just forget the day the test is over.”

“I’m trying to do that here,” he added. “These are ideas that are important to me, and I’m convinced should be important to hockey fans. What I want a fan to do, when they go to a Los Angeles Kings game, is to know that there were only twelve NHL teams once, and before that, only six, and that [the Kings] are one of the twelve. That matters, because [the Kings] have a history that’s long, deep, and important. It’s not just the history of the Gretzky Era.”

But Kennedy’s objectives were even more basic.

“I hope I can turn them on to some of the magic in the game, and some of the elements that surround the game,” he beamed. “To me, every game means the world, and that’s what I’m trying to convey. It’s almost an anxiety of how important that is.”

“I’m desperate for people to understand hockey, the history of the game, and to understand Canada,” he added. “I’m desperate for them to feel the passion that Canadians feel for the game. Hopefully, people will read the book, and then, the next time they go to a game, it resonates much bigger with them than before. Everything they hand you when you go into the arena—you don’t just toss it on the ground or under your seat when the game ends. You take it home and keep it forever, because you saw a game in the National Hockey League.”

In the end, Kennedy opens the door and invites those of us outside of Canada, especially Americans, to get a magnificent view of what hockey truly means to Canadians, and how deeply it impacts all aspects of life north of the border.

“Why would I, as an American, want to read that,” he asked. “Partly because a lot of it is about Americans, but also because it’s about another place, a place you know a little bit about, and I’m trying to say, ‘there’s a lot of interesting stuff to think about, when you think about that border on the 49th parallel, and realize that there’s a lot that happens up there that’s hockey-related, but that’s also not hockey-related.”

“I’m hoping readers will think something like, ‘thanks for opening the door on a family argument, because I’ve been wondering what all the yelling was about over there, and now I know, and I guess I won’t call the cops after all.’”

Kennedy, Brian. My Country Is Hockey: How Hockey Explains Canadian Culture, History, Politics, Heroes, French-English Rivalry and Who We Are As Canadians. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Argenta Press, 2011. ISBN (10-digit): 0-9866546-1-2. ISBN (13-digit): 978-0-9866546-1-9.

My Country Is Hockey is available from Lone Pine Publishing, and Amazon.com.

Related Stories:

• Bookworms – The Fourth Period
• My Country Is Hockey – Joe Pelletier’s HockeyBookReviews.com

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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Dennis Bernstein from The Fourth Period joins Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski to talk about the reeling Los Angeles Kings, the firing of Terry Murray, and about Darryl Sutter, who is expected to be named the new head coach.

You can watch Episode 134 – Talking LA Kings Hockey with Dennis Bernstein below:

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Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

As expected, the Los Angeles Kings have fired head coach Terry Murray (left), shown here with head athletic trainer Chris Kingsley (right).
Photo: David Sheehan

LOS ANGELES — With his team failing to live up to lofty, but well-deserved expectations, Los Angeles Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi made the move that has been all but expected since late Sunday night.

On Monday, he fired head coach Terry Murray, and named assistant coach John Stevens as interim head coach.

Murray, 61, earned a 139-106-30 regular season record with the Kings after joining the team in 2008-09. He ranks third in franchise history in wins, fourth in games coached, and first in winning percentage (.560). He also reached the 100-win mark faster than any head coach in team history, and his 2009-10 and 2010-11 teams tied the franchise record for most wins in a season (46).

In his head coaching career with the Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers, Philadelphia Flyers, and the Kings, Murray earned a 499-383-130 record, and ranks 17th all-time in National Hockey League history in wins, and is 19th all-time in games coached.

But none of that could save him on Monday, when Lombardi flew to Boston to give him the news.

“We reached the [point] where we had to make this decision [on Sunday],” said Lombardi. “I flew out early this morning, and went right to Murph’s room. I guess it was around 4:00 PM [EST]. I don’t think words can ever describe how hard something like this is. You’re talking about a really good man.”

“It wasn’t easy for both of us,” added Lombardi. “I have such respect for him as a man—if this was just a business relationship, and we always use the cliche, ‘it’s business.’ Well, this was more than business. This goes beyond that. It’s always difficult, even if you’re just using a business approach. But there’s a very good man here, and nobody likes to be the bearer of this type of news.”

Even though he had just dismissed him, Lombardi praised Murray, saying that the players would value his teachings now, and down the road.

“As far as being a coach, when you look at what he’s done for us, he really stabilized this franchise, and pointed it in the right direction,” Lombardi noted. “He taught these players a lot. When they look back, they’re going to realize that they learned a lot from him. The team got younger and better under him. He did a lot for this franchise.”

“This was one of the hardest working coaches that I’ve ever been exposed to, in terms of his commitment to the game, and always searching for ways to get better,” Lombardi added. “The other thing, too, is that, even last year, we had some sketchy periods, as we certainly have had this year. But again, the expectations for this year are even higher, so it gets dicier. But he never quit. That’s not his nature.”

“Like every coach, he gets frustrated. But his work ethic and focus never changed. Right up to having to meet with him today—these are never pleasant, but this one was particularly hard, given the man he is, and knowing how hard he tried. He wouldn’t have stopped trying.”

But with a lineup that should be contending for first place in the Western Conference this season, but is coming up well short so far, a shake-up was needed, and it was not going to come from a trade, at least, not yet.

Indeed, as it usually happens, the head coach is the one to take the fall, no matter how much of the blame he deserves.

As reported in recent stories here on Frozen Royalty, much of the Kings’ problems this season have been in how they execute, or fail to execute, their game plan, and that they certainly aren’t coached to fail, in any regard (see Los Angeles Kings: Players Counter Claims That System, Coach Stifle Offense and Terry Murray Likely To Take Fall Soon For LA Kings’ Failures, No Matter Whose Fault It Is).

As such, the vast majority of the responsibility for the team’s failings to this point in the 2011-12 season lies with the players.

Before speaking to the media, Lombardi reportedly blasted his players loudly during a closed door meeting.

“It’s simple,” said Lombardi. “It sounds cliche, but it’s true. Ultimately, the message is that they’re accountable. Unfortunately, the coach has to pay the price. But make no mistake. They’re the ones who are accountable for this.”

Lombardi also stressed that it is not just a matter of young players like Drew Doughty or Jack Johnson not raising their level of play to expected levels. Rather, the veterans get at least as much of the blame, if not more.

“In the end, it still comes down to the player getting his focus, and being the best he can be,” Lombardi explained. “With young players today, it’s a challenge. But I don’t think it’s just the young players. I think it’s been right across the board, so I’m not just pinning [this on the younger players].”

“They are trying to reach their potential, and there’s always stumbling blocks along the road to reaching their utmost,” Lombardi elaborated. “But then you have players with a specific [mode of operation], and have had a certain level of success in this league—I know players who have established themselves are going to have ups and downs, but they should be in the neighborhood of what they have done in the past. I don’t think we have any guys we consider to be old, or on the down side, so, it’s collective.”

“I’ve been through this before. I saw it with [the San Jose Sharks in Patrick] Marleau, [Brad] Stuart, [and Evgeni] Nabokov, but it’s across the board here. You can’t just say it’s the young players. [Jarret] Stoll, [Justin] Williams, [Matt] Greene—all these guys—[Dustin] Brown. They certainly have to look at themselves as much as the younger players.”

Lombardi called on his veteran players to take charge.

“It’s possible [to turn things around],” he said. “But, in the end, it comes down to the players. I don’t think you’re going to do this unless you think you’re going to get some improvement.”

