Oh Lookie Here!

That's three in a row!

Folks, imagine this: we have ourselves... *gasp*... a winning streak!

Big win over those Little-Fishies-to-the-North.

On to the All-Star Break. Sweet Carolina! (Yes, I know it's Caroline...)

Well, Well...

Kings finally remembered how to win a game.

After all the close games they've been losing of late, it's nice to finally win one of those.

Boston's next at Staples tomorrow night.

Back-to-Back

2-1 losses on back-to-back nights. One in Dallas last night, and one in St. Louis tonight.

That puts the streak at 2-8 in their last 10.

Ouch.

Hey Look at That!

A win last night! While wearing their retro purple and golds! 2-0 in those games!

1-7

That's where the current streak is after another poor offensive performance Thursday night against the Blues, which is what the Kings are feeling these days. And to do it on Dodger Pride Night with new Dodger manager Don Mattingly and a handful of Dodger players in house to christen the night.

So is tonight's game just what the doctor ordered? They get the lowly Oilers at home. You would think they should beat them pretty handily, but we'll see how they come out tonight.

There's no reason to be in a panic mode, but some of these losses of late are just flat out frustrating.

Not So Fast...

Another loss to another mediocre-to-bad team. Frustrating.

On the bright side, Kopi's going to the All-Star Game! Congrats, Anze!

Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye

And that was all she wrote... down goes the five game losing skid. And throw in a nice seven-year extension for J.J.

All is good again in Hockeywood, right?!

Well Isn't This Just Great

Not a good time to be playing your worse hockey and riding a five-game losing streak on top of it.

Yes, there is a cause for concern here...

Another Night...

Another loss. This is becoming very frustrating, the inconsistencies.

But damn the Blackhawks and their cheap-ass fluke fourth goal late in the game. What a joke! What a way to lose a game.

Another Loss

But this time, the defense showed up, and the offense stayed home. Well done.

Say What?

Those were two horribly pathetic performances by the Kings the past two games. Way to ring in the New Year... find your defense, please.

In Case You Missed It...

Check out this incredible pass from Anze Kopitar to Dustin Brown in last night's Kings 4-0 shellacking of the Sharks...

Mile High Rout

Well, that was a fun night. Kings 5, Avs 0. Dustin Brown with two goals. Marco Sturm made his Kings debut. Life is good again in Hockeywood!

Ok, Much Better

Kings 6, Nashville 1. That's more like it.

On to Chicago to face the Stanley Cup Champions tomorrow!

Yikes!

I think I'm glad I missed tonight's game. That is all.

Kings Complete Trade

The Kings have officially completed a trade today for winger Marco Sturm from Boston that was originally reported several weeks ago. Sturm passed his physical this afternoon, and will travel to St. Louis to join the team. Sturm hopes to be ready to play sometime next week.

The trade comes on the heels of an impressive win for the Kings last night on the road in Detroit, where they slammed the Red Wings 5-0. Jonathan Quick saved a whopping 51 shots in the shutout for the Kings, and Willie Mitchell was back in action and played a big role in the game defensively. Mitchell took Brad Richardson's roster spot as he was placed on injured reserved with an unknown injury.

After a rough stretch in which the Kings lost six of seven following their great start, the team has turned it around and won four of its last five games, picking up points in all five contests, including two big, impressive wins against Detroit.

The Kings currently sit in seventh place with 35 points in a hotly-contested Western Conference which also has four of the five Pacific Division teams in the Top 8, and all five teams within just four points of each other.

Great Start

You kind of had a feeling it could be like this. This Kings team is too talented to not be this good. The Kings picked up their sixth win of the season in eight games with a 3-2 shootout win tonight in Minnesota.

The strange thing is they're doing it with injuries slowly beginning to pile up and with two forwards earning game misconducts in each of the last two games. But it hasn't slowed down the Kings.

Drew Doughty was placed on injured reserve today with what's being called an upper body injury, though we already know he suffered a concussion several games ago. And team captain Dustin Brown, the team's leading scorer early in the season, received a game misconduct in the second period after he lowered his shoulder to hit Wild forward Antti Miettinen while he was Miettinen was taking a shot. Brown's shoulder connected with Miettinen's head and shoulder. Wayne Simmonds received a five minute major in Saturday's game at Colorado.

But none of that mattered as the Kings continue to find ways to win games. They've won five of their last six games. Their 12 points in the standings are second most in the NHL.

And the power play finally found it's groove in tonight's win.

Brad Richardson recorded the first hat trick of his career when he netted three goals in the 6-4 win against Colorado on Saturday night.

While Doughty was placed on IR today, defenseman Matt Greene was activated before Saturday's game and played in tonight's game as well.

Next up for the Kings, they travel to Chicago to take on the defending Stanley Cup Champions on Wednesday.

New Season

It's that time of year again. The weather is changing outside as summer turns into autumn, and 30 NHL arenas around the North America are preparing their buildings for a new hockey season.

