The Predators came into Los Angeles off of two overtime wins. The home team probably thought they had Nashville where they wanted them--tired, and on the back end of a back-to-back. But they found out that, as the Tragically Hip said in another context, "It can't be Nashville every night," and that's probably a good thing.

The Kings have been waiting for a winning goalie about as long as Beckett's characters wait for Godot. Have they finally found him in Swede Erik Ersberg? This week's results say that maybe they have.

A much more lively crowd supported the L.A. Kings on Saturday night than the woeful number who had waited through the yawner the team had put together a couple of nights before against the Panthers. Their reward was an exciting win over the Blues.

Sometimes you get what you wish for, and then find out that it’s not exactly what you thought you wanted. Like for instance a Kings win, and a visit from a team that Kings' fans don’t often see. Both were on the list when Florida came to town on Thursday.

The L.A. Kings can play with anyone in the league; they just don't do it for 60 minutes. Saturday, they outhit, outshot, and outworked Calgary, but they gave up a late goal to lose, 3-2.

On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Canucks had a treat with an easy 4-0 shutout. Halloween in Anaheim might produce the opposite - the trick.

The Kings might have been expected to shy away from competition as formidable as the Red Wings this season. Instead, they stayed right with the Stanley Cup champions on Monday night, losing only on a last minute mistake and after a shootout.

The Kings are perfect on the PK thus far with opponents going 0-23 on the power play through five games. For those of you with a short memory, here’s a quick rundown on the history of the Kings’ defense over the past few years, and why this year's crew is starting out strong.

Kings Coach Terry Murray must have been smiling inside after his team notched a second straight win. He kept expectations reasonable, though, saying, “The work ethic, the support for each other are there. But we’ll see how it shakes out in another month.”

If watching your team win is fun, a sellout crowd at Staples Center in Los Angeles didn’t have a lot to yell about Sunday night. The Kings, playing in their home opener, dropped a second straight game to San Jose, but there were some things to celebrate.

Jack Falla, author of Home Ice, Saved, and other books plus longtime Sports Illustrated feature writer and Boston University faculty member, died a few days ago of heart failure. His loss diminishes everyone in hockey and all who love to read about the game.

Marcel Dionne and Ray Ferraro were seen on the same sheet of ice last weekend. Was it a crazy time warp or a new strategy of playing veterans? No, it's the Kings Fantasy Camp 2008.

A new Murray takes up the head coach's post in Los Angeles, as this week the team announced the hiring of Terry Murray. Early returns suggest that he's a good bet to lead a young team because of his hockey sense and vast range of NHL and minor-league experience as both a coach and a player.

Hockey finished in L.A. months ago, with the Kings out of it long before the season ended on April 5th. So how good must it have felt for fans to be able to see a game in July, one where some of the hopes of the future of the franchise were playing?

What does Marc Crawford's firing do? It gives his former GM another year or two’s excuse not to win. But Kings fans aren't likely to buy it. Instead, they’ll hold Lombardi to the three-year commitment he made when he (and Crawford) came to town in 2006. This year, it's win, Mr. GM, or your time is up.

Jack Falla's new novel "Saved" is just the remedy for the hockey-starved fan looking for a good summer read. After reading his book, you’ll be hard pressed not to reflect back on what it taught you about the men who play the game.

Poets are a rare sighting on the radar of a hockey fan. Think about it, would your team’s tough guy be seen reading a book of poems? It’s a dilemma that Randall Maggs confronted in the production of Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems.

You would think that another home loss by the Kings would be no big deal, but Saturday's loss to the Blackhawks included D-man Peter Harrold's first NHL goal, Erik Ersberg's NHL debut, and a startling comeback only marred by the 6-5 OT outcome.

Contemporary hockey fans remember well the Bertuzzi-Moore incident of a few seasons ago, as well as other violent events, many not notable on a national level but rather the almost-private sufferings players undergo simply to be a part of the game.

The game at Staples Center Thursday night meant something to the visit St. Louis Blues. Win, and they would be in ninth place in the West, one point behind Vancouver and with a game in hand on both Phoenix and Colorado (ninth and tenth, tied with 66 points, going into the evening). Lose, and they’d remain in eleventh.

The L.A. Kings finally played like a last place team on Monday night at Staples, losing to Phoenix 4-0. While the Kings outshot the Coyotes 34-29, the game was never close. Shaky goaltending at the start combined with a huge giveaway on the second Phoenix goal set the tone.

