This weekend saw the Los Angeles Kings on their second back-to-back in this young season and I can’t decide who has been the star of these past two games; wait, I can, but Jarret Stoll needs props. Stoll has scored his 3 goals in the last two games and has been effective in the faceoff circle and on the forecheck. On the other hand, Anze Kopitar now leads the league in both goals and points, 10 and 21, respectively. Obviously Kopitar is the player of the weekend, week, and month! He’s been an absolute stud for the Kings and I couldn’t be happier.

Last night the Kings faced the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time this season where they fared quite a bit better winning 6-2. The story of the game was Jason Chimera getting up ended by Rob Scuderi. Scuderi went to deliver what looked like was going to be a hip check but ended up actually clipping Chimera right in the knees. It was definitely low but it wasn’t an intentionally dirty hit. Unfortunately, Chimera looked like he got his head throttled back as he flipped over, but I honestly can say Scuderi wasn’t intending for that to happen, which I’m sure is something we all can agree on. Many people will have an opinion, so have at it. Or not.

By the way, the punch to the back of Alexander Frolov‘s head was REALLY not needed. You can be frustrated, Chimera, but let’s leave the punching off the ice. Speaking of Frolov, this weekend he notched two goals and two assists, and I can only hope that he has officially been let out of the doghouse with his production. You really couldn’t have asked for more from Frolov in last night’s game; perhaps he could have stayed on his feet more against Phoenix, but Fro isn’t perfect so I can’t hate.

Ryan Smyth continues to be his beastly self logging big ice time and making sure his presence is felt by the opposition. He was on the Fan590 on Friday and was asked about the upcoming Olympics. I don’t think anyone is surprised that he was honored by the invite and would love to be a part of Team Canada.

The difference between this game and Saturday’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes is that the Kings beat the Jackets handedly while they were on the verge of another collapse against the Coyotes. This was a 5-3 win for the Kings but, let’s be honest, it could have resulted in another OT stint or just a straight up loss. Instead the Kings readjusted themselves and finished the game with two more points.

Dustin Brown and Jarret Stoll were the highlights of this game. Brownie had over 21 minutes of TOI and had two goals. One was an empty netter, which neither the team nor he really needed. It appeared that he was just skating toward the Coyotes’ empty net with no real intention to finish the game off with a pompous gesture. I’m not even sure the puck slid past the goal line before time ran out, but I would have still been happy if it wasn’t counted. Stoll had two goals, 18 minutes of TOI, and a respectable 50% win in the faceoff circle.

Some more tidbits to chew on:

• Jonathan Quick is currently tied for first in the NHL in wins. He has 8 wins, as do Craig Anderson and Marc-Andre Fleury.
• Drew Doughty lead the team in ice time for both games: 27:38 against the Coyotes and 23:34 against the Blue Jackets.
• The most invisible player on the ice has been Teddy Purcell. What is the issue there?

As it turns out, the Phoenix Coyotes do lose games from time to time. The Los Angeles Kings went into Jobing.com arena looking to finally get a win against Phoenix and they did just that. Wayne Simmonds has filled in nicely for an ailing Justin Williams. Check out the video!

LOS ANGELES — Going into the 2009-10 season, one of the keys to the success for the Los Angeles Kings was that their core players must be better than last season, especially center Anze Kopitar.

Although the Kings are just eleven games into the season, to say that Kopitar has shown improvement would be like saying ice is cold.

To coin a phrase, oh what a difference a year makes.

Kopitar has melted the ice to start the season, scoring eight goals while contributing eleven assists for nineteen points in the team’s first eleven games.

To say that is a far cry from how he started the 2008-09 season would be, once again, stating the obvious.

Last season, Kopitar got off to a slow start, scoring a goal and adding six assists for seven points in the Kings’ first eleven games. He did not record his nineteenth point until December 5, 2008, in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Six days later, he finally scored his eighth goal of the season, in a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Not only has Kopitar totally eclipsed his start to the 2008-09 season, through games played on October 25, 2009, Kopitar leads the National Hockey League in scoring.

Yes, you read that correctly. There is no need to rub your eyes, clean your eyeglasses or get your vision checked.

Kopitar’s early scoring tear has him ranked ahead of the likes of Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin (nine goals, eight assists for seventeen points) and San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton (three goals, thirteen assists for sixteen points).

Kopitar is also tied for second in goal scoring and is all alone in second place in assists.

Read the rest at Gann Matsuda’s Frozen Royalty

LOS ANGELES — Washington Capitals superstar forward Alexander Ovechkin has been leading the National Hockey League in scoring to start the 2009-10 season, which should not be a surprise to anyone who follows the NHL.

