alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Jerred Smithson scored an empty-net goal with 53.1 seconds remaining. The Kings fell to 0-2 against Nashville this season and 0-5-1 against the Predators since the start of last season. The Kings lost in regulation for just the second time in their last 14 games. More from the locker room to come…
Bio
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He previously worked at the Los Angeles Daily News, was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar.
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I just hope this was our last crappy game of the season.
pathetic effort.
oh well, lets get ready for montreal with a lot of practice, because we clearly need some.
It’s not the loss that bothers me so much as the nature of the loss. That was a winnable game. Wake up boys, the play in our end was ugly.
Oh well…time for The Simpsons and some King Cobra…yes…that’s right…King Cobra.
Games against Vancouver and Nashville are always the most difficult to watch.
Listless performance by the Kings. Frolov and Richardson were the only ones giving any kind of effort.
We looked like the guy who buys a Ferrari although never driven a stick shift, tries to drive the car h o m e.
I don’t wanna see that oaf OD on the ice ever again. Our D doesn’t look good aside from DD,JJ, Scub, breaking down too much.
lol too many people are trippin’ out here, you can’t win them all. O’Donnell is getting super old, he probably just needs a rest, put in Drewiske and Harrold, make Jones & O’Donnell healthy scratches. Montreal isn’t a good team, we can destroy them, let’s bounce back and win on saturday night, simple as that
@goldielocks, one bad game and we throw him under the bus?? It’s like all you guys bashing JJ at the beginning of the season. TRADE HIM! TRADE HIM! Now your all on your knees for him.
Hey, the record shop accross the street form the arena looks pretty cool.
@Deadmarsh,
Sorry. Not for one game. I’ve been saying this for a long time. Read my comment on the last game and even before.
Don’t want to play these guys in the first round.
@goldielocks, weve needed him in there for his veteran presence. He did wonders for DD’s development. As for next year? We’ll see.
I agree you can’t win them all, but this was an extremely winnable game. Once Quick gave up that first goal, it deflated the whole team. The 4 straight losses to the Preds probably got in their heads, as well as having to deal with 2 newbs (who contributed absolutely nothing btw). This loss is on Quick and the defense. Too many giveaways and odd man rushes. What also didn’t help is the large disparity in powerplays…..
@goldielocks,
Well then make him a coach. Doesn’t have to be a player to help youngsters. What we need is a solid veteran D who can skate through 60 minutes. Not the D who deflects the puck into own goal or creates turnovers or loses edge and falls down.
we played really bad and it still was a game till the end……trying to say something positive!!!!
If any team personifies the idea of winning ugly, it’s Nashville. Make no mistake, this game was their for the taking, but the Kings shot themselves in the foot. Quick wasn’t sharp handling the puck, and there was no communication in the defensive zone. Hard to win when you don’t communicate and when you keep taking penalties. They just never got it going tonight, even with Frolov scoring less than a minute into the game.
Two of the Kings’ worst efforts this year have come against the Preds. Maybe they win all their games by boring their opponents to sleep. Kings better be ready when they come to LA on the 14th.
@jet,
Yea. Preds and Canucks totally own Kings ….
@jet,
first round? PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS? you kidding me, PLAYOFFS? I just hope we can win a game..
playoffs are far from here boys
even a off night on the blog…..
I need to look up Brown’s shot percentage…it HAS to be one of the worst in the league.
Bummer, that was not a fun game to watch. I sure hope the Kings figure out how to beat this team and not let past records drag them down. Now I’ve got to just put this one out of my mind and move on.
Oh well,off game for my man. But, 4 shots in in 2nd period. Time for some of those TM 1 on 1 sessions.
@RealDrew,
I thought Simmons was giving a ton of effort at times but nothing ever became of it.
I haven’t been home till now,and haven’t read the posts yet.Is the sky falling down yet?