“It’s unique here, in that you’ve got the youngest core in the league, and you’re counting on these young players,” he added. “But again, the veterans, the established players, have to step up here. But why else, in any sport, would you make this type of change [if you’re not] hoping for improvement?”

Lombardi also noted that the Kings can no longer be as patient as they have been in recent years, now that they are expected to contend for the top spot in the Western Conference and go deeper into the playoffs.

“With the expectations this year, it all becomes more results-oriented,” he stressed. “So it’s harder [now] to look for those victories within losses, and that’s just the state of the franchise right now. You can look for more of those things three years ago, but we’re trying to push to that next level, and it isn’t easy. It’s lot easier playing with the house’s money.”

“I do think we’re at the stage where you’re going to be judged on wins and losses, and playoff rounds,” he added. “That’s what you always strive for. It’s a lot easier when there’s no expectations. But we’re not there right now. Again, it comes down to wins and losses.”

As for Murray’s permanent replacement, one name being mentioned more than any other is Darryl Sutter, most recently, the former head coach and, later, general manager of the Calgary Flames.

Sutter has a strong connection with Lombardi, having coached the Sharks while Lombardi was their general manager.

When asked about the search for a replacement, Lombardi had little to say.

“There’s no timetable,” said Lombardi. “We’re looking at all of our options. It’s fair to say that when you’re in this situation, there’s a very short list. The other thing is that because you’re with your team right in the middle of the fray, you think you have a decent idea of what you think might do it, so the list is pretty short.”

Lombardi Feeling The Heat

With expectations so high this season, no one expected the Kings to be where they are in the standings. To be sure, not only are they supposed to be a winning team, but they are expected to contend for the top spot in the Western Conference, and reach the conference finals, or, at the very least, go down fighting in a lengthy, hard-fought second round playoff series.

Lombardi is undoubtedly taking some heat from above, and this decision just might have been dictated by ownership, even though there has been nothing confirmed towards that end.

Regardless, the pressure from above is palpable, placing tremendous weight on Lombardi’s shoulders regarding Murray’s replacement. After all, the Kings’ next head coach will be tasked with not only righting the ship, but somehow, getting them onto a winning pace that will allow them to attain, at the very least, their post-season goals.

At this point in the season, those goals are not yet out of reach, another reason the move was made sooner rather than later. But, as Lombardi alluded to, no matter who becomes the next head coach, the responsibility still lies primarily with the players, and their excuse just went home to Maine.

Back to Sutter…is he the right candidate? Given that he is another old school NHL coach, he may not be what the Kings need, especially if a dramatically different voice or message is what’s missing.

Perhaps they should look elsewhere.

On A Personal Note…

As some of my colleagues in the local media covering the Los Angeles Kings have expressed, I must also say thank you to Terry Murray for being so accomodating and so generous with his time, despite having such a busy schedule.

Like every NHL head coach, he did his share of using the media to send messages to his players, or anyone else, for that matter. But he was never blatant or arrogant about it, unlike his predecessor, Marc Crawford, who never failed to walk into a post-game media scrum without a message for his players, pushing hard to get his message on radio, television and in print, even if he was not actually answering the questions being asked. Indeed, he proved many times over that answering our questions was not something he was very concerned about.

To his credit, that was something Murray never did during his tenure with the Kings. Unlike Crawford, he treated us with respect, rather than hidden disdain. For that, thank you Terry, and best wishes down the road.

Raw Audio Interview: Telephone Press Conference Call With Dean Lombardi, December 12, 2011

(12:36; Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

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LA Kings head coach Terry Murray is likely about to take the fall for his
team’s failure to execute their game plan on a consistent basis.
Photo: David Sheehan

This is not a first for Brown, who has been seen doing the exact same thing in seasons past.

But this time, something was different.

Indeed, Brown sat there, unmoving, with the same dejected, disgusted look on his face, for considerably longer than the times I have seen him do that over the past few seasons since he was named as the Kings’ captain.

Sensing that leaving him alone in his thoughts was the wise and appropriate thing to do, especially since the media had already spoken with him, I do not know what was going through his mind. As such, I can only speculate. But an educated guess is that he has had enough of his team not playing the way they are supposed to.

Contrary to popular belief, the Kings’ problems on the ice boil down to execution, as detailed in an earlier story here on Frozen Royalty. In fact, what may not be evident to many is that their problems often start 200 feet from their opponent’s net.

Back in early November, it was already evident that the Kings were losing games and not generating offense when they allowed the gaps between the defensemen and forwards to get too wide on breakout plays, forcing the defensemen to make long clearing passes from their own zone. At the NHL level, such passes are usually broken up, or the defense has time to collapse on the intended recipient of the pass, taking away his time and space at the far blue line.

In those cases, the Kings have no speed on attack, which must be generated in the neutral zone off the breakout. As a result, they cannot carry the puck into the zone. Even if they do get the puck deep, without speed on attack, they either get beaten to the loose puck, or they only get one man in position on the forecheck. That prevents them from recovering the puck, eliminating the possibility of generating offense.

An unnamed NHL scout who sees the Kings regularly confirmed this.

“Generating speed through the neutral zone is critical in today’s NHL,” he said. “But they let their gaps get too wide. There’s no puck support on their breakouts. Without that, they can’t generate that speed.”

“With speed, you’re either going to back the defense off their blue line a bit, maybe enough to allow you to carry the puck into the zone, or you’re going to have a real chance to recover a loose puck dumped into the corner,” he added. “But without that speed, with all the teams lining up four guys across their blue line, there’s no way to carry it in without speed on attack, and even if you dump it in, today’s defensemen skate too well for you to get a forecheck going to get that loose puck.”

As stated in that December 8, 2011 story, the system is not the problem. After all, the Kings are not getting blown out of games, and their defense and goaltending have been sound, overall. To be sure, if the system was the problem, neither would be the case.

Further, head coach Terry Murray does not coach his team to screw up their breakout plays. He does not teach them to be cute with the puck, passing it endlessly without shooting, nor does he teach them to play on the perimeter instead of going to the front of the net to create traffic in front of opposing goaltenders. As such, those blaming him, or his system, need to look elsewhere for something and someone to blame.

To be sure, the players themselves share a great deal of that burden, and their captain admitted it.

“We’re not playing with enough intensity, enough desperation,” said Brown. “We’re a good team, but we’re not playing like one. We need more intensity, more desperation, and that starts with individuals. [No one can] do it alone, but you’ve got to get yourself ready, as a player on this team. Right now, we don’t have enough guys with that desperation in their game.”

Veteran defenseman Rob Scuderi echoed Brown’s comments.

“I think you have to get yourself up, as an individual, to play this game, and you’ve got to be excited to play,” said Scuderi. “You have to want to win. If [you don’t want it], you’re going to get beaten in this league, most nights.”

“You’ve got to make your mind up that you’re not going to get beaten on a loose puck,” added Scuderi. “We have team strategies, and team systems, but if you can’t make your mind up as an individual, you’re not going anywhere as a team.”

But for a team with the talent they have on their roster, the Kings were expected to contend for first place in the Pacific Division, and the top spot in the Western Conference. Nevertheless, even though there is still a lot of time left in the season, and no, the Kings are not hopelessly out of playoff contention, they are certainly heading in the wrong direction at a pretty high rate of speed.