But, at least for one night, Ovechkin has some company at the top from an unexpected source.

On Thursday night, the Los Angeles Kings held on for a 5-4 overtime victory over the Dallas Stars in front of 15,042 fans at Staples Center.

The Kings were led by center Anze Kopitar’s three goals, his first NHL hat trick, giving the Kings a three-goal lead heading into the third period.

Kopitar has now scored eight goals and has added eight assists for sixteen points, matching Ovechkin, who has nine goals and seven assists for sixteen points through games played through October 22.

But Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick had a poor third period, allowing the Stars to tie the game on two soft goals allowed by Quick and another while he was partially screened.

Center Michal Handzus was the Kings’ savior in the overtime period, scoring 55 seconds into the extra frame.

Listen to Anze Kopitar, Matt Greene, Dustin Brown and Terry Murray courtesy of

Last night the Dallas Stars stepped into Staples Center for the first time this season and I was pretty confident the Los Angeles Kings were going to finish the game with the W. All signs pointed to the victory but having to get the win in overtime rendered me speechless. I’m actually unsure of what to say about this game, but I’ll try to get something out.

If games were only 40 minutes long, I’d say with 100% confidence that the Kings played their best hockey. Alas, they are 60-minute contests and, for this game, the Kings played their usual up and down, inconsistent hockey. The modified lines looked decent and actually performed wonderfully… but only for 40 minutes. It’s a bit difficult to compliment the team on how they made the Stars looks like fools when they themselves didn’t hold on to their level of play. This is definitely a bittersweet reflection.

The good: Anze Kopitar owning this game… well, the first two periods of the game by getting his first career hat trick. He is turning into the player management knew he could and has definitely been earning his paycheck. He completely controlled the game as he scored like a madman. As of today, he’s tied with a certain Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals in points (8G, 8A and 9G, 7A, respectively).

(LAKings.com)

The Kings were looking fantastic going into the third period, but their hopes were fading as they watched the Stars tie up the game 4-4 forcing the game into OT. Heart breaker. I hardly have the stomach to comment on the third period, but I was happy when Michal Handzus killed the Stars just 55 seconds into OT. His slapshot blasted past Alex Auld and the game was done. I’m very happy that overtime ended in the Kings’ favor but the two points don’t make up for the poor third period performance. I honestly wondered why Terry Murray pulled Quick at the end of the second period with just 2.7 seconds left in the game when they were up 4-1, but I definitely understood the reasoning 20 minutes later.

The Bad: First off, one thing I can’t understand is why Brad Richardson is on the ice during important times in the games. Last night, he was on the ice with just a few minutes in regulation, which is exactly the opposite of what I’d expect! Secondly, Jonathan Quick letting in the goals he did; I’m just in a little bit of shock.

The Needs to Improve: Teddy Purcell received 12:31 of ice time and ended at a minus 1. I’m sure the improvement will explode sometime this season, so I’ll continue to wait. To address Alexander Frolov; his play was fine. I honestly didn’t think he was any better or worse than before he was benched. I have zero words of wisdom for these two players. Just… focus?

It was almost a disaster in Kings nation last night as the team welcomed the Dallas Stars back to Staples Center. After a great start and Anze Kopitar netting his first hat-trick of the career, Jonathan Quick proceded to melt-down by letting in a quick three goals. Luckily, Michael Handzus came up clutch in overtime, getting the LA Kings the win.

From LAKings.com

The Los Angeles Kings have signed goaltender Jonathan Quick to a three-year contact extension, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Friday.

Quick, 23, is in his third NHL/Kings season and he’s started nine of the Kings’ first 10 games this season. He’s also started 50 of the last 60 Kings’ games dating back to last season and he was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week for the week ending on Oct. 11 after posting a record of 3-0-0 while stopping 80 of 88 shots against in victories over San Jose (Oct. 6), Minnesota (Oct. and St. Louis (Oct. 10).

Quick, a 6-1, 223-pound native of Milford, Conn., is tied for second in the NHL this season with six wins. In addition, he ranks third in the league with 538:53 minutes played and seventh with 225 saves. Quick also has a 3.01 goals-against-average and a save percentage of .893.

Quick last season led the Kings and ranked third among NHL rookie goaltenders with 21 wins, a 2.48 goals-against average, a .914 save percentage, four shutouts, 44 appearances and 1,097 saves. His 21 wins were the third most ever recorded by a Kings’ rookie goaltender (Mario Lessard had 23 in 1978-79 and Bob Janecyk had 22 in 1984-85). Quick also went 4-1 in shootouts (he stopped 10 of 14 shots, 71 percent) and 3-0 in shootouts on the road last season. He started 41 of the final 50 Kings’ games in 2008-09 after being recalled from Manchester (American Hockey League) on Dec 16, 2008.

