SB Nation - Jonathan Bernier

You are Bold, Yes...

RudyKelly — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:24:29 -0000

But are you Daring?

Bold Predictions

-Anze Kopitar will score 80 points or more.

-Wayne Simmonds will score 30 points.

-Justin Williams will play less than 60 games.

-Ryan Smyth will make me say, "Goddammit," over 100 hundred times. (I'm already at 7.)

-Jack Johnson will score over 30 points and I will still hate him.

-Either Ryan Getzlaf or Scott Niedermayer will miss more than 15 games.

-The Sharks will trade for Dany Heatley, strip their captain of his responsibility, change the culture in their locker room... and lose their first game to the Avalanche.

-Ted Purcell will not score more than 42 points.

-Sean O'Donnell will begin as a #2 defenseman this season and end as a #6.

-Thomas Hickey will be a breakout player this season.

-Alex Frolov will do everythng right and yet still get criticized.

-Rob Scuderi will be the new scapegoat.

-Corey Perry will miss time when he is beaten half to death... by his own team.

-Jonathan Quick will play well this season.

-Jonathan Bernier will be the Kings' starting goaltender by the end of the year.

-No one will understand the reference I made in the title.*

*I don't understand why Doritos abandoned that ad campaign. I thought it was hilarious. Take this commercial as an example. It was the 3rd best food ad campaign after the glorious Emerald Nuts campaign and those creepy Cheetos commercials.

-Jarret Stoll will score 20 goals this season but still no one will like him.

-Joe Thornton will go on a scoring tear and will be seen around town with a 19-year old man named Slade.

-Michal Handzus will miss games with an injury.

-The Kings will be on the power play and pass it between their two defenseman before taking a weak shot from the the blue line that is easily blocked. The Kings will get the rebound and repeat. (Wait, that's not bold.)

-Richard Clune will only play 40-45 games this season and yet have over 10 fights.

-Raitis Ivanans will play more than 65 games and yet have less than 10 fights.

-Trevor Lewis will play limited minutes but his season will still be considered a success.

-Peter Harrold will play more than limited minutes but his season will be considered a waste.

-The Kings will be out of the playoffs most of the year but will make a post-Olympic run to the playoffs.

-The Dallas Stars will start off strong but then realize their season rests on the shoulders of Marty Turco and Alex Auld. They will then tumble, tumble, tumble.

-The Anaheim Ducks will miss the playoffs.

-The Kings will lose in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual champions: the San Jose Sharks.

-After finally getting over the hump, Sharks fans will somehow become more insufferable.

Kings Send Down Schenn, Bernier, Hickey... and Westgarth

RudyKelly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:06:51 -0000

The Kings have made their final cuts of camp, sending Brayden Schenn to Junior and Jonathan Bernier, Thomas Hickey and Kevin Westgarth down to Manchester. (Would you rather watch Manchester or LA at this point? I think I'd enjoy watching Manchester more if Wayne Simmonds were down there.) That means the Kings' opening night line-up will look like this:

Smyth	Kopitar	Williams
Frolov	Handzus	Simmonds
Purcell	Stoll	Brown
Ivanans	Lewis	Richardson/Harrold
Harrold/Richardson	Clune (IR)

Drewiske	Doughty
Johnson	Scuderi
Martinez	Greene
O'Donnell (Susp.)

Quick

Ersberg

The Kings went with experience over the allure of youth. Thomas Hickey lost out to Alec Martinez, who has a year in Manchester under his belt;* Jonathan Bernier was beat out by Erik Ersberg, whose inability to be a #1 goaltender actually helped him; and Kevin Westgarth was bested by Raitis Ivanans, mostly because it's easier to send him down then convince someone to trade for Raitis.

*Martinez kind of gets a bad rap because the Kings have so many good defensive prospects. If it were 4 years ago everyone would be really excited about him, but most people think he's a scrub because he's not Thomas Hickey.

Overall, I'm not too upset by any decisions made in camp. Ted Purcell won the big job, that of 3rd line winger, while Richard Clune banished John Zeiler to the minors. We'll see Bernier and Hickey this season; it's just not quite as soon as we all hoped.