Given that the players are now starting to talk about lacking intensity and desperation, combined with a long-term lack of attention to how they need to play to make their system work, a shake-up is needed to awaken the Kings from their long slumber. A trade or two can often work wonders, and since the Kings need more help up front, if they are considering a trade to bring in a scoring winger, the price will be high—defenseman Jack Johnson and young defenseman Slava Voynov are the only players the Kings can afford to trade for such talent.

For those thinking that the Kings could afford to trade goaltender Jonathan Bernier, consider that number one goalie Jonathan Quick has just one more year on his contract, which pays him $1.8 million per year, becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency on July 1, 2014.

If Quick further establishes himself as one of the top netminders in the league, he will command a huge raise, one that is likely to be heavily influenced by the Nashville Predators’ recent signing of goalie Pekka Rinne to a seven-year deal valued at $56 million.

In short, the Kings might not able to afford Quick when his next contract comes up. Given that uncertainty, Bernier is surely not going anywhere for awhile.

A trade invoving Johnson or Voynov would be quite the drastic move, especially with center Mike Richards still sidelined by a concussion. Indeed, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi is not likely to be looking to make that drastic a move. That leaves just one other possibility, leaving Murray as the odd man out—his days with the Kings are numbered, no matter how much of the blame he deserves.

If #lakings don't show improvement on 4-game trip, Murray will be toast, no matter who you want to blame.

—
Frozen Royalty (@frozenroyalty) December 11, 2011

As such, it could very well be that by the time the Kings hit the ice for practice today in Boston (they face the Bruins on December 13), Murray will have been replaced.

Regardless of his shaky status, Murray is aware of his team’s issues with intensity and lack of attention to detail.

“I like our team a lot,” he said. “We’ve got good people, and in most every game, we bring the right attitude, with the right compete. But it has to be there for sixty minutes. You have to execute the details. Those things are the difference in games today, because of the parity. Everybody is just so close. The focus you have to have, the attitude you have to have to be ready to go the right way, right from the start, [and] through to the very end.”

“We’re just not [getting off to good] starts, [nor are they paying close enough attention to] those areas of the game, the times in the game that you have to on a consistent basis, and it’s costing us,” he added.

Even though their head coaches’ job hangs in the balance, right over their heads, Brown and Scuderi pointed at themselves (as a team), taking full responsibility.

“I think we have what it takes in this room, regardless of who’s in or out of the lineup,” Brown stressed. “It’s up to the guys in here. This is our team.”

“Guys just need to re-focus,” Brown added. “Like I said, we have a good team. We’ve played good hockey this year. It’s a matter of guys buying in, and doing everything right. It starts with hard work.”

“I truly believe the answer is in here,” said Scuderi. “I’m very optimistic that we’ll come out of it. It’s been a tough stretch, no one’s denying that. As far as if they think a shake-up is necessary, that’s out of our hands.”

“It’s the guys in here who have to make the difference, and who have to make up their minds,” added Scuderi. “If you’re going to live up to expectations, and be a good hockey club, you, as an individual, as a player, when you’re sitting there, that’s where your responsibility is. You have to make that decision.”

In an exclusive interview with Frozen Royalty in early September, Murray talked about the high expectations for his team this season, and the potential consequences, both for the team, and for himself, if they failed to meet them.

“I always worry about my job,” he said. “Look, I’ve been in this business for so long now—that’s not in the front of your mind. The most important things that you’re focused on are your players, your team, getting everything in place to play the right way.”

But Murray’s players are not playing the right way, and no matter whose fault that is, he is a virtual lock to be the one to pay for it, initially, anyway, and that is likely to happen sooner rather than later.

On A Totally Different Note…

Along with his sister (left), 13-year-old Gabriel Abarca (right), who suffers from cystic fibrosis, got his wish, to meet LA Kings center Anze Kopitar (center), on December 9, 2011, at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

13-year-old Gabriel Abarca, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, a recessive genetic disease which affects the entire body, causing progressive disability and often early death, was the honored guest at the Toyota Sports Center, the Kings’ practice facility in El Segundo, California.

The Kings and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles, made it all possible for young Gabriel, who was joined by his sister, and his family.

A big fan of the Kings, Gabriel’s wish was to meet center Anze Kopitar. He also wanted to meet the team, watch a game, ride on a Zamboni, meet Bailey, the Kings’ mascot, skate with Kopitar, and have lunch with him.

Gabriel certainly got his wish, as Kopitar and the Kings gave him the royal treatment, both at their practice facility, and at their game against the Stars on December 10.

Gabriel and his sister got to visit with Kopitar in the Kings dressing room in El Segundo, receiving pucks and sticks autographed by Kopitar, along with other gifts from the team (see additional photos below).

“I think it’s great,” Kopitar beamed. “I look back to when I was a kid, hanging around our local team with my Dad around the locker room, was really nice. I got to spend some time with the guys, and, for [Gabriel], I’m sure it was pretty special to come in, meet some of the guys, skating. He’s going to remember this for a long time.”

“I know it’s not easy for him,” Kopitar added. “It’s tough times, but he’s hanging in there. If I met him on the street, I wouldn’t think anything was wrong with him, not that there’s anything wrong. He’s just got a little bump in the road. Hopefully, he’ll get better. He was definitely a trooper out there.”

Photo: Gann Matsuda

Photo: Gann Matsuda

Raw Audio Interviews From Dallas Stars vs. Los Angeles Kings, December 10, 2011

(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; requires Adobe Flash Player):

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In Episode 133 – Kings Of The Wild (Or Not), Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski review the Los Angeles Kings’ recent games against the Minnesota Wild and the Montreal Canadiens, and the Anaheim Ducks, and they look at the recent furor or whether or not head coach Terry Murray should be fired.

You can watch this episode below:

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Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Defenseman Drew Doughty was among several Los Angeles Kings players
who discussed the team’s system, and their struggling offense.
Photo: David Sheehan

But one look at the standings reveals that the Kings are just three points out of first place in their division, and from third place in the National Hockey League’s Western Conference.

Despite that, the sky is falling for many of the Kings’ faithful, who seem to be looking, desperately, for something and someone to blame, and many are blaming head coach Terry Murray and the system he has the Kings playing, which many claim is archaic, and stifles his players’ offensive abilities.

For weeks, there has been a growing cacophony of frustrated fans blaming Murray for everything that ails the Kings, calling for him to be, not just fired, but run out of town on a rail, or worse.

After the December 6 loss at Anaheim, two replacements for Murray were suggested that should leave just about anyone shaking their heads in disbelief…

Former Kings head coaches Barry Melrose and Marc Crawford.

Before going further, please note I do not mean to embarrass or insult anyone, nor do I hold any malice towards those who offered these suggestions. Nevertheless, there are reasons that neither Melrose or Crawford can hold onto a head coaching job.

Indeed, the qualifications of the two are questionable, at best, and that’s being rather generous. In any case, the fact that they were offered as suggested replacements indicates that not only are fans frustrated, but it also shows that a significant number are not looking closely enough at what is going on. Even worse, some may be unable to do so, for whatever reason.

Where this is most evident is in the criticism aimed at Murray because of the system the Kings play, which so many claim inhibits them offensively, stifles their creativity, and promotes a dump-and-chase mentality rather than carrying the puck into the attacking zone.

Kings players don’t see it that way.

“I’m not going to say that’s true [at all],” said defenseman Drew Doughty. “Terry puts that defensive system in place because that’s what’s working in the NHL right now.”