Personally, I really didn’t think the Kings looked that bad tonight…. um I live in nyc and was out for dinner. Just found out they lost now. Maybe that’s why I didn’t think they looked that bad. However, they’ve now lost six straight to the preds. What’s the problem there? When a team gets in their head, a team seems to Really get in their head.
@AK47,
Uh, OD just had a 2 wk break during the Olympics and went to Hawaii. Maybe too much rest?
@Dominick, Only in the Kings locker room..
r e a l l y s l o w a n d s l o p p y
Nice of the editor to steal spaces.
@AK47,
And, that Montreal team that “isn’t a good team” is looking pretty good and beating the Sharks right now. The Kings can’t treat any team like an easy win this time of year. But I do believe they will come back strong…
@bob, 8.06 this year
lowest amounts of posts after a game????
Very little effort tonight except for Brown , Richardson , Simmonds , JMFJ and DD . Worst game ever for OD and Quick stay in net and don’t play the puck .
@Keeper,
ack!
I have no doubt we’ll get back on track against the Hab nots on Saturday.
Brown seemed five times better in that Kesler and Kane line by the way.
Can’t win them all…
Saturday will be better!
Didn’t really seem like they started “playing” until Greene got into that scuffle. Not the end of the world. Not like it’s game 7 in the playoffs. Win woulda been cool. Montreal in the crosshairs and blow em away! Cmon boys!
@AK47, Are you willing to put your money on the table? If you are please see me first.
@Kings Fan In Idaho,
I don’t know if I have seen a game where Simmonds gave an all out effort. Its just sometimes in his first year it wasn’t in the right places.
I am expecting every team to have inconsistent effort for the first 4 or so games back, but we can’t afford it and I hope this was the only one we will have.
Lets be ready for the Montreal on Saturday. Remember its a wierd 7 pm start.
@AK47,
Yes, this is what people said when we the Oilers came to Staples a month ago. Ahh, Damn we lost that game, and if I remember correctly we were lucky to even force OT.
@AK47,
If your going to make the reference do it right.
PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS? you kidding me, PLAYOFFS? I just hope we can win a game..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwq7BYOnDrM
@luc20rules, It’s 7pm start b/c of Hockey Night in Canada!
The Kings didn’t respond to the 8 day break around Christmas, but then again all the other teams in the NHL got to play and stay sharp during that stretch.
It looks like Dallas is just flat they got pounded again today 6-1 by St.L. so its just hard to assess where the Kings are right now. I just hope Staples is rocking and we can atleast get some energy going for the Kings if they don’t bring it on they’re own.
@luc20rules, ha ha ha I forgot about that one.AK are you Jim Mora secretly hiding in your hockey closet.
C-H-E-M-I-S-T-R-Y
Sloppy game. I’m pretty sure that we didn’t put together 3 stick-to-stick passes in a row all game. Bottom line, our concentration wasn’t there. I’m thinking that our minor transactions were the cause of our distracted play.
TM – Please bench O’Donnell next game. He is coughing up the puck way too much, making bad decisions under pressure and is a defensive liability. Put Harrold in next game.
I think it is safe to say there are two open spots on D next year.
@djspock92, agree, SD was playing like his feet hurt.
@Stuart, sorry, make that SO’D
@goldielocks,
OD has been solid for most games and plays a ton of PK minutes. I may have to watch the game again to analysis it, but it seemed as though he got stuck on a shift in the 1st period for way too long during a PK. That can affect a player for the whole game. The ideal shift is less than a minute. I checked the Box Score and OD had 4:48 of PK time more than any other Kings player. I played offense and defense in Football in H.S. and it was up to me to monitor my fatigue and ask to be taken out. It took a while to get that balance right, but staying in too long lead to cramps and just not being right for a day or two.
The Preds are the Scrappy Doo team of the NHL, not big, but quickness combined with hustle hustle hustle. That’s how they’ve been relatively successful under Barry Trotz and why he’s been there so long. Teams that are quick and/or fast and hustle consistently make the Kings look old and slow. It’s like we’re in retrograde.
