Hope everyone out there had a great holiday season. Some things have happened with the Kings since I last post. Most of it is probably already old news to anyone reading this but I’ll rehash just in case. There’s a couple of losses and a couple of wins to talk about here.

The losses are pretty self explanatory. A 2-1 defeat at home against Phoenix last Friday that the Kings might’ve won handily had they showed up for more than 20 minutes; and a 2-0 shutout loss to Columbus last night that can be attributed in equal parts to the Kings’ offense being completely impotent and to Columbus’ defense doing an excellent job of clogging the middle of the ice, making sure that goaltender Steve Mason didn’t have to break much of a sweat, seeing shots from the outside that mostly hit him in the crest without chance of rebound.

Anyone who’s read before knows my take on both Phoenix and Columbus. Both teams, to me, are teams the Kings should earn points against more often than not in their improved state. I’m not going to beat a dead horse. The West is competitive. Playoffs this season might be a reach, but as of now it’s close and how close they are as the season moves along will depend on how well they fare away from Staples Center. It will be interesting to see, the Kings have had both dismal games and a couple of outstanding ones on the road so far.

As for the two wins, the first would be Jon Quick’s second shutout in 3 games last Saturday night in Phoenix. It was good enough to earn Quick 3rd Star of the Week honors from the NHL. Phoenix didn’t play one of their better games but the Kings came out firing on all cylinders. The emergence of Quick has been a pleasant surprise. It’s much too early to call him the goalie of the future, but he has played well enough to become the goalie of the present with a .937 save percentage. Other than his first start of the season against Detroit, Quick has been outstanding in each of his outings. Which brings me to….

Win number 2 happened not in a game, but as a direct result of the emergence of Quick. Erik Ersberg returned today from the groin injury he sustained against San Jose back on December 15th. GM Dean Lombardi wasted little time in changing Quick’s status from an emergency call up to a long term one, and he also wasted little time making roster space. The Vancouver Canucks, with Roberto Luongo already on injured reserve and backup Curtis Sanford placed on IR tonight, took Jason LaBarbera off the Kings’ hands in exchange for a 7th round draft choice in 2009. Given LaBarbera’s recent play, it’s about all the Kings could’ve expected to get for him. With a lot of speculation that LaBarbera would be put on waivers with Ersberg returning, the club was able to at least get something in return.

The trade solves a couple of issues: LaBarbera, who has admittedly worked hard this season and is one hell of a guy, simply wasn’t getting it done. You can claim lack of goal support but in the long run a save percentage of .893 behind a team that isn’t giving up a ton of quality scoring chances doesn’t cut it. It also helps to clear up a goaltending logjam in the organization. Jeff Zatkoff will now be able to play in Manchester the remainder of the season (barring injury to anyone above him on the depth chart) rather than LaBarbera going down to the AHL and taking minutes away from Zatkoff and top prospect Jonathan Bernier.

LaBarbera gets a homecoming of sorts. Jason is a native of Burnaby, British Columbia; and gets to join a very competitive team in the hunt for a division title. Essentially LaBarbera has a chance to earn the backup job in Vancouver if he plays well. He’s not going to supplant Luongo as the team’s number one guy, but he is in good position to challenge Curtis Sanford for a seat on the bench when Luongo returns. LaBarbera is a free agent after the season’s end and it’s anyone’s guess where he ends up if even in the NHL anywhere. That said, for as critical as I’ve been of his play since joining the Kings organization in 2005, I hope he finds the success in Vancouver he wasn’t able to find in LA (but I’m not holding my breath). He wouldn’t be the first King to blossom after leaving town, as unlikely as it seems in this scenario.

This leads me to speculate that the Kings may sign Ersberg, also a free agent after this season, to a contract extension soon.

The Kings also reassigned Trevor Lewis to Manchester today and should be announcing the recall of Brian Boyle before Saturday’s game with Philadelphia. Looks like Teddy Purcell will be given a second shot on the top line.

-JS

Seeing a Jason LaBarbera shutout is a lot like sighting the Loch Ness Monster – the spectator is most often left in a dumbfounded state of disbelief about what he has just witnessed. He tries to tell himself it was something else until he eventually, reluctantly, comes to grips with what has taken place.