“I think we have more of a defensive system, so [fans] are right on that part,” added Doughty. “But, at the same time, [the coaching staff is] really pushing the issue on offense.”

“We made some adjustments to [our system], but it’s not really that much different where the change would be [so] significant where it would hurt our scoring,” said center Anze Kopitar.

So what is causing their offensive struggles, which has the Kings ranked dead last in the league, averaging 2.26 goals per game (through games played on December 7)?

Virtually every NHL team has adopted some sort of neutral zone trap, frequently sending one player in on the forecheck, while four players line up across their own blue line.

“All teams are playing it, whether it’s a 1-3-1, or whatever,” Doughty noted. “Everyone’s playing a defensive system, and they create their chances off of turnovers, and that’s what we’re trying to do [on offense].”

Kopitar called it a “neutral zone forecheck.”

“That’s what it is,” said Kopitar. “Everybody’s pulling back. I guess the [New Jersey] Devils played that just before the lockout, and everybody was getting on them. Now, it seems that everyone is doing it.”

“Are we the most offensive team in the league? Probably not,” added Kopitar. “But are we the most defensive team in the league? I don’t know. [The] Tampa [Bay Lightning have] been sitting back [with four or five on their blue line] for quite a bit. Minnesota is sitting back, even Anaheim last night—they were playing 1-4 right from the get-go.”

“I guess that’s where the game is going. It’s more conservative.”

Late last season, Murray noticed the move to line up four players on the blue line, and, in an exclusive interview with Frozen Royalty before training camp, he accurately predicted that this would become a league-wide trend.

“The other thing that plays into [the Kings’ offensive struggles] big time, now, in this league, without the red line, you can go back through the playoffs, in almost any series,” Murray explained. “When teams lose possession of the puck, they’ve got four or five guys back on their own blue line. When you have that kind of mentality on the checking part of the game, it is literally impossible to enter [the attacking zone] with possession, and have a good rush attack game. Literally impossible.”

“Vancouver played a one-one-three game,” Murray elaborated. “Dallas, who we played a couple of times near the end of the year, they changed their checking game, dropping five guys back on their blue line. Anaheim—the last two games we played in the regular season, they had no forecheck going whatsoever. If you take a look at that game, they just lined up four across, their first man standing at the red line, center dot, and their other four guys across their blue line. It’s impossible to have any kind of possession/entry game [against that]. Absolutely impossible.”

With the red line no longer a factor when determining two-line passes, teams fear the long clearing pass.

“That’s where our game is right now,” Murray lamented. “That’s the one thing, in losing the red line [in determining two-line passes], which has been going on in Europe for years, the old neutral zone trap that the New Jersey Devils were winning with—we knew, when the red line was going to come out, where the trap was going to go to. It was going to go from the red line back to the defensive [team’s] blue line. We knew that, we talked about it, and that’s exactly where the game is at.”

“You watch this year…as more and more teams go to that kind of philosophy when they lose possession,” he added. “There’s going to be less rush/possession game [play] than what there [has been]. With the way the game is set up now, with the five back mentality, you’re going to see it game after game after game.”

After that story was published on September 4, 2011, many fans claimed that Murray was wrong. They categorically denied that the Kings had ever faced the trap last season, or that it may be coming back into the league. Some even went so far as to accuse him of lying about the trap to cover up his system’s alledged offensive shortcomings.

Fact is, like it or not, Murray was dead-on correct. But it seems that many are either oblivious to that fact, or are unwilling to accept it.

“If you go back to [before the] 2004-05 lockout, the number one scoring team scored 262 goals,” said Murray. “Who was the top scoring team in the NHL last year? Vancouver. How many goals did they score? 262. So, it hasn’t changed much. What has changed is the neutral zone play, which is much tighter. You saw it last night at Anaheim, and we’re seeing it with every team in the league. Everybody’s pulling back to their own blue line, and it’s a very tight structure now in the middle of the ice.”

“It is difficult to have a possession entry, or [even] organized attacks,” added Murray. “You can get organized, but there comes a time when you’re being fronted. Now you have to just get pucks in deep, and go recover them. So it’s hard. It’s hard for everybody in the league right now.”

For the record, the Vancouver Canucks scored 258 regular season goals in 2010-11. But a difference of four goals does not weaken Murray’s point.

Knowing the trap was making a major comeback, Murray adjusted the system, trying to counter it.

“We anticipated, with what we saw at the end of the year last year, a lot of teams starting to go more towards [backing off to] their own blue line,” Murray explained. “So we loosened up that second forechecker to get in faster to help support and recover pucks.”

“If anything, we’re more aggressive on our forecheck this year than we were last year,” Murray elaborated. “We’re really demanding our second support man to come with a lot more speed.”

Kopitar also pointed to his team trying to create more off their forecheck this season.

“The forecheck is definitely more aggressive,” he noted. “It’s just a matter of getting that forecheck [going].”

“Sometimes, we’re just too far apart from each other, [and] you can’t really forecheck aggressively enough, because the defensemen in the league now, from top to bottom, on each and every team, they’re so good at making plays that you really have to be right on them, and stop the puck just to get a chance for [us] to try and retrieve the puck,” he added. “Most of the time, we’re too spread out, and we really can’t get anything going off that. It’s a matter of the forwards coming together, and putting the puck in the right place where we can get it back.”

“If [our] guys are standing on the blue line, it’s pointless to dump [the puck] in, because you can’t get to it before the [opposing] defensemen. You can’t even get close enough to them to interfere with the guy and [create a] turnover.”

Indeed, where the Kings have struggled, the system is not to blame. Instead, look at the trap being used throughout the league, and how the Kings are executing against it.

As Kopitar noted above, support on the forecheck has been a problem of late. But Murray indicated that his team is improving in that area.

“We’re getting our share of pucks in the offensive zone,” said Murray. “The one thing that’s starting to come is moving our feet when we get possession, to create some time and space for passing lanes.”

“Puck recovery is huge, and when you do get the puck, have the confidence and composure to hold onto the puck and move your feet,” added Murray. “The longer you can have the puck on your stick whenever you’ve recovered it in the offensive zone, and I don’t mean [like] Peter Forsberg. He could hold onto the puck for thirty or forty seconds in the offensive zone by himself. The more you can have it on your stick—five or six seconds—moving your feet, that creates lanes, creates options, and it gets people away from the puck open. It gives them time to get into new positions.”

“For a stretch here, I think we’ve been getting the puck and making a play in less than two seconds. Like it’s got to happen right now. That’s not the right kind of mentality, [but] We’re starting to see that change. We’re starting to see guys with more composure, holding onto the puck, moving their feet, and getting open. That buys time for the forwards, and it loosens things up for your top end, and now you can get pucks through from the blue line.”

Breaking out of their own zone against the Ducks on December 6 provided another example of the Kings not executing on some shifts.

“We pull the puck back, and they [drop four back to their blue line], pulling the puck back is probably not the best idea,” said right wing and team captain Dustin Brown.

“[The Ducks] did a good job in the first [period], being over the top of us,” said center Jarret Stoll. “Right from the first shift, I noticed that it was going to be tough getting through the neutral zone. We just had to chip pucks in.”

“They had that 1-4, like a lot of teams do nowadays,” added Stoll. “You’ve just got to tip pucks in with support. If you don’t have support, then it’s an easy breakout [going the other way].”

For the Kings to create offense, their forecheck has to be effective.

