Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Los-Angeles-Kings

Kings Need Offensive Production

by Paul on 02/07/12 at 11:14 AM ET
Comments (1)

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN answers some email rants,

Hi Pierre, my rant is with the Kings. How in the world are they not scoring more goals? One goal in the last two games, can’t anyone score in LA? And when in the world is Simon Gagne coming back? Dustin Penner’s four goals, relativeley speaking, on this team would probably equate to 12 goals on any other halfway decent scoring team. Man, I have watched the Kings for years, and never seen the offense this anemic.

My take: When I watch the Kings, two things come to mind in terms of their offensive struggles: they need a serious upgrade on the wings, which is why GM Dean Lombardi is working the phones to see what’s out there; and there’s a general lack of foot speed on this team. They’re just not as fast as most of the contending teams in this league and, in today’s game, speed is a huge part of having success. Those would be the two areas I would be focused on in terms of wanting to improve my team if I were Lombardi.

more including someone is complaining about the Detroit’s offense…

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Bettman Addresses The LA Clock Problem

by Paul on 02/02/12 at 08:12 PM ET
Comments (5)

from NHL.com,

“Not good, not acceptable—if [the clock] had run straight through, the game would have been at a tie at that point, would have gone to overtime,” Bettman said. “And maybe L.A. would have won anyway, maybe not. That’s not the point. We are taking this very seriously. We’re investigating as to how it happened. Obviously it’s either human error or a technology glitch. We don’t know which, but we’ve already begun investigating and we will get to the bottom of it.

“Now I know lots of people are going to say, ‘How can you have a mistake?’ Well, unfortunately or fortunately, our game is full of mistakes—by players, by coaches and occasionally by officials—and on some levels it’s no different than if a guy makes a bad penalty call, puts a team on the power play and they score the winning goal. It happens. We don’t like when it happens and our job is to minimize mistakes. We don’t want any, but obviously when you have a human element in any aspect of the game you’re going to have it.

“If we had any reason to believe that this was intentional we would deal with it in a whole different way, but we’re going to investigate it, get to the bottom of it.”

a bit more

added 9:19pm, Instead of reading more, you have the option below to watch Bettman discuss the clock problem…

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Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Afternoon Line

by Paul on 02/02/12 at 02:03 PM ET
Comments (39)

“Those clocks are sophisticated instruments that calculate time by measuring electrical charges called coulombs—given the rapidity and volume of electrons that move through the measuring device the calibrator must adjust at certain points which was the delay you see—the delay is just recalibrating for the clock moving too quickly during the 10 - 10ths of a second before the delay—this insures that the actual playing time during a period is exactly 20 minutes That is not an opinion—that is science—amazing devise quite frankly.”

-Dean Lombardi, GM for the LA Kings on the clock issue last night.  More from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.

added 2:17pm,

So it’s a can of worms for the NHL and even if an anonymous off-ice official loses his job over it, it won’t change the final result, which is that the Kings are credited with a point in a game which they may or may not have earned.

And if the Western Conference playoff race goes down to the wire the way it did last season, and somebody misses out by a point, the events of Feb. 1 in L.A. will not be easy for some close-but-no-cigar also-ran to swallow.

Or to forget.

-Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail where you can read more on this topic.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Dean+Lombardi,

Columbus GM Discusses Clock Problems In LA

by Paul on 02/02/12 at 11:48 AM ET
Comments (21)

from Scott Howson at the Blue Jackets website,

I spoke with (NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations) Colin Campbell on two occasions after the game. Sometimes in watching the game on television there can be confusion with respect to the game clock. Some television broadcasts use their own game clock that is not official with the rink. However, and after double checking, Colin confirmed that we were actually seeing the official game clock stop for one full second. Therefore, when you do the math, Drew Doughty actually scored 0.4 seconds after time had expired, which means the goal should have been disallowed and should have gone to overtime. Colin has promised me that the NHL will investigate this to try and figure out how this happened.

It is an amazing coincidence that with the Kings on a power play at STAPLES Center and with a mad scramble around our net in the dying seconds of the third period of a 2-2 hockey game that the clock stopped for at least one full second. I can only think of two ways in which this would have happened. Either there was a deliberate stopping of the clock or the clock malfunctioned.

It’s easy to say that this doesn’t matter. We, the Blue Jackets, are in last place and it is likely not going to affect our place in the standings. However, in my opinion, this matters in many respects.

more

added 5:04pm, Howson decided to pull the blog, so the link no longer works…

Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Scott+Howson,

Video- When Time Stopped On The Doughty Goal

by Paul on 02/02/12 at 09:46 AM ET
Comments (11)

from AaronPortzline of Puck-Rakers,

A twitchy finger in Los Angeles may have cost the Blue Jackets at least a point tonight in Staples Center. If the Jackets were battling for a playoff spot, this would be a heartbreaker. Instead, it’s a black mark on the NHL and just another lump in a season full of them.

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty scored at the end of an intense scramble with only 0.3 seconds remaining, giving Los Angeles a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets before a soldout crowd of 18,118. Except the goal shouldn’t have counted.

