Predators Hand Kings A Dose Of Reality

LOS ANGELES (UPDATED 12:17 AM PST, March 4, 2007) — As well as the Los Angeles Kings have been playing over the last month, the reality is that they are not close to being one of the National Hockey League’s elite teams, and they were reminded of that fact on Saturday when the Nashville Predators came into town and handed the Kings a decisive 6-3 beating in front of 16,854 fans during a matinee contest at Staples Center.

Shea Weber and Paul Kariya scored two goals each, J.P Dumont and Marek Zidlicky scored a goal and added an assist each, and superstar center Peter Forsberg contributed two assists to lead the Predators to victory.

Michael Cammalleri scored two goals for the Kings.

The Kings were dominated in the first period and were outshot in the period, 14-4. The Predators skated circles around the flat Kings, but the Preds were unable to beat Kings goalie Sean Burke until Weber scored on the power play at 18:33.

The Kings were considerably better in the second period, even though the Predators still held a territorial advantage.

Kings center Jamie Lundmark scored his fourth goal of the season —all with the Kings after he was acquired from the Calgary Flames on January 29— at the 3:36 mark to tie the game.

But the lead was short-lived as Weber snuck a wrist shot from right point through heavy traffic to beat Burke at 6:15.

Cammalleri scored an easy one after a major defensive breakdown by the Predators left Cammalleri and Kings defenseman Rob Blake alone in a two-on-zero situation in front of Preds goalie Chris Mason, who made 25 saves.

Cammalleri struck again at 5:07 of the third period with the Kings on the power play, beating Mason from just below the right circle on a rebound chance, giving the Kings a 3-2 lead.

But just forty seconds later, with Kings defenseman Jaroslav Modry in the box for hooking, Kariya was all alone in the middle of the slot and easily one-timed a pass from Forsberg past Burke to tie the game, and it was all Nashville after that.

After Blake missed a hit at right point in the Nashville zone, he reached back and tripped the Predators player that he missed, putting Nashville back on the power play, and it did not take long for Zidlicky to fire a one-timer from the left face-off dot off the left goal post and in off of Burke for the game-winning goal at 9:39.

Dumont and Kariya closed out the scoring with goals at 12:39 and 13:23, taking advantage of the Kings, who had fallen apart in the defensive zone for much of the period, despite playing well in the attacking zone.

For the Kings, who have shown great ability to stay within reach and pull out wins in close games against better teams, they hung in there until the Preds took advantage of mistakes by the Kings in the third period.

“We got our feet under us and got a lead in the third period,” said Kings head coach Marc Crawford. “We made a crucial mistake right after it, and gave them a power play opportunity. We put them on the power play again and they ended up scoring those goals. Those were difference-makers in the game.”

“We’re in a real good position and 3-2 and at 3-3, we’re still in a good position, but we didn’t finish it off,” added Crawford. “So we have to examine ourselves. I don’t think it was a case where they took the game away from us. I thought we made a couple of mistakes that gave them opportunities, especially on the power play.”

Crawford emphasized that the Kings made too many mistakes, especially those that put the Preds on the power play.

“Their good players ate us up, especially in power play situations,” said Crawford. “We took seven penalties. And when you give them opportunities that allow them to get their best players on the ice, you’re playing a dangerous game.”

“That’s something we’re going to have to quickly regroup from and get back to playing with the type of attitude our guys have demonstrated so well this year, that character and that perserverance.”

One problem for the Kings in this game was a slow start, a problem they have not had much over the last month.

“We came out slow today,” said Kings center Derek Armstrong. “We didn’t come out great, but I think in the second and third, we played a lot harder.”

“I think we’ve been pretty consistent the last ten or eleven games,” added Armstrong. “We came out of the gate so bad tonight. We came out slow. We cranked it up in the second half, but we didn’t get the result.”

“They took it to us in the first ten minutes, but we jumped back in the middle of the game,” said Lundmark. “Until those power plays in the third, we were taking it to them. We’ve just got to play the last twenty minutes hard. They scored a big goal on the power play. They just rolled from there. We didn’t get a chance to get back after that.”

Newcomers Jamie Heward had a similar view.

“I think we did a pretty good job in certain areas tonight,” he said. “We didn’t play great in the first, but I thought we had a really good, hard-working second period. We just ran into some penalty trouble, and that can change a game.”

Penalties were also a big problem for the Kings, with the Predators getting seven power play chances, and scoring on three of them.

