The Kings will conduct their sixth-annual rink tour on Saturday afternoon, at six locations throughout Southern California. Groups of players, coaches and broadcasters will travel to the rinks to conduct on-ice clinics with youth hockey players and take part in autograph sessions.

The event is free and runs from 2:30-4 p.m. at each of the rinks. Here are the rinks (with addresses and phone numbers) and the tentative list of which people will be where. Note, of course, that the five Olympians playing Friday almost certainly won’t be able to participate.

Aliso Viejo Ice Palace – 9 Journey, 949-643-9648 (Davis Drewiske, Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth)

Iceoplex Simi Valley – 131 West Easy Street, 805-520-7465 (Erik Ersberg, Randy Jones, Mark Hardy, Bob Miller)

Ice Station Valencia – 27745 N. Smyth Drive, 661-775-8686 (Raitis Ivanans, Teddy Purcell, Brad Richardson, Jarret Stoll, Jamie Kompon, Nick Nickson)

Ice Town Riverside – 10540 Magnolia, 909-637-3070 (Rich Clune, Oscar Moller, Wayne Simmonds)

Pasadena Ice Skating Rink – 300 E. Green Street, 626-578-0801 (Alexander Frolov, Matt Greene, Peter Harrold, Terry Murray)

Ice Chalet, Palos Verdes – 550 Deep Valley Drive, Rolling Hills Estates, 310-541-6630 (Sean O’Donnell, Rob Scuderi, Justin Williams, Jim Fox, Daryl Evans)

Justin Williams’ recovery from his broken ankle is going to be hard to judge on a day-to-day basis, but it’s safe to say that everyone in the Kings organization is enthused about the progress that Williams has made in the past two months, and today, Terry Murray expressed great optimism that Williams will be able to return before the end of the regular season…

Question: It was a big surprise for me to learn that Justin had started skating. Was a surprise to you, or were you kind of tracking him all along?

MURRAY: “I’m very surprised at how far along he is also. He went to the doctor and got the green light to go on the ice. When that call came to me, from Kinger [athletic trainer Chris Kingsley] that, `Here’s the news,’ I said, `You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Man, and here he is now, public skating, and it just shows the dedication and the hard work, and the hard work the medical staff has done with him.”

Continue reading ‘Williams’ return `quite likely’’ »

Following up on the Cliche/Moller post, it seems to me that the Kings are trying to give themselves as many roster options as possible, particularly in terms of the “bottom six” forwards, going into the stretch run. Terry Murray has been consistent in his belief that the Kings need an “enforcer” such as Raitis Ivanans in the lineup, even if Ivanans only plays five minutes per game. I wanted to know, though, if Murray’s attitude on that might change later in the season, with more playoff-like games. Would Murray look for a more versatile player, and see less need for a “heavyweight”?

MURRAY: “Quite candidly, that kind of thought process changes as you get to the critical games. I’ve been through this many times in the past, with similar kinds of players. As you get to the `the win is what it’s all about tonight’ kind of attitude, then you have to reevaluate and look at who you have in your lineup. And I think you’ve seen that with what I’ve done here in a couple games. Go back against Detroit a couple times, and you make a change because you know what you’re going to see that night. As we get to the middle part of (next) month, that’s definitely a part of the process of making the lineup.”

Based on conversations with Dean Lombardi and Terry Murray, it seems as though Marc-Andre Cliche is basically being given a week-long tryout at practice, to see if he can earn a roster spot with the Kings. Based on the answers below, it seems like what Murray would like to do is have Cliche as his fourth-line center and move Oscar Moller to wing, either on the fourth line or a higher line. You might remember that the Kings’ recent plan was to have Moller on the wing, but he got pressed into duty as a center. Here’s what Murray said today about the whole situation…

Question: There seems to be an open mind in terms of whether to keep Cliche. Do you have any thoughts on how that might shake out?

