Streaking...

Right back into a playoff spot. 5-0-1 in last six.

The entire division holds a playoff spot now. Yes, all five teams. That's insane and unheard of.

11-10

All-Star Game final. Team Kopitar... I mean... Team Lidstrom wins. Kopi with two goals.

Patrick Sharp of losing Team Staal wins MVP.

Kings back in action Tuesday in Minny. Then Wednesday in Hockeytown.

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.