The Futility Continues

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings continued their head-first plummet into the abyss called the National Hockey League’s dungeon on Wednesday night in a 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks in front of an announced sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center.

The Kings are now just 12-24-2 on the season, with 26 points in the standings. That ranks them dead last in the thirty-team NHL, trailing the Washington Capitals by six points.

Consequently, the Kings also rank last in the Western Conference, finding themselves behind the Edmonton Oilers and the Phoenix Coyotes by nine points. And although the playoffs are a pipe dream, just to illustrate how deep a hole the Kings have buried themselves in, they trail eighth-place Anaheim by fifteen points and first-place Detroit by a whopping 31 points.

As has happened so many times this season, the Kings came out a bit lackadaisical to start the game and by the time they figured out what was going on, they were already looking up at a 2-0 deficit.

After the Kings lost one of many loose puck battles deep in their own zone, Sharks left wing Milan Michalek scored at 9:02 of the first period, firing a point shot that deflected off of Kings defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky for his 11th goal of the season.

A little more than three minutes later, San Jose center Joe Pavelski capitalized on a Kings turnover, beating a surprised Jason LaBarbera with a backhand from the bottom of the right circle at 12:17 for his eighth goal of the season.

LaBarbera was yanked at that point in favor of Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who finished up in goal for the Kings.

Prior to that, Kings defenseman Rob Blake scored his third goal of the season on the power play at 6:18 of the second period and late in the third period, Visnovsky would add his third goal of the season on at 19:32, also on the power play.

The Kings finished the game two-for-five on the power play, but it was their failure with the man advantage that would contribute to their undoing.

At 17:20 of the second period, Sharks defenseman Craig Rivet cross checked Kings winger Ladislav Nagy in the neck. Rivet was being whistled off for elbowing on the play, but took exception to a cross check by Nagy earlier on that shift and retaliated with a cross check of his own after the whistle.

Rivet was slapped with a match penalty for deliberate intent to injure, resulting in a five-minute major penalty and an automatic game misconduct. Nagy was also given a cross checking minor on the play.

With the match penalty, Rivet was automatically suspended pending a hearing with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell, who could hand down supplementary discipline.

“I thought the referees had a good handle on [the incident],” said Kings head coach Marc Crawford. “They made the call and the guy got a five-minute major. That’s all you can ask for.”

The result had the Kings with a 44-second four-on-three minor power play, as Sharks center Joe Thornton and Kings defenseman Jack Johnson were already in the penalty box on coincidental minor penalties at 16:04.

At the 18:04 mark, the power play became the usual five-on-four. Then, at 19:20, Nagy’s penalty expired, giving the Kings a major power play for three minutes—they could score as many times as they could without having Rivet’s penalty expire.

The Kings managed a few good chances, but could not score. Nagy had the best chance from the bottom of the right circle on what looked like a sure-goal, but San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who has started all of his team’s thirty-five games, stoned him.

With the big penalty-kill, the Sharks seized the momentum, leading to Michalek’s second goal of the game at 3:24 of the third period. That gave the Sharks a 3-1 lead, taking a lot of the wind out of the Kings’ sails.

“The five-minute kill was big for us,” said San Jose center Torrey Mitchell. “It was a pretty big momentum builder.”

“It was very important to kill that penalty because it was five minutes,” said Michalek. “We scored right after that and that was the game right there. It was important to win tonight because we’ve lost three games against them.”

The Kings tried to fight back, although Visnovsky’s late goal was, as usual, too little, too late, especially noting their poor start in the first period.

“We have to play better,” said Nagy. “In the second and third periods, we started skating and we got chances. When you’re losing and nothing is going in and Nabokov is playing good for them, we can’t have periods like how we played in the first period.”

Crawford was not totally disappointed with his team’s effort.

“We were very close here,” said Crawford. “We’re doing more things right than we’re doing wrong. We have to stay the course. Our special teams were very good. Unfortunately, they didn’t make the difference because they scored their goals five-on-five.”

“I thought heading out there in the third period down a goal, we were in good shape,” added Crawford. “We got three chances at the start of the third period and they scored the goal that put them up two goals. I was still appreciative of fact that we still tried to attack, we still tried to press, we still tried to pressure and we still tried to do the things you need to do when you’re down a goal.”

Crawford was, however, disappointed with LaBarbera’s performance, but said that pulling him in favor of Aubin was as much to spark his team as it was to send a message to his goalies.

