Waking up with the Kings: February 25

Credit also goes to the penalty killing and defensive zone coverage, but the base of the Los Angeles Kings’ 1-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday was built by an excellent 10 minutes to start the game. Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik found themselves on a two-on-one 23 seconds in, one of several odd-man rushes the Kings generated. Still cycling through forward lines, the Clifford-Shore-Nolan line picked up where it left off from Saturday’s game by operating with the puck in the offensive zone as Nick Shore drew a holding the stick penalty on Drew Miller. 21 seconds into the ensuing power play, a Jake Muzzin shot doubly deflected by Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams beat Jonas Gustavsson up high to provide the night’s only goal. Never mind that Marian Gaborik hit the crossbar on a Grade-A chance off a rush shortly thereafter; there were no woulda-coulda-shoulda moments in a game in which Los Angeles stormed out of the gates and held on, thanks to the team’s perfect penalty killing performance and Jonathan Quick’s denials of several high quality opportunities – including a third period glove save of Gustav Nyquist’s Grade-A chance from the slot.

Detroit Red Wings v Los Angeles Kings

When the Kings were in an uncomfortable if not dire situation following the loss at Florida nearly three weeks ago, it was perfectly clear what they would have to do to firmly insert themselves into the heat of the playoff race: they’d have to rattle off an extended winning streak, and they’ve done just that. Los Angeles has now won eight consecutive games – one off the club record, established in 2009-10 – and they’re back in the divisional playoff seeding with 22 games to play. Generating these types of extended streaks is easier when the team has found the comfort at home as this Kings team; with last night’s win, they’ve won five straight home games since the All-Star Break and by virtue of a pair of losses in overtime and a shootout, haven’t trailed during the run of play at Staples Center in a game they would eventually lose since the loss to New Jersey on January 14. Los Angeles has protected leads at home very well over this recent stretch; they’ve also beaten a handful of quality teams. The Kings have beaten Tampa Bay twice, Detroit once, Washington once – all will make the playoffs – in addition to wins versus Calgary and at San Jose (err, Santa Clara) and Colorado, the latter of which has been playing better as of late, last night’s loss in Nashville notwithstanding.

Detroit Red Wings v Los Angeles Kings

Despite this current run, there are still enhancements that can be made to the club’s roster in advance of the March 2 trading deadline. At this point, I’m not expecting the team to shake anything up with a major move that would subtract any current active player. Expect the team to add a right-shooting defenseman with playoff experience capable of moving the puck.

at Staples Center on February 24, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.