STAT CHECK: Vancouver at LA (PennerMania II)

Remember those old friends from yesteryear who, truth be told, you really don't care to ever see again?

Well, the Vancouver Canucks just might fall into that category for the Los Angeles Kings. Yet, the NHL schedule makers say they must play this afternoon at 1pm PST.

So, with that it mind, here are some key stats you need to know heading into the action at Staples Center...

* First things first, Dustin Penner - right? He's played 29 career games vs the Canucks (tied with Minnesota as his most frequent opponent). In those games he's posted 11 points(5g, 6a) and was a minus-2.

* His most productive day of the week is Monday, with a scoring percentage of .43 (16 goals in 37 games). He's played the most games on a Saturday - which happens to be his second most productive day also, with a .38 scoring percentage (26 goals in 69 games).

* Over the course of his career he's been highly effective in day games, with 13 goals in 27 afternoon games (scoring ratio of .48).

PennerMania By the Numbers (and video)

Monday saw the trade. Tuesday was the physical. Wednesday featured the first practice.

Thursday night was all about Dustin Penner's debut as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

"It's been a while since I've been this excited." said Penner just prior to the game.

* Penner was the 10th left wing to start along side Anze Kopitar on the first line.

* He entered play with 25 career games vs the Coyotes, where he scored 12 goals, added four assists (16 points) and had a minus-6 rating.

* Of his 406 career games played, 68 of them were on a Thursday - the second highest of any day of the week (one behind the 69 on Saturday). However, in an odd quirk, he had scored the fewest goals (13) and most assists (25) on a Thursday.

LA Kings Players on Penner and the Big Debut

Yesterday Jarret Stoll and Dustin Penner were on MayorsManor talking about there supposed fight back in the AHL.

Now, let's hear from a few other Kings regarding the much anticipated debut of Penner tonight and the game versus the Phoenix Coyotes...

Willie Mitchell on Penner - "He's a big body presence who plays in traffic and in front of the net well. Players like him, whether it's (Tomas) Holmstrom or (Johan) Franzen - those are guys who come to mind who are similar players in a sense - they go to the front of the net and they create traffic. What that does is it opens up space for the best players in the game, because usually they're playing with those players. Obviously he does those things well, but I think it's going to be really good for Kopi. It's going to give him a lot of room out on the ice. You watch Detroit and Holmstrom goes to the front of the net, one of the defenseman have to respect him there. What it does, is it creates, it's almost like playing two-on-two out of the corner now with (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg against two players, versus playing three-on-three. So, it keeps the ice less crowded. What that does it turn is give your better player more time with the puck. So, he's going to create a lot of space for Kopi. He's going to create a little bit of dimension for us on the power play in front of the net and chip in with a few more goals. So, it's a nice addition."

[More from Ryan Smyth and Stoll after the jump]

LA vs Phoenix Preview w/ Coyotes Tyson Nash

Nash in the locker room (Japan 2007)

From Theo Fleury to Sean Avery, the pest is a role some play to perfection.

Tyson Nash was one of those guys during his playing days with the St. Louis Blues and Phoenix Coyotes.

The self-proclaimed "former 4th line pigeon" is now the Coyotes' TV Color Analyst and he stopped by MayorsManor to help us preview tonight's game with the Kings.

In the interview below we talk former King Eric Belanger, a recent trade, his apology to Fleury, being compared to Avery, why the Kings will win the Pacific Division...and yes, we play word association.

MM: What's the biggest difference between what Dave Tippett is doing with the Coyotes this year compared to his first season in Phoenix last year?

TN: Obviously, with the players we have you have to coach a certain way. We don't have the high talent that maybe the LA Kings have. So, he puts a system in place that fits for this type of team and that's a defensive type of system. It's no different than last year really. It's a team that relies on their goaltender heavily and they play with a lot of structure, keep everything really tight and play that real suffocating style that seems to be very effective.

MM: Besides the 27 points, what has adding Eric Belanger meant to the team this season?

Smyth and Murray Respond To Mitchell's Comments

You won't get a lot of cliche answers from Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell about the team's performance. He's a veteran who's been through the rigors of the season with five different teams over 10 years and brings an honest perspective when assessing games.

After practice yesterday he said the Kings "dominated" Monday's game and that some players may have lost interest when it became 4-1 (full comments here).

Are those things that fellow veteran Ryan Smyth and coach Terry Murray agree with?

Smyth - "I wouldn't think we lost interest because we started to battle back a little bit in the scoring punch. But, there were times throughout that where we weren't as consistent as we are capable of being. Playing a full 60 (minutes) against a team like that is something you have to do. For us to be successful, you have to bring your assets to the table as a group and come through against a team like that."

Murray - "He's probably right about the middle (of the game). You lose focus, you don't lose interest. You lose your focus, you lose your concentration. But, it came back in the third period. I thought we gave it a pretty good push. And what's really important - we were talking about it on the bench - is we got behind and you know you're playing Detroit and it's going to be very hard to get back against that team because they check so well, they know how to do the job. But, we're talking about doing things the right way. You can't get bad habits into the game. If you start cheating on the game and cheating on your system and structure and not giving 100% on your effort, then you're doing a disservice to your hockey club, to the LA Kings, and I won't tolerate that."