OK, maybe that analogy is a bit of a reach, but nonetheless LaBarbera did post his second shutout of the season at Staples last night. The Kings put a defensive stranglehold (cue Ted Nugent, somebody) on Columbus and got goals from Wayne Simmonds (wrist shot that Columbus goalie Steve Mason seemingly misplayed), Kyle Calder (a beautiful redirect of a Kyle Quincey point shot), and Anze Kopitar (empty net) to win 3-0.

I was definitely worried with the Kings having blown three consecutive third period leads, up 2-0 going into the third. It’s been several games since LaBarbera has given up one of his regular soft goals and I was quite frankly sitting in my seat waiting for the dam to bust. And it didn’t. Kings limited Columbus’ scoring chances, bailed LaBarbera out a couple of times and physically dominated the Blue Jackets for the entire 60 minutes. It’s one of only a couple games this year, despite their .500 record, that the Kings have put in a full 60 minute effort.

Some thoughts from the game:

Both Doughty and Simmonds were teammates with Steve Mason (who was pretty unimpressive last night if you ask me) on Canada’s World Junior Squad last year. I wonder if Simmonds saw some sort of weakness on shots like that against Mason in practice and used that knowledge to his advantage? Either that or Mason completely misplayed the shot. I couldn’t help thinking tonight how much I would’ve loved to see Jonathan Bernier in goal for the Kings tonight facing Mason. I’m sure Jonathan would love to get his revenge after Craig Hartsburg went anti-Quebec and benched Bernier at the WJC’s last season. Guess we’ll have to wait to see that one, but you can probably guess who I think will be the better goalie in the long run.

The refs let the guys play tonight, lots of calls that could’ve gone both ways that didn’t get whistled, although I also thought a couple of the penalty calls were a bit marginal. Inconsistent officiating is an epidemic in the NHL this season. The league won’t allow criticism of it’s officials from coaches and/or players but someone has to call a spade a spade eventually. This was the closest to a well officiated game I’ve seen all year, and it was far from good.

Patrick O’Sullivan looked to be on a mission. He had more hustle than any King on the ice tonight. I thought if he reproduced his shootout move from last night against Garon, he probably smokes Mason. At any rate it was exciting to see it in person. Brownie had a lot of hustle tonight, like always. He shoots the puck from everywhere. He has to feel snakebitten right now, but eventually those are going to start going in for him. Kopitar still looks a little lost to me. He came close a couple times tonight but he certainly doesn’t look like the dominant offensive player we know he can be. That said he was awesome on the backcheck tonight and he is chipping in on defense effectively this season. The guy who impressed me most away from the puck – Alexander Frolov. His name won’t be on the scoresheet but he was great on the backcheck. I scratch my head a lot about Frolov. He might be the mosty talented player on the team overall and he has a habit of just dissapearing for games at a time. I think this is why Terry Murray has been so hard on him this season – he sees his potential and wants to get the most out of him. It definitely seemed to work tonight as Fro played a very effective and responsible defensive game. Michal Handzus has adapted to his role as a shut down center very well.

Last but certainly not least, I have to give props to Jason LaBarbera, who was the first star of the game tonight. Seeing Jason get a shutout is kind of like seeing Bigfoot. It’s rumored to exist, some people swear it’s real but research can only say “anything is possible”. Jason didn’t have a “dominant” game in the same way that you would say a guy like Luongo or Lundqvist does on his red hot nights. He did his job. His rebound control still scares the heck outta me sometimes. He isn’t a particularly adept puckhandler. Tonight however, he did all the Kings asked of him. He didn’t give up goals early and he was able to protect a lead. His best saves came in the first half of the game I thought. The Kings defense did a great job of limiting Columbus’ scoring chances. I kept waiting for Jason to lay the proverbial egg and it didn’t happen. When Sean O’Donnell turned the puck over in our zone in the third, I though for sure the Jackets were going to score. During his first ten game stretch this season, any mistakes the Kings D made ended up in the net. Tonight LaBarbera saved us an a couple of those occasions, and he also got bailed out by his D a couple times (notably Matt Greene in the second period). I give him credit for making all the saves he had to make tonight. I don’t think it’s accurate to say Jason won the game for us, more accurate would be that he didn’t lose the game for us like he has in other contests this season. That’s all we can ask of him. He probably knows it’s his last season in LA and if he plays well enough, he could earn himself a backup job someplace else. Hopefully that will provide adequate motivation.

