Game 26: Kings 3, Blue Jackets 0

Jason LaBarbera follows up last night's disappointing shootout loss to the Oilers with an inspired shutout victory over the Blue Jackets. Well, maybe not that inspired. After all, he only faced two shots in the first period.

Huh? Two shots? Yup yup. After allowing 13 shots in the first against the Oil, the Kings locked down the Jackets and held onto a first place tie with San Jose for the least shots against average. Not that the Kings were doing much shooting themselves. They could only muster three shots themselves. You can imagine the excitement coursing through Staples Center witnessing such high-octane action.

At least the second was a little more peppy, as both teams stepped up the shooting. Wayne Simmonds finally lit the lamp for his second goal of the season. And Kyle Calder further cemented his status on the top line by scoring his third goal. As much as I wish Calder wasn't on the top line, he's really not going anywhere anytime soon.

Anze Kopitar potted an empty-netter, giving him a goal and an assist on the game. But the star of the game was LaBarbera.

According to the AP story: “The thing was, I didn’t feel like I was playing that bad before. I just wasn’t getting the results,” he said. “The biggest thing was just keeping my head above water and not getting too down on myself. Now it seems like it’s turning the corner and pucks are bouncing my way.”

Yeah, about those bouncing pucks. Early in the season, LaBarbera was a magnet for the puck, not allowing any pucks to escape. But just as the Kings are slowly allowing more shots per game, Labs' ability to hold on to those rebounds is getting a little more lax. I'm no coach, but my guess is it would be better if both trends started to reverse back to early in the season.

• AP: LaBarbera, Kings shutout Blue Jackets

• LA Times: This time, a Kings lead is good to the end

    "The first period might have been one of the most boring NHL periods I've ever seen," said goaltender Jason LaBarbera, who was called upon to stop only two shots in that first 20 minutes and 23 overall in earning his fourth career shutout and second this season. "You do what you have to do."

• LA Times:  Sean O'Donnell carries heavy load for Kings

    The 37-year-old veteran averaged 21 minutes, 23 seconds' ice time over the first 25 games, a workload Murray tried to lighten by allowing O'Donnell to skip a practice last week. Before Saturday's game Murray said the strain had shown "a little bit here in the last couple of games, yeah. Probably more than he's played in quite a few years."

• Yahoo: Kings team report

    Anze Kopitar scored an empty-net goal to clinch the victory, and also recorded the 100th assist of his career on LW Kyle Calder’s second-period goal. Saturday’s game was Kopitar’s sixth multi-point game of the season (a team high) and the Kings have a 5-1 record in those games. Kopitar now leads the Kings with 21 points.

They said it

    "We played very well against the supposed upper echelon teams, and nothing against Los Angeles, but they're not San Jose, and we come in here and we don't play like we did in San Jose [a 3-2 loss] and we lose." – Columbus defenseman Mike Commodore

Looking through purple-hued glasses

• A Queen Among Kings: Snoozefest 2008

    Even though this was a win, it started out as just about the most boring hockey ever. The first period was a little painful to stomach actually. I wasn't necessarily fighting sleep, but the brain cells that help me to function on a daily basis were slowly melting with each passing minute. Funny enough, the Kings outshot the Jackets three to two in the first frame. Let me repeat that. The Kings had 3 shots on net and the Jackets only had 2. Unbelievable.

• The Royal Half: Slow and steady wins the race

    Staples Center was empty tonight. Absolutely empty. They didn't even announce the total attendance. NHL.com had the total at 15,235 but it was nowhere close to that. There were no lines at concessions and Bailey simply handed out free tshirts instead of throwing them to wild mobs. Maybe it was because of the John Mayer concert next door but it seems that there definitely were better things to be doing in Los Angeles on this Saturday night.

• Inside Hockey: Memories as long as necessary

    Patrick O’Sullivan perhaps said it best about learning and forgetting, “It’s both [remembering what they did right the night before and forgetting what they’d failed to do]. There was no way we were going to let this game get away from us. We talked about it this morning, we talked about it before the game, and we talked about it again before the third period, so we definitely had some urgency. Last night didn’t end the way we wanted it to, and neither did the previous two games when we had a lead. The importance of doing all the little things and not even giving them a chance to get back in the game. We have to figure out exactly how that feels and learn and see the results.”

• Frozen Royalty: Kings End Winless Streak Against Columbus

From the other side of the ice: the Columbus view

• The Columbus Dispatch: Jackets go down quietly in first shutout of season

    If the Blue Jackets are to make the playoffs, the logic goes that teams like the Kings will have to be left behind at some point soon. But last night's loss allowed Los Angeles to jump the Blue Jackets, who now reside in 13th place in the Western Conference.
    Not that the standings will matter much longer if the Jackets have too many more clunkers like this one.

• Puck-rakers: Game No. 26

    I've been saying this for months now, but these Kings are a very talented club. They have their deficiences, but if you allow them to outwork you, you're in for trouble. That's what happened tonight. They won every battle.

• Light the lamp: Kings crown Jackets

    Credit to the Kings.. they capitalized on their chances and shut the Jackets down. They kept them on the perimeter all night and they looked the best I've seen them in years defensively.

• Bethany's Hockey Rants: Snoozer

    The Jackets always play up or in this case down to their opponent.  The San Jose game?  Yeah, we should have won that.  The Kings game, we played down and got shutout, and there is nothing that I hate more than shutouts, especially since...well that season that I refuse to talk about.

Kings related news

• The Sporting News: These Kings care

 "A lot of the players who have been here the last few years are really hungry," Murray said. "There have been 18 games that have been one-goal games either way going into the third period. ... That to me is an indication that they really care and they're working hard and battling."

Upon further review