Quotes from the Capitals locker room after 5-2 loss in LA

Only a few players in the NHL are as synonymous with their teams as Alex Ovechkin is with the Washington Capitals. It's nearly impossible to think of one without the other.

He's played the LA Kings just seven times in his career though, winning the first two meetings and now having dropped five straight - after last night's lopsided 5-2 loss.

When the dust settled, here's what they were saying in the Caps locker room...

Ovechkin on the overall game - "I don’t think it’s all about me; it’s all about us. We wanted to have a good start and we had a good start. Two mistakes cost us almost the whole game—Wideman lost a guy in our zone and he got a goal and Laich lost a puck. I’m not calling out only these two guys, I had mistakes in our zone and everybody had mistakes in our zone and that cost us the game."

Ovechkin on his team's performance - "I think we had a pretty good start. We had emotion and we scored the first goal. After that we just stopped playing and my line had a couple of chances. Including that, we didn’t do anything in the offensive zone and I think there was communication in the neutral zone and we started playing in the defensive zone."

Mike Richards has something his linemates don't

The Capitals will be without forward Nicklas Backstom and defenseman Mike Green tonight, as they flew back to D.C. earlier today with nagging injuries.  Kings forward Mike Richards certainly won't be crying over their absence. He's played against both guys enough in his career to know the damage they can inflict on their opponents.

In fact, Richards has played more games against the Capitals than his two wingers combined. Left wing Dustin Penner has only seen the Caps four times in his career and right wing Jarret Stoll has faced them five times. You could even add in Anze Kopitar's five games and Dustin Brown's seven, and you'd still only have 21 games total - not enough to surpass Richards' 22 regular season games.

However, it was a post-season encounter with the Capitals that was quickly brought up when he was asked about his favorite memory against them. "We (Philly) beat them in game seven in Washington my third year in the league," recalled Richards. "It was a pretty good series too. We were up 3-1, they came back to tie it 3-3. Then, we ended up winning in overtime against them."

As for tonight's game, Richards shared the following outlook - "They'll be a tough opponent for us. As good as they are offensively, they still play a good defensive system. Obviously with Ovi and Semin, even without Backstrom, they still have a good offensive team. They have three or four guys on the back end who really move the puck well. So, it's going to be a tough challenge for us and we just have to be good defensively."

To read Brown's pre-game comments, including his thoughts on Alex Ovechkin and how to beat the Caps, click here.

The Mayor
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Dustin Brown on Ovechkin and how to beat the Capitals

Capitals' Alex Ovechkin (photo: M. Zampelli)

With the Capitals in town for a game against the Kings tonight, it's one of those rare opportunities to see Alex Ovechkin on the West Coast. Although he's played over 500 games in the NHL, only six of them have come against the Kings - split evenly, with three on the road and three at home.

He has six points in those six games (two goals and four assists), with both goals coming in DC. Even so, Kings captain Dustin Brown sounded like a man with a plan when asked for his memories of playing the Capitals in the past and to share any thoughts on the game tonight...

"It's always exciting when you have a player like Ovechkin coming in," began Brown. "He's one of the premier players in the league. We don't play him very often. We've always played really good defense (vs the Caps in the past) and that's why we've been successful against them. They're pretty high-powered offensively. If we can just make them play defense - they don't like doing that. I think that's how we won last time. Ovechkin scored on the very first shift in Washington and we didn't really give up any chances after that, and we dominated the game. So, we need to key in on a couple of their players and make sure we're really good defensively."

The game last year Brown referenced was won by the Kings 4-1. Jonathan Bernier was in net that day and only faced 23 shots. Coach Darryl Sutter is giving him the start again tonight.

As for Brown's individual performance vs. the Capitals, he has one goal in seven career games - and it came at home on November 20, 2008.

The Mayor
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Dean Lombardi 'troubled' by Ryan Smyth trade request

When the NHL schedule came out yesterday it revealed the Kings will host both the Washington Captials and Pittsburgh Penguins.  Sid and Ovi coming to town? Usually that's enough to talk about on a boring Thursday in June.

Yet, leave it to Dean Lombardi to throw that one out the window.

