LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings are, once again, in free fall after dropping a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators at Staples Center on January 6.
The loss was their fifth straight defeat, all on home ice, and all due primarily to inconsistent play, much of that being the result of mental lapses and a poor work ethic.
Against the Predators, it was their work ethic that was the big problem, as they were outworked and outhustled from start to finish, even though Kings head coach Terry Murray said that he liked his team’s start, pointing to the fact that they jumped out to a 2-0 lead before giving up five unanswered goals.
Later in his post-game press conference, Murray did point out that the Predators were the ones getting to loose pucks and making plays, and that his team’s “compete level” was not where it needed to be.
NOTES
- With two assists in the game, Anze Kopitar earned his 200th assist. Kopitar also has ten points in the last seven games on a goal and nine assists. He also has 23 points in the last 17 games on seven goals and 16 assists for 23 points.
- This was Wayne Simmonds’ 100th game in the National Hockey League.
- Ryan Smyth has six points in the last five games on five goals and an assist.
- The Kings have scored a power play goal in twelve of the last 15 games (12-for-43 in the last 13 games, 27.9 percent).
- The Kings were 12-4-0 against Western Conference playoff teams, prior to the loss to the Predators.
- Dustin Brown had seven hits in the game.
- Rob Scuderi had five blocked shots in the game.
Raw post-game audio interviews
(Edited to remove extraneous material and dead air)
Dustin Brown (1:57)
Drew Doughty (1:40)
Terry Murray (5:02)
Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube
For a view from the Nashville media, check out Buddy Oakes from Preds On The Glass: Predators Take Fourth In A Row in 5-2 Comeback Win in LA.
Frozen Royalty by Gann Matsuda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 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 site are required. Photographs, graphic images, and other content not specified are subject to additional restrictions. Additional information is available at: Frozen Royalty – Licensing and Copyright Information.
Frozen Royalty’s Comment Policies
frozenroyalty.net 
Thanks for the linkage and the audio clips. Y’all will be there in the end when the playoffs start.