The key to Frolov is for him to L@@K at the net and take the puck there or get the puck there. When he passes to the point, not so good. Two games, four points, all coming from getting himself or the puck to the net. He looks great doing so.
I swear at times, I thought Quick had his cell phone behind the glass in back of the net and kept going out to see if his wife was going in to labor yet. He came out of goal so much.
Still, we basically gave them two goals and the still barely won. Aside from maybe the first game of the year against Phoenix, this was the worst all around effort I have seen. Bound to be some post-Olympic break letdown. Oh well. Get back on track Saturday. Hope the crowd will be fired up!!!
GO KINGS!!!
I want an immediate investigation started and I want all the freezers in and around Dallas searched. That was not our team out there tonight, it was a bunch of imposter’s.
@goldielocks, Go eat your porridge. When a player skates hard in one direction, then the unexpected happens the other way, momentum keeps you going forward. OD fell (like most anyone would) because he had to suddenly shift back for the sudden change in the puck direction. I guess you’re not a thinking person—just reactive.
OD has one of the best +/- on the team. He must be doing something right.
They were really slow and sloppy…
@I’m Just Saying”, Don’t just say ‘Chemisty’.
When Williams first came, he didn’t look good and it took a while for him to adjust. Now he’s an integral part of the team.
I think Halpern and Modin will fit in fairly quickly. They’ll find their game soon enough. In the meantime, they’re on the 4th line, so there isn’t too much pressure.
@djspock92, Most of the team was playing badly… Let’s see… Let’s bench the whole team!!
Bob Miller and Jim Fox even said that the Kings look out of sinc. Don’t focus on one player only. I think Quick blew it too, but then he made some great saves. A few of OD’s mistakes might stand out, but look at his overall contribution and his +/- rating. I think we should keep OD next year too!!!!!! Let’s not just have young defensemen on the ice. You gotta have some veteran presence as well.
@DuckHunter,
The entire team played like they’d taken too much cold medicine, esp. in the 2nd.
Have you ever had one of those mornings where you didn’t sleep well and you just can’t get yourself going, and you bump into things and forget your keys and stuff when you leave the house? That’s how the Kings played tonight.
@King John,
I agree 100% with goldielocks,OD is a major liability, just as he was when he first played for the Kings. He cant shoot, cant defend,he’s really slow and has no offense. Just watch his attempts at breakout passes,watch his missed coverages. Every time he gets the puck, I hold my breath waiting for another screw-up. I was hoping DL would make a deal for a D so OD wouldnt be starting in the playoffs. And re his +/- ,using this as a guide,JJ should be sent down to Ontario.
@King John, Greener and Scuds are enough veteran presence. Sometimes is good for players to view a game or two from the press box. It motivates them.
Dustin Brown. Invisible again.
maybe Quick was just distracted by the burn victim in the stands dressed in green . he must have gotten free tix cause why else would you watch through that material all game long . not to mention how the hell can you drink your beer .
OD was not the problem tonight. He was on for only 1 goal against which was Quick’s turnover, not OD’s fault.
@The Ghost of Jack Kent Cooke,
Glad you’re not the coach or GM.
@AK47,
I think YOU are far from here; farther from here than the playoffs
@YOACH,
Ya that makes a lot of sense. If a goalie doesn’t go behind the net to play the puck, our D men will get crushed about 20 times per game. Use your head.
@Keeper,
blech!
What the hell, throw the new guys under the bus….we’re running out of excuses.
@The Ghost of Jack Kent Cooke,
Dude, They would need atleast 3 new good D-men to have the depth for TM to regularly bench OD. I believe OD has the 2nd most time for the season only behind DD in PK minutes. I remember the start of the season when OD was suspended the PK was about 20%. OD plays smart and yes he probably gives guys space, because he is slower, but his positioning on the ice takes alot of opportunities away the opponents.