First, he made a huge trade with the Flyers, acquiring their captain Mike Richards in exchange for a package that included hockey's number one prospect, Brayden Schenn.

Then, hours later, he dropped another bomb on the conference call - yes, Ryan Smyth DID ask for a trade.

As discussed here on MayorsManor earlier in the week, Smyth's team of preference was the Oilers. And our poll showed fans were split on what the Kings should expect in return (results here).

Lombardi, known for his honesty when answering these type of questions, was his usual blunt self...

"This has kind of evolved over the last two months, actually. When Ryan asked to be moved, at first I was really troubled. Ryan, in our first 40 games last year I thought he was one of our better players. He kind of tailed off a little and then, in the playoffs, was one of our best players. And certainly, left wing, it’s not one of our strongest positions. So first off, my reaction was, `No way,’ and I couldn’t figure out why, because I think Ryan had adapted well."

Jack and USA done, Bernier ready for Ovechkin tomorrow

Johnson and Jagr at IIHF quarterfinals
Photo by Matthew Manor / HHOF-IIHF

Out of the sixteen countries to play in the main pool at last year's IIHF World Championships the United States finished 13th - ahead of only France, Italy and Kazakhstan.

They'll finish five slots higher this year, but there isn't much to celebrate. After advancing to the elite-8, they were bounced in their first game by the defending champions from the Czech Republic.

In today's opening game of the quarterfinals Team USA lost 4-0. Al Montoya (New York Islanders) was announced as injured, so Ty Conklin (St. Louis Blues) was given the start in goal. Jack Johnson played over 20 minutes again, but the offense just couldn't get anything going.

The Kings defenseman also laid out Patrik Elias (New Jersey Devils) behind the net in the third period. Probably should have been a penalty, but there was no call.

Johnson finished the tournament with 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in seven games, picked up eight penalty minutes and was a minus-4. He also led all U.S. defenseman with 20 shots on goal.

Jaromir Jagr looked every bit the part of a player ready to return to the NHL, posting three goals on his first four shots in today's game. He's now tied for the lead on his team with five goals and eight points (matching the totals of Montreal's Tomas Plekanec).

The Czech's beat Russia for the gold last May and this year's brackets have things lining up for a possible rematch.  Russia has also played in the finals for three straight years, having won the gold medal in 2008 and 2009.

Germany and Sweden will play later today. The winner of that game will play the Czech Republic in one of Friday's semi-final games.

On the other side, the winner of tomorrow's two games - Canada/Russia and Finland/Norway - will meet up in the other semi-final game.

Both the gold and bronze medal games will be played on Sunday, airing live on VERSUS in the U.S.

But, back to that Canada-Russia game. Coach Ken Hitchcock has already announced he's sticking with Jonathan Bernier in goal, who is 2-0 in the tournament. One of the many story lines to watch in that game is if Bernier and the Canadian defense can shut down Alexander Ovechkin. In two games played, he's yet to register a point.



The Mayor
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Forget Quick... It's the return of Bernier vs Ersberg!

You read that right.

It's just not for a spot on the Kings. Instead, they'll square off at the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia.

With Canada looking to lock down the top spot in their pool on Monday, coach Ken Hitchcock has announced he'll start Jonathan Bernier in goal for their final game of the qualification round.

Bernier picked up a 3-2 win yesterday vs. Norway, stopping 25 of 27 shots. It was his first game played in the tournament.

At the other end of the ice for his second game will be Erik Ersberg of Team Sweden. The former Kings goalie was in net when the Swedes lost their opening game of the tournament to Norway, 5-4 (via a shootout).

Sweden hasn't lost a game since and Ersberg hasn't seen any game action since. However, having already won their pool play, he's being given another shot before the quarterfinals start mid-week.

In other news...

* Slovenia lost in the relegation round to Belarus by a final score of 7-1. They've now been dropped out of the main pool for 2012. Just like Kings fans wonder how the team would have done vs. San Jose had Anze Kopitar been in the line-up, hockey fans in his home country now wonder the same thing about the national team. (read more about Gasper Kopitar's dreams for Slovenia here)

* Even though the U.S. had Sunday off, they still qualified for the quarterfinals due to Switzerland's loss to Sweden. Team USA plays their final 'qualification round' game tomorrow vs. the Swiss - that game airs live on VERSUS at 7am PST. Jack Johnson continues to lead the team in ice time in most games...and is an even-player through five games (he was minus-21 for the Kings this season). He also leads the team with 18 shots on goal..

