The Lockout is Officially Over...

It's time to take care of some business and raise this to the rafters at Staples Center...

Crowned!

Kings Win Opener in Sweden

Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards - his first as a King, and Jack Johnson all scored in the 3-2 win.

Richards' goal came in the last three minutes of regulation to tie the game.

Johnson's goal came in overtime to win it.

The Kings play Buffalo tomorrow in Germany while the Rangers skate with the Ducks in Sweden.

The Sabres defeated the Ducks 4-1 today.

Opening Day Has Finally Arrived

Kings take on the Rangers in Sweden in their season opener today.

Drew Doughty will be on the ice and Mike Richards will make his official debut for the Kings.

Jonathan Quick gets the nod in net.

Dustin Penner will not play due to a lower-body injury suffered in Germany against Hamburg.

Game time is 1pm on the East Coast, 10am L.A. time and can be seen nationally on Versus.

And here's an interesting tidbit to think about...

Each of the last three Stanley Cup Champions all started their seasons in Europe (Chicago in 2008, Pittsburgh in 2009 and Boston last season in 2010).

Game on!

Kings Have Deal with Doughty

Don't know all the details but reports are the Kings and defenseman Drew Doughty have a verbal agreement on an 8-year, $56 million deal.

Check out the LA Kings Insider for all the latest info on the deal...

An Ugly Picture

Last night, former Kings forward Wayne Simmonds, who was traded in the off-season by the Kings to the Flyers as part of the Mike Richards deal, was at the center of attention in London, Ontario, Canada in a disgusting way where the Flyers were taking on the Red Wings in a preseason game. At least twice during the game, a fan threw a banana in the direction of Simmonds while he was on the ice.

Simmonds, the professional that he is, handled the situation with dignity and class, and simply shrugged it off. The fan who supposedly threw the banana has not been found.

All I'm going to say is the whole thing makes me sick. It's disgusting and ignorant. There's no place anywhere in sports for racism in any way, shape or form. There's no place for it in society, period. It's sad and unfortunate that it happened to such a good kid in Simmonds. I always thought Canadian fans in particular were better than this to stoop to such stupidity.

I really hope it was an isolated incident and it doesn't happen again. Hockey is too good of a sport and too proud for something like this to paint a black eye on it.

It's 2011, people. Let's get with the program.

Doughty a No-Show as Camp Opens

I'm not going to sit here and type out all of the details about Drew Doughty's contract holdout. You can get all of that by checking out the Kings Insider.

All I'm going to say is this is something that needs to get done. The Kings have made their best offer and it's entirely up to Doughty at this point. Doughty is a very important part of the Kings plans this year, as well as the future, and he knows that. So let's just sign on the dotted line and get this party started.

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The lone player, Alexander Galimov, who survived the Russian plane crash last week that killed the entire Locomotiv team of the KHL, as well as several high-ranking members of the organization, died earlier this week from his injuries.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Galimov's family, and continue to go out to the entire hockey world.

Former King Demitra Among Dead in Russian Plane Crash

Such a sad day in the hockey world. As if it hasn't been a rough summer already for the sport.

Former Kings & NHL star Pavol Demitra was one of 43 people killed today in a Russian plane crash that also claimed the lives of most of the Russian KHL team Locomotiv.

Also reportedly killed in the crash were former Kings prospect Jan Marek, Locomotiv's head coach Brad McCrimmon, a former NHL defenseman and assistant coach with Detroit, former Ducks forward Ruslan Salei, and former NHL players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Karlis Skrastins.

The plane was carrying the Locomotiv team on its way to Belarus when it crashed on the banks of the Volga River after takeoff from an airport in nearby Yaroslavl, about 150 miles northeast of Moscow. Locomotiv was scheduled to play against Dinamo Minsk in Belarus in its season opener.

Russian player Alexander Galimov and a flight engineer survived the crash and are both listed in serious condition at a nearby hospital.

Demitra, a three-time NHL All-Star, played most of his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues from 1996-2004. He was originally drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 1993 and was up and down between Ottawa and their AHL team on Prince Edward Island, Canada from 1993-1996. Demitra left the NHL after 2004 and played one season in his native Slovakia for HC Dukla Trencin before signing with the Kings before the 2005-2006 season where he scored 25 goals and had 62 points in 58 games. After just one season in L.A., Demitra was traded to the Minnesota Wild. He played two seasons in Minnesota before being traded to the Vancouver Canucks, where he played for two more seasons. Last season was his first with Locomotiv.

In 16 NHL seasons, Demitra scored 304 goals and registered 768 points. Last season, he scored 18 goals and tallied 60 points in 54 games for Locomotiv.

Demitra and Salei were both 36. McCrimmon was 52.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the entire hockey world, the NHL, KHL, the entire Locomotiv organization and to all the families and friends of those who lost their lives in today's tragedy.

Kings Unveil New Jerseys

The Kings will be wearing new jerseys beginning this season.

Sort of.

