COLUMBUS
Chicago Blackhawks Hoodies Womens , Ohio — The last time the Columbus Blue Jackets played the Los Angeles Kings in early November, they were struggling with
consistency.Win one, lose one. Look good one night and bad in the next game.
Fast forward a month and the Blue Jackets still haven’t figured out how to be
more consistent. Article continues below ...After three humbling losses at home
in the last four games, the Blue Jackets will try again Thursday night to start
and sustain a streak of success beginning with the Kings at Nationwide Arena.The
Blue Jackets (16-12-2) and Kings (11-19-2) both experienced tough losses on
Tuesday night.Columbus coughed up 1-0 and 2-1 leads by allowing two goals in the
final minutes of a 3-2 loss on home ice to the visiting Vancouver Canucks.A few
minutes earlier, the Blue Jackets were feeling good about their chances after
forward Oliver Bjorkstrand’s first goal in a month gave them a one-goal lead and
seemingly the momentum.The late collapse came after the Blue Jackets were shut
out on Saturday night by the Washington Capitals after opening a stretch of
seven of eight games at home with a 9-6 loss to the Calgary Flames on Dec.
4.“That’s the rub now is we play the right way but we didn’t get a result,” Blue
Jackets coach John Tortorella said, according to the team’s website. “Can we
stay with our concentration here and stay with the things we have to do? Because
we made some great corrections in our game to get it back to how we should be
playing, but we didn’t get the result.“We have to be able to do it (Thursday)
night and keep on working at that part of it, and hopefully the results start
coming our way.” Los Angeles lost the second game of a back-to-back on the road,
falling 4-3 in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres. The Kings have gone 0-2 on a
four-game trip that ends Saturday night in Pittsburgh and 1-3-1 in their last
five games overall.To make matters worse for the Kings, players keep going down.
Defensemen Drew Doughty and Dion Phaneuf left Tuesday’s game with upper-body
injuries and didn’t return. Phaneuf flew back to Los Angeles for
evaluation.Doughty has played in 360 consecutive games, a franchise record, but
Kings coach Willie Desjardins on Tuesday night listed Doughty as day-to-day. His
absence would be felt.“Not only is he a big-time leader
Chicago Blackhawks Hats Womens , he’s one of the best defensemen in the game, and he eats a lot of minutes,” Kings goaltender Cal Petersen said of Doughty. ” …
losing him, (he’s) a huge part of our team.”Kings defenseman Alec Martinez
didn’t make the trip because of an upper-body injury and was placed on injured
reserve Wednesday. Also sidelined are forwards Kyle Clifford, Jonny Brodzinski,
Carl Hagelin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Trevor Lewis, and goaltender Jack
Campbell.Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin was forced to carry a heavy load,
finishing with 30 minutes of ice time and contributing a goal and an assist
against the Sabres.“Every time he goes out he plays hard and he gives us both
offense and defense,” Desjardins said. “A lot of times guys see him as an
offensive defenseman, but he can do it all and he’s a big guy and he loves to
play, and he’s got such a good attitude around the locker room as well.”An
injury also knocked a Blue Jackets player out of the game on Tuesday. Forward
Josh Anderson is considered as day-to-day with an upper-body injury after he
crashed headfirst into the post.Anderson didn’t practice Wednesday and
Tortorella said Bjorkstrand would take Anderson’s place on a line with Boone
Jenner and Nick Foligno.Sergei Bobrovsky will be back in goal for the Blue
Jackets after getting Tuesday night off. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jonathan Quick and
Anze Kopitar have been teammates since they were drafted together 13½ years ago
by the Los Angeles Kings, so the synchronicity of their milestone achievements
Saturday night just felt right.And though 300 is a nice
Adidas Patrik Berglund Jersey , round number, they were even more excited about a sharp win that propelled the Kings out of the NHL cellar.Quick earned
his 300th victory and Kopitar scored his 300th goal while Los Angeles escaped
last place in the overall league standings with a 4-0 win over the Edmonton
Oilers.The Kings’ captain and their longtime starting goalie were the foundation
of two Stanley Cup championship teams in Los Angeles, where they’ve been on the
NHL roster together since late 2008.A few minutes after Kopitar got his
milestone goal in the third period, Quick finished up his own landmark win along
with his 51st career shutout.“Feels pretty good,” said Kopitar, the fifth player
to score 300 goals for the Kings. “I was hoping it was going to come a little
bit earlier than that, but it’s here, and I’m proud of that. … It’s great for
Quickie. He’s, in my mind, the best goalie in the world. It’s very comforting to
have him back there, and a privilege to play in front of him.”Quick made 16
saves and combined with his defense to end the five-game scoring streaks of
Edmonton stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.“As far as 300 wins, it’s just
a group of guys that I’ve been lucky enough to play with,” Quick said.
“Hopefully we keep going. We want to win some more games. For Kopi
Adidas Vladimir Sobotka Jersey , that’s awesome. He’s more of a playmaker than a goal-scorer, so 300 goals, that’s a lot.”Kyle Clifford, Tyler Toffoli and
Jeff Carter scored during a dominant first period in the Kings’ sixth win in
nine games since mid-December.Mikko Koskinen yielded three goals on eight Kings
shots before Cam Talbot replaced him in the first period for the Oilers.Edmonton
coach Ken Hitchcock castigated his team after its seventh loss in eight
games.“We had one player show up and play,” Hitchcock said. “Darnell Nurse was
our best player by a mile … and that’s all we had. We didn’t compete. Their best
players were their best players. We didn’t compete. This is on everybody. When
you have one player that competes at a high level in a game like this, it can’t
be acceptable. There’s been too much of this go on in the first 41 games. We win
one, and then we take our foot off the gas, and that’s exactly what we did.”The
poor first period was a rerun for the Oilers, who also struggled early against
Arizona on Wednesday before rallying to win.“What has to change for us (is)
we’re a situation-motivated team,” Hitchcock said. “I’ve only been here 20
games, and I see the situation motivates them. We lose, we get embarrassed, we
get motivated
Adidas Scott Wedgewood Jersey , and that isn’t a playoff team. That isn’t a playoff attitude, and we have to change. But this can’t be acceptable. … I
don’t know what it is, but we’ll figure it out.”All-Star Drew Doughty had two
early assists for the Kings, who are on their first sustained stretch of strong
play after languishing at the bottom of the league for much of the season.With
these two points, Los Angeles moved above Ottawa, Philadelphia and St. Louis
while pulling even at the bottom of the Pacific Division with Arizona, albeit
with more games played. They’re small but vital movements for the Kings after a
dismal first half of the season that included the firing of coach John
Stevens.The Kings ranked 30th in the 31-team NHL with only 22 first-period goals
before they got three more past the Oilers.Clifford put the Kings up just 3:15
in when he took a pass at mid-ice, skated around Caleb Jones and flipped in his
sixth goal. Toffoli scored after Doughty kept an Oilers turnover in the zone and
set up the forward for only his second goal in 25 games.Carter then chased
Koskinen with his eighth goal of the season.NOTES: Kings F Carl Hagelin returned
from a 20-game absence with a knee injury. The Swede played in only five games
after Los Angeles acquired him from Pittsburgh in a trade for Tanner Pearson
before getting hurt. … Edmonton RW Alex Chiasson returned from a three-game
absence with a sore knee. … Oilers D Matt Benning was scratched for only the
second time since Oct. 25. He left the road trip to attend his grandfather’s
funeral in Edmonton on Friday. Former Kings D Kevin Gravel took his spot in the
Oilers’ lineup.UP NEXTOilers: At Ducks on Sunday.Kings: At Sharks on
Monday.
