So - Kings GM Dean Lombardi says he likes the 'calmness' coach Terry Murray brings to the team and thinks he still has room to grow - just like the players (full article and quotes here).
But, what about the team's poor power play?
Well, he talks coaching, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and more...
Lombardi - "I think they recognize that (it wasn't as good as last year). That's the first thing, to realize 'Hey, it was so good two years ago...' Ask me about it again in a week."
Hmmm. He then went on to say...
"One of the things, and this is not singling out the player - because I've already said that I think he's (Kopitar) become one of the most complete players in the game. But, the irony of it is like, I think they have the focus on - I think if you ask the coaches for the biggest areas of improvement is getting our best player - Kopitar, our number one scorer - in situations where he can produce. Because if you look at it, his numbers five-on-five are amongst the tops in the league. His power play, compared to the top guys in the league - for him, five goals - was way down. If he has the average number of power play goals as the other top guys, he'd be one of the top scorers in the league."
What about his inconsistency?
"I agree. But, like I said, he's becoming one of the complete players. Has he become a winner yet? No. But, he's certainly evolving towards it when I see a player make the adjustment to play like he does in his own end. That means he cares and that's the first step. To me, he's clearly learned that it's about team.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Dean Lombardi on Coach Terry Murray's Performance
Earlier today Kings' GM Dean Lombardi spoke about Dustin Brown as the team's captain this season (article here).
Now, here's what he had to say about the performance of coach Terry Murray...
Lombardi - "I liked his calmness. I think one of his strengths was when were in that slide there, he kept his composure. I think during that slide, when we slid out of the playoffs, that the necessity of calm and focus was essential. If we had gone the other way, I think that would have been ripe for not getting out of that. So, I think a lot coaches you evaluate at critical moments and I look at the way we came out of that during that period when we had to go into Phoenix and win that game to get on a roll. I thought he was the perfect guy for that situation.
"I think going forward, we're all the same. It's like yesterday's thing - now we write down all the things that we could have done better - including me and Hex (Ron Hextall). And that's the next assignment. We expect players to evaluate themselves and what did we learn from this to do better? So, I think he's capable of doing that. Just like the players have to grow, we all have to grow."
Oh - and for anybody that had a doubt - Terry Murray will be back to coach the LA Kings next season.
Case closed.
As for the power play... well, read what he has to say about that next.
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Now, here's what he had to say about the performance of coach Terry Murray...
Lombardi - "I liked his calmness. I think one of his strengths was when were in that slide there, he kept his composure. I think during that slide, when we slid out of the playoffs, that the necessity of calm and focus was essential. If we had gone the other way, I think that would have been ripe for not getting out of that. So, I think a lot coaches you evaluate at critical moments and I look at the way we came out of that during that period when we had to go into Phoenix and win that game to get on a roll. I thought he was the perfect guy for that situation.
"I think going forward, we're all the same. It's like yesterday's thing - now we write down all the things that we could have done better - including me and Hex (Ron Hextall). And that's the next assignment. We expect players to evaluate themselves and what did we learn from this to do better? So, I think he's capable of doing that. Just like the players have to grow, we all have to grow."
Oh - and for anybody that had a doubt - Terry Murray will be back to coach the LA Kings next season.
Case closed.
As for the power play... well, read what he has to say about that next.
The Mayor
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Lombardi on Dustin Brown as captain this season
Overall, Lombardi was, as he always is - introspective, detailed, mindful of things he's said in the past, consistent with the script he's been following and most of all, honest. He tells you what's on his mind without completely tipping his hand. Well, maybe a little.
Let's just dive right into it because there is plenty to cover from today's meetings with Lombardi and coach Terry Murray.
First up...
MM: Did you get what you needed this year from Dustin Brown as the captain?
DL: I don't only look at him, I look at the whole group to be honest with you. I think they grew, but I think they're still learning. And I think they have to step back - ultimately, the way you learn is how you deal with failure. Again, I'll get a sense of that too as I go through some of (the exit interviews with) these players. I think collectively, as a group, that's still evolving - just like their talents. I'm OK with it. But, I think it has to be better. It's not good enough for where we need to go. But, I look at that intangible as no different than evaluation a player's skating getting better or his decision making getting better.
One of the things he's looking for the leadership group to do this summer is to continue pushing the entire team to be in better shape. Lombardi felt that Anze Kopitar took a step forward in that area this season and he wants to see more from Drew Doughty and Dustin Penner - topics we'll get into in more detail later today.
