A few postgame commentsfrom the Kings' 5-2 win over Pittsburgh on Thursday:

Kings coach Terry Murray, asked if the outcome was more significant because it was against the Penguins: "I'm going to say no. They're a premier team -- they're the Stanley Cup champions -- and you need your top players to respond and play well against the premier teams in the game. But I'd like to think we respect every team and give our best effort."
Murray, on goalie Jonathan Quick, who stopped 21 of 23 shots: "He made some tremendous saves. One in the first, one in the second, they were as good as you could possibly ask, on lateral plays. The one on Guerin, I think it was, in the first period, it was just a skilled play, a reaction play on his part, and I think it just shows the talent that he has."
Quick, on the team's confidence level: "Pretty confident after a game like that, but we can't get ahead of ourselves here. We've got to realize we've got a long season ahead of us. ...
"Obviously, they're a great team, and the team battled really hard to get that win. You've got feel good about yourself, but tomorrow, you've got to refocus and get ready for Saturday."
Pittsburgh forward Sidney Crosby: "I think we would have liked to have been a little better. We didn't play great, and sometimes you get away with that. It's a good lesson for us. We have gotten away with bad periods in the past, but tonight we didn't."
Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury: "It's never a fun one to lose and it's just very frustrating to give up so many goals tonight. This team (L.A.) was ready and they have good players ... Tonight, the Kings played a full 60-minute game and were able to come back and win."

In a little over three weeks, the Ducks have gone from 12th place into the Western Conference to a playoff spot -- either the seventh or eighth, depending on the outcome of today's St. Louis-Colorado game.
Whichever spot they finish in -- and it could be crucial in terms of a match up -- the Ducks that finish the season are playing at a level that eluded them for most of the year.
What was the key? Well, a single word was very popular when the Ducks tried to explain their turnaround after Friday's 4-3 shootout win over Dallas, the game that clinched their spot in the postseason.
Coach Randy Carlyle said the March 4 trade-deadline day -- when the Ducks engineered four separate deals and remade their roster -- was the turning point for his team, adding, "I think that's where we became more consistent as a group, and our record indicates that.
"I don't know what our record is from the trade deadline" -- it's 11-5-1 after Saturday's regular season finale, the 5-4 shootout loss at Phoenix -- but I think we've won 10 out of 13 games. ... We knew we were going to have to do that, and we went out on the road and did it."
Veteran defenseman Scott Niedermayer also cited "consistency (and) playing the way we need to.
"You only have success when you play as a team. You can win with many different systems, but if you don't play them as a team, you're not going to. So we're just playing harder as a team, together."
Teemu Selanne added another voice to that chorus.
"Well, consistency is the key for our hockey club," he said. "Before, we'd play good games, a couple of good games, and then we'd play really bad ones. In this league, you can't play like that if you're going to have success.
"So obviously, consistency is the key, and when the games got more important, everybody took a lot more pride to make sure that we're going to be ready and going to win some games, and good things happened."
Those good things could mean significant momentum for the Ducks, given the way they finished.
"As we slipped further in the standings," said defenseman Chris Pronger, "it was just a matter of clearing our heads and pushing forward and understanding that it was going to take a win, and one after another after another, to get us back into the race and back into playoff position.
"And we were able to do that by playing well in all three zones, and our specialty teams were excellent. Irregardless of how we did tonight, it was a pretty solid last month for our hockey team, and certainly something we can build off and build on going into the playoffs."
Wrapping up: The Kings also feel like they ended the regular season with something to build on, but the next step in the construction won't come until next season.
Long since eliminated from the playoff race for the seventh straight year, the Kings finished their year at 34-37-11 by beating San Jose 4-3 on Saturday. That total of 79 points is just eight more than a year ago, but it may feel like a bigger step since the team became was generally more competitive, staying in the playoff picture until mid-February by stabilizing its long-running goaltending issues with rookie Jonathan Quick ("Every game, he's given us an opportunity to win," said coach Terry Murray) and second-year Erik Ersberg. And Murray's focus on defense helped the team cut its goals-against by 28 (262 to 234).
"I think we're moving quickly in the right direction," said Murray. "The foundation seems to be coming into place for the start of next year, and that was the priority."
On the other hand, the team slipped offensively, scoring 24 fewer goals and finishing tied for 26th in the league at 207 goals for.
"We want to be better in the offensive part of the game, no question," said Murray. "That's an area that's a concern. I didn't think it would be at the start of the season. We were in pretty good position, pretty good shape, I thought.
"But in the last few weeks, the last month, I liked the attitude in the offensive zone. Better on the puck, cycling better, better five-man rotation. I think our defensemen are getting more involved, and that's the secondary kind of scoring that you have to have."
