The Kings have salary-cap space and, for the first time in years, have won enough games to be considered buyers as Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline approaches.

“Everything we’ve done the last three, four years has been methodical,” Lombardi said. “I had to make some adjustments – but there’s clearly been a sense of direction. It makes no sense for me to go this far and do something out of character.”

So what kind of a trade would be in character for a team that sits in fifth place in the conference standings, and has won eight of its past 10 games?

Probably not a blockbuster.

The only trade rumor linked to the Kings at all this season happened to be the biggest name on the market – high-scoring forward Ilya Kovalchuk, an impending free agent whom the Atlanta Thrashers eventually traded to the New Jersey Devils.

Lombardi said he wasn’t close to making a deal for Kovalchuk, which he called an “easy” decision.

“I didn’t want to give up the two players out of my lineup,” he said. “I made that clear from day one. The players they wanted out of my lineup were non-negotiable.”

With few glaring weaknesses in their NHL roster, any trade with the Kings is more likely to involve their trove of prospects and draft picks.

Click here to read the full article – By Los Angeles Daily News

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Kings defenseman Jack Johnson returned to Los Angeles about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, his whirlwind trip to Vancouver for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics leaving him both exhausted and inspired.

“It was a great experience. Probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” said Johnson, the first American NHL player to take part in the opening ceremony in Winter Olympics history. “It was worth every minute of it to get there. It was everything I thought it would be. And more.”

But making it there required some sacrifice — and a good deal of planning. Less than seven hours after the Kings’ shootout loss to Edmonton on Thursday, Johnson was heading to the airport for a two-hour charter flight to Washington state with his parents and younger brother. From there, a hired driver took them 50 miles across the border to the Olympic Village.

Johnson said he marched in the opening ceremony alongside snowboarder Shaun White, then sat in the stands with members of the U.S. speedskating team. Once the four-hour festival finished, he made the drive back to Washington and caught a charter flight home to make the Kings’ 10 a.m. practice Saturday.

“The whole ceremony was incredible,” said Johnson, who had the team’s blessing to participate even though it meant missing Friday’s workout. “From start to finish there wasn’t a dull moment in the entire thing. I took as much video and photos as I could.

Click here to read the full article – By Los Angeles Times

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The Kings’ winning streak ended Monday at a club-record nine games, halted not by lack of effort but by a more desperate effort by the playoff long shot Ducks.

It took every bit of determination the Ducks had to subdue the Kings, 4-2, at the Honda Center and set a record of their own with a 10-game home winning streak.

It took Scott Niedermayer frantically batting the puck away from Dustin Brown while on his knees near the net midway through the third period. It took Corey Perry contributing a goal and two assists despite losing his center, Ryan Getzlaf, to a sprained ankle in the second period. It also took Teemu Selanne adding a goal and an assist and goaltender Jonas Hiller weathering a barrage in the third period while the Kings outshot the Ducks, 18-7.

“I think we were tired of losing to them,” Niedermayer said after Ducks beat the Kings for the first time in six games stretching to last season and moved within three points of eighth place in the West.

Click here to read the full article – By Los Angeles Times

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Anze Kopitar’s slick short-handed goal was exactly what everybody expects from the Los Angeles Kings’ leading scorer. His steady defense against Rangers star Marian Gaborik was a whole lot more surprising.

The Kings needed both dimensions of their dynamic young leader to extend their biggest winning streak in 18 years, and Kopitar repeatedly came through on both ends of the ice.

Kopitar scored late in the second period and Jonathan Quick made 20 saves in the Kings’ seventh straight victory, 2-1 over punchless New York on Tuesday night.

Ryan Smyth scored with 8:46 to play for the Kings, who are on their longest winning streak since early 1992, when Wayne Gretzky’s Kings won a franchise-record eight straight. The Great One famously made hockey a hot ticket in Hollywood for a few years, and Kopitar’s talented young Kings are trying to rekindle the affair.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

The Kings began this journey with a comeback win against Detroit and ended it with comeback wins at Boston and New Jersey, taking home their first-ever perfect record on a five-game trip and much, much more.

“This game today, I think, was a real good look at the type of team we’re starting to become,” Coach Terry Murray said after Wayne Simmonds and Drew Doughty scored on Martin Brodeur in the last two minutes Sunday to lift the Kings to a 3-2 victory over the stunned Devils and win for the eighth time in nine games.

