The Los Angeles Kings are off to a good start by their standards with a record of 25-18-3. If there's any bad news going into their game tonight against their crosstown rival it's that they've lost their last 3 games and 7 of their last 10. That and their up against a team that is hot in the Anaheim Ducks winning their last four games but they'll be without Teemu Selanne for 4-8 weeks after he got hit with a puck in the face last night.
The Los Angeles Kings are a different team this season, there's an edge to them and mostly it's because of the tough and tenacious play and hits of players like Dustin Brown and Wayne Simmonds. The center play of Jarret Stoll, the defensive emergence of Drew Doughty and the strong defensive play of Jack Johnson and in net the strong goal play of goalie Jonathan Quick.
The LA Kings are playing behind the strong play of the surprising Jonathan Quick. Jonathan Quick is the guy the Kings stuck in goal to bridge the time between now and the time when their No.1 pick in the 2006 draft, goalie Eric Bernier, is ready to assume the starting role.
In the meantime Quick has been impressive going 23-15-3 but more importantly he has a 2.55 GAA in 86 career games with the Kings and that means he's giving the Kings a chance to win every time he's in net.
There's a big incentive and motivation for Jonathan Quick to play well consistently because of the guy in the minors the Kings are grooming to take over in goal and thus far he's played the part. His GAA of 2.55 over his last 86 games is the best for a Kings goalie since Felix Potvin and that's also the last time the Kings looked like they had a chance in the playoffs.
You add to the strong play of Quick and then you add a bunch of young players slowly coming into their own and the Los Angeles Kings have a great nucleus of young players. Players like Anze Kopitar who at the beginning of the season led the NHL in most scoring categories.
Drew Doughty who is in the top 10 in defenseman scoring. He leads the Kings dfefenseman in icetime and gives the Kings a face in defense which they haven't had since Rob Blake left.
Dustin Brown is what most fans would call a game-changer. He's both a game changer and a play maker and what I like most about Dustin Brown is the way he hits on the ice and plays tough and aggressive defense.
Also emerging this year or reemerging I should say is Alexander Frolov although he still continues to struggle a bit defensively and at times doesn't seem to buy into the whole playing defense thing. Wayne Simmonds is a completely different... This guy hits hard and he also contributes offensively and that could make Frolov expendible this off season. And finally Jarret Stoll... Oilers fan thought this guy's best days were behind him but he's fit in quite well with the LA Kings this season particularly playing really well on the penalty kill and on face-offs. Right now Jarret Stoll has 10 goals and 19 assists which I don't think anybody expected. One last finally, you have somewhat of a reemergence of Michael Handzus who currently has scored 10 goals and also has 13 assists.
In short you have a complete team... you have a team full of a bunch of guys and they're all contributing and there's not really that one superstar primadonna that's going to mess up the team chemistry. This is a good looking and talented young team and they should be competitive for years to come if they can keep this core together. It'll be interesting to see what they can do this year and it will also be interesting to see how far they can go with goalie Jonanthan Quick.
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