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RELATED ARTICLES:
Jeremy Roenick on Dustin Brown
ESPN's Pierre LeBrun on Dustin Brown
Interview with Dustin Brown's agent - Scott Norton
Dustin Brown evaluates the Kings rookies and selects the best of 2010-11
Dustin Brown says 'It's on the players that are playing'
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LA Kings Prospect Report - for some, the playoffs continue
When the junior hockey playoffs began a few weeks ago the Los Angeles Kings were well represented. They had the WHL scoring champion (Linden Vey), a player on the top team the WHL (Brayden Schenn), the OHL scoring champion (Tyler Toffoli), a player on the top team in the OHL (Maxim Kitsyn), one of the better goalies in the QMJHL (JF Berube) - plus a few others.
Now, we're in the third round and many of them have been eliminated. Ironically though, the Kings still have one player left in each league...
WHL - Vey has continued to put up numbers in the playoffs and still leads 'the Dub' in post-season points (12 goals, 13 assists, 25 points). However, his team is facing a daunting 3-1 hole heading into game five tonight. Even more troubling, his team's high powered offense has gone silent - scoring just one goal total in the last two games. His Medicine Hat Tigers will need to beat the Kootenay Ice in their barn if they plan on seeing a game five in this series. Note: Kootenay was the the team that beat Brayden Schenn's Saskatoon Blades in the last round.
OHL - Kitsyn's Mississauga St. Michaels Majors are already guaranteed a spot in next month's Memorial Cup tournament. However, the OHL's regular season champs aren't resting on their laurels. They swept their opponents in the first and second rounds, then finished off the Ice Dogs in five games to take the Eastern Conference Championship. Now they'll move on to the OHL Finals, where they'll play the winner of the Windsor Spitfires v Owen Sound series (Owen Sound currently lead 3-1 and game five is tonight. You may recall that Windsor is run by former Kings enforcer Warren Rychel and they're the two-time, defending OHL Champions. Their first title team included Kings prospect Andrei Loktionov). Kitsyn had a goal last night, his seventh of the playoffs.
QMJHL - Defenseman Nicolas Deslauriers and his Gatineau Olympiques teammates trail the Quebec Remparts 2-1 in their series. Gatineau opened the series with a win, but have dropped two straight. They'll be looking to tie things up tonight in game four, before the series returns to Quebec on Friday night. Deslauriers scored in game two of this series and his 11 points (three goals, eight assists) are fifth best among defensemen in the QMJHL playoffs.
Each league will crown a champion in about two weeks time and then they'll all compete in the 2011 Memorial Cup beginning on Friday, May 20th.
The Kings Prospect Report will continue here on MayorsManor for the duration of the playoffs and into the summer months.
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RELATED ARTICLES:
Interview with WHL Scoring Champion Linden Vey
Interview with Russia's Maxim Kitsyn
Interview with QMJHL defenseman Nic Deslauriers
Interview with Windsor GM (and former King) Warren Rychel
Playoff Preview with Hockey's #1 Prospect - Brayden Schenn
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
POLL: Who was the Los Angeles Kings 2011 Playoff MVP?
First off, I'd like to say thank you to everybody who reads MayorsManor - from the loyal daily readers, to the occasional people just passing by. I appreciate all of you and there will plenty more hockey coverage between now and the start of training camp next fall - including coverage of the draft, free agency, the Kings Summer Development Camp and so much more. We already have several former Kings players lined up for interviews in the weeks to come. So, fear not - you can still get your hockey fix right here.
Now, back to business...
Even though the Kings lost their playoff series to the Sharks this year, it was a grueling six games that reminded me of the series with Edmonton in 1991.
That series ended in six games as well - four of them went to overtime and two needed double overtime. The Kings trailed 3-1 in that series also before winning game five. They came back to Los Angeles for game six and lost to the Oilers 4-3 in overtime. A heart breaker for all Kings fans.
This year was similar. Three games needed overtime - the Kings lost all three. And the Sharks won all three games at Staples Center, including game six last night.
Regardless, several Kings showed great heart and determination throughout the series. The top five candidates for the team's 2011 Playoff MVP are listed below...
Kyle Clifford - Do I really need to explain what he did? Nobody had more goals or more points. Nobody probably had more heart.
Willie Mitchell - Quietly became the Kings best defenseman this season. Jack Johnson and Drew Doughty will get more publicity and bring more offense. Yet, Mitchell brought a new element to the team this year. Plus
Jonathan Quick - Some critics will look at his goals-against-average in this series and dismiss him as a candidate. However, you'd be hard pressed to put even a small fraction of those goals on him. The defense broke down on him - a lot - in this series. He played tremendous and was one of the main reasons the Kings could have easily won five of the six games.
Ryan Smyth - Terry Murray put it best the other day, what Smyth brings isn't on the stat sheets. He is a professional's professional. He provided solid defensive play, chipped in with some offense and brings leadership to the team. His goal in game six is about as clutch as you'll find. His five points (two goals, three assists) in the series tied for the team lead.
Justin Williams - From the guy who wasn't supposed to play, to the guy who stole the headlines in game one. He gave it his all, even if he wasn't 100%. Big props for showing up when it counted most and trying to push the Kings into the second round. His three goals tied for the team lead.