Replays shown by both Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports West, which covers the Kings, show the game clock mysteriously stopping for at least a full second with 1.8 seconds remaining. Had the clock kept running—the puck was still in play, so it should have—the buzzer would have sounded before Doughty dropped to a knee and buried the loose puck.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Drew+Doughty,

Afternoon Line

by Paul on 01/19/12 at 04:13 PM ET
Comments (0)

“They can wear wigs and sunglasses. I don’t care, as long as they’re ready. It doesn’t bother me, one way or the other. … It’s isolated, once a year, and it happened to be one of the game’s great young players.’’

-LA Kings coach Darryl Sutter on players wearing helmets in the pre-game skate.  More from Sutter by Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Darryl+Sutter,

Mike Richards Talks Fighting Penalties

by Paul on 01/13/12 at 05:55 PM ET
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from Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider,

Mike RIchards was relieved to see teammate Anze Kopitar up and around and relatively OK after his big hit from Dallas’ Brenden Morrow last night, but Richards was not pleased with the aftermath of the it. Richards immediately jumped on Morrow and the two fought. Richards received an extra penalty for instigating the fight, and then automatically received extra penalties — an unsportsmanlike-conduct minor and a 10-minute misconduct — for wearing a visor. Richards was upset, both with the on-ice call and the rule that led to his extra penalties.

RICHARDS: “I didn’t think it was an instigator. I thought we dropped our gloves at the exact same time. I asked him to fight, he said yes and we dropped our gloves. I’ve never been called for an instigator before, and especially not an instigator for fighting with a visor. I think the most frustrating thing is, if the NHL is trying to get us to wear visors, and then we get penalized for fighting with them, I think it kind of defeats the purpose.’’

Question: Because you just do it in the heat of the moment, right?

RICHARDS: “Yeah, exactly. You hear all the speculation about having set [staged] fights and fighting in the moment, things like that. Then when you do fight in the moment, you get penalized for it because you had a visor on. I don’t really understand the whole (thing) about visors, and if they want people to wear them or not. It just seems like everyday is something new.’’

continued and if you did not see the hit on Kopitar, you can watch it below…

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Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Mike+Richards,

Darryl Sutter Returns To Calgary

by Paul on 01/12/12 at 06:22 PM ET
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from Rich Hammond at the Kings website,

This weekend, Sutter will return to the city where he spent eight high-profile years, first as coach and then as general manager of the Calgary Flames. Something of a polarizing figure in the town, at least among the media, Sutter is remembered both for his success behind the bench and tougher times in the GM’s seat.

Sutter led the Flames to the playoffs in each of his two full seasons as coach, then became full-time GM in 2006 and left in Dec. 2010 after mixed results. If Saturday’s return to Calgary holds any emotional attachment for Sutter, nearing the end of his first month as Kings coach, he won’t publicly acknowledge it.

“I have no feelings one way or another about it,” Sutter said. “(Working in Calgary) was a great experience. I worked with great people and I got lots of friends. That’s what it’s about at the end of the day.”

If anything, Sutter is disappointed. The Kings will fly into Calgary early Friday evening, play Saturday night, then immediately fly to Edmonton and play the following night. Sutter’s farm is located an hour outside Edmonton, and he won’t have a chance, on this trip, to visit extensively with family (and his prized bulls).

“I wish there was a day in between (games),” Sutter said. “I’ll see one part of my family in Calgary and the other part in Edmonton. That’s the most meaningful part, from a personal standpoint, clearly.”

read on...

Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Darryl+Sutter,

Kings GM Says He Handled The Smyth Trade In The Wrong Way

by Paul on 01/12/12 at 03:28 PM ET
Comments (1)

from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,

Mark Spector of Sportsnet and the Team 1260 had Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi on his radio show this afternoon.

The top of Lombardi’s complaint about the Oilers trading him an injured Colin Fraser for Ryan Smyth this past July came up.

“I apologize to Edmonton, and the NHL. I was wrong, the way I handled that,” Lombardi told Spector.

What had Lombardi done wrong?

The Mulletgate issue started up soon after the Smyth trade was announced.

The Oilers reported to Lombardi that Fraser had a broken foot, but the advice from their Oilers team doctors was that it was healing well and Fraser would promptly be able to resume full training.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

The Sutter Brothers Talk

by Paul on 01/11/12 at 10:14 AM ET
Comments (0)

from Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun,

Those who expected the Sutter boys to hug it out or apologize to one another obviously never saw them play.

But in the quiet confines of their respective homes — far from the cameras and the microphones — Darryl and Brent Sutter did the next closest thing: They finally talked.

After more than a year of silence prompted by anger, frustration and personality clashes that dotted their working relationship as GM and head coach, respectively, while with the Calgary Flames, the two spoke Sunday night.

They didn’t discuss their differences, nor bury the hatchet, nor agree to disagree or dissect old wounds …

They just talked.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Brent+Sutter, Darryl+Sutter,

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