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head coach: Larry Robinson

roster: C - Jason Morgan, Ray Ferraro, Ian Laperriere, Yanic Perreault, Jozef Stumpel, Nathan Lafayette, Roman Vopat. LW - Craig Johnson, Matt Johnson, Luc Robitaille, Vladimir Tsyplakov, Steve McKenna, Dan Bylsma. RW - Sandy Moger, Glenn Murray, Russ Courtnall. D - Aki Berg, Rob Blake, Phillipe Boucher, Garry Galley, Mattias Norstrom, Sean O'Donnell, Doug Zmolek, Jan Vopat. G - Jamie Storr, Stephane Fiset.

injuries: Ray Ferraro, c (knee, who knows, if ever?)

transactions: None to really care about...

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
y-Colorado   82  39  26  17    95  231  205  
x-Los Angeles82  38  33  11    87  227  225  
x-Edmonton   82  35  37  10    80  215  224  
x-San Jose   82  34  38  10    78  210  216  
Calgary      82  26  41  15    67  217  252  
Anaheim      82  26  43  13    65  205  261  
Vancouver    82  25  43  14    64  224  273  

x - Clinched playoff spot
y - Clinched division

game results:

4/09 Edmonton      L 4-0
4/11 Colorado      W 4-3
4/13 Calgary       W 4-2
4/15 at Vancouver  W 2-0
4/16 St. Louis     L 7-3
4/18 Anaheim       L 4-1

team news:

by Matt Moore, Los Angeles Correspondent

Finally, the playoffs. After four years of extra golf, the Kings have finally reached the Promised Land. And it didn't happen soon enough. The Kings have been playing like absolute crap recently, and if the season was a month longer, they probably would have figured a way to blow their playoff position.

So let's start with the real bad, like the Kings' loss to Edmonton. Losing was bad enough, but how they lost was pitiful. The Kings showed almost no effort at all and they were lucky they only lost 4-0. I'm actually coming up blank on how to describe how bad they were, but think of the Tampa Bay Lightning and take away all of the effort.

The good? The game against the Avs. Sure, the Avalanche was in a complete free fall at the time, and they would have had problems against an IHL team, but the Kings came out and actually played the style of game that they need to win. Plus, it was Peter Forsberg's first game in a long time and he played like he hadn't seen a hockey puck in decades.

And the disappointing? The Kings game against the Blues. The Kings tried to play a skating game even though the Blues are a significantly better skating team than the Kings are. Losing 7-3, they showed only a little of the physical play that got them to this point, and it seemed that only the goons were willing to stand up and hit someone, which does not bode well for the playoffs.

In the playoffs the Kings will be playing the aforementioned Blues. Going 0-3-1 in the season series, the Blues were the team that dominated the Kings the most. The Kings played what had to be their worst game of the season against the Blues, losing 5-2 on February 28th, and the rest of the games weren't much better. The Kings need to play a physical style against the Blues, not try and match their speed. They also don't have the overall scoring depth that the Blues have, so defense must be the first priority.

A big question mark going into the playoffs is the play of Stephane Fiset. Rock solid most of the year (and easily the team MVP) he struggled at the end, giving up 33 goals in the last 9 games. Most of the goals can be attributed to the crappy play of the players skating in front of him, but he seemed to lose the knack of making that one big save that kept the game in reach and allowed the Kings the chance to win. If he continues to struggle, don't be surprised to see Jamie Storr get a few starts.

The monster that is Fox and Rupert Murdoch continues to march on Los Angeles like Godzilla did Tokyo. After completing the purchase of the Dodgers, Fox has turned its eyes toward the Kings, Lakers and the new arena that is being built in downtown LA.

Fox agreed to join in on the costs of building the new Staples Center, which will cost about $300 million to build and is scheduled to open in the fall of 1999. Also, Fox has secured an option to buy a 40% stake in the Kings and also a 10% stake in the Lakers. The only bump in the road to dominating sports in the LA area is the NHL rule that forbids its owners from being invested in more than one team. Fox is currently a 20% owner in the Madison Square Garden, which owns the Rangers and Knicks.

In addition, the Clippers have also signed on to play at the new arena, which will make it the first sight to have three teams based in it.

Final bet update: The bet between myself, Michael Dell, and Zippy has finally ended. The Kings finished with less points than the Penguins. I lost. Sigh. Now I have to send Delly money, and I know he's just going to waste it on rice. But I can at least take heart in the fact that the Kings finished with a pretty darn good record and I think surprised both Dell and Zippy, who probably picked the Kings to finish with the worst record in the league. But here are the final standings:

Penguins        40      24      18      98
Kings           38      33      11      87

So, the Kings only finished with two less wins than the mighty Pens. I can live with that.

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