Still a work in progress

The Kings’ third line generated perhaps the most important goal of the game Wednesday night. Carolina had taken a 2-1 lead on Eric Staal’s breakaway goal with 2:14 remaining in the first period, but Michal Handzus tied the game with nine seconds remaining, after Wayne Simmonds tossed the puck to the net and Alexei Ponikarovsky got a close-range deflection.

Still, coach Terry Murray has high expectations for the line, and Murray wrinkled his nose a bit when asked about that line’s play — and Ponikarovsky’s play in particular — against Carolina. Remember, it was also just a few days ago that Murray publicly called out Simmonds for his play…

MURRAY: “The line can be better, and it can be better very quickly if we get the puck in and get the forecheck going on a consistent basis. This is the way teams are playing. We’ve played Vancouver twice, Calgary, Atlanta — and I mentioned this after that game — they scored the first goal and they pulled back with a 1-4 (look) basically at their blue line. There is no room to operate. There really is not a lot of playmaking ability through the middle of the ice right now, in this early part of the season, because of the structure of defensive teams.

“Their mindset is, we’re going to protect our own blue line, and if we’re going to try to force plays that are not there, then the transition is going to come right back at us. That’s where we have to — and talking of Zeus, Poni and Simmer in particular — they have to get the puck to the goal line. That’s a big-bodied line and we need to have the speed to go get the puck. If it’s not chipped early, the speed is not there. Get it early, get it deep, keep your speed, recover pucks, play physical, play hard on defensemen, and now you can get a cycle going and they can be one of the best lines in the league, in cycling, if they’re going to manage that and do the right things, early, in the neutral zone.”