News, Views and All Things Kings From a Longtime Fan.

The Kings have addressed perhaps their most glaring weaknesses via trade and free agency this off season, and while they’re considered favorites in the Pacific Division and among the favorites in the Western Conference, there are still questions to be answered.

Last season’s marquee trade deadline acquisition, Dustin Penner, was, to put it mildly a bit of a disappointment. GM Dean Lombardi criticized Penner’s conditioning and work ethic – even going so far as to say it was up to Penner to decide if he wanted to play in the NHL or for a beer league softball team (I’m paraphrasing the quote he gave to Rich Hammond). Kings’ fans got to see first hand why Penner’s relationship with the fans in Edmonton was one of love/hate proportions. No doubt the man has skill, but at times his effort seems to be lacking.

The buzz out of El Segundo this week from names well known among Kings’ fans on twitter – Mayor’s Manor, Frozen Royalty and Dennis Bernstein of The 4th Period – was that Penner has been training hard in Los Angeles and has slimmed down by at least ten pounds. The Mayor tweeted earlier today that Penner says he wasn’t offended by Lombardi’s softball comments and instead used it as kindling for his fire. It’s encouraging news to be sure, and the hope is that it translates to big on-ice results for him. A productive Penner alongside Anze Kopitar makes the Kings’ top line as dangerous as any in the West, especially when you factor in how good the second line will be with Gagne, Richards and likely Dustin Brown.

Speaking of Kopitar, Mayor’s Manor also stated via twitter today that Anze Kopitar has been cleared medically and will begin skating before the end of July.

Now, to contracts for a moment. The good news – Kings have agreed to terms on a two-year contract extension with forward brad Richardson. Richie has been a key role player on the Kings’ roster the past two seasons, and the Kings avoid arbitration by locking him up now.

The bad news – although it’s safe to say not disconcerting at this point, is that Drew Doughty and the Kings have yet to agree to terms. Dean Lombardi told Rich Hammond today that both sides are still discussing money as well as contract length. I agree with what Bobby at Surly & Scribe has to say about it – Dean Lombardi will get it done. Drew Doughty is the cornerstone of the Kings’ franchise right now, and figures to be in any conversation about the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the next decade. Doughty wants to be an LA King, and he will be. Contract negotiations are a smorgasbord of speculation for media, both mainstream and bloggers alike. I’ve already seen Dean Lombardi called “stingy”, Drew and his agents called “greedy”, and seen speculation in the mainstream media that Doughty wants to be the highest paid King – all without any citation or shred of evidence. Articles get more reads and websites get more clicks based on speculation and fabricated drama, the “OH NOEZ WE CAN’T SIGN DREW NOW!” makes for more readers than it does to simply acknowledge the fact that there’s no pressure to get a deal done yesterday, as much as we fans would love it, and that negotiations will continue until the two sides reach an agreement.

Rest assured, Drew Doughty will be a Los Angeles King when camp opens in September, and for many more after that. He’s a key piece of the puzzle that Kings’ fans, coaches, players and management alike hope will get LA hockey’s ultimate prize – the Stanley Cup

To call it a breakout season for Anze Kopitar would be a bit of an understatement. Most of us as Kings’ fans already knew that Kopi was one of the Western Conference – if not the NHL’s elite center-icemen. This season, Kopitar has showed up on the rest of the league’s radar for the first time.

Kopitar, who was easily the best player in the world not at the Vancouver Olympic games, sits with 30 goals and 37 assists with 18 games remaining. I stated both at the beginning of the season and just before the Olympic break that I thought 40 goals was a real possibility for Kopitar. Heading down the stretch I still think 40 is a realistic goal, particularly when you factor in Justin Williams’ potential return.

So, for those who read, I’d like to ask you: How many goals/points does Anze Kopitar finish the 2009-10 season with, and why. I’m interested to hear what any readers who don’t follow the Kings regularly may have to say.

Go Kings!

-JS

Don’t look now, but the Los Angeles Kings lead the Pacific Division on this day, October 25th, 2009. It may be a mere 11 games in and the division may be separated top to bottom by a mere 7 points, but we’ll take small victories. Last night’s 5-3 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale gave the Kings’ sole possession of first place, as well as their third win in a row.

Anze Kopitar, who was tied the the league scoring lead headed into Saturday’s game, tallied 3 assists to give him sole possession of the NHL’s point lead as well.

