alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Here’s my LAKings.com game story, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading!
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 read the recap on the NHL site and I’ve never heard a player say this before “We didn’t play smart. We are our own worst enemies out there.”- Blue Jackets center R.J. Umberger
hard to tell if we played that good or the Bj,s suck(no pun intended)
@neil,
How many years have you been waiting to use that one. LOL!
I am glad too see nobody is bashing any Kings tonight. Every King suited up and played well tonight, except for Erik Ersberg, but he didn’t get a chance.
@luc20rules, well he looked great in warm up’s on his 28th birthday!
What’s not to love? If anything, I guess the four power plays in the third period, probably because the old guys were getting more time on the ice than they’ll get this year, at least until August, or whatever.
What I really liked was the urgency on the power play in the first period–particularly scoring on both halves of the double-minor, which basically ended the game early, though they did the fans proud by putting in 60 minutes anyway, which was a very good sign, and it was good to see Quick get the shutout after working so hard in games where the defense failed him in the last few minutes.
Freddy Modin’s conditional 7th-round draft pick sounds like one of the best trades ever. Greg Wyshnyski can stuff his “the Kings think it’s 2004″ crack up his crack. I hope we see some of that out of Jeff Halpern–since they gave up more for him than Freddy.
Unfortunately, there’s no time to celebrate, as the Hawks will certainly be ready and waiting for them, and we need those points.
@neil, yes neil your right the bj’s do suck
was at the game tonight
jackets where really flat until the 3rd.
the kings game out with something to prove.
modin looks like a great pick up already. halpern also.
doughty,cant say enough good things about this guy.
kings have to keep this same intensity everygame down the strech.
go kings go
@Badgoltending, oh ya RESPECT THE FRO
man frolov had a monster game.
It was really nice to see the 4th liners get some quality ice time. I really want to see what Halpern can do for the Kings. Quick really didn’t have to do much tonight (he still had some great saves), makes me wonder if EE could’ve played and won this one as a nice b-day present for himself. Oh well.
Can’t wait for Chicago next, but this is one game I’m worried about. Toews, Kane, and Hossa just sound like one scary line to deal with.
Great game Kings :)
I was at the game & had tickets to the Q & A with the players after, but it was too late & I had to get my son home for school. Did anybody go to it? And how was it?
Now that’s Kings hockey baby! One thing that they seemed to be doing over and over again…throwing the puck to the net. Kept the game fairly straightforward and simple and the result was beat down.
Now that was dominant. I just wished that could have been against the Mighty Ducks.
OT:
I was just looking at some stats around the league and its nice to see that 9 Kings players have 30 or more points!
Shows how great our depth is.
Here are some from the top teams:
San Jose: 6
Calgary: 5
Detroit: 5
Colorado:6
Phoenix: 5
Pitts: 5
Buff: 6
NJ: 5
NYR: 4
OTT:5
Vancouver:8
Washington, Philly, Los Angeles, Chicago: 9
Not bad, what does this all mean? Well if we look at the group LA falls in Washington, Chicago, Vancouver, Philly. Thats not a bad group to be in. Also if Justin Williams was healthy he’d have at least 6 points which would of put us in the lead all by ourselves at 10. Again what does this all mean? Come playoffs, if a man on our team goes down, we got 9 others to pick up the slack. Other teams would suffer more if one of their top 5 guys went down. Good sign for LA, also a true sign of team work
@WWAMD, It also means that Helene Elliott is out of her mind ranking the Kings #8 in the league.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nhl-rankings-20100309,0,4260880.story
Man, both Nick Nixon and bob miller are awesome! I wish there was room for two play-by-play guys on tv…
I think a large part of the game was won in the neutral zone. We really slowed them down,it was great to see.
@neil,
haha The pun was FULLY intended
@Khanon, who knew Nick was short for Nicolai??? lol
@What’s the frequency, Kenneth?, and unless we win the cup, Freddy came to us absolutely FREEEEEE! According to H.Elliott.
I am really looking forward to what see what “King Team” shows up for the Blackhawk game. Time to step up boys!!! Halpern need a good game and Parse even more! Great to see Jones have a better game last night. I have been a critic of his play.
@Khanon,
He did a real nice job. The telecast didn’t miss a beat.
@Badgoltending, I love that the Fro has been like up to his potential. I take all the crap I said about him earlier in the season!
DL coming up on NHLlive from the GMs meetings
@Cry Baby, Wow…just reread my post and I feel like Miss Teen South Carolina.
Playing to his potential, is what I was trying to say!
They were really good in every facet of the game.
They made Columbus pay for every mistake.
I was really impressed with the attitude they came out with in the 3rd. They took penalties, but they were forechecking hard, playing physical. Everything you would expect in the 3rd period of a 2-1 game..It was great to see them do that in a 6-0 game. It shows the maturity of the team.
Great bounceback games for DD and JJ. They were both dominant while playing with the guys they’ve played with most of the year. As great as they can be together, I think for the remainder of the year, they would be better off where they are. You can always put them together if necessary, but I think the stability showed last night.
Fro was and has been the man since the Olympic break. His play will probably be key in how far we get this year.
@Cry Baby, LOL. Did you know that chick is on the Amazing Race this season? Like, such as the Iraq.
@nykingfan, totally agree! Nick is 1-B to Bob’s 1-A.
@neil,
For the BJs, this one was tough to swallow. Sorry, that was too easy.
Only 3 for 6 on the power play?? FIRE KOMPON!!!!!!
Cluney was at his agitator best’ Blunden couldn’t take it anymore and luckily Clune didn’t get hurt. But I think drawing that 5 minute major was worth calling him up almost by itself. Can you imagine drawing that kind of penalty in the playoffs!! HUGE
@Lepper, sorry to steal the thread, but when was the last time THN wrote an article about the Kings during the season?
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/32020-Jay-Feasters-Blog-Kings-deadline-trades-best-in-the-West.html
This type of game was bound to happen. This was one of those games where everything went right for the Kings. Every battle was won, every opportunity was taken advantage of and every bounce went our way. It’s about damn time. Well done boys.
Simmonds brings joy to my soul. In less than two years he has gone from a kid trying to find his place with hard work, and at times, dropping the gloves when he felt he had to prove himself, to a man who bullies his way into every scrap with an attitude of “this is my team” and “you’ll have to go through me to get to any of my teammates.” Yes, I notice all the other great things he does, but watching him transform in that area makes my chuckle every time. How can you not love this kid.
Fro, you frustrate me like no other. This type of play is what we all know you’re capable of on most nights. Why can’t you play like you are now 80 percent of the time. We don’t expect you to dominate 100 percent of the time, but damnit this is what we expect from you. You’re playing lights-out, Fro. Keep up the good work young, sir. Very nice Alexander.
@tantrum4, You can’t just look at one game! I believe we are 8 for 17 in the last few games. Fire away
“to a man who bullies” -Simmonds is no bully. But I don’t think you meant it that way.
“Why can’t you play like you are now 80 percent of the time.” -because then he wouldn’t be the Enigma he is.
@DuckHunter, great post duckhunter, thanks! Simmonds is awesome!
@Stuart, that’s what I hear!