It's weird, I think most fans are pretty happy with this team.. Who is going to be the whipping boy this year? I guess Raitis, but he at least fights. It'll probably be someone who's contract is expiring soon like Cammalleri was before he left, someone who is enigmatic and easily moc-

Shit.

Training Camp Battles: #2 Goaltender

RudyKelly — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:08:41 -0000

Ladies and gentlemen, the toughest battle to call in camp. We've gone over two "Older prospect v. younger stud" battles already (Purcell v. Moller, Drewiske v. Hickey), but this battle features the weakest prospect versus perhaps the best stud. Erik Ersberg versus Jonathan Bernier comes to the eternal question that is being asked at training camps around the country: at what point is playing limited minutes worse than playing all the time at a lower level? Is it playing time or level of competition that is best for developing a prospect? Oddly enough, this battle is difficult to call because it doesn't come down to either man; it comes down to Jonathan Quick.

(This is off-topic, but don't the Kings have a pretty good looking set of goaltenders? Ersberg looks like a cherub, Bernier has the smoldering look of a leading man, and even Quick has a goofy charm. I mean, none of them are really hideous like Ryan Miller. Haha, that guy is a goober.)

The Favorite:

Erik Ersberg

#31 / Goalie / Los Angeles Kings

Height: 6-0

Weight: 185

Born: Mar 08, 1982

Preseason Stats: 2 games, 3.00 GAA, .878 SV%

I'm on record as not being the biggest Erik Ersberg fan. He plays really small in net and is vulnerable to rebounds. Actually, he's kind of like a worse Jonas Hiller, which is coincidental since they were both signed at the same time. But he's not bad or anything, he's just not good. He's bread. He's Swedish. (Hey, he is!) Erik Ersberg is built for a true back-up role, where he sits on the bench with a blank expression on his face for 60+ games a season and doesn't kill you when he does play. If the Kings think Jonathan Quick is ready for ~65 games this season, Ersberg is the best choice to back him up because that is what he is built for.

The Challenger:

Jonathan Bernier

#45 / Goalie / Los Angeles Kings

Height: 5-11

Weight: 184

Born: Aug 07, 1988

Preseason Stats: 2 Games, 2.00 GAA, .909 SV %

Goaltenders as a whole have a large ego but low self-esteem. You get a large ego from crushing the hopes of so many people; you ruin someone's day so many times and you begin feeling all-powerful. You get the low self-esteem from hearing the cheers and seeing the red light whenever a goal is scored. Your teammates will come by and tap you on the pads and tell you it's their fault, but you know that the other guys on the bench are criticizing you. To cope, most goaltenders become standoff-ish and arrogant because they begin telling themselves that they're a good goaltender and it's the fault of the rest of the team that the goal was scored. (Sorry, defensemen, but I blame you for everything.) When a goaltender has that illusion shattered, they usually suck for a while until they can develop that illusion back up.

Jonathan Bernier had that illusion shattered twice last season: first when he didn't make the team out of training camp, then again when Jonathan Quick was called up over him. Bernier has been told and has told himself that he is a great goaltender and would rise to stardom to the NHL, but he was suddenly met with the cold, hard realization that he wasn't good enough. That hurts and it takes a while to recover from that. Bernier did recover by the end of last season and was the goaltender everyone expected him to be. I think he will become a good goaltender in the NHL, although probably not the great goaltener everyone predicted. The best way to handle him, I believe, is to challenge him and make him the underdog. His large ego can be used for good as well as evil. Tell him Jonathan Quick is better than him. Make him prove everyone wrong over and over. I think the best course of action for the Kings is to pit Quick and Bernier in a season-long challenge to see who's the best.

