Kings wanting, needing a better start against Panthers

Roughly 16 hours following the Los Angeles Kings’ 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals and the post-game discussion over the club’s emotional involvement on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Kings returned to the ice at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida as they prepared for Thursday’s game against the Florida Panthers.

While there were still calls for raised emotions – “Start getting hungry and angry and pissed off a little bit,” Jake Muzzin said – there was also a more tactical bent towards the areas the team would like to see tightened up.

“Maybe a little more work and not relying on skill and just start getting to the dirty areas and the nice goals will come,” Muzzin continued.

Perhaps the emotional level can rise earlier in games. As noted earlier today, Los Angeles has been outscored 46-36 in first periods this season, and they’ve been forced to chase games often enough that it may begin to be wearing on them.

Trevor Lewis said that the team, once again, will be focusing on a strong start when taking the ice against Florida on Thursday.

“Start like we finished last night. I mean, the last five minutes we were all over ‘em,” Lewis said. “We’ve got to come out like that. It seems like, for whatever reason, we’re just kind of lackadaisical at the start and everyone is kind of on their own page. We need to get on the team page and everyone come together and use that five men [group] all over the ice and close support.”

The Kings have trailed during the run of play at some point in 17 of the last 21 games. Of the four games in which Los Angeles did not trail during the run of play, they lost three of them – the two overtime losses to Calgary and the shootout loss to Anaheim – and defeated Toronto, 2-0.

“We need to start with [the lead] instead of, it seems like, in the third period we’re always playing how we’re supposed to play instead in the first and second periods,” Lewis said. “Then we’re giving up leads, especially on the road. It’s no way to play, especially in this league. Chasing a lead is too hard. We’ve got to start that way and come out strong.”

They’ll face resistance from a team that will also be looking to get off to a better start: the Panthers, 4-2 winners over the Metropolitan Division-leading Islanders on Tuesday, have been outscored 39-29 in first periods this season.

Darryl Sutter, on whether having to battle from behind is catching up with the team:
I’m only looking at it from when we came back from the All-Star Break. That’s the only way I look at it. The Chicago game was back-and-forth. The Boston game was back-and-forth. It wasn’t like fighting from behind at any point. Somebody’s going to score the first goal. That’s not fighting from behind to score the next goal. It’s the two and three that become a problem both ways always, and I know that this year in the league, there’s been more of that, so it’s been sort of made a big deal about it, but it is hard. Especially the deeper you go into the schedule, it gets harder.

Jake Muzzin, on the team’s emotional involvement in recent games:
Chicago was a good game for us and that’s the way we need to play and that’s the way we have to get back to playing. It was only two games ago, but we got away from it and we have to get back to that. That’s how we’re successful. What makes us successful is when we play like that.

Muzzin, on whether the lack of emotional involvement is an underlying issue or a one-game occurrence:
It’s tough. The grind, the long season wherever you have it. We just have to get more emotionally involved and start caring a lot more and working a lot harder. We’ll have wins that way.

Trevor Lewis, on the coaching staff’s message to the team:
Well, I think not only the coaching staff but our leadership group in here is strong. I think the message kind of comes from them first and then that comes from the coaching staff. I think all of us in here, we need to pick it up and get back to playing our game.