Kings’ debut is hardly a fresh start
Loss to a division rival is no way to show a renewed commitment to winning hockey.
The unofficial spin generated by the Kings was that missing the playoffs last season might be a blessing in disguise for a team that was battered and exhausted after three playoff runs that resulted in two Stanley Cup championships and, in between, a trip to the West finals.
If there’s a blessing to be had, it was still well disguised after the Kings’ season-opening 5-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday before an unhappily restless crowd at Staples Center.
Players were supposed to be rested and refreshed after a season that ended in early April instead of late June. Renewed by a summer of rest. Purposeful about this season after not getting a chance to defend their title. “A lot more hungry for hockey,” Anze Kopitar described his own feeling.
If they were starving to get back onto the ice to play meaningful games, it wasn’t evident against the Sharks, themselves playoff spectators last spring and now playing for a new coach, Peter DeBoer.
The Kings’ top line of Kopitar centering for Marian Gaborik and Milan Lucic was a combined minus-6 defensively, generated three shots on goal and had little chemistry, though that might improve over time. The Kings acquired the burly Lucic because they thought he fit into the bruis-
ing style that was the foundation of their success, but the NHL is turning toward speed over physicality — think the Chicago Blackhawks, Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ducks — and Lucic doesn’t fit there.
They weren’t alone in deserving blame. Defenseman Jake Muzzin, who’s being counted on to assume a pivotal role following the retirement of Robyn Regehr and the return to Russia of Slava Voynov, was minus-2. Plus/minus doesn’t always accurately measure performance. In the cases of the Kopitar line and Muzzin, it was kind.
It’s only one game, but it was one game against a division rival and those points are too precious for the Kings to let slip away without offering much pushback — except in the wrong ways. Forward Dustin Brown might hear from the NHL after his high hit on San Jose’s Logan Couture in the first period, and defenseman Matt Greene might get a call for his late, high hit on Barclay Goodrow in the third period. Lucic will face discipline after getting a match penalty for running Couture late in the game in front of the Sharks’ bench, not the kind of impact he should have made in his Kings debut.
The Kings couldn’t handle the Sharks’ speed and aggressive presence around the net, and the Kings’ defense did nothing to move anyone out from in front of goaltender Jonathan Quick. All in all, it wasn’t the way to display hunger or a renewed commitment to winning hockey, by any definition.
They lost a lot of experience and leadership when winger Justin Williams became a salary-cap casualty, Regehr retired, and they let a slowing Jarret Stoll leave as a free agent. They played most of last season without Voynov and the seriousness of the spousal abuse charges to which he pleaded no contest made it likely he wouldn’t be back for a long time, if at all. That collective void might not have been completely filled.
“Losing those guys, there’s veteran experience and presence in the room that are gone, but that’s the way teams work,” Muzzin said before the game. “Guys get older and they leave or retire and younger guys step up and take responsibilities and new roles, and that’s what we have this year. I think a couple of guys, including myself, for being young guys have great experience already, and I think that helps.
“Some of the young guys are used to playing big games, going the distance, playing tough, hard playoff games. I think a lot of our young guys have shown that they can do that, and now it’s taking on a new role.”
Before the game, defenseman Drew Doughty predicted the Kings would be “a very good team,” apparently meaning over the long haul, because they certainly weren’t good Wednesday. “It just takes our leaders stepping up to the plate and showing the younger guys the way to go,” he said, “and as they follow, our team will just get better and better throughout the season.”
It’s early, yes, but it’s never too early for supposedly renewed, refreshed leaders to step up. And everyone else along with them.