While it might not be realistic to expect a Pacific Division title, or to expect Kopitar to win the league’s scoring race, there’s a lot to be happy about. Secondary scoring? Dustin Brown and Jaret Stoll each had 2 goals in Glendale. Scott Parse made his NHL debut and had one hell of a game, setting up Stoll’s second goal of the night. The Kings made Ilya Bryzgalov look rather pedestrian, and Jon Quick was very sharp (really was a couple of strange bounces away from only allowing one).Wayne Simmonds continues to look great on the top line.

The Kings played a perfect road game, and while there were definitely some nervous moments, they protected their lead well and hung on for victory.

The time to celebrate is short as it won’t get any easier from here. The Kings host Columbus at Staples tonight, a team that has beaten the Kings 3 straight times after being shut out the previous two. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Columbus is playing their second of back to backs tonight as well, and their 4th game in 6 days. The Kings will probably see old friend Matieu Garon in net for Columbus too, while Terry Murray is expected to stick with Jon Quick.

For the record, the Blue Jackets beat last place Anaheim 5-4 last night (How bad is Anaheim? That’s a whole other story I guess).

Kings and Jackets at 6PM tonight.

-JS

Hard to believe it took Anze Kopitar this long to get his first career hat trick. For all the bitching and moaning that people did about his decreased production last season, he’s more than made up with it the first ten games of 2009-10. Kopi’s first goal of the night will be highlight reel material for a very long time (I have the 3AM edition of NHL On the Fly set to DVR and if this doesn’t make Ice Pix, hell if it doesn’t make Ice Pix for the WEEK, the MONTH or the entire SEASON, I’m calling complete and utter BS!). I might be biased but it gets my early vote for goal of the year. Paging Stephane Robidas and Alex Auld: We finally found your jocks! Kopitar’s second goal was nearly as impressive, as he powered out of the corner and caught Alex Auld cheating off the stick side post. Third one was a knuckleball backhand that you couldn’t script in Hollywood. His next shift following the hat trick, Kopi gets the puck right in the slot and instead of shooting (and probably scoring) he does the unselfish thing and dishes the puck to Simmonds, who fires a harmless bad angle shot at Auld. Bottom line, Kopitar is a bona fide NHL superstar. Anybody who says they’d rather have Ryan Getzlaf on their team is either delusional or lying enough to win a jousting contest with Pinocchio. Jim Fox said it in tonight’s broadcast more than once – Kopitar is playing like the best centerman in the NHL right now. Oh, and he’s currently tied with a guy named Ovechkin for the league scoring lead. I’m not going to predict that Kopi is going to win a scoring title – but he’s doing a great job of supporting my prediction that he’ll near or eclipse the 100 point mark. All this from a guy that a lot of hockey fans, hell, a lot of KINGS’ fans, didn’t think was a true number one center. Hope that crow tastes good!

You can credit Kopitar’s new linemates with being responsible for this, or you can credit his much improved conditioning, or maybe it’s just the pancakes. Truth is it’s probably a little bit of all that. One thing is undeniable – Anze Kopitar is for real.

Wayne Simmonds looked good on the top line tonight, replacing the injured Justin Williams (who suffered a lower body injury during today’s pregame skate and is not expected to be out long). Simmonds’ goal was a thing of beauty too. You knew the guy had some offensive skill, but who knew he had hands like that? I think Simmonds is going to be a very good two way forward in the NHL for a long time, but that move makes one wonder if maybe he isn’t fit for a top-6 type role?

The guy who made the beautiful pass to Simmonds on that goal? That was Alexander Frolov, returning from the land of the healthy scratch. Frolov had an excellent game tonight – here’s to hoping Terry Murray’s motivational plan worked.

Michal Handzus has developed into a pretty damn good checking centerman in LA, but one thing I think people overlook is how clutch he is. 3 of Handzus’ 4 goals this season have been game winners. Any team could use about 10 guys with that kind of a quality goal ratio. He’s also not bad in the faceoff circle. As much as we all cringed every time he hopped the boards in his first season as a King, I say HAIL ZUS’! I want this guy on my team, even if he is overpaid for a third (now second) line center.