What was previously the third alternate jersey will now be transitioned into the new home jersey.

A white version of that jersey will be created to be the new road jersey.

And the previous home jersey will be shifted to become the third jersey, with one small change.

That change is the absence of purple from the former home sweater chest crown. The crown is now completely silver and black.

The Kings say the changes are being made due to overwhelming feedback from the fans and the players.

The team will continue to wear their purple and gold vintage sweaters during selected home games.

A Day Late...

The Kings have added former Oilers winger Ethan Moreau, 36, to the mix with a deal expected to be worth $600k for one-year.

The deal is expected to finalized and announced tomorrow.

Richards to NY; Kings Land Gagne

Hours after center Brad Richards signed a 9-year deal with the Rangers, spurning the Kings and two other teams, the Kings turned around and inked LW Simon Gagne to a two-year deal worth $7MM, reuniting him with recently acquired Mike Richards.

Gagne, a 40-point scorer last season in Tampa and in 2009-10 with Philly, will get $4.5MM from the Kings next season, and $2.5MM in 2012-13. He tallied 74-points for the Flyers in 2008-09. Gagne will like play on the second line with Richards in the middle and Justin Williams on the right. First line should be Anze Kopitar in the middle with Dustin Brown and Dustin Penner on the wings.

This is a solid deal for the Kings as they get a veteran scorer and add some depth. If Gagne stays healthy, he should do well lining up with Richards.

Ok, So I Was Wrong

The Kings apparently are making a very big push for Brad Richards. They sent a big contingent of top executives to Toronto to meet with Richards and his agent. AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke, team president and GM Dean Lombardi, head coach Terry Murray and the entire coaching staff all made the trip to make their presentation to Richards and his agent. Richards is fielding offers from a handful of other teams including Toronto and the New York Rangers, so no decision is expected to be made any sooner than tonight or tomorrow.

I'm under the assumption that if the Kings are able to sign Richards, a trade would almost certainly have to follow to move a center, most likely Jarret Stoll.

The Kings are also working feverishly hard to get restricted free agent Drew Doughty signed, as well. Doughty, the centerpiece of the youth movement and the defensive core, could become the team's highest paid player if all goes accordingly.

More to come... Stay tuned...

Free Agency Starts Friday

In baseball, the free agency signings are dragged out throughout the long winter months. There is very little activity on the first day. In the NBA, there's usually a two-week moratorium in which teams and players can negotiate but can't make any official announcements until the moratorium period ends. In the NHL? It's open season on the first day that's usually filled with a flurry of activity.

This year should be no different with free agency opening up tomorrow. And for the Kings, who have been active in recent years, just not on the first day, usually missing out on the top tiered guys who prefer to play on the east coast rather than in sunny Southern California, with players citing travel concerns and a lack of fan interest, tomorrow could be busy.

The Kings are not expected to be in pursuit of any of the top free agents this year. Aside from center Brad Richards, the top guys this year appear to be defensemen and goalies, two positions the Kings are in pretty good shape. Richards won't go to L.A. to play on the wing as the Kings are pretty well set at center after acquiring Mike Richards from Philly last week. They do seem to be a little thin on the wing, especially on the left side, and could look for some depth there among the second- and third-tiered wingers available.

As for the top free agents, Brad Richards is drawing interest from about one-third of the teams. Dallas, his former employer, is not one of them. And if he has his way, expect him to sign with a smaller market team, perhaps Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Nashville or Winnipeg. Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, whom the Kings coveted last off-season when he signed in Edmonton, is off the market. His rights were traded twice this off-season from Edmonton to Long Island, New York to Buffalo yesterday, where he signed a 10-year deal today. Defensemen Tomas Kaberle, James Wisniewski, and goaltender Tomas Vokoun round out the top five. Another defenseman, Ed Jovanovski, is in the Top 10.

The players that are drawing some level of interest from the Kings are all wingers, and as expected, all left wingers. Ville Leino, who had a breakout season for Philly last season, Tomas Fleischmann, Simon Gagne, Eric Cole and Scottie Upshall would be decent fits for the Kings. If they don't land one of these guys tomorrow, or if any of these guys end up somewhere else either tomorrow or in the days to follow, it will be an otherwise quiet day and free agency period for the Kings this season.

Major Realignment Overhaul Coming

With the move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg now official, the league has started talks of realignment to accommodate the relocated team. The Jets, as they will be called again, will play out of the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference for one final season with Tampa Bay, Washington, Florida and Carolina.

Originally, the league was going to just simply shift Winnipeg, but with teams like Detroit, Nashville and Columbus playing out of the Western Conference and creating traveling nightmares for them, as well as West Coast teams, the league has decided to do a complete overhaul effective with the 2012-2013 season.

The plan is two break up the league into four divisions - two in each conference - with one conference getting two 8-team divisions, likely the east, and the other getting two 7-team divisions.

The new realignment plan is likely to be approved at the Board of Governors meeting in December. So for now, for one more season, the league will continue under the current format.