* Alexander Ovechkin made it to Europe in time for the game, but Russia lost to the Czech Republic 3-2 on Sunday. Jaromir Jagr had the second goal of the game for his country. Ovi was held pointless.

* Michal Handzus and Team Slovakia haven't played well at all. Let's just leave it at that. They'll play Denmark Monday.  It will likely be the final game of Pavol Demitra's international career.

Quarterfinal match-ups will be announced tomorrow night and played Wednesday/Thursday. Regardless of the outcome of Monday's games, seven of the eight slots have already been secured by Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Sweden and the USA. Norway is the most likely eighth team. However, Switzerland has a slim chance at it.

[Monday morning update: Norway beat France earlier today to secure the 8th seed.  Switzerland will not advance to the quarterfinals, regardless of the outcome vs. Team USA.]



The Mayor
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Dustin Brown Ready For Something New

Damn it's early for a Saturday.  But, there's hockey to be played - so let's do this.

While normally the Kings don't see the Eastern Conference teams too often, seven-year pro Dustin Brown has actually played the Washington Capitals every year he's been in the league except one (2007-08).

Of those six games, four have been in Los Angeles. So, today will be a rare chance to get an up close look at Alex Ovechkin on his home ice.

And it was two season ago that Brown scored his only goal against the Capitals, the game-winner in a 5-2 win for LA (video of the goal here). The game was far closer than the score indicates though, as the Kings scored two empty net goals in the final minute of play.

When the teams rematched in LA again last season the contest was just as close, with the Kings pulling out a 2-1 victory.

Jonathan Bernier will get the start this morning in Washington and Jonathan Quick will try to garner some revenge in Philadelphia tomorrow.

As for Brown, what does he think about today?

"As a player, it's fun playing the Eastern Conference. You just don't know the players as well. We play Anaheim, San Jose, Dallas and Phoenix - and we know them so well. They're huge games (too), but you kinda get a different type of an excitement when you're playing the Eastern Conference teams."

More from Jack Johnson and a few others coming up before the puck drops this morning.

The Mayor
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RELATED ARTICLES:

Clearing the Crease with Jonathan Bernier

Brown and Johnson on Playing Pittsburgh

Word Association with Theo Fleury

When you think Flames vs. Kings it's hard not to conjure up an image of Theo Fleury.

He brought more passion to a single game of hockey than some players bring in an entire season. Over multiple teams in a career that lasted more than 1,000 games in the NHL, he epitomized the line 'You hate him, unless he's on your team - then you love him.'

There's no denying his success on the ice. He finished his career with 455 goals, hoisted the Stanley Cup and won an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada.

Just hours before the Kings play another critical game in Calgary tonight, I had the honor of speaking with Theo about a variety of topics, including several of his projects away from the game of hockey.

Of course, we often found our way back to the NHL though.

Regarding some of those legendary contests back in the late '80s, early '90s, Theo was quick to point out "I loved playing at the Great Western Forum, especially after they acquired Gretzky. The atmosphere was always electric, even though many people there didn't like me."

Flipping the tables a bit, I asked which NHL players he likes in today's game. Fresh off the NHL All-Star Draft last weekend, what would Team Theo look like?

"Marc-Andre Fleury, my brother from another mother, would be in goal. Shea Weber and Duncan Keith on defense. Up front, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, paired with Jarome Iginla."

Still loyal to the Flames after all these years.

Although it provided a perfect transition for us to talk about the persistent rumors that Iginla might be traded soon. It's a business - something Fleury knows having been traded himself (he says he never wanted to leave Calgary, but there were money issues) - so, while he knows it's a possibility, he just doesn't envision a scenario where Iginla gets moved. Even more so, he's insistent that Iginla deserves to retire someday having spent his entire career with the Flames.

Finally, we played word association...

