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

What a wacky hockey game. Neither team was great defensively, weird bounces were commonplace (if I had to guess, the ice in Denver wasn’t so good). Kings broke their streak of Power Plays without a goal by scoring not one but two power play goals. Alexei Ponikarovsky scored his first goal as a King. The Kings’ hero of the night was Brad Richardson, who scored his first career hat trick against his former team tonight  - including the shorthanded game-winner. Great game for Richardson tonight. The guy is pure effort, brings it every night.

In the third period, Wayne Simmonds was assessed a five minute major and game misconduct for butt-ending Colorado’s T.J. Galiardi. None of the replays shown on TV conclusively showed a butt-end (looked like a love tap with the elbow) and there’s speculation amongst Kings’ fans that it might have been a sell job by Galiardi. Without a good camera angle, the jury’s still out. If Simmer actually did butt-end Galiardi in the nether regions, shame on him as it was unnecessary. If he didn’t, someone should give Galiardi an Oscar as he even had all 4 on ice officials – none of whom had good line of sight on the play – buying into it. We’ll see what happens. The league I’m sure will take a look at it, since butt-ending is some pretty dangerous stuff. Hopefully some better video angles will pop up on the web so we fans have a better idea of what actually transpired there.

The best news of the night though, came from off the ice. The Kings held a hashtag battle on Twitter tonight with the Avs’ fans. For every #GoKings or #GoAvs hastag that was tweeted during the game, the teams would donate $1 to their respective charities. The Kings had chosen Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as their recipient. According to the Kings’ official release:

Hashtag Battle:

Final score:
#GoKings: 29,374
#GoAvs: 13,876

The Kings were also the #1 trending topic WORLD WIDE for the majority of tonight’s game. That bested UFC, which had two fights tonight/all their fighters, and bigger than Kanye West and his short film “Runaway,” which debuted worldwide at 6 p.m., the same start time as our game.

The Kings added close to 1,000 Twitter followers during the battle

Currently, I’m waiting for Kanye West to bust into my screen with an “I’ma let you finish, but #runaway is one of the best hashtags of ALL time!”

I know I was tweeting a TON during the game, as were most of my King fan buddies. It went for a great cause and goes to show what an amazing group we Kings fans are. I’m extremely proud of Kings’ fans as a whole tonight.

More good news came today in the return of Matt Greene to the lineup. His activation meant Jake Muzzin getting sent to Manchester. I’m not sure I’m on board with this decision. Peter Harrold has always been questionable defensively, and tonight was no exception. I’d have kept Muzzin up.

Sending Muzzin down means, in turn that the Kings did NOT put Drew Doughty on Injured Reserve, which would keep him out of the lineup until minimum Thursday. There’s speculation that Dewey could return to the lineup Wednesday in Chicago. Can’t happen soon enough as Jack Johnson hasn’t responded to the pressure of being THE guy on the Kings’ blueline very well so far. I like Jack a lot, but he looks nothing like the guy we saw post-Olympics last season, although he IS a +2 right now, so perhaps I’m being too critical.

Next up for the Kings will be the Minnesota Wild on Monday. The game is on national TV (Versus), good exposure for the Kings. Minnesota is in rebuild mode but they’re not to be taken lightly as  a 6-2 drubbing of Vancouver last week shows. Would be great to see the offense work like it did tonight, but the team as a whole perform better defensively.

Kings win, Ducks and Stars lose. Money was raised for charity. All in all, a good night.

GO KINGS!

-JS

The Los Angeles Kings have signed restricted free agent center Jarret Stoll to four-year contract and restricted free agent center Brad Richardson to a two-year contract, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Monday. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not announced.

Source: lakings.com

Rich Hammond of the LA Daily News is reporting in his Inside The Kings Blog that Richardson and Stoll’s contracts were worth the following:

Brad Richardson gets $575,000 this season, $600,000 next season. Jarret Stoll, as previously reported, gets a four-year, $14.4-million contract.