Post by letsgokings on May 17, 2006 21:36:41 GMT -5
The LA Kings have wrapped up the pre season clinching the "conference title" edging out Calgary by two points. Ofcourse you can't read too much into the pre season but LA GM James Wells was thrilled at the dominance they had in the Smythe division. The powerplay looks to need some work but the penalty kill was good enough for fourth in the league. The goals per game was good enough for second in the league with 3.23 while the defense was tied for first in the league with a 2.00 goals against on average. This 2.00 goals against was largely thanks to the Kings league leading ability to stop shots on goal with 24.8 on average getting to the goalie. Further helping was the stellar play of first overall pick Kiprusoff who tied for the league lead in save percentage with .919 while grabbing two shutouts and falling short of only Brodeur in minutes played. Kipper alone couldnt carry the Kings to the joint best record in the league tieing Eastern Conference champs Washington with 29 points and .725 win percentages the Kings had plenty of support on the offensive end Samsonov potting a league tieing 15 goals in 20 games. Captain Brad Richards was third in assists with 19 just one short of leaders sakic and Bertuzzi. Richards added 10 goals with his 19 assists which saw him fall one short of leading the league in scoring (Kovalchuk, 30) his second overall in scoring was good enough for first among centers where teammate Scott Gomez working from the second line was good enough to come up 7th with 21 points. Samsonovs 15 goals went along with 13 assists to end up tied for third overall in scoring. On defense the Kings had two players in the top ten in scoring with Bergeron tied for 4th with 16 points and Stuart tied for 7th with 14 points. These performances have lead to Samsonov and Richards finishing 1st and 2nd in league +/-, Bergeron tied for third in the league while Sykora finished 7th. Sykora perhaps the biggest suprise on the team as he finished 9th in the league in penalty minutes in his 17 games his pre season shortened due to suspension. Big dissapointments although only getting third line icetime were Yashin with 7 points and Leclair with just 1 assist. Dumont could only manage 3 points while Frolov could only score 3 goals but was able to chip in 9 assists. Despite this it appears the Kings have alot to look forward to for this season
