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Trade Kopitar, Trade Williams, Fire Dean Lombardi and Prospect Roundup

October 8, 2013, 12:37 PM ET [36 Comments]
Jason Lewis
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Now how ridiculous does that sound? Does it seem a little over the top? A lot over the top?

At this point if you aren't jumping up out of your desk chair, grabbing your pitchfork and pounding your chest you've passed my eye test for sanity. However, after a rather slow start to this season which has left the Kings a shootout victory away from starting 0-3 I'm very surprised at the amount of doomsdayers I'm seeing in the world.

First thing is first, let's admit to the Kings being less than desirable for the first three games of the season. Defensively they look poor, puck possession wise they look poor, the big offensive players have failed to show up, and oh god even their Vezina caliber goaltender is making mistakes. It's horrible, I know. The Kings do look disjointed and several players are looking a step behind.

But hey you know what? It's the third game of the season. If we were 0-3 and this were football I might be panicking a little bit more, but this is hockey and they play 82 games.

We don't need to fire Dean Lombardi, trade Kopitar, trade Williams, regret the Bernier trade, or start freaking out.

It seems like the whole Flyers situation has put the hockey world on edge a little bit, and fans are saying, "well it happened to them, it could happen to us." These situations are like comparing apples and giraffes. The Flyers have had a well documented case of failing to deliver for some time now despite having an incredibly talented team. Personally my feelings are if you are firing a coach three games in you probably should have done it in the offseason anyways, but that's another conversation about good ol' Holmgren for another day.

My point is relax. Settle down. We are 1-2, with one loss coming on the second night of a back to back to open the season, and the other coming to a very good New York Rangers team. The top line had a pretty bad night, but Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi do that to A LOT of top players. Drew Doughty and Slava Voynov had a ton of turnovers and poor plays, but it wasn't for lack of effort. It was too much effort. Trying to put the team on your back and make the hard play rather than the routine play is always a recipe for mistakes. I'd rather see them try too hard than not try at all (Cough* Dustin Penner). Jake Muzzin had way too many turnovers as well, and Darryl Sutter is going to bring in Alec Martinez. Quick let in a howler, but he's already made a number of top level saves this season to keep pucks out of the net. Everything will be just fine. 1-2. Not 1-81.

(If you missed the Quick gaffe. You can check it here.)



Sometimes even the great ones have an off night. At least you are in good company.



I thought the reaction of the fans last night in mock cheering Quick afterwards was ridiculous, albeit expected. You wouldn't see any different from Montreal fans, Bruin fans, Stars fans, etc. etc. if the same thing had happened to them. There is always going to be that fun vocal minority at a crowd that makes everyone look scumbaggish. Remember the genius who wore the "Toronto Stronger" Shirt? Yea, case and point.

Anyways, I digress. Relax everyone! Have a nice seasonal beer (Uinta's Punk'n, Deschutes Jubelale, Great Lakes Oktoberfest), enjoy the changing weather, and relax. It's a long long season and we aren't allowed to freakout till around Christmas okay? It's not King's hockey if it isn't wrecking our holidays. Even then, with bad Decembers we have had good Junes. Also, as bad as the Kings may look right now there are a ton of fanbases who would trade their roster for the King's roster in a heartbeat. Remember that.

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Minor league roundup

The Monarchs lost their season opener in a shootout to the Springfield Falcons 2-3 with goals coming from the sticks of Jordan Weal and Tyler Toffoli.

2013 Second rounder Valentin Zykov has been off to a torrid start with Baie-Comeau Drakkar of the QMJHL, potting nine points in his first seven games.

Nikolai Prokhorkin, the talent buried in Russia for the Kings, has stepped up considerably this year. He is leading CSKA Moscow in scoring with 8 goals and 11 points in 14 games. That's ahead of the likes of former NHLer Alexander Radulov (although Radulov was hurt last I heard.) Not bad for a 19 year old who is playing at the top level of KHL with men and veteran players.

Justin Auger is having some health issues it seems and has played just one game so far for Guelph. Get well soon Justin.




Auger's teammate Zach Leslie is doing well though and has six points in six games for the Storm.

Energy forward Dominik Kubalik has eight points in six games with Sudbury of the OHL including a massive four-point night against the Barrie Colts. Check out the article about his game against the Colts here at Mayor's Manor by contributor David Hofreiter.

Patrik Bartosak has a 4-2 record for Red Deer after starting 6 of their first 8 games and putting up a .915 save percentage. While he has no shutouts and a somewhat high 2.83 goals against, he's put up multiple 30-plus save nights as Red Deer is allowing an average of 34 shots a night. The team definitely has him to thank for a good start to the season so far.

Alex Roach and Maxim Kitsyn were both scratches in the Monarchs first game of the season against Springfield. Mattias Niederberger was assigned to the Ontario Reign making J.F. Berube the backup to Martin Jones. Jones had a solid 30 save, 2 goals against outing while losing in a shootout.

Scott Sabourin, the impressive free agent camp attendee for the Kings, has finally signed an entry level deal with the team making him an official King player. Sabourin was arguably the most impressive player at Kings camp outside of Nick Shore who was one of the last cuts.

NCAA is currently in preseason and getting ready to gear up for the upcoming year. The Kings have several players in NCAA including: Hudson Fasching (U. of Minn.), Kevin Gravel (St. Cloud), Michael Mersch (Wisc.), Joel Lowry (Cornell), Nic Dowd (St. Cloud), and Johnny Brodzinski (St. Cloud). USHL standout Paul LaDue will also be jumping into the NCAA this year with the University of North Dakota.

That does it for now folks! Check in tomorrow for my game day blog as the Kings take on the Ottawa Senators at Staples.

Oh, and go Dodgers!




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