While the players saw positives, they certainly did not accept the idea of finishing 14th in the 15-team Western Conference.
"We didn't get it done this year," said defenseman Matt Greene. "I think guys are really disappointed. ... Nobody's saying, 'I had a good year individually.' Everybody's disappointed about making it, but hopefully we can learn from this. ...
"But I think the future's bright. You look at the awards tonight -- Drew Doughty's our best defenseman, (Anze) Kopitar's our leading point-getter, and Dustin Brown's our MVP. And they're all at least a couple years younger than me. (Brown is 24, Kopitar 21 and Doughty 19. Greene, for the record, is 25.) That's a sign that things are going the right way, when your young players are your best players."
Now, those players need to work to improve, said Murray.
"I think the off-season is going to tell a lot with the conditioning of these individuals," he said. "They're going to get better following up their season with the off-ice program, pushing themselves, getting to become men with their power, strength and endurance, and going from there."
And given the lack of scoring punch and the team's comfortable situation in relation to the salary cap, there's certainly a chance to improve the team through free agency -- though Murray shied away from calling for that.
"We need to get better with the players that are here," he said. "... The other parts that I think you're referring to, that's in house, and we'll have lots of discussions over the next several weeks."
Winners: By the way, here are those end-of-season awards Greene mentioned, awarded on Saturday:
Selected by the media:
Billy Libby Memorial Award (Most Valuable Player): Dustin Brown.
Mark Bavis Memorial Award (Best Newcomer): Drew Doughty.
Outstanding defenseman: Doughty.
Defensive player: Michal Handzus.
Selected by players:
Ace Bailey Memorial Award (Most Inspirational): Sean O'Donnell.
Unsung Hero: Handzus.
Selected by the Kings Care Foundation:
Community Service: Brown.
Selected by the Kings Booster Club:
Most Popular: Brown.

The Kings took their annual team photo Tuesday -- prior to their only morning skate this season at Staples Center, to make use of the Kings logo at center ice in the photo -- and what was interesting about was that, had they taken one at the start of the season instead of the end, it wouldn't have been all that different.
This has not usually been the case.
The 2008-09 season has been marked by an unusual degree of stability -- compared, at least, to most of the years preceding it -- and while that almost certainly won't keep the team's playoff drought from reaching seven seasons, it does reflect a great deal of hope that better things are on the horizon.
"I remember my first couple of years here, you'd take one at the beginning of the year, and one at the end of the year," said Dustin Brown, the 24-year-old five-year veteran and team captain, "and you'd see a lot of new faces at the end of the year. ...
"My first couple of years, the key players on our team were changed over ever year. It's hard to build a team that way. That might gets result on the ice, but from a chemistry standpoint, this is the right way to do it."
How different has it been?
Well, 19 of the 25 players on the roster for Tuesday's game with Dallas were also on the roster for the season opener at San Jose back on Oct. 11. At least 12 and perhaps 13 players will appear in 70 or more games this season, indicating the core of the team has been intact from start to finish. Other than the occasional movement of players between the Kings and their Manchester farm club, the only real changes saw goalie Jason LaBarbera traded to Vancouver and forward Patrick O'Sullivan, shipped to Edmonton in the trade that brought Justin Williams from Carolina. In all, 32 players have appeared in at least one game, including just three goalies.
By way of contrast, the 2007-08 team used 37 players (including seven goalies!), with just 10 appearing in 70 or more games; the 2006-07 team used 42 (with five goalies) with eight players breaking the 70-game mark. Assuming that no one else is introduced to the mix in the remaining six games, it will be the fewest players the Kings have used in a season since 1997-98, when just 31 players saw action (and the team went 38-33-11). To find a season when more players reached the 70-game mark, you have to look back to the last playoff season, 2001-02, when 14 players reached that mark.
This stability reflects a belief the team has most of the pieces it needs to succeed, and now needs to exercise a little patience in achieving that success.
"Consistency," said coach Terry Murray, "is very important in the building process. And that's a decision that the organization made at the start of the year -- to go with youth, get those players in place, let them play and develop. And when you make that kind of commitment to yourself, to the organization, I think it means a whole lot. You learn how to win; you go through difficult times together, but you badger your way through and figure it out, and when you come out the other side, you're a better team for it."
Veteran defenseman Sean O'Donnell recognizes the commitment to development, as well.
"They have a plan now and they have people in place, for the most part, that they want to move forward with," said O'Donnell. "It's a matter of everyone getting more experience and kind of playing together. But those days of wholesale changes and 10 new guys -- I think those days are over.
"They've got the foundation here, and now it's just a matter of growing together and learning game by game."
That growing doesn't just happen on the ice, said Anze Kopitar.