“I felt we needed a change right there,” he explained. “We have to get more saves than we’ve been getting right now. We’ve been getting ‘out-goaltended’ in a lot of games here lately. Our goalies have to start ‘out-goaltending’ the other team. That’s just a plain fact. Most nights in the NHL, your goaltender has to be better than the other goaltender. That’s not an indictment of any specific player, but tonight I thought we needed a change.”

“It looked like the right thing to do,” he added. “I thought we re-captured the momentum and turned the game around. We started to present an attack. Sometimes, when you change the goaltender, you’re looking for that momentum change.”

The Kings certainly got their chances in the game, and Nagy played his best game in weeks despite not scoring.

“Ladislav had a great chance on the power play,” said Kopitar. “He let a great shot go and Nabokov came up with a great glove save. Those are the breaks that we need to win hockey games. And it’s not just on the power play. We had a couple of good chances five-on-five too, but the bounces just didn’t go our way and their goalie played solid.”

Nevertheless, the result was yet another one-goal loss. It was the Kings’ eight consecutive defeat, moving them closer to the club record eleven straight losses at the end of the 2003-04 season.

“We’re losing games, we have to change that,” Kopitar lamented. “It seems like the work ethic is right there, but we’re losing games by one goal. Still, a loss is a loss, so we have to pick it up a little bit.”

“When you’re on the losing team, the bounces aren’t going your way,” added Kopitar. “If you look at their second and third goals, they came on kind of a scramble. Those are the bounces we need. Maybe that’s a difference between winning and losing, but that can’t be an excuse. We have to work hard and pick it up a bit.”

With just six wins since November 1, one has to wonder how upset the Kings are about their poor play.

“We’re not going good,” said Kopitar, exhibiting his mastery of the understatement. “We have to find a way to win hockey games because it’s definitely not fun coming into the locker room after a game. It’s getting old...losing. The guys are frustrated and miserable. Everybody wants to win in here.”

“We have to be concerned about the losing streak,” added Kopitar. “We definitely have to snap this streak now and get on a winning streak. Otherwise, the season is going to be over soon.”

Credit Kopitar for not giving up, but realistically speaking, after more than six weeks of atrocious play, the season, at least in terms of playoff contention, is already all but mathematically over for the Kings, who must still find a way to salvage the rest of their season.

“We did have a number of opportunities and we didn’t get the job done,” said Crawford. “It’s a familiar refrain. But all we can do is continue to stay the course. As I said after the game in Nashville, the one solace in all this is hopefully the guys learn to hate losing.”

“There are some dejected people in our room right now,” added Crawford. “I don’t think anybody is quitting. I do think there’s a lot of effort. What can you ask for but better execution and we’re trying to work on that. I hope our guys continue to be really sour about the losses. I hope the one thing that we need most, which is a win, comes our way. And when it comes our way, you have to believe that that type of confidence will spur our team on and make these one-goal losses turn into victories.”

NOTES: Despite not being at one hundred percent, Kings right wing Dustin Brown returned to the lineup after missing the last two games with a shoulder injury. Winger Michael Cammalleri did not play in this game due to bruised ribs suffered in a first period scrum at Nashville on December 22. He is listed as day-to-day. Defenseman Kevin Dallman suffered a broken right foot after being hit by a shot in the second period at Nashville. After the holiday roster freeze ends at 9:00 PM Pacific time on Thursday, the Kings are expected to place Dallman on injured reserve and recall a defenseman from the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, their primary minor league affiliate.

Prior to the start of the game, the Kings honored long-time Los Angeles television and radio sports broadcaster/reporter Stu Nahan, who passed away on Wednesday afternoon at the age of 81 after a bout with lymphoma.

THREE STARS (OFFICIAL)
#3 - Blake; #2 - Christian Erhoff; #1 - Michalek

ONLINE KINGDOM’S THREE STARS
#3 - Blake: Goal, eight shots on goal. Played a solid game in all three zones. Probably his best game of the season.
#2 - Michalek: Two goals. Best skater on the ice in this game.
#1 - Nabokov: Stoned the Kings on some glorious chances and was a big difference in the game.

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
San Jose Downs Kings, Who Lose Eighth Game In A Row
Kings’ Brown Returns Despite Not Being Fully Healthy

Inside The Kings
Rich Hammond/Matthew Kredell Blog Entries Covering the Game

Los Angeles Times
Kings Lose Their Eighth In A Row

BAY AREA NEWSPAPERS
San Jose Mercury News
Sharks Beat Kings, 3-2

NEXT GAME: On Saturday, the Kings begin a quick, two-games-in-two-days road trip in Denver against Paul Stastny and the Colorado Avalanche. Game time: 12:00 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.