“We took a lot of penalties early in the game,” said Cammalleri, who now has a six-game point scoring streak (four goals and seven assists for eleven points). “It gave them a lot of momentum and it was frustrating for us and it’s tough for the guys out there killing them. We’ve got to be on the positive end of that one.”

“They played great,” said Armstrong. “I think we played much better in the third period, but they capitalized in the third period, and their power play outscored our power play. That’s why they’re the number one team. They score when they get the opportunities and they definitely did that today.”

Heward said that in the “New NHL,” power plays are a bigger factor in the game.

“These days, you give good teams some power plays, they’ll turn it around on you,” said Heward. “The tough part about penalties is that not everybody gets into the game. If we get a little bit of a rhythm, [a penalty] seems to break it.”

“I think for the most part, we did a good job on the penalty-kill, especially in the second period, I thought we did a really good job,” added Heward. “But in third, they scored a couple to give them a lift.”

Overall, the Kings put in an incomplete performance and the results were what one might expect from such a performance.

“We knew what we had to do to compete against them and for the most part, we weren’t really doing it,” said Cammalleri.

On the down side of the equation, Burke played well through two periods, but was not at his best in the third.

“I think any goalie, if he’s looking at six goals, he believes he can stop a fair number of them,” said Crawford. “But I thought he did a great job in the first period, keeping us in the game. That’s all you can ask.”

The game featured some spotty officiating—there were a number of calls that were missed against the Preds, who were hit with only two minor penalties.

“We were playing against guys who dive all over the place and fool referees night after night,” said Kings winger Scott Thornton. “It’s tough to play against a bunch of little guys doing that.”

Was Thornton speaking the truth, or was he just whining? Crawford did not address that question, and said that the officiating was not a factor in the outcome of the game.

“I don’t think we can argue with too many of [the calls/non-calls],” said Crawford. “There could’ve been a couple that went our way, but they didn’t. I don’t think that was a determination.”

Even though they wound up blowing out the Kings, the Predators knew the Kings were still in the game for most of the way.

“We had a tough time trying to get into a zone in the first two periods,” said Kariya. “In the third, we moved around very well and we made some good plays. I thought we did a good job of keeping calm and our power plays worked. They are playing really good hockey and they are tough to play against,” said Kariya.

“I thought we played well,” said Forsberg. “We have definitely played better the last couple of games. The Kings came back and they played very hard and we give credit to them. They had nothing to play for and they still came out and played very hard. They definitely had a chance to win in the third.”

“I thought we played good enough to win,” added Forsberg. “Our power play bailed us out in the end.”

Nashville head coach Barry Trotz was pleased with the way his team responded when the Kings asserted themselves early in the third period.

“When they got that lead, I thought it would give them momentum,” said Trotz. “But we got the goal back quickly and then got a couple shifts in a row where we created some stuff and stuck it in the back of the net.”

NOTES: With his two assists in the game, Blake moved into ninth place on the Kings all-time scoring list with 458 career points; Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky scratched from the lineup after taking a shot off his ankle late in the game against Anaheim on Thursday. He is expected to return on Tuesday at Chicago; Rookie center Anze Kopitar is not expected to accompany the Kings on their upcoming road trip. There was no word on whether or not he might be able to join the team during the four-game road swing.

“Kopitar is probably going to be staying behind here,” said Crawford. “We feel that’s probably the best course of action for him. Obviously, it’s the type of injury for him that our doctors say that he’s going to need some time.”

THREE STARS (OFFICIAL)
#3 - Cammalleri; #2 - Forsberg; #1 - Weber

For more information, including more interviews with the players and coaches, we invite you to check out:

OFFICIAL SCORING AND STATISTICS
NHL Scoresheet
NHL Superstats
NHL Play-By-Play

WIRE SERVICE REPORTS
Associated Press Report From ESPN.com

LOCAL NEWSPAPERS/SITES
Daily News
Kings Fall Prey To Predators

Inside Hockey
The New King Of Nashville

Los Angeles Times
Kings Worry About Losses

NASHVILLE NEWSPAPERS
The Tennessean
Zidlicky Drought Is Over
Legwand On Injury Watch
Forsberg, Team Getting Together

NEXT GAME: The Kings hit the road for four games starting on Tuesday when they face Martin Havlat and the Chicago Blackhawks. Game time: 5:30 PM PST. Televised in the Los Angeles area on FSN West.

Gann Matsuda, who has been writing about the Kings since 1986, is the News Editor for the Online Kingdom and covers the Kings for Hockeytalk.biz. He also covers professional hockey players of Japanese descent for the English section of the Rafu Shimpo (Los Angeles Japanese Daily News).
© 2007 Online Kingdom/Kingshockey.com. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution is prohibited without permission.


