Waking up with the Kings: December 3

There was a lot to like about the Kings’ exciting and tense 2-0 victory over the Bruins on Tuesday. They jumped out to a first period lead and surrendered fewer than two goals. They used an extended though unsuccessful five-on-three power play as a momentum conduit. They dominated puck possession against one of the league’s top possession teams for the first 32 minutes of the game. They didn’t allow a power play. They received a superb performance in net by Jonathan Quick. They weathered Boston’s inevitable late-game push and defeated a very good team. The positives far outweighed the negatives (not enough bodies to the net on the power play, the third period), and the crisp performance earned the club a win in an appropriate response to the sloppy performance against Chicago on Saturday.

The advanced stats won’t necessarily show it because a good percentage of their shot attempts were taken while on the power play, but the Pearson-Kopitar-Carter line was the most dominant line on the ice Tuesday night. Considering the repeated call for the Kings’ top players to emerge as top players, this is a welcome development while Marian Gaborik is on the mend. Tanner Pearson was the team’s best forward; he was dangerous and operating at a high speed for much of the game. Los Angeles drew the front end penalty of their five-on-three advantage during extended zone time when Pearson moved his feet and out-hustled Kevan Miller to a loose puck. The penalty came during a period of heavy Los Angeles pressure – they took nine shots on the two-man advantage and 12 out of 13 total shots in the middle part of the period – and Pearson eventually cashed in by finding available ice and slamming a deft Anze Kopitar feed through an open seam past an otherwise excellent Niklas Svedberg.

Don’t overlook the Kings’ ability to keep their opponents off the power play. The Bruins are struggling to find offense – Tuesday’s game was the ninth time in 10 games they failed to score more than twice – and giving a scuffling offensive unit additional opportunities on the man advantage in a one-goal game would have raised the Shootout Probability Meter significantly. Los Angeles didn’t have to raise its streak of eight consecutive successful kills, and given that the team has dealt with inflated penalty minute totals over the last two seasons, Monday’s performance (and the four total power plays allowed over the last three games) is clearly an encouraging trend. A stick tap once again goes out to Dustin Brown, who has taken one minor penalty in the last 15 games and has a Kopitar-like four penalty minutes on the season.