The Futility Continues by Gann Matsuda December 27, 2007
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings continued their head-first plummet into the abyss called the National Hockey League’s dungeon on Wednesday night in a 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks in front of an announced sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center. The Kings are now just 12-24-2 on the season, with 26 points in the standings. That ranks them dead last in the thirty-team NHL, trailing the Washington Capitals by six points. Consequently, the Kings also rank last in the Western Conference, finding themselves behind the Edmonton Oilers and the Phoenix Coyotes by nine points. And although the playoffs are a pipe dream, just to illustrate how deep a hole the Kings have buried themselves in, they trail eighth-place Anaheim by fifteen points and first-place Detroit by a whopping 31 points. As has happened so many times this season, the Kings came out a bit lackadaisical to start the game and by the time they figured out what was going on, they were already looking up at a 2-0 deficit. After the Kings lost one of many loose puck battles deep in their own zone, Sharks left wing Milan Michalek scored at 9:02 of the first period, firing a point shot that deflected off of Kings defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky for his 11th goal of the season. A little more than three minutes later, San Jose center Joe Pavelski capitalized on a Kings turnover, beating a surprised Jason LaBarbera with a backhand from the bottom of the right circle at 12:17 for his eighth goal of the season. LaBarbera was yanked at that point in favor of Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who finished up in goal for the Kings. Prior to that, Kings defenseman Rob Blake scored his third goal of the season on the power play at 6:18 of the second period and late in the third period, Visnovsky would add his third goal of the season on at 19:32, also on the power play. The Kings finished the game two-for-five on the power play, but it was their failure with the man advantage that would contribute to their undoing. At 17:20 of the second period, Sharks defenseman Craig Rivet cross checked Kings winger Ladislav Nagy in the neck. Rivet was being whistled off for elbowing on the play, but took exception to a cross check by Nagy earlier on that shift and retaliated with a cross check of his own after the whistle. Rivet was slapped with a match penalty for deliberate intent to injure, resulting in a five-minute major penalty and an automatic game misconduct. Nagy was also given a cross checking minor on the play. With the match penalty, Rivet was automatically suspended pending a hearing with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell, who could hand down supplementary discipline. “I thought the referees had a good handle on [the incident],” said Kings head coach Marc Crawford. “They made the call and the guy got a five-minute major. That’s all you can ask for.” The result had the Kings with a 44-second four-on-three minor power play, as Sharks center Joe Thornton and Kings defenseman Jack Johnson were already in the penalty box on coincidental minor penalties at 16:04. At the 18:04 mark, the power play became the usual five-on-four. Then, at 19:20, Nagy’s penalty expired, giving the Kings a major power play for three minutes—they could score as many times as they could without having Rivet’s penalty expire. The Kings managed a few good chances, but could not score. Nagy had the best chance from the bottom of the right circle on what looked like a sure-goal, but San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who has started all of his team’s thirty-five games, stoned him. With the big penalty-kill, the Sharks seized the momentum, leading to Michalek’s second goal of the game at 3:24 of the third period. That gave the Sharks a 3-1 lead, taking a lot of the wind out of the Kings’ sails. “The five-minute kill was big for us,” said San Jose center Torrey Mitchell. “It was a pretty big momentum builder.” “It was very important to kill that penalty because it was five minutes,” said Michalek. “We scored right after that and that was the game right there. It was important to win tonight because we’ve lost three games against them.” The Kings tried to fight back, although Visnovsky’s late goal was, as usual, too little, too late, especially noting their poor start in the first period. “We have to play better,” said Nagy. “In the second and third periods, we started skating and we got chances. When you’re losing and nothing is going in and Nabokov is playing good for them, we can’t have periods like how we played in the first period.” Crawford was not totally disappointed with his team’s effort. “We were very close here,” said Crawford. “We’re doing more things right than we’re doing wrong. We have to stay the course. Our special teams were very good. Unfortunately, they didn’t make the difference because they scored their goals five-on-five.” “I thought heading out there in the third period down a goal, we were in good shape,” added Crawford. “We got three chances at the start of the third period and they scored the goal that put them up two goals. I was still appreciative of fact that we still tried to attack, we still tried to press, we still tried to pressure and we still tried to do the things you need to do when you’re down a goal.” Crawford was, however, disappointed with