A disappointing week of games at least ends on a strong note with three points earned in the last two games. Now, the Kings travel to Colorado on Monday. The Avalanche are in my opinion, the worst team in the West but the Kings can’t seem to beat them. Hopefully that changes on Monday night. Otherwise I’ll be searching for paper bags again.

Oh, did I mention I saw the Loch Ness Monster at Staples last night?

-JS

What’s a phrase that could well define “seasonal suicide”? I’ll give you a hint, it came out of Kings’ coach Terry Murray’s mouth today. Jason LaBarbera has been named the team’s number one goalie again, despite his poor play during the preseason. Helene Elliot of the LA Times wrote a pretty good article on the subject today, but her optimism makes me wonder if she is a fan of the team or just into politically correct reporting.

Let’s face it – Murray’s lack of concern over LaBarbera’s sub par play in the preseason thus far presents a glaring concern. LaBarbera’s stats this preseason are less than impressive – a goals against of 4.20 (maybe that explains it, the coaching staff is smoking the good stuff) and a save percentage of .841. Not exactly the stuff that inspires confidence in teammates and fans. It might be enough to make some people miss Dan Cloutier. Ok, maybe not that…

Murray’s philosphy has obviously been bought into by the Kings so far. The team is playing a gritty, and dare I say more defensively responsible brand of hockey. Granted it is only the preseason but you’ve got to love that this team has showed up to play every night. And, the team has won at least one game, and taken another all the way to a shootout, in spite of some rather suspect goaltending from LaBarbera. This I think speaks volumes to the team’s character. They will be competitive and, I think could surprise a lot of people. They need goaltending that will be at least equally competitive, and they need it desperately. Just as his predecessor in the King net, Cloutier had a penchant for doing, LaBarbera has a flair for allowing the soft goal that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. His rebound control is extremely poor for someone at the NHL level and his lateral movement sometimes looks as if it’s in slow motion. And with a young defense corps, that alone could be suicide. Nothing sucks the air out of a team trying to compete like porous goaltending.

It’s hard to understand the organizations love affair with LaBarbera. He’s the nicest guy you will ever meet and all indications are that he’s an excellent teammate. He’s been a standout at the AHL level, winning Goaltender of the Year there twice. But at 28, it’s hard not to feel like he’s reached his potential. He’s done nothing to make anyone believe that he’s capable of being a bona fide number one goalie in the NHL, but that’s what this organization is trying to sell him as. I think most fans, like myself are not fooled. The idea of having to see LaBarbera start 60 games is a little scary if not downright horrifying.

The best that can be hoped for is a short leash. With little reason to believe LaBarbera’s season will be a success, the backup plan for now anyway is going to be either Erik Ersberg or Jonathan Quick. If you’re handing the job out based on performance in camp and preseason games alone, the job is Quick’s to lose; but Ersberg has earned himself a look with his heroic performance in 14 games at the end of last season. Jonathan Bernier will be waiting in the wings in Manchester and will play a lot there, which means whomever doesn’t qualify for the backup job in Los Angeles will be spending a lot of time opening the bench door with the Monarchs. Both LaBarbera and Ersberg are restricted free agents whose contracts expire after the season. One would imagine that barring a banner season, at least LaBarbera would stand a chance of not getting a qualifying offer.

Again, as skeptical as I am, I would love to see LaBarbera have a successful season in the Kings net and turn into the guy the Rangers thought he would be when he was drafted in the 3rd round (66th overall) in 1998. If that happens (or if someone else steps in and seizes the job), the team could be the surprise of the Western Conference if the team continues to play as they have in the preseason for Terry Murray. If he doesn’t, and the team continues to play him, the only thing we have a shot at winning is a chance to draft either Hedman or Tavares in 2009.

-JS