If you were at Staples Center last night, I’m sorry. The Los Angeles Kings didn’t come out to play. Instead the San Jose Sharks steamrolled the Midget Kings to take control of the NHL lead. Because Detroit also lost, the Kings remain 8th in the Western Conference. “Enjoy” the highlights.

You read the score correctly. The Los Angeles Kings came into the Shark Tank last night and were on the winning side of a bloodbath. The Sharks were coming off of an astounding 9-game win streak but the Kings were there to make sure it didn’t go into double-digits. The Kings got scoring from six different players. Drew Doughty had 4 assists and Jonathan Quick had over 40 save. Wow. Your thoughts?

Guest blogger Alex Kinkopf joins us again to give us his take on this very important week of Los Angeles Kings Hockey. You can friend Alex up on Facebook

On Attendance:
I’ve just about accepted the fact that section 325 will no longer be completely vacant for my pleasure for the remainder of the season. The days of scalping any ‘ol 300 level seat without care or concern about the 14th row corner section I just shelled out 10 bones for, an automatic ass-cushion in the three-two-five…are over. I noticed the sudden boost in attendance after the holidays last year, and likewise this year on the 28th against Minnesota. It’s gotta be the holiday ticket packages. It’s gotta be!

On Stolly’s Return:
Hammy said it, Jarret Stoll will be back in the lineup tomorrow night at the Pavilion. Good to hear, but don’t expect a full serving of Stoll right away. If there’s one player to feel comfortable with taking draws, its #28. I’d like to see him work his way back on the PP as well. There’s nothing like a Stoll-Doughty or Stoll-JMFJ tandem feeding each other juicy D to D passes across the blue-line resulting in absolute bombs from the point.

On Scuds:
Rob Scuderi has proven to be a great off-season acquisition for Los Angeles. Not a player that gets a whole lot of love from fans because of his style of play. He gets the job done in the defensive zone. Not a flashy player, and sticks to his priority of playing a defensive-minded game. This gives his defensive partner, whomever it may be, Doughty or Johnson, to step up in the offensive zone and take a couple of chances. Great example here from back in September.

Scuderi’s play is underrated, and I love it. When you can sign a veteran defenseman who can not only teach the youngsters in Doughty and Johnson, but give them the support to allow them to make an offensive presence, you have yourself a key player. One with a lot of playoff experience and a ring on his finger. Expect Scuds to be a gamebreaker later on this year.

On Tonight @ San Jose:
Huge game, no question about it. Like I said previously, the Kings need victories in at least two of the three meetings with San Jose this month in regulation to have any hopes of a shot for the Pacific Division Title. Jarret Stoll will be back with the 4th line centering Ivanans and Moller. Randy Jones is still out recovering from his concussion symptoms. Brown – Kopitar – Smyth leading the top line again. What do you expect to see from this game? Predictions? The win against Washington was huge, and following it with a victory against San Jose would be a shot in the arm for the Kings.

The Los Angeles Kings, enter the new decade with a 2 game winning streak and an Olympic sized boost of confidence. KingsCast, attends the game, has a run-in with Alexander Ovechkin and wreaks havoc at the Celebrities vs Alumni Game. So far 2010, so good! Question of the Day: Who is your favorite hockey player?

Guest blogger Alex Kinkopf joins us again to break down the upcoming month of Kings Hockey.

January presents the Los Angeles Kings with 14 games; and, with a look at the schedule, the results will play a large factor in the outcome of the season as 9 games feature Western Conference opponents. Staples Center will play host to eight of the fourteen contests, a great opportunity for the Kings to take advantage of home ice. The Kings currently stand at 3rd in the Pacific and 8th in the Western Conference with 49 points.

Ovie and the Washington Capitals welcome 2010:
Los Angeles will kick off the new year as host to a team that sits in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference. A tough opponent indeed, but all of the pieces are in place for a victory to inject a boost of momentum into this young, injury bugged club. Washington, led by Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are coming off of losses to Carolina and San Jose. Expect the guys to come out hard in front of a home crowd in an effort to shut down the poster-boy of the NHL and start 2010, and more importantly, this month right.

Seven Game Home-stand:
Starting on the 7th against Detroit and ending on the 21st against Buffalo, the Kings have their longest home-stand of the season. A wonderful opportunity for the team to get back on their feet in the comfort of their home building. However, the opponents don’t provide Kings fans much comfort. We see the Western Conference leading Sharks twice, a Red Wings team that is close in the rear-view mirror standings-wise, and a team in Buffalo who is holding their own with a 3rd spot in the Eastern.

