Waking up with the Kings: May 7

-Dustin Brown spoke on Monday morning about Darryl Sutter being excellent at “getting that emotional level where it needs to be for individuals and the group,” a characteristic relied upon by the Los Angeles Kings in a resilient 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues in Game 4. Sutter isn’t one for the “sexy rah-rah” stuff or waxing poetic about intangibles, but the shared experience gained from having won a Stanley Cup a year prior certainly didn’t hurt the Kings in a game in which they dug deep to engineer some offense when staring in the face of imposing deficits, whether in the form of a two-goal Blues lead or a potential three-games-to-one series deficit.

-The game could be viewed as an offensive explosion considering the nature of the series, but it really wasn’t – at least from Los Angeles’ defensive perspective. The Kings gave up very little. There was a power play goal off a deflection and a pair of odd-angle goals off caroms and rebounds that fell directly into the path of net-crashing forwards. L.A. was fine defensively otherwise and was outstanding in its own end during a third period in which it did not allow any shots in the first 11:09 and the final 2:59 of the period. For the second straight game, the Kings allowed practically nothing when Brian Elliott was pulled.

-Alec Martinez has been used as a more effective wild card in this series than Vladimir Tarasenko, who didn’t record a shot in the five minutes and 51 seconds of his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut. Martinez was nearly sprung loose for a breakaway early in the first period when he once again wisely picked a spot to activate himself before a potential outlet pass from Dwight King was blocked. Instead, he waited nearly three-quarters of the first period before making a profound impact as he was the trailer in some three-on-one string pulling in which Dustin Penner converted the tic-tac-toe sequence by shifting into high gear while driving to the net to open up the final passing lane. That’s now two points in as many games for Martinez, who has rewarded Sutter’s confidence with quality minutes and offensive production.

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