Of course, if the Kings think Quick is already the best and trust him to play all the time, then there's not really much reason to keep Bernier up... is there? There actually isn't much difference in skill level between most NHL'ers and the superstars in the AHL; the difference is that the guys in the NHL can do all that stuff during games. If Bernier is not going to see game situations in the NHL then there's not much point in keeping him up. I think. Of course, there's not too much he's going to learn in the AHL, and if anything he's going to develop bad habits as he uses his athleticism in situations he can't in the NHL. I think, and this is just me, that the best situation for the Kings is to have Quick and Ersberg up in the NHL and Bernier in the AHL, at least to start. I would not be surprised at all if the Kings decide to keep all 3 goaltenders in the NHL for a little while, though. Let all 3 of them duke it out and pick the best 2.

Dustin Brown Sez...

...Dustin? Hey, where are you? You're suppo-

"Why hello Rudy."

Ahh! Oh, hey Ryan. Where's Dustin, he's supposed to do this segment for me.

"Dustin is... elsewhere. Don't worry, he's very happy with the places he is in right now."

Oh ok... wait, did you say "places?"

"I don't know. Did I?"

Hehe. Look, Ryan, I know I called you ugly a little while ago, and I don't want you to be mad or anyth-

"Mad? Why would I be mad? I thought it was hilarious. I just came to return the favor."

...Return the favor?

"Yes, Rudy. You made me smile, now I'm going to make you smile. Do you want to hear a joke?"

Uh, sure.

"Here's a joke: what has two legs and is about to die?"

Look Ryan, you're starting to scare me. Why don't you just leave and we'll- hey, what are you doing? Ryan, Get away from me!

AIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poll

Who should be the Kings' #2 goaltender?

Erik Ersberg

71 votes

Jonathan Bernier

58 votes

129 votes | Poll has closed

SBNation NHL Season Preview: Your 2009-10 Los Angeles Kings

RudyKelly — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:00:38 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

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Surprise, cockfags! SBNation has been running season previews for every team in the league, and now it's Los Angeles' turn. Read this and then head over to Blueshirt Banter to hear how the Rangers aren't completely screwed paying Chris Drury, Wade Redden and Marian Gaborik $21 million dollars a season the next 3 seasons... haha just kidding, they're screwed.

2008-09 Season Review:

Drew Doughty was good, so was Wayne Simmonds, Anze Kopitar was underwhelming, Jack Johnson was hurt, Jon Quick was a surprise, Jason Labarbera sucked balls, and the Kings missed the playoffs again.

Who's In: Justin Williams (RW- trade, CAR), Ryan Smyth (LW- trade, COL), Rob Scuderi (D- UFA, PIT)

Who's Out: Patrick O'Sullivan (RW- trade, EDM), Kyle Quincey (D- trade, COL), Derek Armstrong (C- UFA, STL), Jason Labarbera (G- UFA, Phoenix), Denis Gauthier (D- UFA, shot into Sun), Kyle Calder (LW- UFA, ANA), Tom Preissing (D- COL), Brian Boyle (C- Trade, NYR)

Team Strengths: The Kings' biggest strength is their ability to keep the puck out of the net. The Kings were only 11th in goals allowed last season with 226, but they excelled at keeping the puck away from their net (tied for 4th in shots allowed). They were hurt last season by lackluster goaltending in the first half of the season but the introduction of young Jonathan Quick should help alleviate that this year.

The Kings also have a lot of forward and defensive depth; when you can afford to put someone like Alex Frolov on your stopper line and your defense is good enough that you can't find room for someone like Thomas Hickey on the backend, you can feel pretty confident that if someone gets injured then the rest of the team will pick up the slack. The Kings also have depth in goal, with 23-year old Jonathan Quick backed up by both Erik Ersberg and young prospect Jonathan Bernier. You can't expect any one of them to be a great goaltender this season but you figure you have a one in three shot, which isn't bad.

Team Weaknesses: The Kings do have a lot of depth, but what they lack is elite talent at any one position. The hope is that 22-year old Anze Kopitar will become that elite talent this season (he's definitely getting paid like one at $6.8 million dollars a year), but that's a lot of pressure to put on someone that young. Likewise, the workhorse of the defense is 19-year old Drew Doughty, who played 23+ minutes as an 18-year old last season. Both players will eventually become elite players in the NHL, but the Kings need them to be that player now and they may not be ready.

