The Los Angeles Kings are back in Oiler town and that means it’s time for KingsCast and The Hockey Zen to drop the gloves and get down to business. Get in on the action as both shows talk about the Kings and Oilers game last night at Rexall Place. Question of the Day: What’s your beverage of choice while watching hockey?

Really? The Los Angeles Kings are still the best team in the Western Conference? Without Ryan Smyth, Wayne Simmonds and Jarret Stoll? Jonathan Quick was awesome tonight and the Kings got some excellent secondary scoring. Hey, even Sean O’Donnell had a goal tonight. Jack Johnson went down with an ankle injury tonight. How soon can our 8-game break come? Exactly!

Read Connie’s post-game blog.

The Los Angeles Kings lose one in Vancouver last night and win one tonight in another back-to-back. With Jarret Stoll, Wayne Simmonds, Ryan Smyth, and whoever else out of the line up, the Kings had to lose another key player in tonight’s game. Jack Johnson “took one off the ankle” in the first period and was basically out for the rest of the game. Just great. It’s no secret the roster has been slowly picked off by the injury monster, and tonight was no different. The Kings faced the Edmonton Oilers with a win to go into Thursday’s game against the Calgary Flames still atop the West.

The rock for the Kings has been Jonathan Quick all the way. Erik Ersberg sat out this back-to-back but I felt quite comfortable with Terry Murray going with the number 1 goalie for these important games before the 8-day rest. On a personal note, I missed last night’s game because, for some reason, I was recording the “wrong feed.” Apparently there were two feeds coming through from Vancouver and I was on the one with horrible audio and no video. I don’t even want to go into the logistics of what in the hell was going on there, but I ended up not watching the game at all. Just as well; all reports led to the conclusion that the Kings laid a rotten egg in a 3-1 loss. Gross.

On the other side of “gross,” Brad Richardson had a great game notching a goal and an assist with a line mate who was equally having a great game in Dustin Brown. Speaking of, it definitely looked like Brownie was hurting after he scored his goal. Slamming into the boards when you’re horizontal usually doesn’t produce a good result, but he got up and was back on the ice as soon as he could. He had great chemistry with Richardson and I’m starting to see a glimpse of maybe why the Kings traded a second round pick to acquire the latter.

I’m glad Raitis Ivanans went at it with JF Jacques, but, man, a 2, 5, and 10? See ya later, Raitis. Hope that locker room keeps you company. Someone who actually stayed on the bench the entire game was Corey Elkins making his NHL debut. The consensus? He’s a rookie kid. No one should be surprised by this non-revelation and I’m positive he’ll be better in his next game. With having so many kids in the lineup, the shorthanded roster spread out the minutes with Matt Greene making a big showing with six registered hits and seemingly getting under the skin of Dustin Penner. Sheldon Souray and Ryan Potunly tied up the game with one goal each, but veteran Sean O’Donnell closed out the game with the winner from the point.

This current swing through Western Canada isn’t breaking down doors; one win and one loss is decent and I’m content so far. The Kings were due for a loss and having it come against the Vancouver Canucks doesn’t break my heart in the least bit. They always find a way to stick it to the Kings, so I’m fine with just moving along. They have one more game before this long Christmas break and I’m thinking that I should take a screen shot of the standings because you never know how long something like this can last.

Go Kings!

Another injury? That’s right, folks, you heard it right. Jarret Stoll now has a groin injury which he suffered last night. This should make for a fun road-trip! The Kings looked flat last night in Vancouver and could definitely use a bit of a break. With Stoll out, who centers the second and third line?

The Kings are currently sitting at the top of the Pacific Division and, more importantly, top of the Western Conference. This is a rare feeling for me that hasn’t really set in. I can’t remember the last time I felt this feeling of bliss. That being said, I will definitely loathe the day when the Kings are no longer at the top, but for now I am happy as a clam about how the Kings are performing game in, game out.

They play tonight against the Vancouver Canucks, tomorrow veresus the Edmonton Oilers, and the Calgary Flames are up on Thursday. Any evening of games could surely alter the standings, and these next three will definitely be a big test for the Kings in all aspects of their physical and mental play since they will not face another team until after Christmas on Saturday, December 26th against the Phoenix Coyotes.

The big question for this week is, how will the Kings hold up with Ryan Smyth still out of the line up along with Wayne Simmonds?

LOS ANGELES — If you’ve been telling your friends, family, or anyone else that you thought the Los Angeles Kings would be ten games above the .500 mark in mid-December, in fourth place in the Western Conference, just two points out of the conference lead, and just three points behind the Washington Capitals for the best record in the National Hockey League as of this writing, rest assured that you will find a big lump of coal in your stocking courtesy of Santa Claus this holiday season.

After all, liars never wind up on Santa’s “good” list.

To be sure, no one in their right mind would have predicted that the Kings would be right up there with the top teams in the NHL in mid-December, let alone when the season began in October. But improved offensive production, decent defense and better-than-passable goaltending have helped lift the Kings into the upper echelon of the NHL…

…for the time being.

