Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Play Harder Is The Motto For The Los Angeles Kings

10/13/2015 at 8:50am EDT

from Helene Elliott of the LA Times,

An 0-2 start is no reason to panic. But for the Kings, who finished two points behind Calgary last season for the third Pacific Division playoff spot, losing to San Jose and Arizona reminded them of the potential consequences of letting points slip through their gloved fingers.

"I think everyone understands in here that we haven't played very well in these first two games," team captain Dustin Brown said. "And a lot of it has a lot to do, especially in the first game, with our compete level, and that's unacceptable to have a low compete level.

"There's one thing since I've been here — even when we had those bad teams, we always played hard. And that's been addressed over the last couple days."

Brown said they didn't need a team meeting to reinforce the urgency of hitting stride soon and avoiding the trap they fell into last season, when they thought they'd make their annual late push and sneak into the playoffs. That was the feeling around the NHL too, that the Kings would go on a run and get in and wow, wouldn't they be dangerous.

Fine in theory, but they never made that run.

continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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