Kings Lose To Stars At Staples Center

Nobody wants to relive the events of the last 4 games but it’s my duty to provide a recap of the events that took place last night in what I’ll call, “Legends Night: One To Forget”. This had the potential to be a crushing evening for the Los Angeles Kings as they took on the Dallas Stars and tried to break out of the current funk which includes losses to the Montreal Canadians, Anaheim Ducks, and the Minnesota Wild. We all remember the most recent debacle against the Stars but, keep in mind, the Kings were 11-2-2 over the last 15 games against Dallas coming in.  “The Time Is Now” slogan that marketing decided to go with for the season is starting to fade to “The Time May Eventually Come But This Year We’ll Be Lucky To Make The Playoffs”. We still don’t know whether or not the under achieving, often needlessly penalized, and recently waived Ethan Moreau will actually report to the Manchester Monarchs after the Kings finally decided to do something to shake things up. Unfortunately, it didn’t prove to send a strong enough message to the team and the word desperation was used repeatedly in the press conference following the game by Kings Captain Dustin Brown. As seen above, there was some desperation but this photo came after the final buzzer sounded and the Kings missed yet another opportunity to put a 1 in the win column on a night when all other division opponents had already lost – excluding the Stars. 

Back in the lineup was the recently activated (and sorely missed) Willie Mitchell. Mitchell replaced Alec Martinez who just came back from an injury but didn’t have a particularly stellar game against the Wild. Speaking of less than stellar, Andrei Loktionov simply isn’t ready for the NHL yet. If he ever wants to stick, he’s going to have to find a way to contribute in some fashion. Last night, he had a great opportunity from the slot, shot the puck right into a defenseman and the Stars end up going the other way and scoring the game winner.

My take on this whole thing: the Kings may be showcasing the rookie Russian, Slava Voynov, who’s been extremely impressive so far, to try and generate some interest from potential trade partners. I think the Moreau move was a small sign of things to come if this team doesn’t start performing. My concern is that they may end up trading the wrong players. Voynov is someone I would like to see in a Kings uniform for a long time to come and Jonathan Bernier gets put in the worst situations possible, making it appear that he’s worse than he really is.

If you need something to cheer you up this morning, check out this hit by Jack Johnson on Mike Ribeiro. Just make sure to stop the video before the 23 second mark and don’t think about what happened in the following seconds.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Terry Murray needs to be fired! Seeing Trent Hunter on the power play over and over is a good enough reason but there are plenty more… I love this team with a passion but I can’t stand to watch them struggle – particularly when they have spent the amount of money they have and acquired the amount of talent they have. The tools are top of the line but the craftsman isn’t utilizing them properly. Do not let Murray board the plane for the trip east! As a matter of fact, why don’t you stop by the home of Randy Carlyle and pick him up. I hear he recently became available, he’s actually won the Stanley Cup, and it turns out it wasn’t his fault the Ducks were losing. They just aren’t a good team…