Kings look to respond to deep Blues offense

As the St. Louis Blues erased a two-goal deficit on Tuesday night, one emerging star figured prominently into the comeback: Vladimir Tarasenko, who entered the night with 17 goals, matched his season highs with three goals and four points, and recorded the tallies to get St. Louis on the scoreboard and to put the home team ahead for good.

When the home-and-home series shifts back to Staples Center tomorrow evening (7:30 p.m. / FOX Sports West), he’s going to be one member of an effective line and a deep offensive team that the Los Angeles Kings will have to closely heed.

“The one thing is he skates really well and is shifty,” captain Dustin Brown said of Tarasenko. “Where the game is going, he’s the type of player who is going to find a lot of success in years because you can’t really slow a guy down like that like you used to be able to. His skating ability is what allows him to do everything else he does with the puck.”

His first two goals came off wristshots, the first on a blistering attempt from the slot that beat Jonathan Quick high glove; the second was threaded between Quick’s glove and left pad. He added an empty net goal to punctuate the 5-2 win.

It is expected that he’ll be reunited with his regular linemates on Thursday. Because T.J. Oshie missed the game due to personal reasons, Jaden Schwartz skated opposite Alexander Steen on David Backes’ line. On Thursday, Oshie could return to the top line, which would place Schwartz opposite Tarasenko on Jori Lehtera’s line.

A portion of Tarasenko’s improvement this season can be traced to the addition of his former KHL teammate in Lehtera. The two played with Sibir Novosibirsk in 2011-12.

“Schwartz has played primarily with Lehtera and Tarasenko, and Lehtera and Tarasenko have a history together – a really good history of playing together prior to the NHL – and I think that Lehtera should be getting as much [credit]. It’s not about an individual. It’s clearly not. If it was about an individual, then we’d have individuals that would be jumping out at you. It’s about guys that can play together and be successful. The way St. Louis is set up now, they bring Stastny in. They have the Backes line and a Stastny line and a Lehtera line, so Tarasenko can slide right in there. It looks good.”

The Backes line had combined for six goals and 12 points in the four games in which it was intact prior to Tuesday’s win. St. Louis has won five straight and ranks seventh in the league with a 2.94 goals-per-game average — though the Blues haven’t held an opponent to under two goals over the last 14 games.

Apart from any tactical approach is the emotional response the Kings will be looking for after playing a pair of strong road periods before Tuesday’s game unraveled during a three-goal, two-minute and 30-second stretch in the third period.

“I think if you’re not excited about playing tomorrow after what happened in St. Louis, then we have bigger issues,” Brown said. “As a player, for me personally, I’m excited that we get to play them again, especially the way they beat us and how the third period transpired last game.”

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