After being dealt to the Edmonton Oilers, Patrick O'Sullivan was confused and shocked. Before the game against Los Angeles on Tuesday night, O'Sullivan played 16 games with Edmonton scoring 1 goal, 4 assists, -6 rating and 12 penalty minutes. Although we can't judge the Williams-O'Sullivan-Cole trade until next season, once are 3 players go through their respective training camp and get to know their teammates better.

Having lost to the Flames on the previous night, the Kings came out hungry against the Oilers. Alexander Frolov tallied his 31st goal of the year 0:55 seconds in the game. 2 minutes later, Wayne Simmonds scored his 8th goal, and his officially on a 2 game scoring streak. The lone scorer for Edmonton was Fernando Pisani, meaning O'Sullivan has only scored 1 goal in 17 games with only 4 assists. The final score was 2-1 for the Los Angeles Kings.

The healthy scratches for LA were Derek Armstrong, Kyle Calder, Oscar Moller, Kyle Quincey (back surgery), Jarret Stoll (injured), Corey Elkins. These were the line combinations:

Frolov-Kopitar-Williams/Brown-Handzus-Simmonds/Richardson-Boyle-Purcell/Ivanans-Harrold-Zeiler

Doughty-Drewiske/Johnson-O'Donnell/Greene-Gauthier

Although the Kings are eliminated from the playoffs, they came out and spoiled the party for Edmonton. Jon Quick had a tremendous game, stopping 38 shots and his record is now 20-17-2 with a SV% of .913 and GAA of 2.50. He really does look like he's going to be the goalie of our future and Kings fan hope so.

Aziz “AK47″ Khalil

Crown Authority

In the 2003 NHL entry draft the Los Angeles Kings had 3 picks in their first round. With the 13th pick overall they selected, now captain, Dustin Brown. The 26th pick ended up being Brian Boyle and with the 27th pick Jeff Tambellini was selected. Tambellini was later traded to the Islanders with Denis Grebeshkov (now with the Oilers) for Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel. Now what happened to Brian Boyle? Last season he put up 4 goals and 1 assist in 5 games in 8 games when this year he has the same numbers but in 24 games! It's clearly evident that his offensive game is lacking and head coach Terry Murray always seems to be on his back and pushing to forecheck and backcheck harder. With Boyle being a restricted free agent this summer, he might be apart of a package to acquire a big name sniper (Kovalchuk, Heatley). When he got called up from Manchester last week, Brian Boyle had to prove that he belongs with the Kings and that it would be a mistake to deal him away..

Last night the Kings were hosting the Phoenix Coyotes and Brian Boyle possibly played the best game of his career, scoring 2 goals and really making a case that he belongs in this young organization. Los Angeles ended up destroying Phoenix 6-1, where Alexander Frolov had 2 goals, Justin Williams and Anze Kopitar had a goal and 2 assists each. Although the Kings won't make the playoffs this year, a lot of these kids want to make a statement to the coaches to prove to them that they should deserve to stay in LA and will play hard in training camp next year to crack the lineup. The Kings will travel to Calgary on Monday. 

As per www.nhl.kings.com:  The Los Angeles Kings have signed free agent forward Corey Elkins to a one-year entry-level contract, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Tuesday.

Elkins, 24, finished with a team-leading 18 goals and 41 points (18-23=41) in 42 games during his recently completed senior season at Ohio State University. The 6-2, 215-pound native of West Bloomfield, Michigan also finished with 18 penalty minutes and he shared the team lead with a plus-24 rating. He led the Buckeyes to a record of 23-15-4 and a berth in the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (OSU was eliminated from tournament play last weekend). 

In four seasons with the Buckeyes, Elkins – a three-time Ohio State Scholar-Athlete, two-time Academic All-Big Ten choice and 2007 Coaches Award winner for hard work and determination – recorded 60 points (27-33=60) and 40 penalty minutes in 102 career games with the Buckeyes. 