“I think we did it a couple of times, where we [move the puck up ice quickly] with speed,” Brown noted. “[When] you make a team like [the Ducks] skate backwards into their zone—we started [to force turnovers]. In the third period, we got some pucks back, and it was the result of getting in behind them, and pressuring the puck.”

Poor spacing on the forecheck and on breakout plays are examples of the players failing to execute their game plan. Another is getting too cute with the puck, constantly looking for the extra pass, and passing up golden opportunities to shoot and score.

“When you’re getting pucks to the net, and getting some pressure on them, they feel it, and the momentum turns in our favor,” said Doughty. “If we can continue to do that, teams will panic, and we’ll be able to capitalize on our scoring chances.”

“Terry’s always harping on it, as are all the coaches,” added Doughty. “But, as players, we know that we have to get pucks to the net. If we don’t, nothing’s going to go in. We’re definitely harping on each and every one of us to do that more often.”

Another problem has been slow starts.

“I don’t really have a reason that we come out slow, but it’s something we’ve got to fix,” Doughty emphasized. “The first period is such an important part of the game. It can show the outcome of a game. If a team is really dominating the first period, [chances are], they’re going to dominate in the second and the third periods, unless the other team really starts pushing back.”

“We have to take ownership, each and every one of us, get prepared, mentally and physically,” Doughty added. “If we do that, we have no excuse but to play well in the first period, and play the right style of game.”

The Kings are working on some other things to generate more offense.

“We’re working on a lot of things off the rush in practice every day to try and help our scoring,” said Doughty. “So, I wouldn’t say that [our] system has anything to do with us not creating offense.”

But execution of the existing game plan is what they need most to generate more scoring.

“We’ve just got to create chances and bear down on’em,” Kopitar stressed. “It’s not rocket science. We’ve got to get [the puck into] the areas where goals are scored, in front of the net, around the net. We’ve got to get some good bounces in there, too, once in awhile. That’s going to help us get some more wins.”

“We’ve got the players to do it,” said Brown. “We’ve just got to find ways. We’ve got to get more pucks to the net, get around the net. We don’t have enough guys staying in and around the net right now.”

Contrary to popular belief, players share a large part of the burden…or blame.

“It is pretty much up to [the players],” Doughty stressed. “We all in the NHL for a reason, because we have the capability to make plays. All of our offensive guys need to pick it up, and find ways to create chances.”

“I think we’ve done a lot better lately, but we still have a lot of room for improvement,” Doughty added.

“You can call it execution, support, or whatever you want to call it,” said Kopitar. “The bottom line is we’ve got to do it.”

As noted earlier, although the Kings are struggling to score goals and to win games, they are just three points out of first place in their division, and from third place in their conference.

In other words, and again, contrary to popular belief, the sky is not falling.

“If you take a look, and go back through statistics, we’re only a couple of points behind last year’s pace at this time,” said Murray. “We’re actually better in goals against [than they were last season] at this time. We’re four less than what we were last year at this time, and we’re fourth in the league in goals against this year.”

“The area we need to be better at is what we’ve been talking about, the offensive part of the game. Statistically five-on-five, we want to get that number higher. We’ll keep pushing it.”

Terry Murray may not be the coach who can take the Kings to the Promised Land—a Stanley Cup championship, something I wrote back when he was hired, based on his previous record. Nevertheless, calls for his termination are still rather premature.

Stick tap to Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period for “contributing” to this story.

Raw Audio Interviews From Los Angeles Kings vs. Anaheim Ducks, December 6, 2011

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Raw Audio Interviews From Los Angeles Kings practice, December 7, 2011

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Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming games against the Washington Capitals (January 9, 2012, 7:30 PM – Capitals vs. Kings), the Dallas Stars (January 12, 7:30 PM – Stars vs. Kings), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.

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LOS ANGELES — One game into a stretch in which they will have to do without the services of center Mike Richards and defenseman Willie Mitchell, already, the Los Angeles Kings have shown that there are big reasons for concern after struggling mightily in a 2-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens during a matinee affair at Staples Center on December 3.

Tomas Plekanec gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 18:39 of the first period.

Andrei Kostitsyn finished off an odd-man rush at 10:48 of the second period, giving the Habs a 2-1 lead, taking advantage of Kings defenseman Matt Greene losing an edge and falling at the Montreal blue line, just inside right point.

The Kings cut the Canadiens’ lead in half at the 13:46 mark of the third period. But before you read on, be advised that California has not fallen into the Pacific Ocean, and you do not need to make sure that your affairs are in order.

Left wing Dustin Penner was the responsible party, scoring his first goal of the season, prompting concerns that some cataclysmic event was upon us.

But that was as close as the struggling Kings could get.

“I thought we had a good first twenty minutes,” said left wing Simon Gagne. “We had a lot of pucks on the net, a lot of shots. The second period, I thought, was not very good. We took a lot of bad penalties, and gave them chances to go on the power play. From that point, we found ourselves, down, 2-0.”

“We got a goal late in the second, but after that, they shut us down, lining up five guys on their blue line,” added Gagne. “It was really hard to get [into their zone], and they played really well defensively. We were OK in the last twenty minutes, but not good enough to win the game or tie it.”

Head coach Terry Murray pointed to missed opportunities, and a lack of intensity.

“There were a lot of opportunities in the first period with the power plays we had, a five-on-three,” Murray lamented. “Those are missed opportunities. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t score on it. We didn’t get enough traffic at the net. [Montreal goaltender Carey] Price saw a lot of those pucks. We need to be more diligent to get screens on the goalie.”

“I thought we backed off in the second period,” Murray added. “The intensity wasn’t quite the same as it was in the first period, and then, you get into the third, and it’s a 2-1 game. You’re trying to get things turned around, but end up with [just] six shots in the period. On top of that, we took a bad penalty when we were on a power play, late in the third. It’s a formula for losing games.”

A prime example of the intensity issue Murray noted came on that late third period power play Murray spoke of, a golden opportunity wasted by the Kings.

“I thought our intensity with the puck, and on the puck, was not good enough,” he said. “Some of the pucks we were putting into the offensive zone on that power play, [the Canadiens] were recovering. The goalie was getting the puck. He cleared one himself.”

“I felt that, for pucks along the boards, we were leaving [one of our] players by himself,” he added. “You’ve got to have two or three on the puck to recover, and then you go to positions. We backed off on that kind of intensity, and it had to get picked up.”

Center Jarret Stoll indicated that without Richards in the lineup, everyone needed to dig deeper.

“It’s a disappointing loss,” said Stoll “We feel we had a better game to put out there today than what we had and what we brought. It just wasn’t enough.”

“We have to give more, and push more, and be a lot harder,” added Stoll. “Our scoring chances are few and far between, so when you get them you have to get it to the back of the net and we just didn’t do that.”

With the lack of intensity came the all-too-familiar overpassing, turnovers, and outright failure to shoot the puck, as evidenced by the Kings getting just seven shots on net in the second period, and only six in the third.

Two key culprits in this area were defensemen Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, who combined for just three shots on goal, and were largely ineffective, even though Doughty had the first assist on Penner’s goal.

“I think your back end has to be a big contributor in the offensive part of the game,” Murray emphasized. “You saw Florida the other night. They have 62 points from their back end group. That’s a lot of points. That’s what we rely on, both [Johnson] and Doughty. They need to start shooting the puck, and I think, right at the end of the game, you see that we won the face-off. [The puck went] to Drew at the middle of the blue line. He had an opportunity to shoot the puck, but he held onto it, and dragged it down to the left side, and time ran out.”

