DUCKS NEXT UP AT TORONTO When: 4:30 p.m. PDT Thursday. On the air: TV: Prime; Radio: 830 Update: The Ducks will look again to secure a playoff spot with either a standings point or an Arizona loss. In the absence of left wing David Perron, they reconfigured their lines Tuesday. Brandon Pirri played...
Staples Center will host the NBA All-Star game in 2018, an announcement to be made publicly Tuesday before the Lakers play the Memphis Grizzlies at Staples. The arena, which opened in 1999, also staged the All-Star game in 2011 and 2004. The league chose, atypically, to stage the two most recent...
Jakob Silfverberg and the Ducks weren't quick to pat themselves on the back after their latest win. Silfverberg scored his 13th goal at 4:01 of overtime to break a deadlock stretching back to the second period to give the Ducks a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. "It wasn't the prettiest...
This was the opposite of 2012 when the Kings cut it oh-so-close, making the playoffs on April 5. That season, they found out shortly before the second-to-last game of the regular season that they were in — Dallas had lost to Nashville earlier in the night. Suspense took a sabbatical this time around....
Not everything connected with the Lakers is filled with staggering numbers in the loss column and draft lottery percentages. The Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers' Development League affiliate, have won a team-record 14 consecutive home games and are among the best of the NBA's minor league system....
This playoff spot brought to you by goaltender Jonathan Quick. The Kings officially clinched a playoff berth Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins at Staples Center, their fourth straight win. It is the sixth time in the last seven seasons they have done so, having missed the...
The often-maddening knack of goal scoring — now you see it and now you don't — was the first subject for Kings winger Dustin Brown. Brown is on a decided upturn with three goals in his last three games heading into Saturday's contest against the Boston Bruins at Staples Center. He had gone 15 consecutive...
The latest subject, or, guest, for Ryan Kesler's "talk show" was Nick Ritchie, and it unfolded much like previous episodes. There was Ritchie, the 20-year-old Ducks rookie, sitting next to Kesler in a makeshift stage Thursday near the Zamboni tunnel at Honda Center as Kesler beared down on him....
The Ducks’ short-and-grinding road against East Coast teams ended in a 4-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday. It stopped a 1-3-1 slide that served as proof that their second-half push would eventually slow. Here’s what we learned: The goalie situation just gets more intriguing Frederik Andersen...
In sickness and in health, the Ducks are wedded to their goalie duo. For now. Frederik Andersen got the start in goal Friday largely because John Gibson was recovering from illness, but it didn't hurt that Andersen was 3-0-0 in his career against Boston. He stayed perfect against the Bruins with...
KINGS NEXT UP VS. BOSTON When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. On the air: FS West; Radio: 790. Update: Remember the last time the Kings and the Bruins played? Certainly Bruins goaltenders Tuukka Rask and Jonas Gustavsson won't forget. The Kings won, 9-2, in Milan Lucic's Boston homecoming on Feb. 9 and had...
So now it appears Anze Kopitar is merely competing with himself. Kopitar, who had a statement game just two days ago, scored twice in the Kings' 4-3 overtime victory Thursday over the New York Rangers at Staples Center. It was the Kings' league-leading 11th overtime victory this season, and Kopitar...
The Anaheim Ducks' goaltender rotation of the last month could need an adjustment since John Gibson was ill and kept away from the rink Thursday. Coach Bruce Boudreau has alternated every two games between Gibson and Frederik Andersen and it would be Gibson's turn in goal on Friday against the...
The Ducks ventured into the other side of the spectrum Wednesday, and it wasn’t a pleasant trip. One game after they scored seven goals against New Jersey, they took a 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers in a tight contest that saw only 55 total faceoffs and 23 shots apiece. Here’s what we learned:...
It took longer than a New York minute for the Ducks to find out how much the game can change from one East Coast team to the next. For most of 60 minutes Wednesday they were largely bottled up against the New York Rangers in a tight, low-scoring game with flow but little space. While the Ducks...
Vinny Lecavalier couldn't play for the Philadelphia Flyers, trapped in the two-word abyss known as the "healthy scratch" for close to two months before the Kings life raft came calling. Similarly, defenseman Rob Scuderi found himself on the outside in Chicago. He cleared waivers and played three...
A few more takeaways after the Kings completed a short tour through the Central Division, beating Chicago and Dallas on consecutive nights and outscoring the Blackhawks and Stars by a combined 10-2. Pluses and minuses The attack against Dallas was well-balanced with goals from five players: Kris...
Anze Kopitar's victims were numerous. The Kings center won faceoff after faceoff against Stars center Cody Eakin. Kopitar burned Stars defenseman Kris Russell, going around him with the greatest of ease, and then made Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen look helpless, waiting him out and finally lofting...
NEXT UP DUCKS VS. NEW YORK RANGERS When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. PDT. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 830 Update: Ducks defensemen Korbinian Holzer and Clayton Stoner filled in well for injured Sami Vatanen and Kevin Bieksa on Monday. Holzer's two assists marked his first career multi-point game...
What began as a tight game ended up as a night of photos for posterity. The accolades kept coming in the Ducks’ 7-1 win against New Jersey at Honda Center on Monday. Jakob Silfverberg got his first hat trick. Nick Ritchie got his first NHL goal, and the Ducks got back on track. Here’s what we learned:...
