Lewis does a little bit of everything, if not tend goal

With the events in South Florida goal creases last night fresh in everyone’s minds – both Roberto Luongo and Al Montoya were injured during the Panthers’ 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs, significantly raising the probability of Robb Tallas or Derek MacKenzie playing goal from what the chances were before the game – Trevor Lewis was asked whether he’d ever played goalie.

“I used to play road hockey goalie sometimes, but I don’t know if I could handle that,” he said.

No, Lewis wouldn’t be the Kings’ emergency third-string goalie – that designation would likely fall on Goaltending Coach Bill Ranford – but the 28-year-old does a strong job of keeping the puck out of his own net. Along with Tanner Pearson, Lewis leads the club (amongst players with regular playing time) with a rate of 1.4 goals against per 60 minutes of five-on-five play while he’s on the ice.

He’s also one of the club’s top penalty killers, ranking third on the team with an average of 1:34 of shorthanded time on ice per game. A principal figure of a shorthanded contingent that had its streak of 24 consecutive kills broken in the third period by Teddy Purcell last night, Lewis knew the club had improved its shorthanded play – even if he wasn’t scratching a notch into the boards with each successful kill.

“I wasn’t really aware that is was that many straight, but I knew that we had been doing a better job at not allowing as many chances, as many goals on it,” he said.

“I think for us, our penalty kill is a big momentum boost for our team and we’ve been doing a better job at it lately. I think it starts with faceoffs and getting the clears and trying to get a little up-ice pressure and disrupt their breakouts.”

The Kings have won seven of the eight games that Lewis started on the Kings’ top line with Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar, an alignment that was reprised in Tuesday’s win over the Oilers. In 54 games this season, he has set career-highs with nine goals and 19 points. His 10 assists have matched a career-high.

“It’s big just to get a chance to play with them,” Lewis said. “Playing with Kopi, he’s always in support. You’ve always got him open and he’s so big and strong, most guys want you to come and help them when they have the puck in the corner but he’s so strong he can hold guys off and just tells you to get open. It’s nice to play with them.”

Though the club didn’t practice on Wednesday, he met with reporters and said that his game doesn’t really change when aligned with the two highly skilled forwards.

“I think playing with those two, they’re two unreal players and I think my biggest focus is getting them the puck and getting to the net or getting open,” Lewis said. “I think when I do that, good things happen.”

Lewis, on the up-tempo first period in Edmonton:
I think we got pucks in the right areas on the forecheck and I think when we establish our forecheck like that, we’re really good and really effective on it. A big key with establishing our forecheck was breaking theirs and being quick out of our zone, so we had a lot more energy in their zone.

Lewis, on a career-high three-point performance:
I mean I would think so, I don’t really keep track of that. The first goal there, Kopi made a great play and on Kopi’s goal, that shot was pretty unreal. Like I said, I just have to get open and get to the net and good things will happen.

Lewis, on who the Kings’ emergency goaltender would be:
I think it would be Billy [Ranford]. He’s suited up a couple times for us. And even shooting on him, it’s a lot different. He’s a standup guy. I think you have to shoot on the ice to score on him. You shoot on these guys, you can’t really shoot on the ice. [Reporter: You play virtually every spot on the lineup, wouldn’t it be you?] No, I don’t think [so]. I used to play road hockey goalie sometimes, but I don’t know if I could handle that.