Kings' fans were hoping that the Kings would trade for that elite scorer that has been missed since Ziggy Palffy left Hollywood, but both Dany Heatley and Phil Kessel found homes elsewhere. Instead, the Kings traded for gritty left winger Ryan Smyth (who I hate, but that's another story) and oft-injured right winger Justin Williams. Both men have been perennial 30-goal scorers at one time, but age and injuries have lowered their value of late. The other major acquisition of this off-season, Rob Scuderi, is a nice defenseman (and was invaluable during the Penguins' cup run), but he's not exactly someone you build a defense around. The Kings have a lot of indians but they still need a chief.

Depth Chart:

The Kings main lines are pretty much set, with only the 4th line, 6th defenseman and back-up goaltender up for grabs. Click here for more in-depth analysis of training camp battles.

Smyth	Kopitar	Williams
Frolov	Handzus	Simmonds
Purcell	Stoll	Brown
Clune	Richardson	Westgarth
Harrold	Lewis

O'Donnell	Doughty
Johnson	Scuderi
Greene	Drewiske
Piskula

Quick

Ersberg/Bernier

The Kings generally follow a formula where they have two shooters and one set-up man on each line. Kopitar, Frolov and young prospect Ted Purcell are the set-up men, while the others are expected to get to the front of the net for head coach Terry Murray. The bottom 5 forwards are interchangeable; no real decisions have been made at this point.

Predictions: The season pretty much rests on 2 people: Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick. If Anze Kopitar can continue the career path he was on before last season's hiccup and score 80+ points, and if Jonathan Quick can repeat his performance from last year, the Kings should be in the mix for the playoffs. The Western Conference is tough to pick. The Kings could finish anywhere from 6th-13th and will be fighting with Anaheim and Dallas all season for a playoff birth in the Pacific Division.

What the hell: I'll go out on a limb and say that, for the first time since 2004, the Kings finish better than the Anaheim Ducks and make the playoffs.

Go Kings.

Poll

Where will the Kings finish in the Western Conference?

1

10 votes

2

0 votes

3

6 votes

4

4 votes

5

5 votes

6

19 votes

7

41 votes

8

42 votes

9

22 votes

10

29 votes

11

8 votes

12

10 votes

13

10 votes

14

4 votes

15

24 votes

234 votes | Poll has closed

Season Review: Jonathan Quick

RudyKelly — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:02:08 -0000

More photos » by Darryl Dyck - AP

8 months ago: Vancouver Canucks' Rick Rypien, left, is stopped by Los Angeles Kings' Jonathan Quick during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday, April 9, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

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	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Jonathan Quick	44	2495	21	18	2	6	103	2.48	1200	1097	.914	4

Favorite Moment(s):

Jesus, I forgot how many great glove saves he made last year.

Last Season: I can't figure it out. I know there's a reason I shouldn't assume that Jonathan Quick will be a good goaltender next season, but I can't find it. Quick, who joined the Kings in late December over the more highly-touted Jonathan Bernier, was exceptional last year. He has great numbers for over more than half the season, there's nothing stylistically wrong with his game, and he seems like a good guy that loves pressure. What's not to like? I don't know, but there's must be something, because no one else seems to have much hope for him.

At first I thought it was that his numbers were inflated by playing in front of the Kings' defense, but I don't think that's the case after running some numbers. The Kings were much better at stopping shots before they got to the goaltender last year, moving their shots allowed per game from 32 shots per game (29th in league) to 28.1 shots per game (4th in league). The team was done in more by a struggling Jason Labarbera and Erik Ersberg than anything else early in the season, and that problem was resolved by Quick at the midway point. You would think that Quick benefited from the Kings' solid defensive game, except that the Kings' ability to prevent shots kind of disappeared after Quick took over. Quick faced an average of 29.6 shots per game, which would put him more towards the middle of the pack amongst goaltenders. The Kings kept up their solid overall defensive play because Quick took over, not because of their defense.

