Wearing a
gray Los Angeles Kings sweatshirt, Jeff Carter walked into an interview room
downstairs at Staples Center having passed the requisite physical, two hours
shy of his first puck drop as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.
"Coming in
to this team,” Carter said, “it’s a team I told Mike [Richards] when he got
traded here that ‘you know, you’ve got a heck of a team, you’ve got a chance to
win here,’ so I’m excited to be a part of it. We’ve got a lot of work to do
ahead of us. I’m excited.”
Admitting
that “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t
a little bit nervous,” Carter acquitted himself fine in his first 17 minutes
and 16 seconds as a King, taking four shots — one of which he ripped off from a
sharp angle on the right wing during his first shift that forced Chicago
goaltender Corey Crawford to make an awkward save.
It was exactly as Richards had described it
the previous day.
“It’s a quick release, it’s usually
on net, so I think it surprises a lot of goaltenders,” Richards said of
Carter’s shot.
Instead, it
was a King with his name involved in hazy trade scenarios who made the biggest
impact in Los Angeles’ 4-0 shutout, Jonathan Quick’s league-tying seventh of
the season.
Dustin Brown
recorded a natural hat trick as part of a four-point night, showing that recent
reports pegging him as a potential trade target have not deterred his focus or
determination to plant the Kings firmly in the playoff picture in the West. The
team he captains finished the night tied with Dallas and Colorado with 68
points but without the tiebreaker and ninth in the conference. Los Angeles
travels to play in Nashville on Monday (5 p.m. on FOX Sports West).
“I’ve been a
King my whole career and I expect to be a King beyond the next few days,” Brown
said. “… It’s my responsibility to prepare myself the best I can and tonight
felt good."
It was an
effort that drew the praise of coach Darryl Sutter, who oversaw one of the
club’s strongest 60 minutes of hockey of the season. The Kings scored on four
of their first 10 shots.
“He was going to the net,” Sutter said of
Brown’s play. “Really good. I think that when he was taking shots
that’s where he was going; not across or anywhere else, just straight that
way. That’s the type of player he is.”
For Carter,
it’s another turn in a season in which any idea of consistency has been
difficult to grasp.
“I went in
[to Columbus], felt pretty good in the preseason, was starting to kind of get acclimated
with everything — linemates, new team, whatnot — and I break my foot. I’m out
four weeks. I come back, start to get going again a little bit more, and then
I’m out with a shoulder injury. It was real up and down, a lot of time to sit
back and reflect on things.”
“I think
since I’ve been back from my shoulder, I’ve started to play some pretty good
hockey. I’m hoping to carry it over here.”
Denying that
he had asked for a trade from Columbus, the three-time 30 goal scorer with a
career high of 46 easily understood his role on a team that ranks last in the league with 2.08
goals per game, saying “I kind of figured that out pretty quick.”
“You look
up and down their lineup, they’ve got some great players,” Carter said before
the game. “I obviously just got here, so I can’t really comment on it, but I
think it’s just a matter of time before the bounces start going their way and
pucks start going in the net.”
NOTES: Carter, on his first impressions of the
team’s systems: “[The Kings’] defensive game is so
structured where everybody’s on the same page making simple plays ... It makes a big difference. It’s pretty easy to jump with the other guys.” … Brown’s hat
trick was the third of his career and part of his third career four-point
night. It was the first Kings hat trick since Anze Kopitar’s three goals in a
4-2 win at Columbus on March 11, 2011.
… Quick’s seventh
shutout of the season moved him within one of the franchise’s single season
record, set by Rogie Vachon in 1976-77. It was Quick’s second shutout of
Chicago this season. … Los Angeles is 17-0-2 when scoring
three-plus goals in a game.