The Kings obviously aren’t having trouble scoring goals at home. Preventing them has definitely looked like an issue. If you’d have told me this Summer that the Kings biggest issues would be defensive play and goaltending I’d have called you crazy. A team that was good defensively last year and added one Rob Scuderi to the backline corps has looked like the Jeckyll and Hyde defense, and it seems like you don’t know what you’re going to get. The good news is, nobody in their right mind thinks Denis Gauthier is better than Rob Scuderi, which means it’s a correctable problem. The penalty kill has gotten better, which is a good thing. Now if we could just stop committing costly turnovers and missing defensive assignments. The first two games of the last road trip, the Kings kept it simple defensively and were very good. With the exception of Monday night in Dallas, every game since it seems like guys are trying to fix what wasn’t broken and it’s not working out very well. It’s nice that the team can score, but you shouldn’t have to score 5 or 6 goals every time you’re at home to win. That is epic defensive fail.

Some of that responsibility falls on the shoulders of Jon Quick, who was not terribly sharp tonight. The first Dallas goal was a hell of a shot, but the three after that are saves that have to be made. Quick, much like the rest of the Kings’ team defensively, is trying to do too much and getting away with what gave us fans a little hope in the first place. Again, it’s correctible. I admire that Terry Murray (who was VERY critical of Quick at tonight’s press conference) is going to stick with Quick and let him work through it. Quick should be motivated to get back in gear too – Jonathan Bernier is doing a little dominating in the AHL right now and he is waiting with baded breath for a chance to take Quick’s job. For the Kings, this is a quality problem to have, but Quick absolutely has to be better. It’s been a blessing that the Kings have won 2, maybe 3 home games already this season where they got a less than stellar goaltending, but as the season wears along, that isn’t going to cut it. It’s very soon going to be make or break time.

So, thought it’s nice to get two points, and it’s nicer knowing you just won two straight over a division opponent, but there’s lots of work yet to be done.

Kings play in Phoenix Saturday night. Now might be a good time to stock up on antidepressants since we tend to play our worst hockey against the Coyotes in recent years.

-JS

TSN is reporting that Kopitar’s deal is worth $47.6 million over 7 years, making it an average of $6.8 million per season.

Good deal for both sides, in my opinion.

SOURCE

-JS

Kings GM Dean Lombardi, who took a considerable amount of heat in the press and from fans this offseason for not bringing in any marquee free agents and for the drawn out contract negotiations with Patrick O’Sullivan, just made a lot of people eat Crow.

Late Friday night, Lombardi signed Kings superstar center Anze Kopitar to a 7 year contract extension. From the official Kings press release:

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have signed center Anze Kopitar to a seven-year contact extension that will carry into the 2015-16 season, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Saturday. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not announced (Kopitar has one remaining year on his current contract).

And the link to the source article at lakings.com.

Terms of the deal not available anywhere yet but I will add those as soon as they do. This is a real shot in the arm for those who feared Lombardi lacked leverage in extending Kopitar and Jack Johnson after the O’Sullivan negotiations. Big win for Deano today and an even bigger win for the Kings, who open the season tonight in San Jose against the Sharks.

-JS

Kings coach Terry Murray this morning named Dustin Brown captain as was anticipated. Alternate captains are Anze Kopitar and Matt Greene. Greene maybe is a bit of a surprise but it seems as if Murray appreciated him being a vocal leader in the locker room.

You can watch the stream of the announcement at Kings Vision HERE

-JS

Teddy Purcell scored the lone goal in the shootout to give the Kings a 4-3 shootout victory over the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center in Denver tonight.

Anze Kopitar and Matt Moulson each had a goal and an assist and Jaret Stoll had an unassisted goal. Colorado got goals from Ryan Smith (2 goals) and Darcy Tucker.

The Avs dominated the first period but the Kings took the play to Colorado in the second and third periods. The Kings outshot the Avalanche 41-19 on the night.

Erik Ersberg made his preseason debut for the Kings tonight, stopping 9 of 11 shots. Jon Quick came on in relief in the third period, stopping 7 of 8 shots in the third period and overtime. Peter Budaj started in net for Colorado and stopped 21 of 22 shots. He was relieved by Jason Bacashihua to start the third period, who stopped 17 of 19 shots in the third period and overtime.

In the shootout, Darcy Tucker, Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth were all turned away by Kings’ goaltender Jon Quick. The Avs’ Jason Bacashihua stopped Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown before allowing the game winner to Teddy Purcell on the last shot of the shootout period.

The Kings’ next preseason game is Saturday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas against Colorado.

-JS