Then, I thought maybe it was because he was new and teams would eventually figure him out. I think that's what happened to Erik Ersberg. Ersberg joined the Kings' organization in 2007-08 and put exceptional numbers for the Kings in 14 games at the end of the season (2.48 GAA, .927 SV%); this led many Kings' fans to anoint Ersberg as the Kings' goaltending savior coming into this season. Ersberg then proceded to put up poor numbers and was only saved the wrath of fans because their knives were already embedded in Jason Labarbera.

Could the same thing happen to Quick? Maybe, but I don't see much similarity between their situations. Quick put up his numbers over a longer period of time and is bigger, more athletic, and faster than Ersberg. The only things I don't like about Quick is his tendency to over-commit (leaving him out of position if the puck's angle changes) and the way he holds his head. He kind of scrunches his shoulders instead of holding it up high, which I think makes it easier to screen him. But then again, Tim Thomas does the same thing so what do I know. The difference between Ersberg and Quick is that you can watch Quick play and see that the numbers he put up were reasonable; you can't say the same thing with Ersberg.

And then there's the fact that I've seen this story before. I've seen Quick, and Ersberg, and Labarbera, and Garon, and on and on and on, come in and put up good numbers near the end of a year, get my hopes up, and then proceed to suck the next year. It's happened so many times that I don't know if I can trust any goaltender to put my fears to rest. Hopefully Quick can be the first one to do that.

Jonathan Quick had the 3rd best goaltender season for a rookie in the league last year, behind Steve Mason and Pekka Rinne. I don't hear the same questions surrounding Mason and Rinne that I hear around Quick, despite the fact that Mason is 21 and Rinne's performance last year is not really in line with his career numbers. When Quick was named to the Olympic tryout roster, he was mostly met with, "Who?" I guess I don't understand it. Maybe the fact that no one else is comfortable with Quick in goal for the Kings is making me uncomfortable. What do you think, should the Kings be worried?

The Future: Quick will likely enter the season as the #1 starter and will probably give around a 2.5 GAA, .910 SV% performance. I think that is probably his career projection and will be fine for next year. The real intrigue is behind him, where a steady Erik Ersberg will be challenged by a high-risk, high-reward Jonathan Bernier. The best thing that could happen for the Kings would be if Bernier can beat out Ersberg by mid-season and challenge Jonathan Quick for the #1 job starting next year. If I know Quick, he'll take his game to another level to meet Bernier's challenge and then the Kings are set in goal for the foreseeable future.

Hot Stove Discussion: A Few Questions on the Los Angeles Kings

David M. Getz — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:00:17 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

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As you may have noticed, we hockey bloggers at SBN have been paired up for some cross-conference Q&A in an effort to help fans get a little more knowledgeable about some of the teams they might not be devoting as much attention towards - and get SBN users to realize just how many great blogs there are on our network.

Japers' Rink drew the Los Angeles Kings, a team whose rebuild is almost complete, and hence should be interesting to follow in 2009-10. RudyKelly at Battle of California has already been so kind as to post our answers to his questions and we're going to return the favor (our questions, his answers) after the jump.

(1) The Kings haven't made the playoffs since 2002 and haven't had a winning season since 2005-06. The talent pool they've accumulated in their rebuild is impressive and there are certainly people out there who think the team can make a run at a postseason berth in 2009-10 - do you think that's realistic? Why or why not?

Realistic? Sure. If Anze Kopitar plays better and scores about 80 points, if Drew Doughty continues to be the greatest man in history, if the goaltending holds up, if the Kings continue to play good defense, if Ryan Smyth brings some sort of leadership to the team, if Justin Williams recovers from his injuries to play up to his early potential, the Kings can make the playoffs. All of those are realisitc. All of them happening in one season? Maybe not so realistic. The Kings should be in that 7-10 region this season.