My take on this is that it's a very good signing for multiple reasons. The Los Angeles Kings scouting department and Dean Lombardi have done a wonderful job with signing undrafted free agents, look at Davis Drewiske, Peter Harrold, Teddy Purcell, all guys who are playing in Los Angeles momentarily and now Corey Elkins. He's practicing with the team and soon will be playing. He brings size to our forward position, which we lack, hence the Justin Williams for Patrick O'Sullivan trade. Corey Elkins is 6'2″ and 215 lbs. I can see him battling the likes of Trevor Lewis, Teddy Purcell, Brian Boyle, Justin Azevedo, Matt Moulson and others. Kyle Calder, Derek Armstrong, Denis Gauthier and Tom Preissing are all guys that will be let go this upcoming off-season, meaning there will be 4 open spots, and one of the defenseman spots will be most likely taken by Thomas Hickey, captain of the Canadian junior team during the tournament this winter. He was recently called up to the Kings AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, since his season is done in the WHL. Another player that will fill one of the voids will be a UFA acquisition. Los Angeles Kings fans are hoping Dean Lombardi goes after one of the 3 big goal scorers, Martin Havlat, Marian Gaborik or Marian Hossa. We don't need more defenseman, since our back end is pretty solid, maybe just another veteran Dman.. sign him for a year to be a bridge player for a guy like Voynov to come up, or Martinez, Campbell or even Teubert. Doughty, Johnson, Greene, Quincey, O'Donnell, Hickey and.. Drewiske? Oh and Corey Elkins will sport number 47, making him already one of my favorites!

Aziz “AK47″ Khalil 

Crown Authority

As per www.nhl.kings.com:

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have signed free agent forward Corey Elkins to a one-year entry-level contract, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Tuesday. 

Elkins, 24, finished with a team-leading 18 goals and 41 points (18-23=41) in 42 games during his recently completed senior season at Ohio State University. The 6-2, 215-pound native of West Bloomfield, Michigan also finished with 18 penalty minutes and he shared the team lead with a plus-24 rating. He led the Buckeyes to a record of 23-15-4 and a berth in the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (OSU was eliminated from tournament play last weekend). 

My take on this signing is that it's a good one and Dean Lombardi has a nice track record for undrafted free agents that he's signed, look at Teddy Purcell, Peter Harrold and Davis Drewiskie. All kids under 25 years of age that are all playing for the Kings right now, and Corey Elkins will most likely join soon. He'll wear number 47, so already he is one of my favorites, but in all honesty, he's a big boy at 6'2″, 215 lbs, giving us size at the forward position. With guys like Kyle Calder, Derek Armstrong, Denis Gauthier and Tom Preissing expected to be let go this summer, you can see Elkins battle for one of four spots. Thomas Hickey, captain for the Canadian junior team, is also expected to battle for a roster spot next season, as he has just been called back to Manchester, since his season is over in Seattle. The big talk is what we'll be doing this off-season. The Los Angeles Kings fans expect the Kings to be active in looking for a proving big name goal scorer, and there are really only 3 available, Martin Havlat, Marian Hossa & Marian Gaborik.

Aziz “AK47″ Khalil

Crown Authority 

After losing against the Chicago Blackhawks this afternoon, all Kings fans are starting to realize that the Kings have flat out given up on their playoff hopes. They played an amazing game against Boston on Thursday night, where they made a come back and won it in overtime. Then visited the Pittsburgh Penguins, where newly acquired Justin Williams made his Kings debut, hoping to maybe give his team a spark.

Evidently there wasn't much he can do, and Los Angeles ended up losing the game 4-1. Drew Doughty was the lone scorer for the Kings against the Blackhawks, while Patrick Sharp scored 2 for Chicago and Martin Havlat likewise. After today's game, Los Angeles sits 7 points out of a playoff spot with 10 games left.

The Los Angeles-Chicago game was supposed to be televised nationally on NBC, but I got the word last week that the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh game would be televised on NBC instead. I personally find that such a slap in the face, since the Kings are rarely ever televised nationally. Everyone's getting sick of always watching the Eastern Conference teams and always seeing Sidney Crosby play. Don't hockey fans ever want new teams to watch on the “Game Of The Week”? It's always the Rangers, Flyers, Penguins, Boston, Washington etc. Do you ever see San Jose, Chicago or Los Angeles ever play nationally? No. It's very unfortunate that the fans don't get to see how much talent there are on the other side of the grass. All they see is Crosby, Crosby, Crosby, Ovechkin, Crosby, Crosby.. It's unfortunate that the country never gets to see guys like Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson. 