Five Game Road Trip:
This month ends with five consecutive matchups on the road. Tough opponents yet again including Detroit, Boston, and the Eastern leading New Jersey Devils with a couple of no-excuses stops in Toronto and Columbus against a couple of struggling teams.

Saturated with San Jose (left):
Arguably the most important three games the month of January has to offer for Los Angeles. Twice at home, once at the Pavilion, the Kings will be meeting a surging division-foe that is suddenly 10 points ahead of the Kings in the standings as well as current leaders of the Pacific Division and Western Conference. If Los Angeles wants to pose any threat as Pacific Division champs, two of these games must be regulation victories.

Erik Ersberg:
I’d like to see Erik Ersberg get a couple of starts in January, and expect him to get the call. As I mentioned in my last post, I think a key part to building his comfort and confidence is to put him in goal in front of the home crowd. Terry Murray was quoted as saying “Quick gives us the best chance to win at home” earlier in the year. That may be true, but I’m not completely on board with his statement. I could harp on this forever but here’s how I see it: Quick is a 2nd year goalie tied for the league lead in starts. Fatigue is bound to set in at some point, he’s tabbed to play in the Olympics (as a backup), and it’s vital to keep your starting goalie fresh. This may not be an issue to some, but developing your backup goaltender, and keeping your 1st stringer fresh throughout the season can eventually.. well, save your season.

Final Thoughts:
Jarret Stoll’s return from a groin injury is much anticipated, especially in the face-off circle. Will this be the month we find a winger who can mesh nicely with Kopitar and Smyth? I expect the Brown experiment to last a few more games to see how things work out. Purcell as their line-mate looks all but finished. I don’t expect Lombardi to make a trade in the near future to replace Williams’ absence, rather as a trade-deadline deal if the transaction is plausible. There’s no question we’re struggling to find a working option, but more time is needed to find the guy who can step up, and Dustin Brown may be that guy.

How do you Kings fans feel about the possibility of a trade to fill Williams’ hole? Sooner or later? Any possible transactions floating through your heads? Let’s hear it!

With the holiday season upon us, the Kings have given fans the gift of consistent winning…and bonus hockey. Even while battling the injury bug, the team continues to climb the standings into uncharted waters. If you could give a gift to your favorite Kings player, what would it be?

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?

While the offense tapered off in the last two games, the Los Angeles Kings squeezed out a couple of points in overtime to remain at the top of the Pacific Division. Here we take you through “Canada Night” at Staples Center and give some in-game Kings analysis.

In the third back-to-back of this young season, the Los Angeles Kings lost to the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks in shootouts and yet they find themselves back at the top of the Pacific Division. Odd, I know; but sometimes weird occurrences just happen. Even though the Kings were not the victors in either game, they were both great to watch. There were hit posts, rush plays, and surprise contributions all over the place. In any other year, these are two teams the Kings usually lose to, but this season is, once again, proving they are on a constant uptick.

While viewing the game on Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks, I did not realize how much their roster had changed until I saw the lineup. Gone are Christian Ehrhoff and Jonathan Cheechoo; in are Dany Heatley and Manny Malhotra. The make up of their team seems to have remained the same but the difference in this equation is a better Kings roster. That being said, the Kings dominated the first period while the Sharks came back in the second, and the teams battled it out all the way to the shootout. My question here is, “Why was Alexander Frolov left out of the top three shooters?” He had the only Kings goal of the game and was grinding it out as much as the other players, so your guess is as good as mine. It also must be noted that he was left out of the top three shooters against the Canucks as well.

Jonathan Quick played both games and looked solid while Sharks’ Evgeni Nabokov and Canucks’ Andrew Raycroft looked just as steady. First off, who knew Raycroft could still play! He was hit with 31 shots while Quick had just 15 sail his way. Second, did the Kings not realize that Nabokov was going to stop every shootout shot that went directly towards his chest? I don’t get the logic used by the players; subsequently, the Sharks left the arena with two points.

This picture’s purpose is solely to show how ridiculous/awesome Bailey is.

Points of interest:

• Scott Parse notched his first NHL goal of his career and has made quite the statement.
• Anze Kopitar is still among the league leaders in point production.
• Hockeywood, L.A. is growing nicely and every Kings fan should check it out!