“You’ve got to pound the puck away,” Murray added. “You’ve got to get a lot more to the net, and that’s the reason, part of the time, whenever we end up with [just] six shots in a period—the low-to-high, is what’s open. Most of the time, in the game today, everybody’s protecting with that home plate attitude, so your [defensemen] are the ones who have to start [shooting] the puck more consistently.”

What is preventing Doughty and Johnson from shooting the puck from the blue line more often?

“It’s what they’re seeing, I suppose,” said Murray. “There’s something there that’s restraining them from getting pucks through to the net. Maybe that’s just inexperience, in some situations, but the bottom line is that I’d rather see them err on the other side, rather than hold onto pucks and be too cautious with it.”

Murray was visibly frustrated with his team’s continuing to pass up good chances to shoot the puck.

“It’s harder to [talk about] it in [the dressing room] than it is [to talk about it with the media],” Murray said. “I’m looking at these players, and we’re talking about it every day in practice. Every game, it’s a message that’s been consistent from the first day.”

“This is where it needs to get better,” Murray added. “At the end of the day, again, we ended up with [just] six shots on goal in the third period, a critical time in a 2-1 game. That’s where you’ve got to have a mentality of really loading up in front of the net. You’ve got to get a dozen-to-15 shots [in the third period] in a game like [today’s].”

Right wing Justin Williams continued to struggle, extending his goal scoring drought to 17 games.

“Sometimes I think [Williams] tries to do too much, but other times, I’d like to see him hold onto the puck and do a little bit more, and I think that goes on in his own mind, too,” Murray noted. “His game is shooting pucks. His game is a give-and-go game in the offensive zone, and he’s got those first couple of steps where he can separate himself from defending players.”

“Just moving the puck, jumping by, getting it back, and putting pucks to the net is where he needs to get to on a consistent basis,” Murray added.

The Bright Side

Although he did not get on the scoresheet, Gagne, whose goal scoring slump was extended to seven games, is starting to get quality scoring chances again, after being mostly a perimeter player over the last couple of weeks.

Nevertheless, he is struggling mightily, as the crossbar he hit on a glorious scoring opportunity illustrates.

“You’re trying to find ways to score,” said Gagne. “You can [only] shoot the puck at the net. It’s just the way things are going right now.”

“He hit the crossbar in the third period,” Murray noted. “That would’ve been a huge goal to tie this thing up. He’s a guy who can give us some good numbers. He’s a very skilled player, he plays a top-end game, and can make the big play at the right time. I saw that here today with some real good scoring opportunities, and he just hit the crossbar.”

“He’s getting his looks,” Murray added. “That’s the most important thing.”

But the brightest bulb in the box, on this day, was Penner.

“I liked Dustin Penner today,” Murray beamed. “He played well. He dug in, he was skating in a real athletic position. He knees were bent, he’s carrying the puck, he had some authority, he was strong around the net, he scored a goal.”

Penner was, arguably, the best Kings skater in this game, and was one of the best players for either team. Indeed, he got the job done on the forecheck, in loose puck battles along the boards and in the corners, in front of the Montreal net, and even in the defensive zone, and on the backcheck through the neutral zone.

“That’s the best I’ve felt,” said Penner. “That’s kind of the start I wanted before the season started. Then I got caught up with different lower body injuries. There’s no problem with my lower body now, It’s just a broken knuckle, but that didn’t affect me.”

Penner does not have full flexibility of the affected knuckle on his left hand.

“It’s more strength,” he said. “I don’t have 100 percent strength. I probably wouldn’t want to get into a fight. But, other than that, it’s pretty good.”

As reported earlier, Penner scored the only goal for the Kings in this game, his first since March 13, 2011, at Dallas. When asked how it felt to get that monkey off his back, Penner replied, “There’s probably 29 more monkeys.”

“It was a really good shot by Doughty,” Penner noted. “That’s what guys like him and Jack Johnson can do on the power play—not necessarily shoot to score, but shoot for a tip, and he placed that perfectly.”

Penner’s teammates offered their congratulations and encouragement, all happy to see him get back on the scoresheet.

“They were pretty pumped for me,” said Penner. “I have to give credit to my teammates, and our trainers, for believing in me. Those guys were happier than I was when I scored.”

Penner went on to say that he has been aware of the deep, often brutal criticism of him and his play. But that is not what motivates him.

“It’s probably a mindset, where [he’s thinking], ‘enough is enough,’” Penner explained. “As an athlete, you hear the things that are being said. It’s not that you need to hear them, but, as a professional, you know when you’re not playing your best.”

“You know, it wasn’t even so much the conditioning,” Penner elaborated. “It was just feeling healthy, and for a guy my size, who weighs 245 [pounds], you can’t be inhibited by lower body injuries and play the way you’re supposed to and the way you’re capable of.”

Penner also knows that he cannot let up now.

“There’s still lots of room for improvement,” he noted. “But [this game was] a good building block.”

Murray echoed those sentiments.

“I liked the way he played here for [his] first time in three weeks [after returning from injury],” said Murray. “He just needs to build on it now.”

NOTES:

• The Kings have killed 28 of their last 29 penalties, dating back to November 19 vs. Detroit.
• The Kings have allowed ten goals in their last six games (1.67/game).
• The Kings are now 10-2-1 when allowing two or fewer goals in a game.
• Through 26 games last season, the Kings had 32 points (16-10-0).
• Dustin Brown played in his 539th game with the Kings, and is now tied with Bob Berry and Wayne Gretzky for 14th all-time in club history.
• Brown also played in his 212th straight game, dating back to February 27, 2009.
• Stoll was 17-for-22 in face-offs today.
• Doughty is now one assist away from 100 his career.

Raw Audio Interviews From Montreal Canadiens vs. Los Angeles Kings, December 3, 2011

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All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Keith Korneluk and Chris Kaliszewski review the Los Angeles Kings’ recent games against the San Jose Sharks and the Florida Panthers, and much more in their latest edition of KingsCast.

You can watch Episode 132 – Catnip below:

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies

Left wing Dustin Penner must find his game quickly and start pulling his weight on the scoresheet with the Los Angeles Kings facing some rather strong adversity with the loss of defenseman Willie Mitchell and center Mike Richards to injuries.
Photo: David Sheehan

During that game, the Kings lost veteran defenseman Willie Mitchell during the first minute of the game. He was joined in the trainer’s room by center Mike Richards, who took a blow to the head late in the second period from Panthers’ forward Sean Bergenheim.

Mitchell (lower body injury) is expected to miss at least the next two games, while Richards, who has what is officially being called an upper body injury, has been placed on injured reserve.

During practice on December 2, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi indicated that Richards underwent tests that are all part of the concussion protocol mandated by the National Hockey League.

In other words, Richards suffered a concussion.

Mitchell and Richards are two key cogs in the machine for the Kings, and will not be easily replaced.

“Those are two big pieces for our team,” said right wing and team captain Dustin Brown. “It’s an opportunity for guys to step up and fill a void.”

“Guys just have to play,” said head coach Terry Murray, who was forced to juggle his line combinations to fill the voids in his lineup. “There’s no magic to that formula. There’s an opportunity that opens up for some players to get back into the lineup, and other guys need to take on a little more of a workload, especially on Mitchell’s side of it, he’s a big penalty-killer for us.”

