Waking up with the Kings: December 5

It’s easy to think of Saturday’s shootout loss to the Canadiens as another anomalous performance, one in which the strange juju of the Arizona game seeped into the weekend, but really, other than a mix-up up or two in coverage and intermittent loose play, Los Angeles was fine at home and showed good character in battling from an early deficit and improving as the game progressed. Peter Budaj wasn’t at his best, but L.A.’s top players were, for the most part: Anze Kopitar notched three assists and made several strong, subtle plays on the power play, Jeff Carter scored on a laser-guided wristshot and made important defensive plays on the backcheck, and Drew Doughty had a two-point game. The performances from the role players were also representative of the balanced scoring the team has received lately. Jordan Nolan made a strong-on-the-puck play to impressively earn a secondary assist before Nick Shore buried Kyle Clifford’s rebound, and Trevor Lewis was noticeable all over the ice and scored on a impressive backhand after outwaiting Carey Price on an angled breakaway. By the third period, the team’s structure had improved noticeably, even though Andrew Shaw scored the period’s only goal. Four goals should be enough to win a game against the Canadiens, but the Kings had trouble containing Max Pacioretty and a terrific Alexander Radulov, who oozed skill and was extremely difficult to knock off the puck.

The Kings were shut out in three consecutive games between October 29 and November 1, a difficult stretch that included back-to-back road games in St. Louis and Chicago and a home game against Anaheim. Since then, they’ve scored 47 goals over their last 15 games for an average of 3.13 per. As long as the Kings have scored multiple goals during this stretch, they’re 9-0-2. Stats! Anyway, this is impressive because Milan Lucic was lost to free agency, and Teddy Purcell, a player brought in with a moderate offensive ceiling, just cleared waivers and was assigned to Ontario. It’s also impressive because even during this offensive surge, their power play – Saturday’s game notwithstanding – is tied for 24th in the league (though it has cashed in on goals shortly after the expiration of enough power plays to affect both the overall 5×5 and power play rates). Their overall team shooting percentage doesn’t deviate greatly from the mean of the last five years. Considering Anze Kopitar and Tyler Toffoli are yet to hit their seasonal zeniths, his is likely a reflection of the team receiving scoring from a wider net of players. Eight players have already hit double digits in points, and the ninth player, Dwight King, is one point off.

The schedule will ultimately stiffen up for the Kings (see: nine consecutive road games later this month), but since that New Jersey / at Anaheim back-to-back, L.A. has played five games of a seven-in-22. This is a ludicrously relaxed portion of the schedule. By the time the upcoming seven-game road trip opens in Buffalo, there won’t be any excuses for heavy taxation. The Kings have had recovery days – or, in the case of today, a golf tournament in which they don’t get on the ice – on November 21, 24 and 28, and December 2 and 5. This is the most clustered stretch of non-game days that I can remember.