Mitchell Says Kings 'Dominated' Monday vs Detroit

Monday night's game vs the Red Wings was not a 'trap game' for the Los Angeles Kings.

A match-up with Detroit is a measuring stick, a barometer...and it doesn't matter if the game is played the first week of the season or in the final month.

After a horrible November the Kings were hot in December, punctuated by a 5-0 shutout of the 'Wings in Detroit.

Well, the Kings came up short in the re-match a few days ago, something defenseman Willie Mitchell had an interesting take on yesterday afternoon...

MM: You were pretty open about your disappointment with the Islander game, are there similar feelings coming off the loss to Detroit considering how well the team has been playing lately?

WM: Well, we played great against Detroit. I will sit there over and over again - I think the guys played excellent for two periods. Excellent for two periods. We dominated that hockey game and we were down 3-1 and then they scored a power play (goal) to make it 4-1. We controlled the play, we did everything. They got a couple of bounces the other way. But, we dictated that hockey game. In this league when you get down 4-1 against a good team like Detroit, it's natural when there's only twenty minutes left for everyone to just loose a little bit of interest and I think that's what happened, obviously, to make it go up to 7-1. The team lost interest because the game kinda got away, even though I think there was a lot of disappointment in the room because we played hard and we played well for the first two periods.

Clifford and Westgarth Preparing to Get (Biz) Nasty?

With the Phoenix Coyotes in town tonight to take on the Kings it's worth re-setting a story from the last time these two teams got together.

If you're not on twitter, you many not even know that one of the most popular hockey players in North America has scored only one goal in 37 games this season.

He's played in less than 100 NHL games and averages fewer than five minutes a night for the Coyotes, yet he had more All Star Game votes this year than Shane Doan, Justin Williams and Dustin Brown.

Paul Bissonnette, better known as BizNasty2point0, is all the rage right now. He talks plenty of puck, but also tweets non-hockey takes like "4Loco is Charlie Sheen in a can. Of course its back."

He even pokes fun at himself with tweets like "In case you folks are wondering I have a no movement clause, but its from the middle of the bench."

Prior to the Kings-Coyotes home-and-home series in late January BizNasty and I did the first ever MayorsManor twinterview.

His key comments had to do with Kevin Westgarth and Kyle Clifford, who then provided their responses as well. Take a look...

MM: The Kings have three scrappers right now (Westgarth, Clifford and Wayne Simmonds). You've faced off with Westgarth twice, including once in the AHL, and Clifford during the pre-season. What are your thoughts on those guys?

VIDEO: Dustin Penner from NHL On The Fly

PennerMania continues.

The newest King, Dustin Penner, called in for a an interview tonight on NHL On The Fly.

In the video below he talks about when he'll debut for LA, adjusting to his new team, being a King after playing for the Ducks, George Parros, Johnny Damon, his first practice, cycling the puck, Anze Kopitar, Wayne Simmonds, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, the Kings system vs. the Oilers system and more.

After the interview Craig Button explains why he thinks the Penner-Kopitar-Simmonds line will work well.

POLL: LA Kings Player of the Month (February)

February saw the Kings climb back into the Western Conference playoff race with a record of 8-2-3. The 19 points tied their season high in a month, set in December (9-4-1 record).

As far as their Player of the Month goes, for the first time all season you can probably make a legitimate argument for three to five different players.

As noted below, Jonathan Quick dominated the votes during the first two months of the season. Then, the forwards took over.

Past Player of the Month results:

October - Jonathan Quick 51%, Justin Williams 21%
November - Jonathan Quick 52%, Justin Williams 22%
December - Dustin Brown 41%, Anze Kopitar 33%
January - Ryan Smyth 46%, Jarret Stoll 29%

With voting now underway for February, the honor could go back to Quick...or several forwards...or maybe even a defenseman for the first time this season.

In alphabetical order, here are the leading candidates for February's Player of the Month...

Jarret Stoll on Fight with Dustin Penner

This Dustin Penner-mania is starting to reach Brayden Schenn levels.

It looks like it may be all Penner, all the time for the next few days.

So, sticking with the theme - let's check in with Jarret Stoll, one of his former teammates in Edmonton.

Earlier today we heard what Penner had to say about the time the two got into a fight back in their AHL days (Penner was with Cincinnati, Anaheim's affiliate). What does Stoll remember about it? Keep reading...

MM: Much has been made over the last few days about Penner's friendship with Matt Greene. How about away from the rink, did you guys socialize much when you were both in Edmonton?

JS: We had some good times, yeah. We were kind of all, in a way, growing up together there - having dinners, going to movies and hanging out on the patios and stuff, having a good time and enjoying ourselves and loving the game. It was some good times. He lived with Greenie, so they had a lot more intimate moments, if you will. But, he's a good guy, a good friend and we're happy to have him here.

MM: In 2004 when you guys were both in the AHL, there's a December 2004 game recap saying you two had a fight. Any memories from that situation?