Honorable mention - While I don't think he's deserving of competing with the five guys above, I do want to say - Trevor Lewis played his best hockey as a King in this series. Great job, Elvis. Ditto for Kevin Westgarth. Westie 2.0 was a completely different player.
Who gets your vote?
Poll closes at noon on Wednesday, April 27.
The Mayor
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Now, back to business...
Even though the Kings lost their playoff series to the Sharks this year, it was a grueling six games that reminded me of the series with Edmonton in 1991.
That series ended in six games as well - four of them went to overtime and two needed double overtime. The Kings trailed 3-1 in that series also before winning game five. They came back to Los Angeles for game six and lost to the Oilers 4-3 in overtime. A heart breaker for all Kings fans.
This year was similar. Three games needed overtime - the Kings lost all three. And the Sharks won all three games at Staples Center, including game six last night.
Regardless, several Kings showed great heart and determination throughout the series. The top five candidates for the team's 2011 Playoff MVP are listed below...
Kyle Clifford - Do I really need to explain what he did? Nobody had more goals or more points. Nobody probably had more heart.
Willie Mitchell - Quietly became the Kings best defenseman this season. Jack Johnson and Drew Doughty will get more publicity and bring more offense. Yet, Mitchell brought a new element to the team this year. Plus
Jonathan Quick - Some critics will look at his goals-against-average in this series and dismiss him as a candidate. However, you'd be hard pressed to put even a small fraction of those goals on him. The defense broke down on him - a lot - in this series. He played tremendous and was one of the main reasons the Kings could have easily won five of the six games.
Ryan Smyth - Terry Murray put it best the other day, what Smyth brings isn't on the stat sheets. He is a professional's professional. He provided solid defensive play, chipped in with some offense and brings leadership to the team. His goal in game six is about as clutch as you'll find. His five points (two goals, three assists) in the series tied for the team lead.
Justin Williams - From the guy who wasn't supposed to play, to the guy who stole the headlines in game one. He gave it his all, even if he wasn't 100%. Big props for showing up when it counted most and trying to push the Kings into the second round. His three goals tied for the team lead.
Honorable mention - While I don't think he's deserving of competing with the five guys above, I do want to say - Trevor Lewis played his best hockey as a King in this series. Great job, Elvis. Ditto for Kevin Westgarth. Westie 2.0 was a completely different player.
Who gets your vote?
Poll closes at noon on Wednesday, April 27.
The Mayor
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Sneak Peek of Tonight's LA Kings Intro Video
This will play inside Staples Center before the start of the game...
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Ryan Smyth is playing 'off the stat sheets'
He's mentored the younger players, led by example, played on various lines with multiple partners, scored goals, etc.
Through it all, he's been pretty consistent - except for one thing.
This season, he played in all 82 regular season games - the first time he's done that since 2003-04 with the Oilers.
And even though the goals didn't come as often as normal in the second half, he still finished with 23 goals on the season - third most on the team, trailing only Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar.
After practice yesterday, when talking about the play where Brown goaded Ryane Clowe into taking a penalty on Saturday night, coach Terry Murray reminded everybody that Smyth also does stuff that never shows up in the box score...
"That's a big play (the Clowe penalty). Those critical moments in a game pop-up and to identify and do the right thing at that time is what it's all about to win in the playoffs. There's another play I remember, where Ryan Smyth comes back, as hard as I have seen him come back on the back check tracking, makes a diving play to knock the puck off the stick (of Sharks' winger Jason Demers). Those are not stat sheet numbers. There's no way of really evaluating it at all. That's just digging in to win."
Which is something - even at age 35 - Smyth, obviously, still craves to do.
The Mayor
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Smyth has been here before, with a few of these same guys
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Ryan Smyth looking for help from seventh attacker
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Photo courtesy of Michael Zampelli
Scott Parse - health update and plan for tonight
Prior to Saturday night's contest versus the Sharks, Kings' forward Scott Parse hadn't participated in a real game since November - also in San Jose.
Although he came away pointless in his return to game action over the weekend, that's just fine.
The Kings still won and according to coach Terry Murray, his surgically repaired hip wasn't bothering him yesterday - saying the medical staff reported "Everything was good. No issues at all."
So, how about his performance - was Murray happy with what he saw?
"I thought he played pretty well. He showed a lot of confidence with the puck. And he has that, I guess you'd call it a little bit of that 'inner arrogance' - which you have to have as a pro athlete, to have confidence in your own game, to play, to know exactly what it is you can do and try to do it. I thought he stepped in and did a pretty decent job."
He played 10:17 on Saturday night, was that the goal?