This may not be the year for the Kings to make the playoffs, but their not far away. Next year will be a make or break year, because if this playoff drought is not broken, you can expect shakeups in the management. I praise Dean Lombardi, but there's only so much he can do. Drew Doughty, Wayne Simmonds and Oscar Moller have been really big surprises this year. As a matter of fact, Simmonds and Moller's emergence this year was one of the reasons O'Sullivan got dealt. You can expect big things from the Kings next year, with the Canadian junior team's captain Thomas Hickey possibly cracking the lineup on defense, or maybe a big signing coming in the off-season. Marian Hossa? Marian Gaborik? Martin Havlat? Those would all be astonishing pick ups, because one aspect the Kings lack is scoring, and adding a proven 30-40 goal scorer would help tremendously. I might be hyping this off-season too much, but it will be a very big one for the Kings. I can see us drafting a guy like Jordan Schroeder, he would be a nice fit.

Go Kings Go

Aziz “AK47″ Khalil 

The Los Angeles Kings were hosting division rival last night, the Dallas Stars in an epic game that will stick to both these teams' minds forever. The Kings had pulled of a deal at the deadline, sending Patrick O'Sullivan and a second round pick to Carolina for Justin Williams in a 3 way deal that also saw Erik Cole go back to Carolina for Patrick O'Sullivan and the 2nd rounder, who went to the Oilers. Then Edmonton used that 2nd pick to acquire Ales Kotalik from Buffalo. Justin Williams is currently on IR.

After a scoreless first period, the Dallas Stars just exploded, scoring 3 straight goals in the 2nd period, goals from Louis Eriksson, Mike Ribeiro and rookie James Neal. 3 minutes later, the Kings cut the lead to 2 with a goal from Michal Handzus on the power play and soon after Alexander Frolov scores his 27th goal of the year. Right before the end of the period, the Stars went back up 2 goals when Steve Ott put the puck past Erik Ersberg, who let 4 goals on 19 shots in 2 periods.

Erik Ersberg got pulled and Jon Quick came in for the 3rd period, where the come back began. At 16:42, Handzus slims the lead to 1 on a 5-3 power play, with his second of the game, and with 15 seconds left in the game, Anze Kopitar ties the game. In the 1st minute of overtime, who other then Handzus, with his 2nd career hat trick and 14th goal of the year, wins the game for the Kings with his deadly wrap-around, which he used against the Ottawa Senators to win the game too. Zeus' deadly wrap-around! This win puts the Kings 5 points out of a playoff spot, and is only their 2nd home win in the last 9.

Now let's talk about the O'Sullivan-Justin Williams deal. Some people might scratch their heads, asking themselves “what is Lombardi thinking?”. This is the way Dean Lombardi looks at this deal… Justin Williams is a proven 30 goals scorer with a Stanley Cup ring. He brings size to our winger position, which we lack, and is still young, 27 years old. He's a leader in the locker room and will help the young kids, like Trevor Lewis, Teddy Purcell, Matt Moulson, Wayne Simmonds, Justin Azevedo and Oscar Moller develop. Patrick O'Sullivan is a hell of a player, he's got the assets to be a 30-35 goal scorer, with his incredible skills and smooth skating. Lombardi somewhat contradicted himself when he pulled this deal, since he mentioned that this rebuild would mean not ruining our core, and Patrick O'Sullivan was supposed to be one of those “core” players. He had a great relationship with Kopitar and Dustin Brown, seeing colossal time on their lines last season. O'Sullivan held out at the beginning of the season because of a contract dispute with the Kings' management, which is one of the possible reasons for this deal. O'Sullivan never went into the corners and was rarely getting his nose dirty. Unfortunately life moves on, so do the rest of us, we all wish him the best in Edmonton and hopefully the trade won't backfire on any of the teams. Williams will play on the first line with Frolov and Kopitar once he comes off IR, but in the mean time, Terry Murray and Dean Lombardi will be asking big minutes out of Oscar Moller and Teddy Purcell.

Go Kings Go

Aziz “AK47″ Khalil, Crown Authority