The Ducks don’t belong in the “new NHL.” They belong in the 1970s, when the Flyers bullied their way to the top. Better yet, they’re like the dream team the WHA never had; tough, gritty, but featuring just enough first class talent to make them fun to watch. Here's a rundown on the three elements that seem to be working out West.

Almost nothing about Brian Boyle’s NHL career thus far has gone according to script. He was drafted as a center in 2003 and spent four years at Boston College, but was assigned to the Kings’ Manchester affiliate last fall as a defenseman.

Contrary to what you might think after reading the score from the game in LA Thursday night, the Kings didn’t have to “figure out” a way to beat the Anaheim Ducks. Instead, they just went out and beat them, 3-1 by the end, mostly by outhitting them.

According to MapQuest, St. John’s, Newfoundland, where Teddy Purcell comes from, is 4502 miles from Los Angeles. You could drive it, but it would take you 75 hours. But distance is not what the Kings' young prospect is focusing on.

Forget everything you thought you knew about two things: the Ducks, and how hard it will be for them to repeat their Stanley Cup success. As the push to the playoffs begins, the Ducks have the right combination of skill and grit to make a run.

The Kings continue to confound their fans as well as those who bet against them on a given night. Saturday, afternoon actually, they pulled off a win against the Stars, twenty points and eleven positions ahead of them in the standings.

Leafs Nation, like Raider Nation and Red Sox Nation, knows no bounds of geography. Instead, it’s about passion. So it was that thousands showed up in L.A. Thursday night wearing the blue and white in expectation of seeing their heroes.

The Kings’ Marc Crawford did the best thing he could to keep the media on his side after an embarrassing 7-0 loss against the Nashville Predators Tuesday night. He simply smiled and answered questions.

The Kings had their third potential season-turning game at home against the Canucks on Monday. Fans are hoping that the magic is real and that the squad can put together a couple more wins. In other words, they’re hoping that the third time’s the charm.

When your last name is “Quick,” and you’re an athlete, you can bet you’ll hear every cliché imaginable at one time or another. But no pun would do for the debut of Jonathan Quick, who backstopped an 8-2 blowout against the Sabres in Los Angeles.

Saturday night in LA, the Kings versus Avalanche game was broadcast in HD. But it wouldn’t have taken a $2500 TV to show you ugly. It wasn’t just in the collapse the Kings suffered after going ahead 2-0. It was also a spear by Ryan Smyth.

The Ducks traded a second-round pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft to get Brian Sutherby, and astute observers want to know what the opportunity means for Sutherby, and what his presence might do for an Anaheim Ducks team still looking for its offense to click.

Phoenix Coyotes GM Don Maloney and his new starting netminder Ilya Bryzgalov were both optimistic following Bryzgalov’s first game with the team, a 1-0 shutout of the LA Kings.

Kings fans shouldn’t panic yet, the team is hardly out of the playoff race. Of course, it would be easier to hope had the team followed up its thrilling comeback overtime win against Dallas last Saturday by capturing four points against the Ducks instead of one.

The stories were all but written after period two. “Kings lose 4-0 to Dallas after lethargic effort,” sounded about right at that point. By the end, though, things had changed dramatically, and the Kings won 6-5 in overtime.

If Ducks coach Randy Carlyle is one thing, it’s consistent. He approaches the shootout the same way every time: go first, and post your score. He did that again on Friday night with San Jose at Honda Center, and it worked out for him.

The Kings probably shouldn’t have expected to beat San Jose twice in a row back-to-back, and Saturday night, they lost the second game of a home-and-home series at Staples Center.

Just about 11,500 people showed up to watch the L.A. Kings play on Halloween night, many kitted-up for the holiday. And in costume on the ice were a bunch of guys who dressed as the Los Angeles Kings but didn’t play much like a team on a four-game winning streak.

It would be fair to say that the Anaheim Ducks are in disarray right now, though it's reasonable also to suggest that better days are just ahead. But with so many changes in the lineup right now, some reckoning is in order.

Make no mistake about it, the Kings beat Dallas 2-1 on Thursday night for one reason: goaltending. First and most important, the Kings got great goaltending from Jason LaBarbera, who was called on to hold the fort during several crucial moments.

It’s hard not to be happy after a 6-0 win, and the Kings’ locker room was all smiles after their game against Nashville Tuesday night. But it wasn’t just the win that was significant. What mattered as much were the little things that the team did right.

