Kings' Stars Leading the Way

With just two games into the regular season, teams are scrambling to make those last minute roster adjustments that were the priority of the pre-season after acquiring players through free-agency, drafting and trading in the off-season. The management, players, and coaching staff understand how important it is to finish off any roster adjustments, send players between the farm league and set up lines that produce. Two points earned at the beginning of a season may lead to the final push for a team on a playoff berth and that is exactly what the Los Angeles Kings, among many others, have managed to do. While only 1 out of 6 other teams who are still holidng onto a 100% winning stat after 2 or 3 games, the Los Angeles Kings are even more impressive because of the way their top players have performed.

First Line Forwards: Tallackson, Bouchard, Axelsson as well as Top D pairing: Carlsson and Ohlund are leading the league in Plus/Minus at +7 and +6.

Veteran defenseman Mattias Ohlund is 5th in points for defense while more impressively, Tallackson leads the league in points and goals with 8 points and 6 assists in 2 games, while his linesmate Bouchard also tied for league lead with 8 points, leads players with 6 assists in 2 games.

These results were far from the expectation of the Kings by everyone's account and it is very unlikely that it will continue to look this way as the season continues, but here is a series of quotations from the LA Kings brought to you by the LA Times Sports Group.

Mattias Ohlund, you are one of the most senior players on this team in terms of length of time in the league but also in terms of being an elite player. What have you noticed about this top line or just the team in general that has created the early success for your team? "Well, it is really early in the season and you just can't really use two games to comment on the season. If I had to make a comment at all, it would be on the cohesiveness of the line. Everyone trusts each other to make the right pass and to get their check. And the most amazing thing is the ability of Tallacky and Bouchy to move the puck around in the offensive zone. They make it really easy for us on the blue line."

As the top right wing on the team Barry, describe how you and your line have been successful in the first two games of the season. Mattias Ohlund commented in an earlier interview about the chemistry of you and Bouchard and how you two make it easy on the defense. "Ollie is just being modest. He and Jonny Carlsson are constantly feeding us with perfect breakout passes and keeping impossible to stop pucks from leaving the zone in the offensive zone. I really can't build up enough the role that Bouchard has played in making our team win. He is such a young player but he is amazing with the puck, and he also is a powerful player who doesn't take any shit in front of the net. But one line doesn't make the team, and everyone has been a part of this early success."

LA Times Sports Group November 4th 2009