Waking up with the Kings: January 6

It’s kind of ridiculous to think of a game against the Red Wings as a “letdown game,” but the Kings, who had emerged from a collection of divisional games with a modest two-game winning streak, were unable to carry much of anything inherent in their emotional performances against the Sharks into Thursday night and fell meekly, 4-0, in front of an annoyed crowd pocked by delighted swaths of red. Though the Wings’ lineup resembled more of the early years of Joe Louis Arena than the early years of Chris Osgood, it was expected that Detroit, after having dropped a 2-0 game in Anaheim the night before, would come out of the gate hard and present a much stiffer challenge than their record or personnel might suggest. And while Los Angeles’ first 10 minutes were probably their strongest 10 minutes of the game, they fell behind on the opposition’s first shot less than two minutes in as the do-everything Frans Nielsen glided behind the net and offered an attractive no-look backhanded feed in front to Thomas Vanek, who created some separation from Jake Muzzin to chip in the crease-bound feed. Playing with an early lead was manna for the Red Wings, and after Tanner Pearson’s potential trajectory-altering penalty shot attempt was stopped, The Andreas Athanasiou Show resumed as the Detroit sophomore continued his exhibition of skill, speed and drives to the net in factoring in on the remaining two goals, the first of which he buried after Anthony Mantha used his large frame to get in the way of an ill-advised Kevin Gravel chipped puck toward Nic Dowd; for the final goal of the period, he received a Jonathan Ericsson pass as part of a track meet through a vacated neutral zone before driving wide on Derek Forbort and attempting to stuff the puck past Jeff Zatkoff, who stopped the initial shot but wasn’t able to get in front of Vanek’s rebound bid.

Trailing 3-0, a Kings team that has struggled to find much production past Jeff Carter did not put itself in good position to etch out a result, to put it mildly. It was interesting to learn of Jordan Nolan’s weighty words last night – I wasn’t in the scrum for that moment, but later caught it on the quote sheet – that “if he doesn’t get a goal or whatever it may be, no one steps up and fills that void.” Good on Nolan for that remark, which reflects a growing grasp on the team’s leadership reins as one of its more tenured players. As it has been, Nolan’s line was perhaps the team’s best line, as it has been for much of the last three or four weeks (along with the line Jeff Carter has been playing on, obviously). That, of course, is not necessarily a good thing. There still also has to be a connect between “playing well” and “scoring goals.” Nick Shore scored in Nashville and Edmonton, two games within the span of the team’s last seven. Nolan hasn’t scored since his two goals in Arizona on December 1. Dwight King, who has recently skated with the pair, hasn’t scored since that same game. They’ve played well together, and have remarkable defensive goals against rates alongside each other – Nolan and King haven’t been on the ice together for an even strength goal against this season, while Nolan and Shore, and King and Shore both have sub-1.00 on-ice GA60s with each other – even if all three individual players have possession rates in the red alongside any singular member of the trio.

Many of us who keep tabs with the inner workings of the team (and those who’ve followed the trend of recent years) have been on the lookout for an Ontario promotion early in the second half, and games 40-45 of the 82-game season round out the current seven-game home stand. Los Angeles is a patient team that doesn’t make rash decisions based on one game, especially coming off the terrific performances against San Jose in games 38 and 39. But with a listless performance kicking off an important string of games at home, it’s interesting to see if the team will receive a youthful jolt with the addition of a player or two from its farm system. Because this is obviously a kickstarter for speculation, Michael Mersch is the name that I’ve often heard at or around the top of the list of call-ups. Mersch, however, is recovering from a lower-body injury suffered one week ago, and his performance at the outdoor game in Bakersfield (no, I did not ever expect to type that) may be in doubt, though he did travel with the team. It’s also a bit much to view Mersch as any sort of “fixer” or cure-all for the team’s scoring woes, but he’s among the players being considered, and it will be interesting to see how the team considers tinkering with its roster should it weather any additional off-putting games similar to the one Thursday night.