"No. I didn't really set any kind of a number there, for him in particular. But, I did want to play four lines. The penalty kill, obviously, takes minutes away from the rotation. So, it possibly could be higher if we go through a game five-on-five. But, he didn't have any problems on the conditioning side of things. I felt strong about that going into the game, making the decision that he would go out and play, that that would not be a concern of mine. And he confirmed it. He looked good, he looked strong though the game. He brought us the offensive part of the game, some skill that I knew he could."
Parse will be in the line-up again tonight, as Murray is keeping the same line combinations for game six.
And perhaps that can be a lucky number for him - in just his sixth career playoff game, maybe he can add to the list of April 25th post-season moments.
The Mayor
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RELATED ARTICLES:
Game Five Photos - Kings vs. Sharks
10 Tidbits on Scott Parse
DIY Surgery an option for Parse?
Although he came away pointless in his return to game action over the weekend, that's just fine.
The Kings still won and according to coach Terry Murray, his surgically repaired hip wasn't bothering him yesterday - saying the medical staff reported "Everything was good. No issues at all."
So, how about his performance - was Murray happy with what he saw?
"I thought he played pretty well. He showed a lot of confidence with the puck. And he has that, I guess you'd call it a little bit of that 'inner arrogance' - which you have to have as a pro athlete, to have confidence in your own game, to play, to know exactly what it is you can do and try to do it. I thought he stepped in and did a pretty decent job."
He played 10:17 on Saturday night, was that the goal?
"No. I didn't really set any kind of a number there, for him in particular. But, I did want to play four lines. The penalty kill, obviously, takes minutes away from the rotation. So, it possibly could be higher if we go through a game five-on-five. But, he didn't have any problems on the conditioning side of things. I felt strong about that going into the game, making the decision that he would go out and play, that that would not be a concern of mine. And he confirmed it. He looked good, he looked strong though the game. He brought us the offensive part of the game, some skill that I knew he could."
Parse will be in the line-up again tonight, as Murray is keeping the same line combinations for game six.
And perhaps that can be a lucky number for him - in just his sixth career playoff game, maybe he can add to the list of April 25th post-season moments.
The Mayor
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RELATED ARTICLES:
Game Five Photos - Kings vs. Sharks
10 Tidbits on Scott Parse
DIY Surgery an option for Parse?
More history - of the 25th kind - to be made today?
In about 30 second intervals they capture the greatest moments in hockey by simply using clips from a game, some music and a thought provoking question.
Even though the Kings are still searching for their first Stanley Cup, the team and their current roster of players have celebrated several momentous post-season events - including a few on this specific day.
Take a look...
April 25, 1993 - Kings def. Flames 3-1, Robb Stauber's first playoff game
April 25, 1997 - Ryan Smyth scores game-winning-goal in double-OT
April 25, 1999 - Michal Handzus plays in his first NHL playoff game
April 25, 2002 - Kings def. Avalanche 1-0 in OT, Felix Potvin shutout
April 25, 2006 - Jarret Stoll scores game-winning-goal in double-OT
April 25, 2011 - TBD
Tonight at 7pm the puck drops in downtown Los Angeles. Can the Kings muster up so more history and force a game seven?
That will still have to wait a few hours.
Until then, check out this interview with Stauber, where he relives the Kings 1993 playoff run. After all, without him, they most likely wouldn't have made it out of the first round.
Every series has a playoff hero. Who will get the job done for the Kings this year?
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Sunday, April 24, 2011
Kings vs Sharks - Game Five Playoff Photos
Earlier in the series Jon from sharkspage.com - the Bay Area's longest running hockey blog - was kind enough to pass over some photos from games one and two between the Kings and Sharks (linked here: game one and game two).
Below are some shots he took during game five on Saturday night, featuring: Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson, Willie Mitchell, Scott Parse, Brad Richardson, Jonathan Quick, Rob Scuderi, Ryan Smyth and a few other Los Angeles Kings players...
(click on any image to enlarge)
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Below are some shots he took during game five on Saturday night, featuring: Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson, Willie Mitchell, Scott Parse, Brad Richardson, Jonathan Quick, Rob Scuderi, Ryan Smyth and a few other Los Angeles Kings players...
(click on any image to enlarge)
For coverage of the Kings-Sharks series to date, check out the following MayorsManor articles:
* Wayne Simmonds - Born for Playoff Hockey?
* Jack Johnson says 'Best is Yet to Come'
* Ryan Smyth Looking For Help From Seventh Attacker
* Rob Scuderi on Expectations and Being Extra Special
* Kyle Clifford's Picking Up Points and Gifts in the Playoffs
* Kevin Westgarth Presents - Westie 2.0
* Jack Johnson says 'Best is Yet to Come'
* Ryan Smyth Looking For Help From Seventh Attacker
* Rob Scuderi on Expectations and Being Extra Special
* Kyle Clifford's Picking Up Points and Gifts in the Playoffs
* Kevin Westgarth Presents - Westie 2.0
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