"You get to know each other," he said, "and it's not that big of an age difference. So, especially on the road, we pretty much hang out together all the time. So I think that helps us bonding and getting to know each other."
Having a stable roster also has allowed Murray to get to know his players better, too.
"You know their habits, their tendencies, the areas they need to give a bigger push to," he said. "A lot of times as an athlete, you tend to put a big focus on your strengths and stay away from your weakness. So from the work side, you can put drills in place as a team, for individuals, small groups, that will put a push to the weak side of their game.
"And it's the same for the motivational part of it. ... You have your information you gather over the year on what is best for this guy, what makes him play at a higher level. What motivates him to dig in night after night? And that's the nice thing about the consistency of the L.A. Kings this year."
Now that the team has achieved a degree of consistency, what it needs is some maturity, and O'Donnell believes that will follow.
"I think the first 10 or 15 games, you know, Drew Doughty or Wayne Simmonds or Oscar Moller, those guys were still taking everything in," he said. " 'Who am I playing against tonight? I'm going into a brand new rink for the first time.'
"All those things we all go through when we first start playing, those things are starting to settle away and now it's focusing on the game that night, the practice that day. And I think as that stuff starts to come more and more, we'll be leaning on and expecting more from those guys. And they've been responding."
Inoffensive: Stability may be a good thing for the future, but there are certainly still issues in the present, most significantly the team's inability to score. The Kings entered Tuesday's game 29th in the league in scoring with 191 goals; only the New York Islanders (189) had scored fewer.
"Scoring is a funny thing," said Murray. "You have talented players, and you need to have those players who can take advantage of that one opportunity that pops up to them in a period.
"Those are your special guys, but every player can contribute in the offensive part of the game. The NHL today, with the way teams are structured and the way teams are coached, there's not a lot of great scoring opportunities that are created. ... You've got to be able to do the right things in traffic-ugly areas. You have to stake out your areas, and you have to have a shot mentality, a scoring mentality. And I think that's the one area I keep coming back to with our hockey club."
Murray pointed to Dustin Brown, who is ninth in the league in shots with 278. (In comparison, Alex Ovechkin leads with 482; just three other players are over 300.)
"We have, from there, too many players who are not putting up the shot opportunities or taking the shot opportunities. They're looking for one more better play, one more better position to get to the net, that really is not there. It closes down too quickly. ...
"It's a focus, and it's starting to come. I'm certainly seeing a little bit better in that area, but we still have a ways to go."
Kopitar, incidentally, is the only other Kings player with over 200 shots; he's at 213. Alexander Frolov is third at 163 shot. Those numbers aren't all that unusual, either; just eight teams in the league have more than two players who've taken 200 shots, although those eight often have quite a few more. The Rangers have six such players, and Detroit has five. As a team, the Kings are truly middle of the pack when it comes to shots --15th at 29.4 shots per game. (Detroit leads at 36.4; Minnesota is last at 27.4).

(*Updated to fix Atlanta nickname from Flames to Thrashers, thanks to an alert reader. I guess my age is showing.)

It's one of those glass-half-empty or half-full kind of questions: If a team is succeeding when it pulls the goalie for an extra attacker at the end of the game, is it a good thing?
Obviously, it's never bad to score. But having to score late to tie the game is not exactly an ideal situation.
But it's one the Kings had faced in their last two home games, and they did succeed twice. Dustin Brown tipped in a shot with 26 seconds left last Saturday for a 2-2 tie in a game Edmonton eventually won in a shootout, and on Monday, Anze Kopitar scored with five seconds left to create a 6-6 tie with Atlanta; the Thrashers eventually won that one in a shootout, too.
As far as coach Terry Murray is concerned, there's no question the extra-attacker success is a positive.
"It's good news," he said. "That happens a lot in the league. You have to execute and you want to get results, especially on the power play. That's a requirement if you're going to be a team that keeps moving forward I like it."
Kopitar noted both goals came with the Kings also on a power play, so had a two-man advantage that's significant -- "It doesn't matter if it's five-on-three or six-on-four" -- but was a little more qualified in his enthusiasm for the situation.
"It's been working for us, but we don't want to be in that kind of position any more.
"We don't want to be in that kind of position, but if it happens, it happens. I think we were fortunate to get a point out of each game. ...
Points are huge at this time of the year. Of course you want to get two. When you get one, it's not good, but at least you get something out of it."
Whether six-on-five or six-on-four, it's not a situation a team specifically practices, but it's not totally unfamiliar, either.
"It's a power-play look," said Murray. "So you're practicing your power play. Your six-on-four look is not something you practice, but you have a designated area for that player to go to. It ends up with a five-on-four attitude with that kind of rover that's available to either side of the ice."
