Waking up with the Kings: October 9

After a more toned down banner ceremony than that which celebrated their 2012 Stanley Cup, the Kings returned to the ice with a whimper in a home loss in which their emotional involvement did not represent the necessary step forward from what was summoned during the preseason. There will inevitably be parallels drawn between this game and the 2012-13 opener against Chicago. Neither game constituted anything close to the club’s best effort, and even down to a micro, anecdotal level, the Kings fell behind by an odd-angle first period goal in both games and trailed 4-0 in the second. But while the pre-game pageantry will obviously be cited as a factor in the team’s shortcomings, they faced outstanding competition in both games. Really, any impact from the ceremony is just an excuse and doesn’t acknowledge the fine performance from the visitors, who played a smart, simple and mostly mistake-free game, killed off all Los Angeles power plays and relied on a strong performance by Antti Niemi in net. When these teams met in San Jose for a meaningless game last week, the Kings gave the impression that they were the more prepared team to start the season. “They’re ready over there, and we’re going to have to open up our season against them in seven or eight days. We better get going,” Logan Couture told reporters that night. Mission accomplished.

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This is a slightly tinkered Sharks roster than the one that blew a three-nothing series lead to Los Angeles last spring and bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. Tyler Kennedy, James Sheppard and Raffi Torres – three players who held important depth roles – are out with injuries, and when I looked at a projected San Jose lineup that included a third line of Tye McGinn (36 games of NHL experience), Chris Tierney (NHL debut) and Tommy Wingels, I saw a significant advantage in Los Angeles’ depth, should that line match up against Dwight King, Mike Richards and Justin Williams. Though those lines didn’t always see the ice at the same time, the complete opposite occurred. McGinn, Tierney and Wingels were all plus-two on the evening, with Wingels scoring twice, and King, Richards and Williams were all minus-two, with Richards winning only 2-of-15 faceoffs (though many were waged against Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton). Tierney was especially impressive in his debut performance. The 20-year-old former second rounder was dangerous in the first period, generating a pair of quality-ish chances early, splitting the Kings’ defense and getting taken down on a borderline-non call, and then drawing a slashing penalty on Jarret Stoll. The former London Knight won four-of-eight faceoffs. 19-year-old rookie defenseman Mirco Mueller was poised in his debut and showed an ability to quickly advance the puck in transition.

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Last night’s Kings performance didn’t deviate far enough away from the typical, early season slop fests that are often seen around the league in the first week of the season. They were only shorthanded four times, though one of those situations came as the result of one of those stick fouls that tends to irk Darryl Sutter, and another followed an unnecessary neutral zone tripping call against Clifford that was well sold by Wingels and led to a Patrick Marleau goal that doubled the visitors’ lead. Shortly after Marleau’s goal, a miscommunication between Williams and King on a winnable and clearable puck equidistant from the two wingers led to hesitation on who would play it, and the Sharks capitalized by maintaining their zone time and drawing a Richards boarding call at the end of the shift. This happens. It’s early season hockey. It was a poor performance, but after a one-game sample size it’s not as if we’re all going to be wearing our Concerned Faces.

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It will be interesting to see how Brayden McNabb continues to progress. He was placed in awfully difficult situations alongside Drew Doughty, who only had three games of preseason action himself. Again, this was a one-game sample size, and McNabb, who is penciled in as a seventh defenseman, was thrust into 23:27 of ice time and saw heavy usage against one of the most dangerous top-six offensive units in the league. Sutter said “I thought he was really good early, and I think it wore on him as the game went on,” and there’s no reason to disagree there. Evaluations based on one-game sample sizes are meaningless, and it will be interesting to see how McNabb develops after showing steady progress from early in the preseason through Frozen Fury. If there’s anything that can be learned from last night, it’s that there is a big gap between the cadence of play and the emotional level needed to succeed between the preseason and the regular season.

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