News Clips 12-2-17 FROM LA KINGS INSIDER: were awesome to sign off on. I’ll share that with you at the appropriate time. December 2, 2017 Practice day! Will we see the whites of Torrey By: Jon Rosen Mitchell’s eyes? We’ll find out at the United Center Good Morning, Chicago at 1:00 p.m. local time. Enjoy your weekend, Insiders. It’s a beautiful morning in the Windy City. Good morning, Insiders, and good morning, Chicago. December 1, 2017 Not a bad schedule, this. Hastened by a 7:00 p.m. By: Jon Rosen local time start, we were out the doors (err, loading December 1 Postgame Notes dock) of the Scottrade Center at 10:20 yesterday and up in the air just before 11:00 p.m. We touched -With the win, Los Angeles improved to 76-99-26 down at Midway before 11:45, and after leaving the all-time against St. Louis, a record that includes a field, arrived at the team hotel with enough time to road mark of 28-62-12. Including playoffs, the spare for a nightcap. There were a few bloggers and Kings have won 21 of the last 31 meetings between media types congregating at the sleekly renovated the teams. Both teams are 1-1-0 in the head-to-head lobby downstairs. Not enough time to make a quick match-up with one remaining game at Staples run to Rush Street, but, hey, it’s a Saturday off- Center on March 10. night in Chicago, and the world is our oyster. The only time we visited last year was on the second -With the win, Los Angeles improved to 4-5-3 night of a back-to-back. ALL HAIL SCHEDULOR. versus the Western Conference, 1-2-1 versus the Central Division, 7-1 in three-goal games, 8-2-0 So! A little bit of personal and site news. I’ve taken when scoring first, 6-2-0 when leading after one on some additional broadcasting responsibilities period, 9-1-0 when leading after two periods, 7-5-1 outside of the organization, and the first assignment when outshot by their opponent and will be coming up next weekend. I’ve been given a broadcasting package to call some NCAA hockey -With the win, the Kings improced to 9-3-1 away by the Big Ten Network, and my first game will be from Staples Center. Their 19 road points are tied next Friday’s match-up between Notre Dame and for the most points through 13 road games in club Wisconsin at the Kohl Center in Madison. This history (third time, also 1999-00 and 1980-81). The requires a sign off from the Kings, and they’ve been nine wins is also tied for the most road wins through incredibly kind to allow me this opportunity, the first 13 games in team history (second time, also because I’ll be missing some games here and there. 1980-81). In the immediate future, I won’t be present for Thursday’s game versus Ottawa and Friday’s -By outscoring St. Louis 1-0 in the third period, Los practice day. My return flight to L.A. is scheduled Angeles has now outscored their opponents 33-12 to land at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, so I’ll likely miss the in third periods this season. morning skate in advance of the Carolina game as well, but hopefully there will be a gate available for -The Kings scored the first goal of the game, ending us at LAX and I can rush back to TSC and cover the a six game streak in which they allowed the first end of that day’s media availability. There will be a goal. The last time they scored the first goal was in guest poster for the days I’m away, so the site won’t the 4-0 win over Florida on November 18. go Sports Center during a Y2K compliance test. More about this next week. -Los Angeles leads the NHL with a .931 save percentage. San Jose ranks second at .927. I’ll also have another broadcasting package to announce in a few weeks, which, again, the Kings -Adrian Kempe finished with a +1 rating and leads have been playing at home, it’s really nice to get a all NHL rookies with a +13. Defenseman Robert win. Hagg of Philadelphis ranks second at +11. Toffoli, on the mindset coming in after losing to -The Kings attempted 42 shots (28 on goal, 9 the Blues earlier in the season: blocked, 5 missed). The Blues attempted 70 shots I think we all expected them to come out like they (40 on goal, 15 blocked, 15 missed). Vladimir did last time so we were ready for it. So all in all it Tarasenko finished with a game-high six shots on was just a really good effort by our team here. goal, while Drew Doughty, Alex Iafallo and Dustin Brown tied with a game-high four shots for L.A. Toffoli, on if there’s any significance to being atop the Western Conference right now: -Los Angeles won 25-of-58 faceoffs (43%). Adrian I mean, obviously it’s a cool feeling. But after the Kempe won 2-of-7, Anze Kopitar won 12-of-25, start we had, we know how quickly things can kind Jonny Brodzinski won 0-of-1, Nick Shore won 5-of- of slip away a little bit. I think we did a good job of 10, Trevor Lewis won 0-of-2, Dustin Brown won 1- finding our way to come back and win some games of-2, Nic Dowd won 1-of-3, Jussi Jokinen won 3- here and kind of get ourselves back on a roll. We’ve of-6 and Tanner Pearson won 1-of-2. just got to stay focused on doing those little things and just be consistent with our game. -Lead photo via Scott Rovak/NHLI Darcy Kuemper, on the team’s effort: Took the entire roster and it’s going to every time December 1, 2017 you play a good team like St. Louis, but we really By: Jessi McDonald brought it tonight and got rewarded with the result. December 1 Postgame Quotes: Toffoli, Kuemper Kuemper, on limiting both Washington and St. Tyler Toffoli, on winning both games on the Louis to a total of three goals: back-to-back: It just shows what kind of team game we play. The I think we just had a really good start. I mean, we commitment we got out of the roster from the first know how it feels when you kind of get in a hole guy to the last guy—everyone’s on the same page early games and we did a good job of not doing that and we’re playing for each other and it really shows and we were ready to play tonight. on the ice. Toffoli, on whether the third period was one of Kuemper, on making the most of his the best they’ve had on the road: opportunities: Yeah, we were solid. We rolled lines, just did all of I was excited to get the challenge to play against a those little things right, and definitely contained team like St. Louis. You know, you don’t always them. Obviously they had some chances and Darcy get those opportunities so I was excited when I made some big saves, but I think it was just a really found out about it. And I think our whole team was good road win here. and really got up for it and wanted to prove something out there. Toffoli, on getting three goals in the last two games: Kuemper, on the first period: Yeah, well I wouldn’t really count last night as a I thought it was a pretty well-fought period. goal (laughing). But yeah, I guess they all count. Obviously getting out of there with the two-nothing Honestly, I just really kept my speed, good breakout lead is a great spot and we wanted to go out and win on the first goal and then on the other one Pears the second. Got out of there with a tie and got a made a really good play. I was low in front. So to be huge fourth goal in the third and we were able to able to get the two goals, it obviously feels good for shut it down from there. myself, but at the same time the way these guys Kuemper, on how losing to the Blues earlier this playing time: season affected the pre-game mindset: We feel good about the schedule, the way it’s been Yeah, you could kind of tell when we got to the rink for Jonny. I mean, our goaltending’s been excellent it was on guys’ minds. Guys were talking about it. all year, and if you look at the schedule, I don’t You never want to lose to a team twice in a row and think Jonny’s been in a situation anywhere where we were really aware of that tonight and really he’s been overplayed. I thought that Washington came to play. game was a really hard game because we had a lot of zone time, and that’s really hard for a goalie with traffic, and we had pegged this game for Darcy. December 1, 2017 Darcy’s really done a good job of getting ready to By: Jon Rosen play when he’s called upon.