Waking up with the Kings: December 9

It’s always a treat when the Carolina Hurricanes visit Staples Center and Dieter Ruehle dusts off Brass Bonanza, the Hartford Whalers’ unofficial anthem, for the only time of the year. He did so twice on Thursday – once as part of his doors-opening medley, and once again in the first period before segueing into a Go Kings Go riff. Sadly, the musical accompaniment was the only highlight on a night in which the Kings, who had been off since Sunday, played as if they had just woken up from a long nap. Their top players made little positive impact in the game, their top defensemen were visible in goals against, and their goaltender allowed three goals on 18 shots as a tightly structured Hurricanes team relied on an effective counterattack that scored twice off the rush and once more on missed defensive coverages. Carolina is not a particularly compelling team to watch, but that does not make them a “bad” team; their overall record will improve from this point out as their home games (10) catch up to their road games (17) and they get players like Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm back. They’re among the teams that stand players up at their own blue line, and on Thursday, Los Angeles’ impact players weren’t engaged enough to fight through the smothering, structured, tight-checking and shot-suppressing play.

(Harry How/Getty Images)

(Harry How/Getty Images)

The Hurricanes also played well at Staples Center early in the 2015-16 season but fell by three goals as the Kings relied on one of Jonathan Quick’s standout performances of the season on a night they were outshot 40-28. This year, L.A. isn’t getting bailed out and is yet to win a game in which their goalie steals them one. With the 15-of-18 performance in net, Los Angeles’ team save percentage dropped below .900 and, tied for 27th in the league, looks up at teams like Toronto and Winnipeg. It must have been a frustrating night for Jeff Zatkoff, who was looking to build off his performance in Arizona and perhaps earn a greater share of the starts in net but received no run support and was unable to make stops on the high-grade breakaway and two-on-one looks. Teams can win with inconsistent goaltending, however; St. Louis, tied with Los Angeles with an .899 save percentage, is 15-8-4 and in second place in the Central Division despite a negative goal differential. Philadelphia, which owns the league’s worst save percentage at .893, has won seven straight.

(Harry How/Getty Images)

(Harry How/Getty Images)

Regardless of what colors you’re wearing, it’s always cool to see journeymen-type players succeed in their NHL opportunities, and Derek Ryan, who entered Thursday with three goals in 19 career games, added an additional two. This is a player who, since his overage WHL season in 2006-07, played in the UHL, Canadian Interscholastic Sport, the Austrian EBEL – where he was nearly a point-a-game player with Hungary’s Szekeshfehervar Alba Volan HC in 2011-12 – and the SHL before joining Carolina’s AHL affiliate last season. These are always fun stories. I’m not sure if the Kings or their fans found it particularly amusing, considering he scored as many times in one night as Los Angeles’ captain has scored all of this season. Anze Kopitar had strung several standout performances together in the past two weeks, but with no shots on goal and having been on the ice for each of Ryan’s goals, Thursday night’s game was not a continuation of that trend. Drew Doughty has been off, and he was beaten by a 22-year-old fellow Guelph Storm alum when he was unable to deny a pass from the corner or get in position to alter the shot from Brock McGinn, who had entered the evening with 31 NHL games to his name.

(Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images)

(Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images)

Carolina’s primary beat writer doesn’t travel on the road to the West Coast, so there won’t be a links post today; for more coverage on the visitors, check out stories from NHL.com and Canes Country.

(Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images)

(Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images)

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