Category Archives: LA Kings
The Kings May Be Interested in One Person for Their New Head Coach
David Chabot of Hockey Feed just the following tweet by NHL Inside Pierre LeBrun.
Kings’ coaching search, for now, includes just 1 man: associate coach John Stevens. Rob Blake wants to discuss things with him, see if a fit.
John Stevens has been with the Kings as a coach for seven years after leaving his head coach of Philadelphia. Even though he has been with Kings, I would hope they would talk to more prospect.
The Kings Promoted Two After Letting Two Go
After the AEG let Darryl Sutter and Dean Lombardi, Jon Rosen of LA Kings reported that the Kings promoted Luc Robitaille to President of the Kings and Rob Blake to Vice President and General Manager.
“This restructuring of the front-office will establish a single leader of the organization that will provide a unified vision, focus and alignment between the team side and the business side,” President and CEO of AEG Dan Beckerman said in a statement. “It mirrors the same structure we recently implemented with the LA Galaxy and it will not only enable the integration of these two sides of the club into a single organization but will bring symmetry between the Kings and Galaxy.”(Exert from Jon Rosen’s article on Robitaille and Blake’s promotions.)
Also check out Vice Sports’ Don Lozo hit piece on former Kings’ GM Dean Lombardi.
The 0-2 KIngs Look For Their First Season Win Against The Wild
After dropping the season opener to cross town rival the San Jose Sharks and a loss the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday, they look for their first win in Minnesota against the Wild who are 1-1 so far this season. They will miss their starting goalie Jonathan Quick from a back injury he suffered in the opener. Jeff Zatkoff will be starting in the net in his place.
Zatkoff has 3.09 GAA and a .891 SV% since replacing Quick.
Forward Tanner Pearson will be returning from his four-game suspension. He received the suspension for an illegal head check in the preseason.
The Kings Continue to Hurt Their Playoff Picture
Losing to the Dallas Stars 3-2 last night did not help the LA Kings playoff picture where they would have home-ice advantage through the conference playoffs. This loss dropped the Kings out of any serious chance of regaining the Western Conference lead while maintaining one point lead over the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division. So while losing any hope of regaining back their conference lead they still have a slim chance of holding onto to their divisional lead.
The Kings had been six points behind the Stars going into their game last night. A win would have cut that deficit to four instead of the eight points they are now. With fours games left, only a total implosion of the Stars and the Kings winning every single remaining game just maybe they could win back the conference lead. For now, the Kings have to concentrate on maintaining their hold on the Pacific Division.
Because the Kings not only have about holding back the Ducks from taking the division from them. The San Jose Sharks are also in the position to challenge the Kings because they only need three points to catch the Kings
But the Kings have a chance to increase their lead to three points over the Ducks when they play each other Thursday night. While unlike the Ducks, the Kings do not have same chance to increase their lead over the Sharks. They do not play each other before the season ends.
Right now, losing to anyone will hurt their divisional hold. Losing their hold on the division means losing their home- ice advantage in the first two rounds of the conference playoffs.
Fortunately blowing their conference lead to the Stars does not guarantee that they will lose their home-ice advantage in the finals should they make them as long as they have the better record their opponent.
So they needed to win not only last night’s game but the ones they lose after claiming the conference lead from Chicago Blackhawks a few games ago. Those losses while not knocking them out of the playoffs just make their journey towards the Stanley Cup uncertain and rough since they are out of control of their journey’s course.
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thewestcoastsportsblog 