Los Angeles Kings

Kings Should Take Heed From Flyers’ Past

NHLHS writer Dave Strehle dives into the Ilya Kovalchuk saga with his thoughts on the situation.

Reading the daily rumor mill as to whether or not the Los Angeles Kings are still in the running to sign unrestricted free agent Ilya Kovalchuk has become tedious, at best.

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NHLHS Mock Draft: With the Number Nineteen Pick…

NHLHS Mock Draft is our latest feature where we collectively predict the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. The draft is a crapshoot and we will be wrong… …but we thought it would be fun to try.

With the 19th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Los Angeles Kings select…

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To Change the World, Start With One Step

NHLHS Los Angeles Kings Correspondent obtained an e-mail interview with LA Kings captain, Dustin Brown. A big thank you to Scott Norton of Norton Sports Management for providing us with this opportunity.

The Hockey Guys

The Cup may have been hoisted but, Hockey fans who are having a hard time coping with the lack of hockey now that the season is over need to look no further.

We got your fix right here.

We go live tomorrow with our 2009-2010 NHL season wrap-up show.

Be sure to tune in live with us tomorrow from 1-3 p.m. EST.

The Hockey Guys on Blog Talk Radio – link for show tomorrow. Chat room will open approximately 5 minutes prior to show’s puck drop.

I Can’t Buy What I’ve Done Before. I Want to Open Up Another Door

Dean Lombardi, President and General Manager of the Los Angeles Kings, "And again, I think the players are entitled to their share. Its more the allocation in there. It makes it reasonable for both sides. I think it helps the team, I think it helps the union, and I think it's good for the game." In comparing the current position of the LA Kings with the Chicago Blackhawks, he commended them for building itself correctly, from bottom-to-top. The difference, with the Kings, would lie in the time it takes to get there. The Blackhawks have taken approximately seven-years to build into Western Conference contenders. Lombardi felt that the Kings could match those results, in less time.

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And Now The Pressures On, The Heat Is Rising… Tonight There’s Something In The Air (Black In ST Louis)

I,personally, should have known this game was doomed when I was screaming GET OFF MY GOALTENDER..and realized I was screaming at my own Defense. And then I realized how many mistakes had already been made 1/2 way through the game but none of them by Randy Jones.. Immediately, I started looking at flight prices to Los Angeles, AGAIN. Then I cried.

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The Hockey Guys w/ Jeff Marek

The Hockey Guys go live at 2 p.m. today and will have Jeff Marek of CBC Sports joining the show.

We are back to regular programming hours today, which means the show will start live at 2 p.m. EST. To join us live is very simple.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thehockeyguys

Use that link, create a user name, sign in and join us.

Jeff Marek will be joining the guy’s within the first hour of the show.

We hope to see you all there today.

Have a great final day of the weekend.

~THG

Canucks solve Kings in game 5

The Vancouver Canuck finally figured out what it will take the beat the Los Angeles Kings in their first round matchup. It’s something that many hockey writers, bloggers, and Canucks fans have been going on and on about since the start of the series. What is the answer? Simple, stay out of the penalty box! Unfortunately, it took the Canucks 3+ games to figure it out, but if they stay out of the penalty box the Kings have no chance 5 on 5. The Kings have scored 10 of their 16 goals with the man advantage while the Canucks have outscored the Kings 16-6 at even strength. Through the first 3 games and 2 periods of the series the Canucks gave the Kings power play after power play and they paid the price. Say what you will about the missed and questionable calls that have gone against Vancouver in the series, but they had been giving the referees too many reasons to call penalties.

In the last 4 periods of the series the Canucks have scored 11 goals after only scoring 10 in the first 11 periods. And in the last 2 games they have scored 13 goals after only scoring 8 in games 1-3. The 3rd period in game 4 the Canucks really found their game again as Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin came alive and got the comeback going. They had pretty much been a non-factor up to this point, with much of the praise going to the Kings defensive play. Once those flood gates opened up and the Canucks started to gain confidence it really put the Kings back on their heals and they looked nothing like the team earlier in the series.

One reason the Canucks have gotten back into this series is the play of Mikael Samuelsson. He’s already scored 7 goals, 2 more than he had in each of the last 2 play-off runs with Detroit. His strong play has made many forget that Alex Burrows, the Canucks leading goal scorer in the regular season has been held without a goal in the series so far. In fact, Burrows and Samuelsson have switched lines as Alain Vigneault has searched for the right chemistry. Mike Gillis continues to look like a genius for signing Samuelsson as a free-agent in the offseason. The Canucks have definitely benefitted by giving him more ice time than he had in Detroit and his snub by the Swedish Olympic team lit a fire that has burned long after the Olympic torch was extinguished.

As several Canucks fans mentioned on Twitter, the Kings seemed preoccupied with trying to get the Canucks to take penalties instead of playing their game. Obviously  it didn’t work and they were unable to make adjustments quick enough as the Canucks spent the game dismantling LA’s defensive coverage and exposing their lack of speed. They also got a lot more traffic in front of Quick, even bumping into him as the Kings have been doing all series with Roberto Luongo. The Kings did try to stir things up at the end of the game with Shane O’Brien fighting Wayne Simmonds and Rick Rypien with the one-punch knockdown of Kings goon Rich Clune. While it’s not unusual for a coach to send out his tough guys at the end of a game to get his team going, it is unusual to see a coach do it in the final 4 minutes of a game that was already over. For his efforts, Klune ended up with a separated shoulder in the fight. It would seem that the time to pick a fight would’ve been much earlier in the game. Clune was trying to get under the Canucks skin all night, but his act was amateur hour at best.

It will be very interesting to see if the Canucks can keep building on the momentum they have gained and how the young Kings team will respond to the elimination possibility in game 6. Will playing on home ice be a burden or uplifting for them, or will they crack and wilt under the pressure? Either way, the Kings have a lot to be proud of this year playing in the toughest division in the NHL and looking very much like the Chicago Blackhawks of last season. They have a very bright future, but the time is now for the Canucks to take game 6 and this series. Go Canucks Go!

I-5 Canucks
NHLHS Canucks Correspondents
hipcheck44@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @Hipcheck44 and @WCE71944