I personally think they should just keep the current format and just do the overhauled realignment under it. With so many teams in the league now, seven and eight team divisions just seems to be too much. The idea of competing within a five-team division seems favorable and more competitive.

Smyth Finally Traded

Yes, he's going back to Edmonton. No, it's not the same deal that was nearly completed Friday during the draft.

In return, the Kings will get Colin Fraser and a 2012 seventh-round pick.

Fraser is nothing more than a depth forward who makes less than $1MM, so this will allow the Kings some room to find someone to replace Smyth.

That player will likely come via free agency and not a trade.

News From the Draft

This should be a short post because I won't pretend like I know who the Kings, or anyone else, drafted or know anything about them. Having said that, there was other news.

It appeared Ryan Smyth had been dealt back to Edmonton at one point early during the draft yesterday but as the night went on, it become more clear that the deal had not been finalized. In fact, the entire deal fell completely through, in large part, based on reports, due to the health concern of Gilbert Brule, whom the Kings would have then turned around and bought out or flipped to another team. (League rules prohibit a player from being bought out or traded while they're injured.)

So for now, Smyth is still with the Kings, but he could still end up in Edmonton any minute or day now, or he could still wind up in Calgary. The Flames were hot in on the talks for Smyth, but many felt they fell out of it when they inked Alex Tanguay to a five-year, $17.5MM extension. However, it appears they could still be in on Smyth now that the aforementioned deal has fallen through.

Stay tuned.

Kings Pull Off Blockbuster Deal

Kings have acquired center Mike Richards from Philly.

Philly gets prospect Brayden Schenn, RW Wayne Simmonds and a draft pick.

2011 Entry Draft is tomorrow.

Could this be a precursor to something else?

Rumors have it Ryan Smyth wants back in Edmonton for personal reasons.

We shall wait and see.

As for Richards, he is signed through 2019-2020 season.

He's played six seasons in NHL, averaging 70 points over last four.

I'm still on fence over this deal because of length of his contract and his reputation.

But here's hoping Richards can shed that reputation and fit in and help this team.

Kyle Clifford should slide into Simmonds' slot in lineup.

But it leaves a big hole at RW on 3rd line.

Let's hope Kings GM Dean Lombardi has other plans.

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Congrats to Kings Captain Dustin Brown on winning NHL's Foundation Award at last night's NHL Awards Show. The Foundation Award is given to the player who applies the core values of hockey to enrich lives of others in their community.

Boston Wins Cup

For the first time in 39 years, the Boston Bruins are Stanley Cup Champions after defeating the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 7 of the Finals on the road after trailing in the series 2-0 and 3-2. Boston goalie Tim Thomas was named series MVP and finished the series with most saves ever in Finals history.

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As you can see, it's been a while since I've checked in on this here blog. The Kings were down 2-1 to San Jose in the first round of the playoffs the last time I was here, and unfortunately lost the series in six games.

This Kings team played their butts off in the San Jose series despite the Game 3 meltdown, but they're still a young team learning how to play through playoff adversity. They could have easily won that series as they lost three of the games, including Game 6 at home, in overtime. One lucky bounce their way in those overtime losses, and who knows what might have happened.

In any case, we've reached the official end of the 2010-2011 season with Boston hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup tonight, and I'm sure Dean Lombardi and co. have been hard at work for weeks now looking for ways to improve the Kings as they head into the 2011-2012 season.

One thing is for certain, this team will only get better. A healthy Anze Kopitar should help the offense, as should a full season with Dustin Penner. And with one of the best defenses with young superstars such as Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, and one of the best young goalies in the league in Jonathan Quick, the sky could be the limit for this team for years to come!

What Just Happened?

Did I really just witness that?

I could sit here and list all the reason why the Kings never should have lost this game.

Instead I'm only going to say, there's no excuse for it.

Ok, maybe not. I can't leave it alone. I can't keep quiet.

Sure, this is a young team still.

But to build a 4-0 lead on 10 shots through the first 24 minutes of play, and lose?

Inexcusable.

This was en epic defensive fail. And an epic goaltending fail, too.

How do you give up five goals in one period, and then lose in overtime after such a great start?

How they respond on Thursday through the adversity after this game on will really tell us if this team is ready to handle playoff hockey.

This is disheartening and discouraging. But it's not time yet to bow out.

Series is best of seven, not three.

Kings fans did their part tonight. Now it's the team's turn Thursday night.

Let's go Kings!

Back Home

And back in black after a 4-0 shellacking of the Fishies on Saturday night.

Gotta love how well the Kings played in first two games on road, especially Game 2.

Took advantage of Sharks stupid penalties.

Jon Quick was amazing in goal, and Drew Doughty was about as good as he's ever been.

Series could easily be 2-0 Kings, but we'll take the 1-1 going back to Staples.

Ok, Kings fans, lets show the hockey world what we're really made of tonight!

Get loud, Staples Center! Let's go Kings!