Welcome back.
A little late (thank/blame the Olympics, the Angels, the Dodgers), it's time to restart the online hockey notebook -- hopefully a weekly endeavor, but we'll see how that goes with other time demands, etc. Not sure if it will be an every-Tuesday event or if it's going to float around; for now, I'd suggest checking in on Tuesdays (if nothing else, I'll try to tell you when to come back) and watching for the note in the print edition.
As was the case last year, the focus will be on the Kings and Ducks.
Anyway, here's the first installment.
Stunning, and not in a good way: Never mind the final score. The most significant thing about the Kings' 4-3 loss to Colorado on Monday may have been the crowd. There wasn't one.
Since Staples Center opened on Oct. 17, 1999 with a Bruce Springsteen concert, I'd estimate I've been in the building hundreds of times. I have never seen it emptier than it was for this game.
At a guess, it was less than 40 percent full for the opening face-off, which would put the attendance under 7,250. This being L.A., fans kept trickling in for a while thereafter, but I'd be hard-pressed to believe there were as many as 10,000 people on hand. We'll never know, of course, since the announced attendance of 13,891 is based on tickets distributed, not tickets used. (Even though, you know, the term "attendance" should indicate the number of people who actually attend.)
Yes, the economy is bad. But still, it's jarring to see this few people at a game. Since moving to Staples, the team has averaged better than 16,000 every season, regardless of how good or bad (OK, mediocre or bad) it may have been.
So is it strictly the economy? Is the formerly loyal fan base sending a message that it's been turned off by one too many price increases, and one too many seasons out of the playoffs? Or, more likely, is it some combination of those factors?
And perhaps more to the point, what if anything can the team do about it?
Based on early returns, it appears tracking the Kings' attendance is going to be as significant as tracking the results. So far, those numbers aren't good. After selling out the home opener, they had an announced 14.451 for last week's game with the Ducks, which used to be an automatic sellout. Up next at home (next Monday) is Detroit, another team that historically has been good for a full house.
As for actual hockey ...
Growing pains: An 18-year-old playing in the NHL is going to have some growing pains, but the highs and lows are rarely going to come as dramatically as they did in a six-minute span for Kings rookie defenseman Drew Doughty.
With 3:28 to go in the second period, Doughty was absolutely undressed as part of a highlight-reel goal by Colorado's Ryan Smith (I'm sure it's already up on YouTube) that gave the Avalanche a 4-2 lead.
"It hit my foot first and went back to him," said Doughty, the No. 2 pick overall in this year's draft. "So it was kind of a lucky bounce on his part. But I still have to be taking the man in that position. So it was partly my fault but definitely a lucky bounce for him."
But 2:25 into the third period, Doughty scored his first NHL goal to cut the lead to 4-3.
"It was awesome," said Doughty. "It was so good to finally get that goal just to give me that boost of confidence. After that goal, I was more in the play and rushing the puck a little bit more, and so it was really good.
"Obviously it would have been better to win the game, but it was really good to get that first one."
Murray was pleased with Doughty's resilience.
"After a tough goal against there in the second period, on what ends up being the winning goal, he had no (ill) effect whatsoever," said the coach. "Just a great effort on that goal to show poise and handle the puck and come in off that left-wing side with a great shot."
He wasn't the only Kings player to get his first NHL marker. The first Kings' goal of the night was by rookie center Oscar Moller, who's much, much older than Doughty -- all of 19. He banked his in from a bad angle off Colorado goalie Peter Budaj.
"It was only a matter of time before these young guys were going to get their first goal," said Murray. "And it's great to see it happen so early in the season, quite honestly.
"Moller's goal was a veteran play, throwing the puck to the net. You never know what's going to happen. It's the right play when you make that kind of play. But it's usually an experienced guy who ends up doing it."
Not sure how they're going to celebrate their first goals, but champagne is not going to be part of the plans. Well, not legally, anyway.
Shouldering his burden: The good news for the Kings at Monday's pregame skate was that Jack Johnson was on hand. The bad news was that his left arm was in a sling, and you won't be seeing the defenseman back on the ice any time soon.
Johnson is on the mend after surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, suffered in the Oct. 12 game with San Jose.
"I knew right away there was a problem," Johnson said. "Like any other stubborn athletes, I said, I'll go out and hopefully it will go away, and kept playing. And I knew it wasn't working for me, so there was no point in pushing it this early in the season, or this early in life, so I packed it in for the night."
And then some. Johnson said the doctors have told him to expect a three-month recovery period.
"Hopefully I'll be back sooner than that," he said. "My foot" -- a fractured right foot that caused him to miss the last seven games last year --
healed quicker than they told me it would heal, so I'm hoping my shoulder will be the same case."
The surgery fixed more than just the torn labrum, he said, calling it a "tune-up ... (I) had stuff repaired that happened to me previous years, in college and juniors, and it turned out to be something that was well needed. And I'll be better for it in the long run, better for it in three months because my shoulder will be pretty much on a clean slate again."
Quincey's case: Johnson's injury led to the acquisition of defenseman Kyle Quincey off waivers from Detroit. The 23-year-old made his debut Friday against Carolina, logging more than 21 minutes and collecting an assist in a 4-3 win. That had him back in the lineup Monday night.
"You know, the game was really good the other night," coach Terry Murray said before the game. "There's some area that he gets a little bit of that pressure-up kind of a look, and it put a little stress on us. I think there was one on the 4-on-4 where he got caught in the offensive zone, trying to make a play, but overall, his composure with the puck, his breakout, his handoffs, his vision on the ice is very good. And he has a bit of an edge to his game on the physical side of it, so I'm going to keep going with him right now."
The 23-year-old Quincey, a fourth-round pick by Detroit in 2003, averaged better than 120 penalty minutes in three seasons with Detroit's Grand Rapids (Mich.) AHL affiliate. He came into the season with 13 career NHL games over three seasons, one goal, four penalty minutes and a plus-minus of minus-3. Monday night, he played 25:47 and was plus-1.