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League leading 10 shutouts. A minuscule goals against average of 1.89. A .931 save percentage. 35 wins. These are just a few of the reasons that Jonathan Quick will find himself a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League’s best goaltender. While the yearly improvement and mere nomination for the Vezina might

After a dismal collapse in Detroit Friday night that could’ve easily sunk the Kings’ season once and for all, the Kings headed into Chicago for a nationally televised matchup with the Blackhawks. This one was key to the Kings playoff hopes – not that any of the remaining games aren’t. Would they bounce back from

Some games are a stark reminder that no matter how well a team has been playing of late, poor preparation and lack of effort and execution is going to hurt you, even against the team with the fewest points in the entire National Hockey League. Tonight in Columbus, the Kings had one of those games.

Many times during the 2011-12 campaign, Jonathan Quick has bailed the Kings out on nights where they were unable to produce offensively. Tuesday night in Nashville, the Kings returned the favor. In what was an uncharacteristic off game for both Quick and Predators goalie Pekka Rinne – believed to be two of three likely Vezina

(NOTE: I wrote this article for Crimespree Hockey earlier, cross posting it here) When the Los Angeles Kings acquired Jeff Carter from Columbus for defenseman Jack Johnson and a conditional first round pick, reaction among Kings’ fans was split. Carter’s proven scoring pedigree was something the Kings’ desperately needed, but Johnson was a Kings’ fan

Game changers. There are not many of them in the NHL, and they’re rarely available at the trade deadline. When news of Rick Nash’s availability via trade broke earlier this week, the first thing that popped into my head was “We HAVE to do this. We NEED this guy”. Nash is one of the NHL’s

It finally happened. My last post at this blog, over a month ago, called for a change behind the Kings’ bench. While a small handful of wins – most of them due to Jon Quick’s stellar play, may have put off the inevitable for a short amount of time, the Kings’ entered this week dead

Dump and chase. Cycle, cycle, cycle. Shot mentality. Compete. Heavy board play. These are all Staples of Kings’ coach Terry Murray’s vocabulary. On the bright side, Murray has taken the Kings’ to the playoffs the past two seasons. But his four seasons as head coach have been marked by long stretches of inconsistent, underachieving play.

The Kings had won 4 straight games. Their solid play in all 3 zones had been punctuated by Jonathan Quick’s record setting 3 straight shutout games, 188:10 seconds without allowing a goal. Quick, much like the start of last season, has been the Kings’ best player through the first 8 games and has been in

Yeah, I know, it’s a Van Hagar reference. The goal is to be able to use a Queen reference sometime in June, and the way things have gone through 13 games, that would be a plausible prediction to make. The haters can hate, and those who haven’t been paying attention will look at the NHL’s