Defensive mistakes are costing the Kings games, but those mistakes could be costing them more than that. They might be costing young goaltender Jonathan Bernier his confidence, with unchecked players taking freebies at open sides of the net.

It was like the 1960s again in L.A. on Friday night, as the Kings and Bruins played a systems-absent game, ignoring defense and instead focusing on aiming good shots at either goalie. Brady Murray was one of many to connect, for his first NHL goal.

Sad as it was at the time, the firing of Kings coach Andy Murray in the spring of 2006 did accomplish one thing: it opened the field for his son, eventual King Brady Murray, to win a job on his own merits.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. A cliché, but sometimes there’s truth in those old sayings. In the case of Mark Howe, that’s without doubt the case. His dad, of course, is Gordie Howe, all-time NHL great and great man.

This week marks the return of hockey to LA in the form of a seven-day development camp for Kings prospects. Held at the Toyota Sports Center near LAX, the camp gathers players who share the common hope to play for the NHL team one day.

In the end, this year’s Stanley Cup Finals came down to quiet confidence matching pointed arrogance stride-for-stride, and coming out on top. It's not something which happens all that often, but the Anaheim Ducks accomplished it.

What we now know is that Ottawa won’t be winning the Stanley Cup in six games. That makes a lot of people who predicted as much wrong. It’s the Sens in seven if they’re to win it at all... but how many people still seriously believe that will happen?

With their victory in Saturday night's wild and woolly Game 3, the Ottawa Senators appear to have regained their edge in the Stanley Cup Finals, while the Anaheim Ducks may have come a bit unglued.

This Stanley Cup final series hasn’t been hockey so much as chess played at high speed and with lots of hitting. Think Boris Spassky versus Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik in 1972: two gunslingers staring each other down.

The feeling of having played in a Stanley Cup finals game, let alone having won one, hadn’t sunk in to Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle twenty minutes after Monday’s game as he spoke to the media.

Sunday morning at the Honda Center in Anaheim was a lot like many others. Two hockey teams, the home squad and then the visitors, took to the ice for practice. Each went through its routine in a mostly empty arena.

J-S Giguere and the Ducks played outstanding hockey through the first two periods of Tuesday night’s elimination game against Detroit, quieting critics who said that they play just to the level they need to.

Teemu Selanne capitalized on a turnover by Red Wings defenseman Andreas Lilja, picking up the loose puck and roofing a back-hand past Dominik Hasek. And now, the Western Conference Finals return to Anaheim with the Ducks holding a 3-2 series lead.

Heading into Game Four, the raging question was "Could the Ducks win without Chris Pronger?" And somehow, despite a pretty rag-tag performance, Ryan Getzlaf and company managed to do just that, evening their series with the Wings at 2-2.

Despite fighting exhaustion--and playing without key defensemen Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo--the Canucks managed to pull off a scintillating 2-OT victory over the Ducks on Friday night, evening their series at 1-1.

The final score Friday night showed the Anaheim Ducks up 3-2 in game two of their series with Minnesota and 2-0 in the series itself. Two one-goal games would suggest that things are close, but that’s not the case.

“It is the most hallowed trophy in all of sport and the most difficult to obtain. Welcome to the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs!” So went the narration to start the festivities on Wednesday night in Anaheim...

Peter Mahovlich scored perhaps the most beautiful goal in hockey history against the Russians during the “Summit Series.” Brian Kennedy looks back at Mahovlich in his latest column, a tribute to a living legend.

The LA Kings can’t be said to have ended their season well, if making the playoffs is the measure. But from the outset of the year, team staff made it clear that this would be a rebuilding campaign. The team ended 27-41-14 with 68 points.

You read it right. With three games remaining (including this one) and first place in the Pacific Division still up for grabs, JS Giguere was not dressed for Wednesday night’s game between the Ducks and the Sharks.

After trading away Eric Belanger and Tim Gleason and taking on the burden of Oleg Tverdovsky’s contract, the Kings did this week what the Hurricanes couldn’t: they lured Jack Johnson from the University of Michigan and onto NHL ice.

It wasn’t a playoff game between the Ducks and Stars on Friday night in Anaheim, but it might as well have been. The game between two sure-fire post-season teams showed what hockey in the spring will be.

Sean Burke has broad shoulders, broad enough to carry the L.A. Kings over the past couple of months and broad enough to make the team believe in themselves again. But not enough to carry the Kings past the Stars last night.