LaBarbera’s performance, but said that pulling him in favor of Aubin was as much to spark his team as it was to send a message to his goalies. “I felt we needed a change right there,” he explained. “We have to get more saves than we’ve been getting right now. We’ve been getting ‘out-goaltended’ in a lot of games here lately. Our goalies have to start ‘out-goaltending’ the other team. That’s just a plain fact. Most nights in the NHL, your goaltender has to be better than the other goaltender. That’s not an indictment of any specific player, but tonight I thought we needed a change.” “It looked like the right thing to do,” he added. “I thought we re-captured the momentum and turned the game around. We started to present an attack. Sometimes, when you change the goaltender, you’re looking for that momentum change.” The Kings certainly got their chances in the game, and Nagy played his best game in weeks despite not scoring. “Ladislav had a great chance on the power play,” said Kopitar. “He let a great shot go and Nabokov came up with a great glove save. Those are the breaks that we need to win hockey games. And it’s not just on the power play. We had a couple of good chances five-on-five too, but the bounces just didn’t go our way and their goalie played solid.” Nevertheless, the result was yet another one-goal loss. It was the Kings’ eight consecutive defeat, moving them closer to the club record eleven straight losses at the end of the 2003-04 season. “We’re losing games, we have to change that,” Kopitar lamented. “It seems like the work ethic is right there, but we’re losing games by one goal. Still, a loss is a loss, so we have to pick it up a little bit.” “When you’re on the losing team, the bounces aren’t going your way,” added Kopitar. “If you look at their second and third goals, they came on kind of a scramble. Those are the bounces we need. Maybe that’s a difference between winning and losing, but that can’t be an excuse. We have to work hard and pick it up a bit.” With just six wins since November 1, one has to wonder how upset the Kings are about their poor play. “We’re not going good,” said Kopitar, exhibiting his mastery of the understatement. “We have to find a way to win hockey games because it’s definitely not fun coming into the locker room after a game. It’s getting old...losing. The guys are frustrated and miserable. Everybody wants to win in here.” “We have to be concerned about the losing streak,” added Kopitar. “We definitely have to snap this streak now and get on a winning streak. Otherwise, the season is going to be over soon.” Credit Kopitar for not giving up, but realistically speaking, after more than six weeks of atrocious play, the season, at least in terms of playoff contention, is already all but mathematically over for the Kings, who must still find a way to salvage the rest of their season. “We did have a number of opportunities and we didn’t get the job done,” said Crawford. “It’s a familiar refrain. But all we can do is continue to stay the course. As I said after the game in Nashville, the one solace in all this is hopefully the guys learn to hate losing.” “There are some dejected people in our room right now,” added Crawford. “I don’t think anybody is quitting. I do think there’s a lot of effort. What can you ask for but better execution and we’re trying to work on that. I hope our guys continue to be really sour about the losses. I hope the one thing that we need most, which is a win, comes our way. And when it comes our way, you have to believe that that type of confidence will spur our team on and make these one-goal losses turn into victories.” NOTES: Despite not being at one hundred percent, Kings right wing Dustin Brown returned to the lineup after missing the last two games with a shoulder injury. Winger Michael Cammalleri did not play in this game due to bruised ribs suffered in a first period scrum at Nashville on December 22. He is listed as day-to-day. Defenseman Kevin Dallman suffered a broken right foot after being hit by a shot in the second period at Nashville. After the holiday roster freeze ends at 9:00 PM Pacific time on Thursday, the Kings are expected to place Dallman on injured reserve and recall a defenseman from the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, their primary minor league affiliate. Prior to the start of the game, the Kings honored long-time Los Angeles television and radio sports broadcaster/reporter Stu Nahan, who passed away on Wednesday afternoon at the age of 81 after a bout with lymphoma. THREE STARS (OFFICIAL) #3 - Blake; #2 - Christian Erhoff; #1 - Michalek ONLINE KINGDOM’S THREE STARS #3 - Blake: Goal, eight shots on goal. Played a solid game in all three zones. Probably his best game of the season. #2 - Michalek: Two goals. Best skater on the ice in this game. #1 - Nabokov: Stoned the Kings on some glorious chances and was a big difference in the game. 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 San Jose Downs Kings, Who Lose Eighth Game In A Row Kings’ Brown Returns Despite Not Being Fully Healthy Inside The Kings Rich Hammond/Matthew Kredell Blog Entries Covering the Game Los Angeles Times Kings Lose Their Eighth In A Row BAY AREA NEWSPAPERS San Jose Mercury News Sharks Beat Kings, 3-2 NEXT GAME: On Saturday, the Kings begin a quick, two-games-in-two-days road trip in Denver against Paul Stastny and the Colorado Avalanche. Game time: 12:00 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.