The kill takes a hit

It’s fairly easy to be confident that Brad Richardson will be a capable fill-in for Alexei Ponikarovsky. It’s even plausible to think that the Kings’ depth on defense will lessen the blow in terms of the loss of Willie Mitchell. But there’s one area in which, collectively, the loss of Mitchell and Ponikarovsky might be felt most: the penalty kill. The Kings entered today’s games with the NHL’s second-most-efficient penalty-kill unit, and had killed more than 90 percent of their penalties this season. Mitchell and Ponikarovksy were both big parts of that unit, and now the unit will be challenged to maintain its strong play for at least the next four weeks.

MURRAY: “Other guys will get an opportunity to step in and play. Again, it’s just one of those things that happen, unfortunately. Both have been real important players in all situations, but the penalty killing in particular. They’re a big part of it. So I’m not sure what we’re going to look at, in Ponikarovsky’s case, with Zeus. That’s usually the first pair that goes out. We might end up with Kopitar there. I really like the way Kopi has been killing penalties this year. We might just get those guys on the ice for the faceoff and leave them, and then make the adjustment from there.”