For the Kings and Ducks, the eight games against one another represent a rivalry and a chance to go on the road four times in a way that’s no harder than stepping onto a bus and stepping off less than an hour later.

Attitude counts for a lot, whether you work in a bank, at a school, or as a player in the NHL. Most teams are not made up of guys who get by on talent alone, but rather those whose desire and work ethic has put them in the big league.

To understand Friday's Ducks-Blackhawks game, all you have to know is this: at the end, the line of Teemu Selanne, Andy McDonald, and George Parros was out on the ice. Where was Chris Kunitz? He'd already hit the showers...

Thursday night the Blackhawks came to Tinseltown and defeated the Kings 4-3 in a shootout. Though they lost, the Kings still earned a point, and have done so in all but four games dating back to January 26.

The question for the Ducks Friday night when they took on the reeling Oilers wasn’t whether they would win. This game meant more than a win, because it allowed the Ducks to prove a couple of important things to themselves.

Paul Kariya and the Predators came to Anaheim on Sunday night for what appeared to be a possible Western Conference Finals preview. But the Preds were without Peter Forsberg (upper body injury), and so things weren't as they appeared.

Here’s a newsflash for you. Peter Forsberg is human. Not on the ice, where he consistently delivers superhuman performances, but off it, where he's honest and forthright and willing to josh with reporters after a game.

Brian Kennedy reports from last night's "Tangle in Tinseltown," evaluating Shay Stephenson's NHL debut, the return of Jaroslav Modry to the Kings, and the injury that kept Anže Kopitar out of the lineup.

Between the first and second periods of Sunday night’s game in Anaheim (the Avs were in town), Ducks GM Brian Burke addressed the media and discussed what his team might do in advance of the trade deadline.

Kings fans don’t have to look too far back into the past to find the days when their team shared memorable tussles with Colorado. Think playoffs of 2001 and 2002 and you’re there, two seven-game series, both won by the Avs.

It was a night of firsts when the Kings played Vancouver in L.A. on Thursday. For Finnish prospect Lauri Tukonen, the game was his debut. For John Zeiler, playing in his third NHL contest, the night was marked by his first goal.

For most hockey fans, the icons of their childhood are the men who played in goal for their favorite teams when they were kids. Some of these guys were household names like Dryden and Parent. But then there are the others, the guys who played backup roles. They were heroes in their own right.

It would be hard to imagine a jersey retirement ceremony more classy or meaningful than the one executed last night for the Kings’ #20, Luc Robitaille. “This is the ultimate honor,” Robitaille said. “This is not what I set out to do, but it’s the ultimate honor.”

Coaches get fired; that’s part of life. But when they do, they leave behind fans who oftentimes regret that they’re gone. At least if they were decent men while they were on the job. Andy Murray, formerly of the L.A. Kings and now the head coach of the St. Louis Blues, is one such person.

Thursday night, the Kings hosted the Sharks, losing 5-2 after being outshot 31-24 in the game. That, and good play by some of the Kings frontline players, including Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, was pretty much the story, until coach Marc Crawford came out to meet the media after the game.

Here’s how to bring a new player along: call him up after he’s played some good minutes in the AHL, put him with your top guys, and let him show what he can do. That’s the approach the Kings are using with 21-year-old Konstantin Pushkarev, and he has responded very well.

Saturday's victory over the Red Wings marked just the third time that Mathieu Garon and the Kings have put together two outright (as opposed to overtime) wins this season. They haven’t yet managed to extend a win streak to three, but they get the chance against the Oilers on Monday.

As you approach the Air Canada Centre for a Toronto Maple Leafs game, the questions about tickets and upgrades come at you from all sides. They’re from scalpers trying to make money by dealing in a commodity almost as precious as gold in this Canadian City - hockey tickets.

Remember the line, “While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads?" That might have been fine for kids in the 19th century, but sugarplums, whatever they are, are hardly top of the list these days. In his latest column, Brian Kennedy solicits four Kings' Christmas wishes.

What set of unlikely coincidences could have led to this: the LA Kings starting goaltender is a 23 year-old rookie whose work this season in Manchester of the AHL yielded a 1-4-0 record, and his backup an untried youngster whose home is Japan? Injuries and the CBA, that’s what.

Maybe you saw the show on OLN (now Versus) last spring which featured Jordin Tootoo and his family (Team Spirit: The Jordin and Terence Tootoo Story). Interspersed with video of them in their home in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, were shots of the family in ceremonies for Jordin and his brother, Terence.

