“That’sone of the dirtiest hits in the game,” Murray said. “That’s beenaddressed at the league level and that’s why the referee called a gamemisconduct.”

    "It'sjust a dirty play," said O'Donnell. "We talk about the players nothaving respect and why are there so many concussions. He didn't have todo that. He plays hard, he's not the brightest guy, he runs around alittle bit."

    Allof the Kings' last five games and 10 of their last 11 have been decidedby one goal, and in the five games they have lost, small mistakes ledto big setbacks.

    DrewDoughty had trouble sleeping Tuesday night, knowing the announcement ofCanada's Olympic hockey team was due early Wednesday. When exhaustionovertook him he was out so cold he missed the call telling him he hadmade the roster for the Vancouver Games, getting the news only afterTeam Canada executive Doug Armstrong reached out a second time.

Hoursbefore the game, Drew Doughty, the Kings' 20-year-old, second-yeardefenseman, was named to Canada's Olympic team, the youngest player onthe roster.

"We'restill learning. We've made some great strides," said O'Donnell. "We'regoing in the right direction. And we're doing good things. We stillmake great plays. The last (step), going in the right direction, is notbeating ourselves."

    "Idon't know.We're going down for the puck and I'm reaching around tryingto get thepuck. He doesn't even think about the puck. You be the judgeif that'sa dirty hit." – Anze Kopitar on Dion Phaneuf's cheap shot

You were very upset with coach Sutter on the bench, pointing fingers. Can you tell us what you were telling him?
    “I was saying Happy New Year.” –Terry Murray, on his exchange with Brent Sutter.

    Ithought we played a good game. Maybe we didn’t get too manyhigh-quality chances either. It was kind of like a playoff game. Lotsof hits, lots of (bad) feelings out there. We have to learn how to winthese games, because this is how it’s going to be from now on, if wewant to be a playoff team." – Erik Ersberg on the tight defense in the third period.

Around the Kingdom

• The Royal Half: Coach fight!!!

    Itdidn't matter that the icing was waved off at the last second. DionPhaneuf was not going for the puck. Anze Kopitar was. But when Phaneufcrushed Kopitar into the boards... the puck was nowhere near the play.Even though the icing was waved off at the last second, Phaneuf shouldhave been aware of NHL Rule 81.1.

    RyanSmith, who was left off the Canadian Olympic roster, hasn’t scored inthe 4 games since his return. He hasn’t helped his old scoring partnerAnze Kopitar either who has scored only 2 goals in his last 22 games.Dean Lombardi might be re-thinking that 6 million dollar a yearcontract. Having Teddy Purcell there hasn't helped either. Dean, thetrade freeze has passed... PULL THE TRIGGER ALREADY!

    Don’tget me wrong. Purcell is not playing well. But remember how old RobertLang bounced around and was one of those (Purcell-ish) fairly bigbodies with lots of skill but with something missing supposedly untilhe found himself on Jagr’s wing and the all of the sudden he’s got600-700 points in the NHL. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.Kopitar is supposed to Jagr-up Teddy. Because Kopitar is the 6-7million dollar man. He’s our Jagr.

    Obviouslythough, the Kings still haven't figured out how to win in Calgary. Let'shope that's not a problem come playoff time. Or, let'shope they canstart winning some games soon so there are even playoffgames to worryabout.

    Notevery Kings stunk up the ice tonight. In fact, all things considered,this was another loss that probably should have been more exaggeratedif not for some superb efforts by Ersberg, Parse, Simmonds, Moller,Drewiske and most notably, Richardson, who played one of the best gamesI’ve seen from him with a crown on his chest. I already know as many ofyou read that last sentence, you saw ‘Ersberg’ and ’superb’ in the samesentence and have already screamed in your head or elsewhere “but whatabout Conroy’s goal?!”

    Phaneuf was handed a major for boarding and a game misconduct, andKings defenceman Sean O’Donnell was given a double minor for roughingin his attempt to exact a pound of flesh.
    Kopitar, who was the NHL’s leading scorer a month into the season, was booed for the rest of the game.

    "Itwas a foot race for a puck and they waived the icing off. We're bothgoing in hard to battle for the puck and that's all I'm going to sayabout that," Phaneuf said.

    Diongot a 5 minute penalty thanks to the acting job by Kopitar. Replaysshowed a play where two players chasing towards into the boards readyto fight for the loose puck; this kind of play happens 50 times aperiod. The difference seemed to be both Kopitar's embellishment andPhaneuf going for the man too soon and not angling towards the puck.

    TheFlames were well ahead by most measures before Conroy scored theeventual GWG, but nearly two full periods of "shell mode" put themunder water in terms of shots and possession by the end of the game.

    Aftergiving up an early goal just 15 seconds into the 2nd period, the Flamesgot a lucky bounce as Kings goalie Erik Ersberg ventured out to playthe puck. He fumbled around with it until it landed on Craig Conroy'sstick. For the love of God, anybody but... HE SCORED! HE SCORED, HESCORED!! Craig Conroy freaking sniped that one on the empty net for hisFIRST of the season. Gotta love him!