It's been six long months since the Kings were eliminated from the playoffs last season. In the time since, the Kings prepared for what would be very high expectations in the upcoming season, and rightfully so. The Kings finished as the sixth seed out West with 101 points last season before being ousted by Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs, and with the bulk and core of the team returning, the expectations are sky-high.

The Kings were never able to land their much-coveted top-line scorer such as Ilya Kovalchuk, but they were able to add other pieces which many feel could make this team better than last season. For starters, left winger Alexei Ponikarovsky was brought in to add depth to the middle lines, and perhaps the most important signing of the off-season, defenseman Willie Mitchell was added to a very solid and arguably one of the top defensive cores that already includes Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Rob Scuderi.

On offense, Ponikarovsky joins Captain Dustin Brown, who returns along with Ryan Smyth, Anze Kopitar, Brad Richardson, Wayne Simmonds, Jarrett Stoll, Justin Williams and Michael Handzus. Hopefully, scoring goals won't be an issue this season, and a healthy Smyth and a more consistent Kopitar should help.

Jonathan Bernier, who signed a two-year extension today, will back-up Jonathan Quick in net for the Kings this season after Erik Ersberg was placed on waivers. He eventually cleared and was sent to Manchester.

With the high expectations comes added pressure for the Kings to improve on last season's 101 points and go deeper in the post-season. Both ESPN and TSN have the Kings ranked fifth in their pre-season Power Rankings, so the recognition is definitely there.

The keys for the Kings will obviously be the same for any other team: staying healthy. But with a year under their belt together, the defense should be better with the addition of Mitchell, and that should make life a little easier for Quick down the stretch. Offensively, the Kings hope Brown steps up from his down year and contributes more in the way of putting pucks into the net. And hopefully the addition of Ponikarovsky will help ease the loss of an inconsistent Alex Frolov, who took his skills to the Big Apple as a free agent.

All in all, the Kings continue to grow as a team. General Manager Dean Lombardi has a done a nice job of drafting and tweaking the roster to build a solid future for the Kings, and hopefully they get over the hump this year and are playing beyond April, and even May under the guidance of Head Coach Terry Murray.

Kovy Turns Down Kings?

UPDATE (5:08pm CT): Helene Elliott has now posted this report on the LA Times Sports Blog, The Fabulous Forum.

Not good.

**********

Reports are starting to surface that Ilya Kovalchuk has rejected the Kings offer. Helene Elliott of the Times is the first to report it via Twitter.

More as this story develops.

Catching Up

Well it's been a while since the Kings were eliminated from post-season play by Vancouver. They played well at times against the 'Nucks, and looked almost unbeatable at times during those stretches, but when it mattered most, they were dreadful in closing out games. The defense, and to an extent, the goal-tending, as well, was awful. But it is what it is.

Since then, they've hired a new assistant coach to replace Mark Hardy. The NHL Entry Draft was held at Staples last weekend over a two-day frame. And the free agency period went into full swing starting on Thursday.

The Kings have two glaring needs: they need a premier front-line scorer on the top line, and they need veteran depth at defense. I think the goal-tending needs to be addressed as well.

They have not been very busy as far signing anyone over the first two plus days, but they've been busy behind the scenes trying to get things done. They've been mentioned in numerous rumors regarding Ilya Kovalchuk, the top forward in this year's free agent class. And being well below the cap, they have plenty to spend, and would like to. But so far, it's been relatively quiet.

The general consensus is Kovy will wind up in L.A., but at what cost? Reports out there say his camp wants max money (10 years, $10MM per), and as far as we know, only one team is apparently willing to go that far: the Islanders.

Now, I don't think the Kings should go that far to get him. Ten years seems to be a bit much for a 27 year old forward, granted he's one of the top scorers in the league. But even if the Kovy camp wants that much and the Islanders are willing to give him max money, is he really going to take it when the Islanders are so far away from winning? I don't think so, and that leads me to believe Kovy winds up in L.A., and hopefully at half of what his camp wants as far as the years go.

Stay tuned. My gut tells me there will be a resolution on this in the next 24-to-48 hours.

On top of all that, the Kings have also been tied to numerous trade rumors, as well. They were in on two of the top defensemen available through free agency, but Paul Martin signed with Pittsburgh and Dan Hamhuis inked a deal in Vancouver. So where does this leave the Kings? The said trade rumors have them linked to Sheldon Souray and even Tomas Kaberle. (My gut tells me neither ends up in L.A.)

They've also been tied to Simon Gagne, who waived his no-trade yesterday, and more recently, Vincent Lecavalier. (Yes, I know they're not defensemen, but my guess is if something happens with either of them, it's all contingent on what happens with Kovy.)

Kings ownership is pretty peeved at this point that nothing has happened yet. They want to make a big splash because they are that close to being a Cup contender, but obviously Dean Lombardi has a plan and wants to stick to it. In the end, I think they still end up with Kovy, and they'll probably move one of the goalies (either Jon Quick or Jonathan Bernier) for a defenseman. Question is, who?

They'll make their big splash.