“Other guys are going to get an opportunity,” added Murray. “It’s a good thing to see. It’s good for other players to get put into situations that gives them an opportunity to improve their game, and to contribute to the team, because as you get to the deeper part of the season, inevitably, there’s a call to duty in those situations. So [now], they’ve been there, they know what to do, and they react the right way.”

Brown stressed that no one player will be able to replace what Richards contributed.

“We’re going to have to [pick up the slack] by committee,” he said. “Mike Richards is a big part of our team. He’s contributed in different ways every night, so it’s a matter of other guys stepping up.”

“It’s just like last year, with [center Anze] Kopitar going down [late last season],” he added. “He was a big part of our team, but other guys stepped up, and we found ways to win games. We’re going to need more of that.”

Brown, who shined on left wing against the Panthers, scoring a goal and barely missing a second one, clanking a wrist shot from the slot off the left goal post later in the game, is being forced to move back to right wing due to the loss of Richards.

“He had some good looks there, coming off that left wing side,” said Murray. “He does enjoy it. He likes that move, and it gets him to that kind of attack more consistently. He’s sending me a message, I guess.”

“I’ve had that conversation with Brown in the past,” added Murray. “He enjoys that, and you can see why from the goal he scored last night. He gets a lot of good looks.”

“I prefer the left side, offensively,” Brown said. “I’ll play left or right. I felt really good on the left side. But with [veteran left wing Dustin] Penner coming into the lineup, I go back to the right [side]. We’ll see what we can do.”

Murray is not worried about Brown causing confusion for his line mates if he launches an attack from left wing.

“The one thing about playing with Kopitar and [veteran left wing Simon] Gagne—both are very intelligent players, and if Brown breaks out with possession and ends up attacking from the left side, I think those guys are very capable of reading and making the adjustments on their positions,” said Murray.

But without Richards, who leads the Kings in goals (eleven) and is second in points (twenty), for a team that has struggled to score goals all season long, having other guys step up will be crucial. That means the Kings will need wingers Justin Williams and Gagne to find their way back onto the scoresheet.

Murray indicated that Williams, who is mired in a 16-game goal scoring drought, and has scored just once in his last 21 games, is gripping his stick too tight.

“‘Pressing’ is the right word [to describe Williams’ recent play],” Murray explained. “He really wants to score, he wants to help the team on that side of the game. But he’s still playing. He’s holding onto the puck, he’s making plays, he’s attacking, he’s doing a lot of good things in the game.”

“Sometimes, you just have to back off—take a step back a little bit, and things will start to come your way,” Murray elaborated. “It’ll come through. He’s a player who can score. He’s shown that throughout his career. He just has to keep going, keep putting pucks to the net, and that’s the one thing I like that’s happening right now. He’s been putting more pucks to the net in the last two or three games.”

Indeed, Williams has started to get quality scoring chances, which is considerably more than one can say about Gagne, who is in the midst of a six-game goal scoring slump, having become a perimeter player in recent games.

“He’s a very good skater, he’s a great player when he’s moving and skating hard, and I think that’s the one thing that would open up some ice for him—get moving,” Murray stressed. “There’s times right now, as a team, we’re getting pucks on our sticks, and it’s on our sticks too long. We’re standing still.”

“With Gagne, that part of it can turn around very quickly,” Murray added. “He’s a world-class player, in my mind, and I’m looking for a big performance [this] afternoon against the Montreal Canadiens.”

Drewiske Finally Gets A Chance

Defenseman Davis Drewiske, who has been on the outside looking in for what seems like an eternity, will be in the lineup against the Canadiens this afternoon, alongside veteran defenseman Matt Greene.

After being a healthy scratch, game in, and game out, maintaining the right frame of mind has to be difficult. Nevertheless, Drewiske has continued to work hard in practice.

“I’ve done a lot of work to try to stay ready,” he said. “I’m anxious to get back in there.”

After playing in just 81 regular season games since the start of the 2009-10 season (he also played in 17 games during the 2008-09 season), some have probably forgotten Drewiske’s style of play.

“I just try to make a good first pass, and be hard and physical in the corners,” he said.

For any NHL player, spending most of his time watching rather than playing has to be incredibly frustrating. Nevertheless, Drewiske seems to have kept things together.

“It is what it is,” said Drewiske. “I just control what I can. That’s my attitude. Some days are easier than others, but I just try to stay positive.”

“You just try to be a good pro, and work hard every day,” added Drewiske. “The real battle is staying connected to the game, and everything else that’s going on.”

Penner Returns Under The Microscope

As reported earlier, Richards’ absence means opportunities for other forwards to step up and contribute. One such player is Penner, who was activated from injured reserve, and will play on the second line, with Williams and center Jarret Stoll.

Penner reported to the Kings’ training camp in vastly improved physical condition, stronger and lighter, having lost 18 pounds. But several injuries, including a groin strain and a variety of leg injuries, slowed him down early in the season.

But after recovering from those injuries, Penner looked like he was getting his game together, only to suffer a broken knuckle on his left (shooting) hand, forcing him to miss the Kings’ last eight games.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “It’s been a tough start with all the injuries. Now I’m feeling as good as I have since being here.”

“Penner is ready to go,” Murray noted. “He’s in the best condition since he’s been an LA King. He’s been through three weeks of hard work, and he’s poured a lot into it.”

Murray indicated that Penner is now better positioned, in terms of his physical conditioning and recovery from injuries, to contribute.

“He’s in an athletic position when he’s skating now,” Murray explained. “In the past, post-training camp even, he’s out of the lineup with a groin pull after a couple of games in Europe, then he has the [leg injuries], so there was a little bit of the straight-legged, walking around the ice, more than pushing and jumping into the play, anticipating things.”

“Now, we’re seeing an athletic player who is pursuing pucks and attacking with the puck,” Murray elaborated. “There’s a big, big difference in his body language now [compared] to what I saw early in the training camp.”

“It’s a good opportunity for Penner coming back. He’s very hungry. He wants to show that he’s a major contributor to this team, so the opportunity starts [on Saturday against Montreal].”

Penner knows that he has to move his feet to get himself into position for quality scoring chances, and that he has to be better with the puck along the boards and in the corners.

“The last two games before I got hurt, I was getting my chances,” he noted. “I was around the puck, and I was in and around every goal [against Nashville on November 8]. I think I’ve just got to hang onto the puck, and be more determined with it.”

“With guys my size, who can handle the puck, you [want to] bring a [second] guy towards you,” he added. “You draw one in, and then you pass the puck. The problem for guys like me who are playing poorly, you get the puck down low, and then you throw it away, or just cycle it to an open space, instead of [drawing] contact, and then giving it to a [teammate] who’s open and has speed.”

This season has presented Penner with very different challenges this season due to the injuries he has suffered.

“Every season poses its own challenges in its own unique way, and this season has been a lot different, in that aspect, as far as what I’ve had to go through, even after all the work I put in during the off-season,” said Penner. “One thing about adversity is that when you succeed after it, it’s that much sweeter, so I’m looking forward to getting back to where I want to be, and where I should be.”

“After everything I’ve been though, and the hard work I put in, it’ll be that much sweeter.”

Penner knows that given his non-performance to this point in the season, he will be under the microscope as soon as he steps onto the ice for his first shift against the Canadiens, and that even more pressure to finally start contributing will be placed squarely on his shoulders with Richards out of the lineup.

Despite that, he is not at all fazed by it.