The penalty kill might need work but these Los Angeles Kings have found a way to score in bunches. In this episode we walk you through the game against the Wild and talk about where the Kings need to improve.

The Los Angeles Kings redeemed themselves last night against the San Jose Sharks with a 6-4 victory. I was extremely proud of their efforts in the first period but was soon shell-shocked in the second and third when the Sharks came back to score 4 unanswered goals. Before puck drop I was still wondering about the defensive pairings that seemingly paired like-and-like instead of one offensive-minded with one defensive-minded, but anything could have been better than last Saturday so I wasn’t too worried. I soon was swallowing any doubts because the Kings showed up and played a hell of… well first period and second half of the third period. This game was no where near what the Kings would like on a per-game basis.

In looking at the positives of the game first, I’m not sure which of the Kings 6 goals was the best but I will say that Jack Johnson‘s aggressiveness and willingness to get to the net can only lead to great things. As long as he has the defensive support on the back end, I can only encourage his spark to get his stick on the puck. Michal Handzus‘ pass to the front of the net couldn’t have been better timed during the 4-on-4 play. Another positive was Anze Kopitar’s goal in that he should be scoring like that every single game. His was just about the nastiest and sickest goal I’ve seen from a King in awhile and Evgeni Nabokov never saw it coming.

My mantra of the Kings being “consistently inconsistent” continued last night by their sheer meltdown in the middle of the game. Yes, their passing and transitions were impressive, but the inevitable excitement and inability to immediately calm the nerves after their lead was built lead to the Kings suffering 4 unanswered power play goals from the Sharks. The most blatant penalty was the Too Many Men call while they were on the power play. The Kings were all over the place during their penalty kills and the bloom was quickly off the rose as the Sharks tied the game with less than five minutes in the game. Yet hope was renewed by Teddy Purcell, the player under arguably the most scrutiny, and his “hail mary” shot from a ridiculous angle. Thomas Gresiss didn’t have any control over it whatsoever and the Kings were back within getting the well-deserved two points.

I was very impressed with the 3rd line of Alexander Frolov, Handzus, and Wayne Simmonds. These guys were playing against the Sharks’ better players while generating offense at the same time. Their chemistry last night proved that this could potentially happen every single game, which makes this line more of a threat than the 2nd line of Purcell, Jarret Stoll, and Dustin Brown.

According to the stats sheet, Frolov was on the ice for only 17:29 but he utilized every single second by producing 2 points while also being double shifted on the 4th line, which disappeared pretty quickly. Raitis Ivanans did his duty playing less than 5 minutes but letting the opposition know what he really thinks about them. Here’s Raitis landing some dome shots on Jody Shelley after Davis Drewiske was slammed into the boards. Thanks, Ivanans for sticking up for the rookie!

All of the Kings were nicely either even in the +/- column or on the plus side while it was just the opposite on the Sharks end. Interestingly, Dany Heatley collected three points and was a -2, Devin Setoguchi got 2 points and ended at a -2, and Joe Thornton got three assists and had almost a team-worst -3.

Lastly, props to Drewiske for scoring his first NHL goal. Yes, it was on an empty net, but it was with full traffic between him and the goal mouth and it put the game away for the Kings.

It was a good night to be a Los Angeles Kings fan last night. It was a nail-biter at the end but this barn burner ended up in favor of the Kings. It was very nice to see ‘ole Cappy Rob Blake’s Sharks team sink.

LOS ANGELES — After a worse-than-dismal performance from start to finish on Saturday night in an embarrassing 6-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, the Los Angeles Kings blew a four-goal lead on Tuesday night and were headed for a second disaster in a row. But thanks to a bad angle goal by winger Teddy Purcell, they managed to hold off the class of the Pacific Division, the San Jose Sharks, in a 6-4 victory.

Kings center Anze Kopitar led the way for the Kings with a goal and two assists, while defenseman Davis Drewiske scored his first National Hockey League goal and added an assist. Center Michal Handzus contributed two assists.

After taking a 4-0 lead past the midway point of the second period, the Kings collapsed, allowing four straight power play goals, the tying goal scored by Sharks forward Dany Heatley at 14:24 of the third period.

But just 26 seconds later, Purcell got the puck in the right corner of the Sharks zone and wristed it towards the net. The puck snuck in between the pads of San Jose backup goaltender Thomas Greiss, who replaced starter Evgeni Nabokov at 12:16 of the second period after he allowed the Kings’ fourth goal of the game, a long wrist shot by Kopitar from high in the right circle, a shot Nabokov should have stopped easily.