(2) The Capitals have struggled to get mainstream press at times, owing largely to being situated in a market that has the most rabid fan base in professional football, the most successful American soccer team in history, NBA and MLB teams and is the political center of the world. Do the Kings suffer the same fate being in the center of the entertainment world and the same city as the Angels (sort of), Dodgers, Lakers, and University of Southern California? As a hardcore Kings fan, how do you feel about local media coverage?

Yeah, the Kings struggle to gain any sort of market share because they share money with all the sports teams in the area and also with Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm, the Getty, and a thousand other awesome things to do in LA and Orange County. The Kings have been around long enough that most people know they're there, but people in LA don't pay attention to losers. When the Kings make the playoffs Staples is jumping, and they'll make some noise with the media when they get there soon.

We are lucky that we have probably the best local beat site in the country (Rich Hammond at the Los Angeles Daily News) and Kings fans tend to some of the more dedicated fans around. There are also some good blogs if you're interested, like A Queen Among Kings and The Royal Half among others. Overall, I'm fairly happy with our coverage because frankly I don't need the competition.

(3) How do Kings fans feel about the team's goaltending going in to next season? Is it realistic to expect Jonathan Quick to do as well or perhaps even improve? How close to being ready is Jonathan Bernier?

It's not so much that the Kings are confident in Jonathan Quick as they are confident that one of Quick/Bernier/Erik Ersberg will play well. Quick is the incumbent and played very well in his first taste at NHL action (2.48 GAA, .914 SV% in 44 games), while Ersberg is a fairly reliable back-up as long as he plays about 20 games or so.

Jonathan Bernier is the big question mark this season. He made the Kings out of camp 2 years ago as a 19 year-old but was sent back to Junior to save him from the Kings' porous defense. He has a bit of a track record of pouting when things don't work out for him; his play suffered after he lost out to Steve Mason at the World Juniors a couple years ago and he pouted last year after Bernier didn't make the Kings out of camp. The Kings are fairly lucky because Quick is probably good enough right now while Bernier should hopefully be great in the future. We'll see.

41 Games In: 2,000 Words to Say, "They're OK"

RudyKelly — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:00:09 -0000

LA Kings (14th in West) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (12-19-10, 12th in East)

Record: 17-18-6

Last 10: 4-6

Special Teams: 18.5 PP% (15th), 82.4% (T-12th); 184 Power Play Opportunities, 182 Times Shorthanded

Top Scorer: Anze Kopitar, 32 points

1st Half Most Valuable Forward: Alex Frolov

1st Half Most Valuable Defenseman: Drew Doughty

1st Half Best Goaltender: Erik Ersberg

1st Half MVP: Mark Hardy

1st Half Highlight:

I'm not quite sure how to feel about the Kings thus far. On the one hand, they are a lot better than I thought they'd be. They're on pace to cut their goals against by 40 goals and have made great strides on the penalty kill. They've gotten great performances by 3 rookies this season and managed to snatch a good young defenseman for free. The off-season trade of Lubomir Visnovsky has worked out pretty well and should only look better as the years go by. Terry Murray has been a great hire thus far and has instilled a sense of defensive responsibility that the Kings have never had. Overall, the Kings have exceeded expectations and actually look competitive with some of the best teams in the league.

But I can't shake the feeling that the Kings should have a better record than the one they have right now. Due to a competitive Western Conference, the Kings currently sit in 14th place. (If they were in the East they'd be in 10th.) Their best player (Kopitar) has played poorly for most of this season, they lost their best defenseman (Johnson) in the 2nd game of the season, and their #1 goaltender going into the season (Labarbera) ended up buckling under the pressure.* The problem, of course, is that the Kings have played 2/3 of their games this season at home (27 vs. 14 on the road) and that will flip during the 2nd half. The Kings will get Johnson back and Ersberg & Quick will combine to give the Kings better goaltending down the stretch, but those gains are going to be counterweighed by the tougher schedule. The Kings needed to be about 5 or 6 games above .500 through 41 games to have a shot at the postseason; they aren't, and now they're screwed.

*And I know about pressure; after all, I have kissed a man.

The biggest disappointment so far this season has been the production by the top offensive talent. Look at these projections: do they seem good to you?