“[A lot of the pressure will] fall on me, but I’m not worried about that,” he said. “I’ve dealt with pressure for my entire life.”

System Could Help Kings Weather Storm

The loss of Mitchell, a solid defensive defenseman who plays a lot of minutes on the penalty-kill, and without Richards, who was getting the job done in all three zones on the ice, and in every situation, could be disastrous for the Kings, as they lose two of their best defensive players, and one of their top scorers.

Although critics claim that the Kings’ system stifles offense, that system is exactly what might help them weather the storm created by the loss of Mitchell and Richards.

Indeed, their system, which stresses defense, grit, and playing a solid, disciplined game without the puck, could help the low-scoring Kings remain competitive…if they stick to it.

“We’re a team that has an identity as a gritty team, and as one that can play well without the puck,” said Murray. “We have good structure, and there’s good buy-in from everybody, and that’s the game that you have to play all of the time.”

“When you lose an offensive player who’s been carrying the load here in the last five or six games, then you need to look to structure and system, and get the puck in the hands of some other players out there,” added Murray. “Let them go do their thing.”

Raw Audio Interviews From Florida Panthers vs. Los Angeles Kings, December 1, 2011

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Raw Audio Interviews From Los Angeles Kings Practice, December 2, 2011

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Rugged right wing Kevin Westgarth.
Photo: David Sheehan

But remaining in contention for the top spots in their division and conference has been more of a struggle than expected, giving fans a lot to rant and rave about.

Fortunately, one feel-good story came out last week, providing a bit of a respite from the constant moaning and groaning about everything that people perceive to be wrong with the Kings.

That story broke on November 23, when right wing heavyweight enforcer Kevin Westgarth scored his first National Hockey League goal at 5:29 of the second period at Dallas.

Yes, you read that right, Westgarth, who is known much more for his pugilistic prowess than for his offensive talent, actually buried one into an opponent’s net for a change.

After Westgarth’s goal, there were numerous rumors of flying pigs being spotted in Southern California, and that the Pacific Ocean had dried up. All proved to be false.

Seriously speaking, when a player who is not expected to score goals manages to put one into the back of the net, it is often the result of a puck deflecting in off his leg, or maybe it bounces in off his skate.

“Usually, for a big, rugged enforcer type, they usually score their rare goals only when a puck hits them and deflects into the net, or on a jam play in the crease,” said the 27-year-old Princeton graduate, and native of Amherstburg, Ontario.

Indeed, the goal is rarely a pretty one. But Westgarth always hoped to be different, and he got his wish when he jumped on a loose puck in the left circle, just inside the left face-off dot. He ripped a quick snap shot, picking the upper right corner of the net.

“It was cool,” he beamed. “Ideally, I wanted it to be a nice, top corner snipe.”

“I got one of those in warm-ups,” he added. “[Left wing Simon] Gagne told me that was a good shot, so I figured I’d try it out in a game, and it seemed to work.”

“We get to practice every day against two of the best goalies in the league, so if I can score top shelf against them every once in awhile, I can, hopefully, do it in a game.”

The goal was not just a pretty one. It was an important one as well, giving the Kings a 2-0 lead, putting all the pressure on the Stars.

“That was a nice turn of events,” said Westgarth. “Great forecheck by [left wing Ethan] Moreau. [Center Colin] Fraser got in on the pressure, and [the puck] went off Moreau’s skate, and there we are.”

Despite Westgarth’s efforts, the Kings coughed up their two-goal lead and lost that game in overtime, 3-2.

“At the time, it was a big goal, so it was nice to be able to do that,” Westgarth noted. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite like we planned, but we’ll keep pounding.”

“I would’ve liked to see him get the winning goal,” said head coach Terry Murray. “The team ended up getting him a plaque. Twenty years from now, it’ll be on his mantle, and his kids will be there, looking at it. It would’ve been pretty nice to be able to say that we won the game 2-0, or 2-1, and he’s got the winning goal.”

Westgarth will never be a speedy, highly-skilled sniper or playmaker. Nevertheless, Murray indicated that his game has improved.

“He’s come a long way,” said Murray. “I go back with Westgarth to the tryout camp in Philadelphia. You had a pretty raw player there, but here he is now. He’s put in a lot of work, paid a lot of dues. His game has really come along.”

“Going back to the playoffs last year against San Jose, he was in the lineup because of being able to play the game,” added Murray. “It wasn’t that he’s that loaded gun kind of guy—you need the heavyweight in the lineup. He was playing well.”

“We’re seeing some results. The goal the other night was a beautiful goal. It was a catch-and-release play, and it’s the right attitude of pucks to the net right away. He’s moving his game forward as a player who’s contributing in other ways now.”

Most of us will never have the experience of scoring a goal in the NHL. So what did it feel like for Westgarth to score his first?

“In some ways, it was pretty anti-climactic,” he noted. “When it goes in, it just seems easy. But then, you realize that was my 73rd game. It’s easy when it goes in. It’s like anything else. When it goes right, it feels like child’s play, but when it’s not going well, it feels like you’re struggling all the time. But I look forward to doing it again.”

Friends and family quickly sent their congratulations, mostly via text message.

“It was pretty cool to get all those messages,” said Westgarth. “Usually, when I get off the ice, there’s a text message from my wife, and maybe my parents. That day, I had close to thirty messages.”

“It was nice to feel the support, and then there were a lot of the fans on Twitter, they really lit it up for me, so that was pretty cool, to feel the support.”

Fans on Twitter did more than “light it up” for him.

“My wife told me I was trending worldwide, at the time,” Westgarth noted. “I was surprised.”

When he skated back to the bench after scoring, Westgarth was congratulated by his teammates.

“[I said], ‘great shot! Congrats!’ It’s a big moment for him,” said center Jarret Stoll. “Whenever he scores in practice, it’s always high glove. For his first goal to be scored like that… .”

“We all congratulated him,” said defenseman Jack Johnson. “We all thought it was awesome. He’s played hard for us, he’s been a great guy, we were all just really happy he got his first one. Hopefully, he’s got many more to come.”

Even the officials got into the act.

“I saw the referee smiling for him,” said Murray. “Those guys know him from the minors, and the role he had taken on in the minors—all the hard work and heavy work. They were happy for him.”

Westgarth is always one of the more talkative guys on the team, both on the ice and off, and that was only magnified when he scored.

“He’s always a very talkative guy,” Stoll noted. “He’s always saying stuff in the room. He was probably ‘times ten’ [in terms of being vocal] in the dressing room after that one went in.”

“To see the guys faces, they were happy for me,” said Westgarth. “It was really cool to see the replay. They panned the bench, and everyone was smiling from ear-to-ear. That makes me feel good.”

“Whether they were laughing at me, or they were happy for me—I think it was a little of both, I appreciate it either way.”

That he was finally able to get his first NHL goal after 73 career NHL games, is certainly an accomplishment. But, as reported earlier, it also came on a pretty play, a snap shot on which he picked the top corner of the net.

Very nice icing on the cake for Westgarth, who now cares only about pucks going into the back of the net, rather than how the play looked.

“[That scoring play] worked out nicely,” he noted. “Hopefully, I get as many bouncing in off my shin pads as possible. I don’t really care how they go in. It’s just great to score them.

Raw Audio Interview With Kevin Westgarth

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Kevin Westgarth (3:07)

Game Highlights (including Westgarth’s goal) via NHL Video On YouTube

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.

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