MURRAY: “This is an opportunity for him to show us where he’s at in his game. I think what I’ve seen so far is good. He seems to be more comfortable, more relaxed, more confident in how he’s dealing with being with the NHL team, as opposed to where he was in the training camp. Although he caught my eye then, as a pretty responsible player, he’s much more comfortable right now. So we’ll just keep watching. We’ll have a scrimmage tomorrow and see how that shakes out. When it gets down to lineup time, we’ll have him around to make a decision, at least.”

Continue reading ‘Cliche’s opportunity’ »

Click below to watch the video chat I did this morning with Dustin Brown from Vancouver, in which Brown talks about the rivalry with Canada, playing left wing, Team USA leadership and other aspects of his Olympic experience. Also, the Kings Care Foundation is auctioning autographed Olympic jerseys of the five Kings players. You can check that out here.

Continue reading ‘Brown video chat’ »

Many of you have already seen it, but there’s a new mobile site for the blog, which should make it significantly easier to view on mobile devices. Any other suggestions for improving the blog are always welcomed.

It’s a split practice for the Kings this morning. They skated for 50 minutes, left the ice for resurfacing and are now returning.

The video chat with Dustin Brown was done this morning, so I should be able to post that later, as well as all the updates from practice…

The Olympic men’s hockey semifinals are set for Friday, with the United States to face Finland and Canada to face Slovakia, with the winning teams meeting on Sunday for the gold. For the Kings’ Olympians, it means at least two of them will win medals. It’s possible that all five Kings will win medals, if the U.S. beats Finland and the Canada-Slovakia loser beats Finland in the bronze-medal game. On Thursday, it’s the U.S. vs. Canada for women’s gold, at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time.

Sweden got upset by Slovakia in men’s hockey on Wednesday, but the Swedes pulled an upset of Great Britain in men’s curling to reach the semifinals! In today’s semis, it’s Canada vs. Sweden and Norway vs. Switzerland. You’d have to consider the Canadians to be the favorites at this point, but Norway has been strong.

The Kings’ first post-break practice, this morning, went one hour and included a lot of skating, passing and shooting but very little “battle.” That’s by design. The worst thing that could happen is for a player to strain a groin or hamstring while gearing up to get ready for NHL play again. Here are Terry Murray’s thoughts about how to handle these next few days…

MURRAY: “Well, I’ve been through this so many times, where you get an extended break. I was in Philly during the Olympic break last time. Hitch [Ken Hitchcock] was over there in Torino, so I was in charge of the team in practice. So you just get a feel for it, and you go through it as a player too. You just want to get your legs going, passing the puck, receiving passes, kind of getting your head into the speed of the game again.

Continue reading ‘Back on the ice’ »

Terry Murray spent part of the Olympic break at his home in Maine and got to spend time with his wife and daughters, an in-season rarity for anyone involved with the NHL. Before the break, Murray had said he wouldn’t go out of his way to watch the Olympic hockey games, but today Murray said he was, rather coincidentally, able to catch more games than he anticipated, and was happy with what he saw…

MURRAY: “I’ve been watching some of the games. Flying back, I flew Virgin America, and they’ve got satellite TV on there. I was able to watch two hockey games on the way back. So I have been watching, and it’s been pretty exciting. Team USA beating Canada was such an emotional game, great efforts, exciting hockey. I was real happy with all of our players. Zeus is playing really well with the Slovaks, a huge part of that team.

Continue reading ‘An interested observer’ »

Marc-Andre Cliche was called up by the Kings from Manchester today — along with Rich Clune — and if Cliche stays around and plays Tuesday in Dallas, he would be making his NHL debut. Cliche, 22, has 10 goals and 11 assists in 50 games with the Monarchs this season and is known as a strong defensive forward. Cliche would wear No. 67 with the Kings. Here’s what he said about getting the call yesterday to join the Kings…

Question: How exciting was it to get the call that you were coming here?

CLICHE: “This is my third year in the American Hockey League. You always think about it, and it’s a dream come true. It hasn’t happened yet, because we still have a long way before Tuesday and I don’t know if I’m going to play, but just being here, it feels so good.”

Continue reading ‘Cliche in the NHL’ »