On most nights, he's chasing the other team's marquee players and trying not to be on the wrong side of the highlight reels. It's a job without glamour for Jakob Silfverberg and linemates Ryan Kesler and Andrew Cogliano that has sometimes gone underappreciated. Fitting, then, that Silfverberg's...
Here's the burning question for the day, or really for the rest of the regular season, with less than a month to go.Say Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby manages to win 44 games this season — he needs three to tie the victory total by Montreal goalie Carey Price last season, when he...
Not long after the Kings' Jonathan Quick completed his 41st career shutout — a 5-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night — the goalie swiftly paid homage to one of the two men he moved past to get the record for U.S.-born goalies. Quick had recorded his 40th shutout on Dec. 28 at...
The Kings' to-do list grew considerably longer after Saturday night's overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils. What would be a good starting point? How to fix the power play, a woeful 0 for 5 against the Devils? Or, perhaps how to avoid another sluggish first period such as the opening 20 minutes...
Two faces of the Ducks' defense were not at practice while Cam Fowler's was clearly visible. Defensemen Sami Vatanen and Kevin Bieksa did not practice Sunday and their availability is day to day, Coach Bruce Boudreau said. Vatanen was struck in the chin area during the Ducks' loss to Colorado on...
A few more takeaways from the finale of the Kings' five-game home stand, before they move on for what will be a busy week, starting with road games against two Central Division foes, Chicago and Dallas. The Unstoppable Keith Kinkaid OK, he's not totally unstoppable. Kings center Anze Kopitar in...
The mystery known as Keith Kinkaid was finally solved. Sort of. Yes, the Kings were finally able to get one past the understudy goaltender, the guy who shut them out last month in Newark, N.J. But only one on Saturday night, as the New Jersey Devils beat the Kings, 2-1, in overtime at Staples Center....
Let's play trivia with Kings defenseman Drew Doughty. The question for the Kings' Norris Trophy contender: How many players remain on the active playing roster from the New Jersey Devils team that pushed the Kings to six games in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final? Doughty immediately named three — Travis...
As good as Frederik Andersen had been in his 13-0-1 showing in net for the Ducks since Dec. 21, he doesn't have a rubber neck or extendable arms. So when Ducks defensemen Cam Fowler and Josh Manson committed major gaffes behind and around Andersen on Friday, the St. Louis Blues took what was otherwise...
Darryl Sutter chose part of the third period Saturday against the Ducks to fall back on a tactic he occasionally uses, just to keep things interesting. The Kings coach moved his No. 2 center Jeff Carter, onto the right wing of his top line, alongside center Anze Kopitar and left wing Milan Lucic,...
The return of Shawn Horcoff and the injured Sami Vatanen will require further waiting. While Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau remained mum about Horcoff on Friday, the first day he is eligible to return from a 20-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, the veteran forward remained on the...
Bruce Boudreau said he's weighing whether to insert Shawn Horcoff back into the Ducks' lineup Friday after the forward's 20-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use, but the coach kept his decision a mystery Thursday. That gives Boudreau another day to keep the St. Louis Blues guessing,...
Random thoughts on the madness of March, when the arenas are jumping and “the air is full of leather”:St. Patrick should’ve been a point guard.All basketball games — and seasons —- should fly by as quickly as they do in high school. Best ref guideline: “No autopsy, no foul.”Another sign of the...
Fans at Staples Center might be getting kind of used to seeing Kobe Bryant hanging out in street clothes. Since announcing his impending retirement back in November, the Lakers superstar has sat out 10 of the team's 25 home games. It was more of the same Wednesday night at Staples -- well, there...
In a year when they are running away with the NHL's overall standings, the true measure of the Washington Capitals has been the third-period comeback. It was something former King Justin Williams was remarking on before the game — how the Capitals' one true Achilles' heel this season has been their...
Call it a breather, the nature of a rugged spot on the schedule, or a hiccup.“It's an excuse,” Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said Wednesday, something he was in no mood to accept after the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ducks, 3-0, at Pepsi Center.The loss ends Anaheim's 12-0-2 run that dated to a Feb....
Even as his former Ducks teammates threaten for the Stanley Cup, veteran defenseman Francois Beauchemin maintains he has no regrets over accepting a contract offer last summer that brought him the security of a third year that was one more than what Anaheim extended. Beauchemin, 35, packed up his...
It was just another night at the office for the Ducks' shut-down line. It just happened to involve defending the NHL's leading goal scorer and marquee attraction. As has been the case most of this season, the line of Ryan Kesler, Andrew Cogliano and Jakob Silfverberg was took on the opposition's...
Justin Williams' pregame mental checklist might deviate, depending upon the familiarity of the opponent. The Washington Capitals right wing realized he needed to add another entry to the list. He was sharing a meal with some of his former Kings teammates when they were in town last month to play...
The special teams can be, well, special: Not only did the Kings take the lead on Anze Kopitar’s second-period power-play goal — the team’s third goal in two games with the man advantage — but they also killed off five Vancouver power plays. “Obviously, the power play has been scoring a lot lately,...