Anze Kopitar: 64 points

Dustin Brown & Alex Frolov: 56 points

Patrick O'Sullivan: 46 points

Jarret Stoll: 41 points

Michal Handzus: 34 points

No one's total is anywhere near their career best. Of course, it's stupid to judge the play of a player purely by his point totals (and indeed, Frolov, Handzus and Stoll have all played well this season), but there does seem to be a little growing pain associated with some of the young guys. Kopitar has been the biggest disappointment of anyone so far. The 21 year-old Slovenian has been progressing well on the defensive end, but he looks tentative and insecure entering the zone. It's now well-known that Kopitar likes to take the puck to the outside on the rush and look for a pass through the slot or take it behind the net, and defenses have shut that part of his game down. Last season, he countered that by cutting inside and taking a shot, but this season he hasn't done that. Instead, he's skated a couple feet into the zone and then either flipped the puck to a teammate or shot it into the corner. It's like he's worrying about his defensive assignment before he has even entered the offensive zone. It's great Kopitar is adapting to Terry Murray's defensive scheme, but great offensive players need to know when it's OK to break protocol and go for broke. Look at a guy like Pavel Datsyuk: he's a great defensive player, but he also knows that sometimes it's best to make a move one-on-one and try to score. Sometimes it doesn't work out and the other team gets a good opportunity out of it, but a guy like Kopitar will make up for any deficiencies on the offensive end. I'm not saying he should not care about defense, but he needs to "selectively gamble," I guess. 64 points from a guy with Kopitar's talent is not acceptable.

The Kings' 2 secondary centers are Michal Handzus and Jarret Stoll, and they've done a great job of cutting down opposing teams' shots. Michal Handzus has been the Kings' best forward this season. Handzus has the highest quality of competition on the Kings (according to Behind the Net) and yet has been on the ice for only three less goals against than goals for (18 GA vs. 15 GF). He is the top penalty killer on the team as well and uses his reach and size to block lanes better than anyone else on the Kings. Jarret Stoll has won 56.9% of his faceoffs, good for 9th in the league, and is (I believe) responsible for the improved performance by Kopitar in that area. Neither center is ideal for a 2nd line role, much like Craig Conroy before them, but both are good defensively responsible veterans that set a good example for their teammates. I could see the two of them combined with someone like Wayne Simmonds or Oscar Moller to form an elite shutdown unit in the near future.

The depth guys for the Kings are a mix of youthful exuberance and aging grit. I think we will see more and more ice time for the younger guys (Moller, Simmonds, Boyle, Purcell) as they "earn" their ice time. (I think earning ice time is more about just hanging around for a while so the other guys in the locker room don't think a player is being handed the time.) Terry Murray has made comments recently that make it sound like Purcell and Boyle may finally be up for good, and guys like John Zeiler and Kyle Calder will probably see reduced ice time as a result. It will be interesting to see how the Murray juggles everyone's ice time to keep them happy, but if the problem on your team is that you have too many good young forwards to play then you're doing alright.

Overall, the offensive unit has been subpar in the area of scoring goals but must also be commended for their improved commitment to defense. Last season, the Kings gambled too much and left their defense out to dry an awful lot; this season, it's almost the reverse, where the Kings are too cautious and need to open it up a little bit more. I expect the Kings to score more in the 2nd half of the season as players become more comfortable in the new scheme, but they will probably become more lax defensively as well.

Oh, and Raitis Ivanans has played in every game so far. Stop that.

***

Defensively, the Kings have been good. Not great, not outstanding, but good. They were missing that last season. When Jack Johnson gets back, hopefully they will contribute a little more on the offensive side of the puck and become a great defensive unit. The Kings have been getting good contribution at even strength (they're actually on pace to get more points from their defense than last year's team), but the defensive contribution on the power play has been non-existent. It's the price you pay when you substitute Lubomir Visnovsky and Rob Blake for Sean O'Donnell and Kyle Quincey: better defense, yes, but nowhere near the offensive acumen. That is just something the Kings are going to have to live with for the rest of the season unless, you know, they decide to let Tom Preissing play.