After Thursday night's game, the Kings held a closed-door meeting for thirty minutes after the game, breaking NHL rules which say that the press must have access no later than ten minutes after the end of a contest. And on Saturday, it took a period, but the meeting seemed to have the desired effect.

Following Thursday night's disappointing loss to the Nashville Predators, the LA Kings called a team meeting. And so the press, normally accustomed to having immediate access to the players, had to wait outside the locker room while the air was cleared inside.

Rivalry weekend. If you want a definition, try this: UCLA versus USC in football. The Clippers versus the Lakers in basketball. And the Kings versus the Ducks, twice, in hockey. The first of the hockey games took place on Saturday afternoon at the Staples Center.

When fans go to a pro sporting event, they want to see their team win, but they also want to see some predictability. They expect to see the game they know, played the way it has always been played. This is a memo item that nobody in the Devils' organization has paid attention to, apparently.

Go to a Kings game this week (the next two are Monday against New Jersey and Saturday against Anaheim), and you’ll see some new faces on defense. The usual suspects are there, of course. But one pairing that might surprise you is comprised of youngsters Peter Harrold and Kevin Dallman.

Friday afternoon was the first meeting between the Ducks and the Devils since Scott Niedermayer left for Anaheim in the summer of 2005. But it was gritty winger Todd Marchant who stole the show and gave Anaheim a hard-fought victory over New Jersey.

The Los Angeles Kings faced off against the Phoenix Coyotes on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with temperatures hovering around 80 degrees. The arena was far from full because of the weather and it was a shame because both teams put on an entertaining display with the Kings winning 5-3.

It’s not often that losing one game is labeled “facing adversity,” but after the start the Anaheim Ducks enjoyed this year, that’s what was being said when they dropped their road game to Calgary on Friday night. Sunday, they were back home at Honda Center with the Minnesota Wild.

The Kings' players didn’t do the usual pro sports “undress and run” routine after their 7-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks in LA on Thursday night. Instead, most of them were still there when the media was let into the locker room. That’s somewhat out of the ordinary, especially considering the final score.

Brian Kennedy wandered into the Penguins locker room in search of a Sidney Crosby interview on Wednesday night when something caught his eye. Actually, two things: two giant goalie pads, flaming yellow, the color of those roadside signs that warn you there’s traffic merging ahead.

The Los Angeles Kings have played pretty well of late, though their record doesn’t show it. Coming into Monday night’s game with the New York Rangers, the Kings had regularly outshot their opponents, but they had been in a goal deficit by about one marker per contest.

Word has it that people aren’t showing up to Kings’ games because they’re not seeing what they want to - a winner every night. “Rebuilding” year seems to have become the buzzword, and an excuse to stay home. In his latest column, Brian Kennedy takes a look at some very compelling reasons to watch these Kings.

Sunday night in L.A., the Anaheim Ducks nabbed a 3-2 shootout win on regulation goals by Ryan Shannon and Dustin Penner and shootout tallies by Teemu Selanne (countered on the next shot for the Kings by Frolov) and Ryan Getzlaf. Brian Kennedy breaks it down...

No disrespect to the Kings, Coyotes, Blues, and Islanders, who have faced the Ducks in their first four games. But none have the depth of the Dallas Stars, and the Anaheim players knew that Sunday night's game would be their first real chance to show their mettle.

When you think of Eric Lindros, one vague recollection and one image most likely come to mind. It would be of him lying on the ice, addled nearly unconscious by a typical Scott Stevens through-the-middle check during the playoffs. Now with the Stars, Lindros still has plenty left to offer.

Think of Anze Kopitar as a handsome version of Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin. Just don’t look for him in the main section of the Kings’ media guide. He would be between Tim Gleason, traded to Carolina, and Tom Kostopoulos, a healthy scratch for the Kings’ first two games.

Friday night in Anaheim, fans could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a brand new team on the ice. The uniforms were different, the blueline featured a big new body who blasted away on the power play—giant Chris Pronger—and the goalie had new pads to match the new color scheme.

For the Ducks, the off-season brought an image change. Gone is the “Mighty” from the name and some personnel shifts, all inconsequential except for the acquisition of Chris Pronger. In fact, after a strong playoff run, there wasn’t much that needed changing, except maybe those uniforms.

L.A. Kings fans want more than anything to know whether the off-season management and personnel changes will pay off in a return to the Stanley Cup playoffs or will it be another season of frustration and excuses.