Game 26: Kings 4, Coyotes 0

That's more like it.

For the second time in three games, Jonny Quick registers a shutout, to lift the Kings over the Coyotes. It was like night and day watching these two teams go at it for the second time in two days. The Kings were back to their gunslinging ways, opening fire on Bryzgalov, who let in three goals in the first.

Alexander Frolov scored his second goal in the second period, and everyone kept looking for Fro in the third.

• AP:  Quick makes 30 saves for second shutout

“You always want to get the first goal in this game,” said Kings coach Terry Murray. “We tried to come out hard, we got pucks on the net and at least gave ourselves the opportunity for the first goal.”

• Yahoo: Team report

    After Friday night’s loss to Phoenix in which the Kings slumbered through the first two periods, then played a brilliant third period only to fall 2-1, Murray, typically calm and patient, displayed some frustration with his players.
    “You can’t play a game in the NHL and play only 20 minutes and expect to win,” Murray said. “Those days are done. You have to come and play right from the beginning. You have to play 60 minutes of hard, intense and very heavy hockey, and in the first two periods we were not going, we didn’t have it.”

They said it

“It’s a great feeling. It shows the coach’s confidence in you. That’s a great feeling. I’m just trying to help out and do what I can to keep the team in the game.”—Kings rookie goalie Jonathan Quick, on being allowed to start games on consecutive nights.

Looking through purple-hued goggles

• The Royal Half: Back to back to Quick

    Erik Ersberg traveled with the Kings to Phoenix and should be ready to dress for the next game. With the Christmas trading freeze ending Saturday at midnight... does Jason LaBarbera start packing his bags or are the Kings going to carry 3 goalies for a while? Is Dean Lombardi actually thinking of handing over the starting goaltending job to this guy? He looks like he's 12!

• Frozen Royalty: Redemption In The Desert: Kings Shutout Coyotes, 4-0

From the other side of the ice, the Phoenix view

• One Fan's Perspective: Nothing gained...

    I can quite understand the difficult travel from Edmonton to Denver and squeezing out a point in a very difficult circumstance. However, this back-to-back series is quite different. They traveled from L.A. - an hour flight, a five hour drive (well, if one is lucky) - and they lay a huge fat egg. Maybe it’s a time zone issue because like, they lost an hour of sleep…

• Hip Checks: Now that the disappointment has worn off...somewhat.

    And yes, I am really liking Quick as a goalie. He is still young, but it seems like he has what it takes to be the Kings starting goalie. He's had 2 shuouts in 8 NHL games. Impressive. He doesn't seem to give up a lot of big rebounds either. He may be the last piece in the Kings puzzle.

Kings-related news

• Union-Leader: Monarchs Insider: Monarchs not California dreamin'

    With Fresno folding, the Monarchs' chat board on ahlboards.com was humming with the back-and-forth of a possible move by the Monarchs. A swap of affiliations with Ontario since the West Coast ECHL is collapsing? It would hypothetically work like this. AHL Monarchs to California and the ECHL franchise to Manchester.
    "Who are we going to play against?" asked LA Kings assistant general manager Ron Hextall, who doubles as the Monarchs GM. "It's not feasible to think that would work. People don't understand that this whole American League to the West Coast has been talked about for 12-14 years now. You can't just walk into an East Coast League building and take over with an American League team. If people think you could bring four or five American League teams out West they're wrong."

Peeping the dailies