Waking up with the Kings: January 4

It’s not a point that will sit well with the Kings, but Los Angeles’ 7-6 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators Saturday afternoon at Staples Center will probably endure as the best single point the Kings earn all season. You trail 5-1, you create high wire tension out of the absurd and force the Elias Sports Bureau to scramble, and, most importantly, earn a point in a game in which you trailed by three with 2:01 to play, that’s a good point. Most of everything other than the final 2:01 of the third period leaves a foul residue, but the Kings salvaged something out of a game that 999 times out of 1,000 is unsalvageable, and from the outside that’s more satisfying than your garden variety one-point game.

How the teams got there is an issue that won’t sit well with either coach. For the Predators, it was an example of the removal of the foot from the proverbial gas pedal. For the Kings, it was a poor start that infected the early stages of the game’s development. Los Angeles has now been outscored 37-30 in first periods this season, and after Matt Greene’s shot snuck past Pekka Rinne under a minute into the game to signal that this would not be An Ordinary Saturday Afternoon, the Kings struggled with the Predators’ ferocious two-man forecheck for the remainder of the period. Nashville hemmed Los Angeles in its own zone for the first 10 minutes of the game and after disrupting their ability to exit their zone freely, the Preds created turnovers, won puck battles and attacked, attacked, and attacked some more. The Kings played a very good hockey team with a deep defense and a top-10 offensive unit, and Nashville – much like it did against Toronto in a 9-2 November win – had its energy and focus in the early stages of the game unmatched. “Nobody came into prepared to play a good team in our conference,” Dwight King said afterwards.

Yesterday’s game was a symptom of the loss of a second pairing defensive unit from the team’s roster. Gone are Willie Mitchell (to Florida), Robyn Regehr (to injury, temporarily) and Slava Voynov (indefinitely) as well as the ~20 minutes per game they contributed. Alec Martinez (whose grasping of additional responsibilities has been among the brightest developments of the first half of the season) and Matt Greene (who has been fine) have been an excellent third pair over the previous three seasons. But now they’re a second pair, and a combination of Jeff Schultz, Jamie McBain and Brayden McNabb (who have combined for 63 regular season and playoff games with the Kings) occupy the third pair. The team’s struggles aren’t as much intangible as they are due to personnel, and as Darryl Sutter has reminded us, this is a different team this season. If anything, the intangible championship demeanor and behavior is very much still alive and well, and evident in the comebacks registered in each of the last three games. The Kings still have cockroach blood in them.

Seven goals. You don’t win many hockey games in which you give up seven goals.