Predators Hand Kings A Dose Of Reality by Gann Matsuda March 3, 2007
LOS ANGELES (UPDATED 12:17 AM PST, March 4, 2007) — As well as the Los Angeles Kings have been playing over the last month, the reality is that they are not close to being one of the National Hockey League’s elite teams, and they were reminded of that fact on Saturday when the Nashville Predators came into town and handed the Kings a decisive 6-3 beating in front of 16,854 fans during a matinee contest at Staples Center. Shea Weber and Paul Kariya scored two goals each, J.P Dumont and Marek Zidlicky scored a goal and added an assist each, and superstar center Peter Forsberg contributed two assists to lead the Predators to victory. Michael Cammalleri scored two goals for the Kings. The Kings were dominated in the first period and were outshot in the period, 14-4. The Predators skated circles around the flat Kings, but the Preds were unable to beat Kings goalie Sean Burke until Weber scored on the power play at 18:33. The Kings were considerably better in the second period, even though the Predators still held a territorial advantage. Kings center Jamie Lundmark scored his fourth goal of the season —all with the Kings after he was acquired from the Calgary Flames on January 29— at the 3:36 mark to tie the game. But the lead was short-lived as Weber snuck a wrist shot from right point through heavy traffic to beat Burke at 6:15. Cammalleri scored an easy one after a major defensive breakdown by the Predators left Cammalleri and Kings defenseman Rob Blake alone in a two-on-zero situation in front of Preds goalie Chris Mason, who made 25 saves. Cammalleri struck again at 5:07 of the third period with the Kings on the power play, beating Mason from just below the right circle on a rebound chance, giving the Kings a 3-2 lead. But just forty seconds later, with Kings defenseman Jaroslav Modry in the box for hooking, Kariya was all alone in the middle of the slot and easily one-timed a pass from Forsberg past Burke to tie the game, and it was all Nashville after that. After Blake missed a hit at right point in the Nashville zone, he reached back and tripped the Predators player that he missed, putting Nashville back on the power play, and it did not take long for Zidlicky to fire a one-timer from the left face-off dot off the left goal post and in off of Burke for the game-winning goal at 9:39. Dumont and Kariya closed out the scoring with goals at 12:39 and 13:23, taking advantage of the Kings, who had fallen apart in the defensive zone for much of the period, despite playing well in the attacking zone. For the Kings, who have shown great ability to stay within reach and pull out wins in close games against better teams, they hung in there until the Preds took advantage of mistakes by the Kings in the third period. “We got our feet under us and got a lead in the third period,” said Kings head coach Marc Crawford. “We made a crucial mistake right after it, and gave them a power play opportunity. We put them on the power play again and they ended up scoring those goals. Those were difference-makers in the game.” “We’re in a real good position and 3-2 and at 3-3, we’re still in a good position, but we didn’t finish it off,” added Crawford. “So we have to examine ourselves. I don’t think it was a case where they took the game away from us. I thought we made a couple of mistakes that gave them opportunities, especially on the power play.” Crawford emphasized that the Kings made too many mistakes, especially those that put the Preds on the power play. “Their good players ate us up, especially in power play situations,” said Crawford. “We took seven penalties. And when you give them opportunities that allow them to get their best players on the ice, you’re playing a dangerous game.” “That’s something we’re going to have to quickly regroup from and get back to playing with the type of attitude our guys have demonstrated so well this year, that character and that perserverance.” One problem for the Kings in this game was a slow start, a problem they have not had much over the last month. “We came out slow today,” said Kings center Derek Armstrong. “We didn’t come out great, but I think in the second and third, we played a lot harder.” “I think we’ve been pretty consistent the last ten or eleven games,” added Armstrong. “We came out of the gate so bad tonight. We came out slow. We cranked it up in the second half, but we didn’t get the result.” “They took it to us in the first ten minutes, but we jumped back in the middle of the game,” said Lundmark. “Until those power plays in the third, we were taking it to them. We’ve just got to play the last twenty minutes hard. They scored a big goal on the power play. They just rolled from there. We didn’t get a chance to get back after that.” Newcomers Jamie Heward had a similar view. “I think we did a pretty good job in certain areas tonight,” he said. “We didn’t play great in the first, but I thought we had a really good, hard-working second period. We just ran into some penalty trouble, and that can change a game.” Penalties were also a big problem for the Kings, with the Predators getting seven power play chances, and scoring on three of them. “We took a lot of penalties early in the game,” said Cammalleri, who now has a six-game point scoring streak (four goals and seven assists for eleven points). “It gave