Waking up with the Kings: December 23

In furthering their standout performance from Columbus, the Kings won an important game in Nashville that went a ways towards solidifying an impressive road trip. (For clarity, the nine consecutive road games are seen as two separate trips bridged by the Christmas break.) They’re not quite yet there yet – a big tilt with Dallas has the opportunity to place the trip into Very Good status – but by assuring themselves of at least a .500 points percentage and knocking off five eastern buildings from the schedule that haven’t been particularly hospitable, they’ve put themselves in position to take advantage of a home-heavy January schedule. There are also challenges inherent of spending so much time at home, and Darryl and several of the players indicated that the stretch of 10 games in 27 days prior to this road trip was probably more challenging than playing a seven-in-12. But, by winning in Detroit, winning in Pittsburgh, earning a point against a team that followed its shootout win over Los Angeles by defeating the defending champions by six goals while earning their 11th straight win, and winning on the road against a team tied with them in the Western Conference standings, the Kings have at the very least held serve, which was what they’ve needed to do with key players out of the lineup.

One, zero, one, two, zero. Since the Buffalo game, Los Angeles has allowed four goals in five games, excluding the shootout game-winner in Columbus. Their goalies have combined to stop 97% of the shots they’ve faced over that very limited sample size. The penalty killing has killed off its last 23 shorthanded situations – the 22 over the last eight games, plus Alec Martinez’s trip in overtime versus Montreal – and has moved into a tie for seventh in the league. The offense also came along on Thursday, with the spread out scoring returning as all four lines scored at even strength in the win. The latter is important, given the scoring droughts experienced by Kopitar (who was very good and earned an attractive assist even though he remains stuck on three goals) and Tanner Pearson (who is experiencing market correction after having shot over 30 percent through early November).

It was a tense and even one-goal game with strong checking through two periods, and there was the pervasive sense that with an insurance goal, it was game, set, match Los Angeles. They ultimately received three, with Nic Dowd opening up the floodgates. Dowd’s sharp angled shot snuck through Pekka Rinne following an impressive stick lift on Ryan Ellis to win a battle for the puck near the goal line. It was one of several hard plays directly leading to third period goals, with Dustin Brown’s denial of a zone exit and strong balance near the tops of the circles leading to Anze Kopitar’s dish across the top of the crease to Devin Setoguchi. It’s difficult to limit the review of the game to several boldfaced names because there was a diverse collection of players who served important roles. Additional recognition goes to the team’s “fourth line,” which relied on a strong Jordan Nolan performance, as it has for much of the past 10-15 games, and Derek Forbort, who is making expansion draft planning awfully difficult for Dean Lombardi.