Quick recorded his fourth career shutout on March 26, 2009 at Dallas, stopping all 29 shots in a 1-0 shootout win, and his fourth shutout tied a Kings rookie single-season record (the three other rookie netminders to have four shutouts in one season are Jamie Storr in 1998-99, Lessard in 1978-79 and Gerry Desjardins in 1968-69). All four of Quick’s shutouts came on the road, which is a franchise record. Quick stopped a career-high 41 shots in 5-4 win on Feb. 5, 2009 at Washington and he recorded his first career shutout on Dec. 23, 2008 at Columbus, stopping all 24 shots in a 3-0 win (sixth career NHL game and fourth career NHL start).

Originally selected by the Kings in the third-round (72nd overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Quick made his NHL/Kings debut in 2007-08 and he recorded his first NHL win in his debut on Dec. 6, 2007 vs. Buffalo. He appeared in three Kings’ games that season, going 1-2-0 with a 3.83 goals-against-average and a save percentage of .855.

Quick, who was in the final year of his current contract, attended Team USA’s Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Orientation Camp this past summer (Aug. 17-19).

Firstly, my apologies for the delayed post. My only excuse: Life is getting in the way.

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Currently the Los Angeles Kings are sitting 8th in the Western Conference with 10 points and are 3rd in the Pacific Division. With 9 games in I’m neither ecstatic nor depressed with the results; the Kings are showing that they can compete and that they can take a nosedive at any moment. This was the end of their longest road trip of the year and it just may be the start of something great.

On Saturday evening, I had the unfortunate occurrence of accidentally seeing the score of the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets while watching another game. Too bad Leafs TV is really good about keeping you updated around the league. The Toronto Maple Leafs started their game at 4:00 pm PST; I saw the Kings were down 4-1 around the middle of the 3rd period of the Leafs game, and (since the games began at the same time) I knew the Kings were going to lose the game. How utterly deflating. There is absolutely nothing that can salvage the feeling of already knowing the outcome of a game, especially when it’s in favor of the other team.

At first I was upset that I saw the score, and then I was irritated that the Blue Jackets got 4 pucks past Jonathan Quick. Needless to say, I was not very enthusiastic watching the game later. There’s something about watching a game knowing your team is going to lose that is very unappetizing. It might have led to my falling asleep at times. That being said, the Kings didn’t look THAT bad. In my zombie-like state, I didn’t think they played worse than some of their other losses. With that, I’m done with this recap.

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For the game I was actually awake and excited for, the Kings decided to bounce back and play like a coherent team yesterday against the Dallas Stars. They won 4-1 to the relief of everyone and proved they can play hockey like professionals. Everything about this game was better than their previous game and capped off this road trip very nicely. They were over .500 in the faceoff circle (thank you Jarret Stoll), ceased taking sloppy penalties for 60 minutes, and collapsed around their own net protecting the goalie.

Going into this game, Bob Miller and Jim Fox mentioned that the top line of Ryan Smyth, Anze Kopitar, and Justin Williams had a combined 29 points in the first 8 games. After they picked up another 6 points against the Stars, the top line is sitting pretty with 35. Okay people, I’m fully on board with the Smyth Train. Williams? I’m getting there. Also I’m over Marty Turco. I don’t quite understand the love affair people have with him. I’ve witnessed far too many meltdowns to have any confidence he’s going to stop enough pucks to win games for his team. Am I being too critical? I think not, but let me know what you think!

Also Alexander Frolov is on the hot seat. After the poor performance against the Blue Jackets, Frolov was benched for being a turnover machine while also falling down at inopportune times causing goals against, among other things. Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider posted a transcript of his conversation with Frolov about what happened between him and the coaching staff. Per Hammond: here’s what Terry Murray had to say and here’s what Dean Lombardi said.

Decide for yourself what really is going on. I personally believe if he doesn’t shape up and sign a contract Lombardi-esque, he’s going to be sent off to wear a stranger’s crest. I will subsequently be heart-broken, but that’s only if nothing else negative comes out of this situation.

The Los Angeles Kings came into Dallas looking to end the road trip on a high note. They did just that. It was a pleasant experience to see former Kings head coach fuming on the opposing team’s bench. Here’s the game highlights of a nicely won game.

It was an ugly game last night when the Los Angeles Kings took on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both young teams are young and on the verge of being contenders but, despite having 3 sick players on the roster, the Blue Jackets were hungrier. Rough game but it’s time to put it behind and win in Dallas.