Kings continued a successful preseason by defeating the New York Islanders 4-1 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City tonight. Wayne Simmonds netted a pair of goals, one a 2nd period shorthanded marker and the other an empty netter; and Teddy Purcell and Drew Doughty scored power play goals.

The Islanders got goals from Andy Sutton and Josh Bailey.

Jonathan Quick went the distance in goal for the Kings picking up the win while Nathan Lawson was in net for New York.

The game featured two first period fights between the Kings’ Raitis Ivanans and Islander Brett Westgarth, brother of the Kings’ Kevin Westgarth. Kevin Westgarth and Richard Clune also dropped the gloves with Michael Haley, resulting in a Westgarth misconduct. Sean O’Donnell of the Kings was assessed a match penalty for coming to the aid of Drew Doughty, after he was deliberately high-sticked by Matt Martin of the Islanders. O’Donnell came from across the ice and was penalized for “intent to injure”. Martin, indcidentally was not penalized for the high stick to Doughty. O’Donnell’s match misconduct will face a league review and may be subject to suspension. Wayne Simmonds would also drop the gloves with Martin in the 3rd period.

The win moves the Kings to 3-1-1 in the preseason. The team travels to Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

Kings opened the preseason by winning split squad games tonight.

The night started off with a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Davis Drewiske and Brad Richardson (according to NHL.com) scored for the Kings and Jon Quick played very well in net for the Kings, denying the Blues for his tenure in the game. Jeff Zatkoff surrendered the only Blues goal to veteran Paul Kariya in the third period.

The Kings capped off the night by defeating the Phoenix Coyotes 6-4 at Staples Center. Derek Armstong scored 2 goals and David Meckler had 2 goals and an assist, including an empty netter to seal the win. Oscar Moller scored the game winner with 1:17 left to play in the third period on a power play. Moller also had two assists. Brian Boyle also scored for the Kings. Phoenix got goals from Kyle Turris, Steven Reinprecht, Garth Murray and Keith Yandle.

Jason LaBarbera played the first two periods at Staples center, surrendering 4 goals on only 17 shots against. Daniel Taylor was perfect, stopping 8 shots in the third period. Josh Tordjman and Al Montoya split duties for Phoenix, with Tordjman giving up 4 goals on 19 shots and Montoya allowing 1 goal on 11 shots.

Good night for the Kings, the only concern being LaBarbera’s rather porous performance in net. For a guy who is supposedly in the best shape of his life and who is said to have worked on positioning and rebound control during the offseason, a .765 save percentage doesn’t bode well and I can’t believe the coaching staff wouldn’t have a few doubts at this point.

Kings next preseason game is in Denver Wednesday night against the Colorado Avalanche.

-JS

Kings rookies beat the Phoenix Coyotes rookies at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, AZ tonight 2-1. Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds were the Kings’ goal scorers.

Moller broke the glass with a hard shot on the first shift of the game. Simmonds impressed a lot, lots of hustle.

Drew Doughty went end to end 3 times during the game by my count, drawing penalties on two of those plays. Overall I thought Doughty was the best player on the ice for either team.

Colten Teubert hammered Kyle Turris and Viktor Tikhonov of Pheonix. Looked like a physical force out there.

2008 second round pick Vyateslav Voynov also looked particularly impressive.

Richard Clune really took me by suprise with his gritty, gutsy play. This kid could end up being a fan favorite.

Jonathan Bernier looked rock solid. You get the impression that playing against rookies is just too easy for him. If tonight is any indication, the club will have a tough decision on their hands regarding Bernier and whether he should be in the AHL or in LA with the big club. He definitely looks poised to make a splash in camp again this year.

Undrafted invitee Martin Jones from Calgary of the WHL looked pretty good in net as well. If not for the organizations outstanding depth I’d call him a shoo-in for the ECHL based on what we saw tonight.

Shining Stars (Author’s opinion anyway): Doughty, Moller, Simmonds, Bernier and Doughty. Honrable mention to Teubert, Voynov, Jones, Clune and Marc-Andre Cliche. Again, I thought Doughty was the best player on the ice for either team even though he didn’t get on the scoreboard.

Guys I’d rate as invisible would be Scott Parse. Not sure if Thomas Hickey played tonight but if he did I didn’t notice him or hear his name called at all.

Here’s the article on the game from the Kings’ official site.

Teams play again in Glendale, AZ Wednesday afternoon at 2PM. Expect to see Jeff Zatkoff and Linden Rowat split the goaltending duties.

-JS