Lanny McDonald - class
Gary Bettman -interesting
Tomas Sandstrom - hard to play against
Luc Robitlaille - great hands
Kelly Buchberger - little talent, hell of a career
Sandy McCarthy - best friend
Sean Avery - different
Eric Lindros - strong
Mark Messier - leadership
Ryan Smyth - pain in the ass

I hope to have Theo back on for an extended conversation before the Flames come to Los Angeles next month.

Until then, check out his book Playing With Fire. He lays it all out there and takes readers inside the mind one of the most intriguing players to ever grace a sheet of ice.

The Mayor
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RELATED ARTICLES:

Interview with Kerry Fraser - tells a very raw and emotional story about Fleury as a NY Ranger

LA Kings Players on Calgary Captain Jarome Iginla

Revisiting a Rivalry - Kings vs. Flames

Interview with Kelly Buchberger

Interview with Shea Weber

MayorsManor Podcast - featuring Kerry Fraser

Very few people in the world of hockey ever become as well known as the players on the ice.

Then again, there aren't many people like Kerry Fraser either.

He's perhaps the most recognizable referee in the history of hockey. In his 30-year career he managed to get under the skin of fans in nearly every NHL city. Yet, he was simply doing his job in most cases.

At the end of last season he hung up his whistle after more than 2,000 games all across North America. He penned a book, The Final Call, while taking those last laps in stripes. It's a telling memoir featuring candid insight and often provides the emotion behind stories fans may not have otherwise been privy to.

In the podcast below Fraser shares some of those memories. He talks about lecturing a young Mario Lemieux and the friction it created, allowing Mark Messier a little latitude when taking care of a situation on the ice and recalls a crushed Theo Fleury asking him for help.

Of course, he also talks about several key events involving the Kings - including the non-call on Wayne Gretzky in the '93 playoffs vs. Toronto, Marty McSorley's illegal stick in the Stanley Cup Finals, coach Tom Webster throwing a stick at him and quite a bit more.

He shares the experiences of receiving death threats, contemplates rule changes and offers opinions on calling penalties in the final minutes of play.

Like many MayorsManor interviews, we also play word association and you may not believe what he has to say about guys like Gary Bettman, Chris Pronger, Sean Avery, Patrick Roy and several others. The most shocking though may be his comments on Alex Ovechkin.

[Audio player after the jump]

Kopitar vs. Ovechkin at Super Skills Event

In a few short hours the second wave of this year's NHL All Star Weekend will get underway with the popular Super Skills Competition.

Team captains Nicklas Lidstrom and Eric Staal met with Brendan Shanahan, NHL Vice President of Hockey and Business Development, earlier this morning to determine which of their players would participate in each event.

Last night, the Kings' Anze Kopitar was selected by Lidstrom in the 15th round (30th overall) of the All Star Fantasy Draft. He now knows which events his team captain has assigned him to...

First, he'll be part of a three-man unit (also comprised of Florida's Evgeny Dadonov and Vancouver's Henrik Sedin) taking part in the Breakaway Challenge.

Fans at home will be allowed to vote on the winner of this event - something that will certainly be needed for Kopitar's group, as they're taking on Alexander Ovechkin (the two-time defending champion of this event), Corey Perry and PK Suban.

Draft 2010: Interview with Ivan Telegin

The LA Kings know all about having a Russian forward on the team. For seven seasons now Alexander Frolov has been a key component in the rebuilding of the team. It's also the only NHL team he's ever known. Ironically, less than a week before he prepares to possibly depart the team via free agency, another high powered Russian forward could be joining the franchise.

As of now, GM Dean Lombardi's first pick in the draft will be at #19. One slot earlier than when Frolov was a first round selection back in 2000.

In addition to the slew of North American players vying to be picked, there are five Russians that may still be on the board when Lombardi and crew are given the mic on the draft podium.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Evengy Kuznetsov and Maxim Kitsyn are the three "pure" Russians in the group, in the sense that they play over there. Stanislav Galiev and Ivan Telegin have already begun their adjustment to North America by playing Canadian Junior Hockey this past season.

Telegin is a 6'2" left wing playing for the Saginaw Spirit in the OHL.  Interestingly enough, if he hadn't decided to come over from Russia, he'd be on the same team back home with Kitsyn.