them a lot of momentum and it was frustrating for us and it’s tough for the guys out there killing them. We’ve got to be on the positive end of that one.” “They played great,” said Armstrong. “I think we played much better in the third period, but they capitalized in the third period, and their power play outscored our power play. That’s why they’re the number one team. They score when they get the opportunities and they definitely did that today.” Heward said that in the “New NHL,” power plays are a bigger factor in the game. “These days, you give good teams some power plays, they’ll turn it around on you,” said Heward. “The tough part about penalties is that not everybody gets into the game. If we get a little bit of a rhythm, [a penalty] seems to break it.” “I think for the most part, we did a good job on the penalty-kill, especially in the second period, I thought we did a really good job,” added Heward. “But in third, they scored a couple to give them a lift.” Overall, the Kings put in an incomplete performance and the results were what one might expect from such a performance. “We knew what we had to do to compete against them and for the most part, we weren’t really doing it,” said Cammalleri. On the down side of the equation, Burke played well through two periods, but was not at his best in the third. “I think any goalie, if he’s looking at six goals, he believes he can stop a fair number of them,” said Crawford. “But I thought he did a great job in the first period, keeping us in the game. That’s all you can ask.” The game featured some spotty officiating—there were a number of calls that were missed against the Preds, who were hit with only two minor penalties. “We were playing against guys who dive all over the place and fool referees night after night,” said Kings winger Scott Thornton. “It’s tough to play against a bunch of little guys doing that.” Was Thornton speaking the truth, or was he just whining? Crawford did not address that question, and said that the officiating was not a factor in the outcome of the game. “I don’t think we can argue with too many of [the calls/non-calls],” said Crawford. “There could’ve been a couple that went our way, but they didn’t. I don’t think that was a determination.” Even though they wound up blowing out the Kings, the Predators knew the Kings were still in the game for most of the way. “We had a tough time trying to get into a zone in the first two periods,” said Kariya. “In the third, we moved around very well and we made some good plays. I thought we did a good job of keeping calm and our power plays worked. They are playing really good hockey and they are tough to play against,” said Kariya. “I thought we played well,” said Forsberg. “We have definitely played better the last couple of games. The Kings came back and they played very hard and we give credit to them. They had nothing to play for and they still came out and played very hard. They definitely had a chance to win in the third.” “I thought we played good enough to win,” added Forsberg. “Our power play bailed us out in the end.” Nashville head coach Barry Trotz was pleased with the way his team responded when the Kings asserted themselves early in the third period. “When they got that lead, I thought it would give them momentum,” said Trotz. “But we got the goal back quickly and then got a couple shifts in a row where we created some stuff and stuck it in the back of the net.” NOTES: With his two assists in the game, Blake moved into ninth place on the Kings all-time scoring list with 458 career points; Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky scratched from the lineup after taking a shot off his ankle late in the game against Anaheim on Thursday. He is expected to return on Tuesday at Chicago; Rookie center Anze Kopitar is not expected to accompany the Kings on their upcoming road trip. There was no word on whether or not he might be able to join the team during the four-game road swing. “Kopitar is probably going to be staying behind here,” said Crawford. “We feel that’s probably the best course of action for him. Obviously, it’s the type of injury for him that our doctors say that he’s going to need some time.” THREE STARS (OFFICIAL) #3 - Cammalleri; #2 - Forsberg; #1 - Weber For more information, including more interviews with the players and coaches, we invite you to check out: OFFICIAL SCORING AND STATISTICS NHL Scoresheet NHL Superstats NHL Play-By-Play WIRE SERVICE REPORTS Associated Press Report From ESPN.com LOCAL NEWSPAPERS/SITES Daily News Kings Fall Prey To Predators Inside Hockey The New King Of Nashville Los Angeles Times Kings Worry About Losses NASHVILLE NEWSPAPERS The Tennessean Zidlicky Drought Is Over Legwand On Injury Watch Forsberg, Team Getting Together NEXT GAME: The Kings hit the road for four games starting on Tuesday when they face Martin Havlat and the Chicago Blackhawks. Game time: 5:30 PM PST. Televised in the Los Angeles area on FSN West. Gann Matsuda, who has been writing about the Kings since 1986, is the News Editor for the Online Kingdom and covers the Kings for Hockeytalk.biz. He also covers professional hockey players of Japanese descent for the English section of the Rafu Shimpo (Los Angeles Japanese Daily News). © 2007 Online Kingdom/Kingshockey.com. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution is prohibited without permission.