(It feels kind of nice to only write that much about the defense. Last season I think I wrote about 20x as much, and most of it was just, "GODDAMMIT JON KLEMM!")

***

Jason Labarbera... hey, did you know he didn't play that well? Nothing sets fans afire like mediocre goaltending, mostly because the position is zero-sum and hardly anyone has played it. Labarbera has been shipped off to Vancouver, where he is currently playing pretty well for his home territory. Meanwhile, the Kings have been running a duo of Jonathan Quick and Erik Ersberg. The Kings are actually in a pretty good position, goaltending-wise, because both goaltenders are on two-way contracts. The Kings aren't stuck like they were the past two seasons because, 1) they have flexibility if a goalie sucks, and 2) they actually have depth in the minors. Quick and Ersberg are both pretty good goaltenders and both are fighting for their jobs; if either one is poor for any length of time, the Kings can just call up Jonathan Bernier and give him a shot. They could even call up Jeff Zatkoff if they want to, since he's actually older than Bernier and has dominated every level he's been in. The Kings will get occasionally poor goaltending (like they did against the Devils) but overall I'd expect their team save percentage (.898, 24th in the NHL) to go up as the 2nd half continues.

***

The Kings are in the 3rd year of their 5-year rebuild. This is the season that young players begin to contribute and find their way as professionals in the NHL while the team begins to gel as a whole. One good thing about the Kings is that most of the people I hate aren't expected to be with the Kings much longer. Here are the people I can guarantee will be on the team next season:

Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Alex Frolov, Patrick O'Sullivan, Jarret Stoll, Michal Handzus, Oscar Moller, Wayne Simmonds, Ted Purcell, Kyle Quincey, Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson*, Matt Greene, Erik Ersberg

*Unless he gets traded, like Pierre McGuire keeps predicting. Why the Kings would do that, seeing as how Johnson hasn't played all year and would get nothing in a trade right now, I have no idea.

Notice anything? The only player that is currently a meaningful contributor on the team that is not on that list is Sean O'Donnell. All the major contributors on the Kings right now are good young players that will only get better. The only major contributor that is over 30 will be Michal Handzus, and the only ones that will be over 25 will be Alex Frolov, Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene. That's pretty amazing.

Here is how things are going to go the rest of the way:

The Kings will stumble a little bit during the 2nd half of the season and people will whisper that Kopitar and Terry Murray don't get along. The team will trade Tom Preissing and Kyle Calder for peanuts at the trade deadline and get criticized that they didn't make any other big moves to get to the playoffs. The Kings will pick in the 4-7 range in the entry draft and will take a dynamic offensive player like Jordan Schroeder. They will then surprise everyone by signing one of Marian Hossa/Henrik Zetterberg in the off-season and will enter next season ready to compete for a playoff spot. That whole "Kopitar and Murray don't like each other" will go away real quick.

OK, some of that probably won't happen (who would offer peanuts for Tom Preissing?) but it's all pretty reasonable. The Kings aren't making the playoffs this season. No buts, no caveats, they just aren't. However, they are making the strides that will help them win a Stanley Cup one day. The Kings need one more elite player to put them over the playoff hump and I imagine they'll get him, whether through a trade or free agency, next off-season. The Kings may not be very much fun to watch right now, but it's like dating a woman: yeah, you have to listen to her talk ("Oh really? Oprah said that? FASCINATING.") and do stupid stuff (nobody on Earth actually likes bowling) and everyone kind of laughs at you ("What, you would sit through Twilight too if it meant you got laid, don't lie!") but it's all worth it when you finally get to poo on her chest.

(That's how I'm ending this? Yes. Yes it is.)

Prediction: Kings win, 4-1. Goals by Doughty (x4), while Steven Stamkos watches from the press box.

Poll

How would you grade the Kings' performance so far this season?

Terrible

4 votes

Better than I thought

60 votes

Not good, but about where they should be

28 votes

You really need to get a life, Rudy

18 votes

110 votes | Poll has closed