The paths of all five have crossed throughout their youth in the Russian national program and most of them will meet up again at the World Junior Championships next winter.  For now though, they aren't a unit, they're five individuals looking to be drafted by NHL teams.

So while the debate rages on about how to individually rank the Super Five, James Paliafito - the Director of Scouting for Telegin's OHL team - had this to say about the player he knows best "Ivan works as hard as any player in the game. Always the first to the puck and very accountable in all three zones. He will score goals and win all of his battles on the boards. Great in front of the net where he enjoys physical contact. Ivan is superb on the power play; he has the ability to deflect shots as well as shoot without much preparation.”

Like his game on the ice, Telegin has been working hard to improve his communication as well. Through his broken English and the Mayor's broken Russian, they had the following conversation...

Kings-Caps has Olympic Feel

The buzz is alive for the 2010 Winter Olympics. All the rosters have now been announced and some of the guys that were left off have been popping up in recent Kings games and making their presence known. A few days ago in Calgary it was Dion Phaneuf and Jay Bouwmeester. Today it was Mike Green for the Caps and Ryan Smyth for the Kings.

Green, skipped over by Team Canada in favor of the Kings Drew Doughty, tied the game just a couple minutes into the second period. He also led all players in the game with a whopping 30:33 of total ice time.

Smyth, also left off of Team Canada, scored a goal of his own with time expiring in the first period. Rhyno's powerplay goal finally gave the Kings something to show for their dominating performance in the opening 20 minutes of play - other than leading the shot totals 11-4. Up until that point the Kings just couldn't get anything by Caps netminder Michal Neuvirth, even with two other powerplays earlier in the period.

The sold out crowd had barely returned to their seats for the second when Green tied things up after Parse went off for tripping. Like LA did in the first, Washington dominated the shots in the second - with the numbers 13-3 in the Caps favor - but they only had one goal to show for it.

Then, just a few minutes into the third, Smyth was called for boarding. Washington was hungry for their first lead of the night, but it wasn't to be. Another Olympian came to the rescue for LA. Michal Handzus, who will play for Slovakia, netted a short handed goal for the Kings. The Caps continued to put pressure on throughout the rest of the game, however LA was able to hold on for a 2-1 win...their first day-game victory at home this season.

To show the difference in the make up of the two teams, Alexander Ovechkin led all skaters with seven shots. The Kings didn't have a player with more than three. You may recall back in training camp Coach Murray stressed the Kings need to have a shot mentality this year to be successful. Instead, today it was Jonathan Quick - yep, another Olympian - lifting the team to victory.

Next up - the Sharks on Monday.

One19
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HIGH / LOW with ESPN's John Buccigross

If you were following hockey when the Y2K craze was in full stride, you probably spent a fair amount of time watching the NHL2Night on ESPN. The 30 minute show gave hockey fanatics their nightly fix of scores, highlights and analysis. Guiding the puck fest was John Buccigross, an ESPN anchor and now author. He's hard to forget - with his music references and pure love for the sport. In between duties for ESPN we caught up with John to get his take on the first week of the NHL season.

With one week in the books, what would say have been the HIGHs so far?

1. Calgary Flames - I picked them to finish first and they look good so far. They seem to have a little magic to them.

2. Sidney Crosby - He's now a good faceoff man. That's the sign of a winner. Keep improving.

3. Alex Ovechkin - 70 goals? Another MVP? Probably.

And on the flip side, the LOWs of the young season?

1. Boston Bruins - Trade Phil Kessel and the offense is severely hurt. They should get better.

2. The Referees - A lot of ticky tack calls.

3. Toronto - All bark, no bite so far.

Later this afternoon we'll post a more in depth interview with John. Fear not, we'll be looking for answers on why he reversed course and now says the Kings will not make the playoffs. Enquiring minds want to know. And the Mayor needs answers!

The Mayor
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RELATED ARTICLES

Interview with John Buccigross of ESPN

Interview with Kelly Hrudey - former Kings goalie, now a commentator on TSN

Interview with Luc Robitaille - sit down with #20 a few days before his Hall of Fame induction

Interview with Mike Modano - arguably the greatest American born hockey player of all-time

Interview with Bob Miller - legendary voice of the Kings talks favorite players, games, moments, etc.

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