“A lot of character, big heart, never gave up. It looked at times like it was slipping big-time on us and just to dig in in the third period and find a way to get it done was just tremendous.”

The Kings (33-19-3) have a six-game winning streak, their first since March 2002 — the last season they made the playoffs.

They also stretched their road winning streak to seven, one short of the club record set in the 1974-75 season, and goaltender Jonathan Quick recovered from an admittedly soft second goal by the Devils to stop 14 shots in the third period and 26 overall.

Click here to read the full article – By Los Angeles Times

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With their top line sorely missing Ryan Smyth and their offense sagging, the Kings reverted to the hard-hitting defensive efforts that were so effective for them last season.

That, plus a performance by Jonathan Quick that improved as the tension increased, allowed the Kings to wring out a 2-1 shootout victory over the Chicago Blackhawks before an announced sellout crowd Saturday at Staples Center.

After making a season-high 32 saves in the first 65 minutes, Quick stopped a wrist shot by Jonathan Toews and a backhander by Patrick Kane in the shootout.

The Kings got shootout goals from Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson — with the latter playing himself into strong contention for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team — to end a three-game home losing streak and send the Blackhawks back to Chicago with consecutive losses in Southern California after being shut out by the Ducks on Friday.

Click here to read the full article – By Los Angeles Times

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Teddy Purcell had the right idea.

His sharp-angled shot glanced off Thomas Greiss’ pad and between the San Jose goalie’s legs with 5:10 left in the third period Tuesday, ending the Sharks’ four-goal comeback and lifting the Kings to their first victory of the season.

Their 6-4 triumph wasn’t one for the textbooks — the Sharks scored four times on the power play — but it was their first and that was enough.

“It’s a win, and I thought it was a good game,” Anze Kopitar said. “We were shooting the puck a lot: My shot from way out went in and Teddy got one from behind the net. We were fortunate to get good bounces at the right time.”

Click here to read the full article – By Helene Elliot of Los Angeles Times

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It’s understandable that Kings defenseman Alec Martinez was nervous in his NHL debut Saturday against Phoenix.

It’s beyond comprehension why franchise defenseman Drew Doughty played the worst game of his NHL career and the team imploded in a season-opening 6-3 loss at Staples Center.

Coach Terry Murray said Sunday he might replace Martinez with Peter Harrold on Tuesday against San Jose because he didn’t like the defense pairings and “passes that were bobbled and kind of end up being soft plays that were turnovers coming back at us.” Or he might continue to mix the pairs, as he did in mid-game.

Fixing the other problems could be more difficult.

Murray on Sunday had players practice battling along the boards and generating offense in five-on-five situations. The Kings were one of the NHL’s weakest five-on-five teams last season and repeated that Saturday, when they sustained no five-on-five pressure and scored only on power plays.

Click here to read the full article – By Helene Elliot of Los Angeles Times

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Drew Doughty might lead the Kings to the playoffs this season. The 19-year-old defenseman might develop into a perennial All-Star and win the Norris trophy often enough to buy a tuxedo for the awards ceremony, not rent.

But not even then will he be allowed to forget his welcome-to-the-NHL moment last season.

The Kings were playing Colorado and Doughty found himself one-on-one with winger Ryan Smyth, the gifted rookie against the wily veteran.

One second, Smyth was in front of him. The next, Smyth had gotten through him and the puck was in the net.

Doughty remembers it well. His teammates make sure of that.

Click here to read the full article – By Helene Elliot of Los Angeles Times

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It was no surprise Anze Kopitar was the Kings’ top preseason goal scorer, with five, and top scorer with eight points. But for winger Wayne Simmonds to share the goal-scoring lead was a revelation to a team that was starved for goals last season. Or was it?

“No, I’m not surprised,” Coach Terry Murray said Thursday after practice in El Segundo. “I love the way he finished off the year last year. The last 10 games of the season he was arguably one of our top three players on the team and he had a great summer. You can see the improvement. He’s really worked very hard.

“And his attitude has always been, ‘I’m going to go after it and earn the right to be here again,’ and all of his games I think he played at the highest level he could give us. He has the mentality of playing in the hard areas and he gets rewarded because of it.”

The Kings often seemed allergic to the “hard areas” around the net. Ryan Smyth has made his living there and now Simmonds is joining.

Click here to read the full article – By Helene Elliot of Los Angeles Times

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