Waking up with the Kings: March 26

It wasn’t the most pristine win of the season, and players on both teams may have been battling their own depleted gas tanks as well as each other, but two points are two points, and the Los Angeles Kings snuck out of Washington D.C. with a character come-from-behind victory after erasing two two-goal deficits and finding a way to win an emotional affair against a team battling for its postseason right without any real margin for error.

Articulating this well in her story for the Los Angeles Times last night, Helene Elliott wrote:

Every sign pointed to the Kings losing to the Capitals on Tuesday, and they could have trotted out the cliched but reasonable excuse of lacking energy at the end of a back-to-back sequence on the road, against a team desperate to make the playoffs.

They didn’t settle for a respectable defeat.

And that’s dead on. The Kings have little in the way of tangible benefits to gain from the final 10 games of the season. They haven’t earned that “X” next to their name in the standings, and the pesky Phoenix Coyotes can be seen through the rearview mirror, though they’re a virtual playoff lock. SportsClubStats.com puts their chances at finishing third in the division at 98%. Intangibly, they’re playing to get their game to where they want it to be at the start of the postseason. For the second straight night the Kings faced a team that had more to gain than them, and for the second straight night they found a way to win an emotional road game in a challenging environment.

Whether it’s the ability to hit the proverbial “reset button” or his switch back to his more natural right side, Dustin Brown has been a much different player since returning from the Olympics, even if he’s had to miss a pair of games and battle through some nagging discomfort. With a goal and an assist last night – to go along with seven shots on goal and six hits in his finest performance of the season – he now has four goals, nine points and a plus-four rating in his 12 post-Olympic games. In addition to his point production, his contributions to set the wheels in motion for Los Angeles’ first goal were worth commending. After Jaroslav Halak denied his 13-foot wristshot 34 seconds into the period, he made a hit on Patrick Wey along the right wing boards, followed it up with a hit on Dmitry Orlov in the corner, and while providing pressure behind the Capitals’ net drew a tripping call on Joel Ward. On the ensuing power play, Mike Richards slid the rebound of an Alec Martinez shot past Halak to get the Kings on the scoreboard. Though the Kings struggled at the game’s outset, their performances early in the second and third periods were very good.

Marian Gaborik hadn’t thoroughly distinguished himself through the first 40 minutes of Tuesday’s game, but the release he displayed in snapping the puck past Halak from the left circle after receiving a slick feed from Tyler Toffoli is an example of the added skill Kings received when they traded for the goal scorer. Gaborik attempted eight shots, four of which were on net, through the final 45 minutes of the game and put forth a fine third period effort. He logged 21:30 of ice time last night, so it won’t be surprising if he takes the option at today’s practice.