Indeed, about four months remain in the regular season and so much could still happen to this still young, still inexperienced team. But focusing on the present, consider the following:

* The Kings have won three straight and are 6-0-1 in their last seven games.
* They are 16-3-3 when scoring first and 14-0-0 when leading after two periods.
* They are 8-1-1 vs. Pacific Division and are 10-1-3 in one-goal games.
* Six of the Kings’ last seven games have been one-goal games and they won all six of those games.

If those numbers jump out at you in a big way, they should. They point to a team that is finding a way to win on most nights.

Secondary scoring has been a big reason for the Kings’ recent success.

Read the rest on Gann Matsuda’s Frozen Royalty

So I’m starting to get sick and can’t focus for long stretches, thus I will keep this short and sweet. We all love bullet points, correct?

• The Los Angeles Kings gain another two points over the Phoenix Coyotes in a 3-2 shootout victory on Thursday night. As of this morning, the Kings are a mere two points shy of the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks. The Kings play the Dallas Stars tonight and another victory will bring the sort of happiness to the hearts of Kings fans that is not very often felt.
• Oscar Moller scored his first goal of the season on the sweetest shot over Ilya Bryzgalov’s left shoulder. Just to illustrate how awesome Moller is, he wasn’t on the ice for more than 7 minutes the entire game! 6:49 to be exact.
• Jack Johnson‘s goal from the high slot was almost a heart breaker, but he got the lucky bounce back right to him to get his third of the season (once again) over Bryzgalov’s left shoulder.
• In the longest shootout in Kings history, only two Kings scored while Jonathan Quick was the wall on the other side of the rink.
• I must admit, Alexander Frolov is making himself noticed on the first line creating his own chances and grinding it out, but I will also say that the first line lacks the spark from the beginning of the season. I think everyone sees that, but there’s no mistaking this current first line can notch some points.
• This has to have been the most exciting game against the Coyotes in recent memory. I wasn’t bored in the first 10 minutes of the game and it was a nail biter to the end.

Wait, the Los Angeles Kings are one point behind the San Jose Sharks? Really? The Kings? That’s right, folks, the LA Kings are playing some serious hockey this season. Last night, against the Coyotes, they gave up the lead and took things to a shootout….and it was a long one. Quick was, again, spectacular in net last night. What is your biggest surprise this season?

Read Connie’s post-game blog

Christian Mora from the University of Texas – Arlington writes us again with his ever-popular Los Angeles Kings spreadsheet and analysis. Again, this is a very solid read which is why I post it every time he writes in. Follow him on Twitter.

The season is 40% done and what a difference 8 games can make. We more than doubled the point output of the last chunk and scored 11 more goals and gave up 7 less. An 18 goal differential is HUGE for 8 games. I have thus concluded that scoring more goals and stopping more shots will win you games. Shocker, I know.

5on5 play is still average at .97, the power play numbers are beginning to look like a roller coaster, and the penalty kill is now only as bad as Anaheim’s.

A lot has been said about our perfect win percentage when winning after 2 periods but I personally don’t find it all that impressive considering there are 6 other teams out there touting the same stat and that we often blow that lead before somehow managing a way to take it back, even it takes an OT or a SO.

The Kings are currently sporting 5 players amongst the top 60 in points. Kopitar is 4th with 36. Stoll, Doughty, and Brown are 51st, 52nd, and 53rd, all with 24 (1 point ahead of Connie’s Matt Moulson), and Smyth is 58th with 23 points despite having only played 22 games. I find this very encouraging because at the end of last year you would find the highest scoring King at 45th and you would need to go to 170th to find our 5th highest scorer. Let’s hope they keep it up and have more players creep up the rankings.

Wayne Simmonds needs to find a way to score 4 points in the next 50 games to match his rookie season’s output while Drew Doughty needs only 3 points to do so. Brad Richardson scored more goals between 12/1/09 and 12/5/09 than he did in his previous 2 years at the NHL level.

Last season we managed 4 out of a possible 12 points against the Sharks while only winning our final game outright. This season we have gained 5 points and 2 wins on them already. Before every game KingsCast asks for final score predictions on Facebook and I find it interesting in what people think will happen. Understandably, the predictions are not as nice looking against the likes of the league’s powerhouses but I think the Kings have held their own and surprised us. I wonder how long it will take for us to expect the Kings to win or even compete with the San Joses, the Calgarys, and the Detroits. I eagerly anticipate the day.

Here’s to hoping the Staples Center event schedulers have to actually coordinate with the Lakers come April.

Once again, thank you Christian for your coverage of the Los Angeles Kings! What do you think about Christian’s number-crunching?

When the Kings decide to start Erik Ersberg against the San Jose Sharks, we never expect to compete, much less win. However, the Los Angeles Kings exceeded expectations last night as they delivered a win in overtime at the Shark Tank. Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Teddy Purcell all broke their goal-less streaks last night. Did any of you expect this?