Drewiske’s empty-net goal at 18:41 of the third period gave the Kings their final margin of victory.

NOTES: Kopitar’s two goals and three assist for five points in the first two games; the line of Kopitar, Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams has scored three goals with six assists for nine points in the two games; Defenseman Drew Doughty bounced back after playing the worst game of his young NHL career against Phoenix on Saturday. Against the Sharks, Doughty contributed an assist and earned a +3 plus/minus rating after recording a -2 rating on Saturday; Jarret Stoll won eleven out of fourteen face-offs (78.6%), but the rest of the Kings’ centers were awful in the face-off circle. Handzus won 30.4% of his face-offs, Kopitar won 35.4% and Brad Richardson won only 33.3% of his face-offs; Smyth has eighteen goals in 49 games against the Sharks.

Post game audio courtesy of Frozen Royalty

Just when you thought the Los Angeles Kings had it all figured out, they open the 2009-10 season with the poorest performance I’ve seen… since last season! But at least at the end of last season they were playing with full effort for entire games; tonight lacked consistency and teamwork. For example, does Terry Murray really want them to be bunching together at odd places on the ice? Let’s make sure we’re spread out and covering all the important spots on the ice, mmkay?

I watched this game on a massive delay last night and I’ve come to realize that I don’t think I made a bad decision in not renewing my season tickets. The utterly poor performance of the Kings was quite embarrassing, and I don’t think it mattered that they played the Phoenix Coyotes. They could have played anyone and it would have been just as bad.

(lakings.com)

Is it season-starting nerves? Do all the players have the flu? What do you supposed it is? The Coyotes dominated the Kings for basically the entire game, and not all 6 goals against were Jonathan Quick’s fault. There were plently of mistakes coming from all over the Kings roster. Drew Doughty was particularly noticably making a some timely (bad) decisions while players like Teddy Purcell and Anze Kopitar were nearly invisible. The most frustrating part of the game was the 2nd Kings goal where they spent nearly the entire PP trying to get the puck past Ilya Bryzgalov. Missed shot after missed shot finally found Kopitar getting the puck in the net off a Ryan Smyth rebound. Ugly.

I must end this post here since I have other things to attend to. The season opener was a poor excuse for effort on behalf of the fans and themselves. I’m sure no one was happy with that so-called performance, so we’ll see what happens between now and Tuesday’s game against the San Jose Sharks.

According to Sharkspage Rob Blake has been named captain of the San Jose Sharks. The assistants will be Dan Boyle and Joe Thornton. The first thing that popped into my head when I read this was that Joe Thornton will never be captain material. Granted they’re not my team so I’m not sure if Sharks fans were hoping that maybe one day Thornton could take up the captaincy reins. Either way, I chuckle at Thornton and am happy to see Blake doing well in Nor Cal.

What did you think? The ridiculousness of the Sharks organization for naming Blake their captain, the hilarity of Sharks organization for naming Blake their captain, or the utter inadequacy of Joe Thornton to pick up the reins?

[Update]: Check out Sharks Hockey Analysis and Fear The Fin for some further questions, thoughts, and discussion.

Fears abound on Thursday evening were killed about 30 minutes ago by the completion of the Dany Heatley saga. TSN reports that he will be a San Jose Shark and that Jonathan Cheechoo, Milan Michalek, and a 2nd round pick are going back to the Ottawa Senators.

I can fully breathe a sigh of relief at this outcome now that Alexander Frolov and Jarret Stoll are safe (for now). I’m not sure what the rest of the day will hold as training camp starts tomorrow! I’m hoping to be there checking out the potentials for the remaining roster spots.

When your favorite hockey writer doesn’t have anything to write about other than Tom Preissing’s golf score, he covers someone else. As a Kings fan, we all know Joe Thorton is a little bitch but it’s a good read regardless.

LOS ANGELES — When San Jose Sharks superstar center Joe Thornton dropped the gloves with Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf just two seconds into Game 6 of their Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series, it was too little, too late.

Thornton, who scored just one goal and contributed four assists in the six-game series, failed to show any fight in his game until it was too late, helping lead his team down the drain, losing the series in six games.

The Sharks have a reputation of being playoff busts, failing to get out of the second round in four straight seasons. This is also a team that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2003-04 and has been among the elite teams in the conference since then.