As for who's going to get sent over the boards when the goalie reaches the bench, "It's going to be one of your top guys," said Murray. "You're looking at your top-six forwards, your more skilled players. You're going to get them out there. You've got some guys that are heavy guys at the net, and then with that look with Kopey the other night, as a rover, you usually want a pretty skilled puck-possession guy who can see the ice and make plays."
The Kings have now scored after pulling the goalie three times in 18 attempts, while allowing seen empty-net goals. Opponents have succeeded three times in 22 attempts, while allowing nine empty-net goals.
Out of the blocks: The other constant in those two games -- and others of late -- is that the Kings have been getting behind early. They trailed 3-0 to Atlanta in the first eight minutes, and were down 2-0 to Edmonton in the first 14 minutes.
"We've come flat and we'll be on our heels," said Kopitar. "All the games we're playing, the first period is not a good one; we fall behind and then we chase the game."
Murray said the problem was one he would be discussing.
"You make it a focal point in your meetings to have good starts and do the right things," he said. "But you go back over the five road games (when the Kings went 4-1) -- we talk about our starts, we talk about setting up and establishing a forecheck and making sure we're doing the right thing with the puck through the middle of the ice.
"So it's not a big change. You might repeat it a few more times."
Penalties, he noted, have also played into those starts. The goal that gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead came on the power play, and Atlanta had two goals with the man advantage in its 3-0 start.
"We talked about that specifically," said Murray. "Those are hard -- when they come early in the game, or you get a power play early in the game like against Calgary, you're not ready for it. So that's a focal point.
"You have to take advantage of those situations -- or at least, if you get a power play, establish some offensive zone time, get that confidence moving it around and get a couple of chances. ... It carries over to your five-on-five."

ANAHEIM -- Meet Sammy Pahlsson, power-play specialist.
OK, not quite. The Anaheim forward has 52 goals in 534 regular-season games, and his third-period score Tuesday -- the tiebreaker in a 3-1 victory over the Kings that saw the Ducks add a late empty-netter -- was just the fourth on the power play in an NHL career that dates to the 2000-01 season.
"It's fun to get one," said Pahlsson, who couldn't remember his previous power-play score. "That's got to have been a long time ago. I'm usually not out there on the power play. But I've got a couple of chances here, and it's fun."
Those chances are coming with the Ducks shorthanded because of the injury to Teemu Selanne and the four-game suspension to Corey Perry.
Given his history as a defensive specialist -- one of the first called on when the other team has the extra man -- it's an unlikely role. And something of an accidental one, admits coach Randy Carlyle.
"It actually was a fluke," said Carlyle. "(Ryan) Getzlaf got a five-minute major in Vancouver, and we had a four-minute power play. ... Sammy went to the front of the net and took all the offensive zone face-offs on the two goals we scored on the power play, so it wasn't really any rocket science to go back to it." (For the record, Pahlsson was on the ice when Scott Niedermayer scored a power-play goal in that 4-3 loss, but Pahlsson's goal a minute and a half later was actually at even strength.)
It was driving to the net that created Pahlsson's goal Tuesday, as he redirected a perfectly placed pass from the far boards by Scott Niedermayer.
"I tried to get on the far post," said Pahlsson, "and (he) hit my stick, I think. It was in the air, but it went in, and that's all that matters."
It was no accident, though, that the Ducks were making use of Pahlsson's willingness to drive to the high-traffic area in front of the net.
"We had talked a little bit about getting the puck into him," said Niedermayer, "because he was doing a good job in front. You're not going to get that one every time, but we got lucky. ...
"He does a lot of the tough work that isn't all the glory. But now he's out there on the power play. It's nice to see him get rewarded with a goal.
"You know, he's doing a good job. He's a gifted player, good a good wrist shot, a big, strong guy."
It was assistant coach Newell Brown who told Pahlsson he'd get some power-play time. "I told him, 'Finally, I get a chance,' " Pahlsson said.
He's under no illusion he's carving a permanent spot on this side of the special-teams equation.
"It's going to be tough when we get some guys back here," he said. "But I'm trying to help out when I get my chance."
And if he helps out enough, well, who knows? Maybe he can help provide a spark the Ducks have sometimes lacked.
"If he continues to win face-offs and goes to the front of the net" said Carlyle, "and we execute to that level, he's going to be hard to move out of that position."
The kids were all right: The Kings had four players in the World Junior Championships, and all four left the tournament in Ottawa with medals:
Thomas Hickey and Colten Teubert winning gold with Canada, Oscar Moller taking silver with Sweden, and Viacheslav Voynov claiming a bronze with Russia.
Moller -- the one player who is part of the Kings' present, rather than their future -- had a goal, three assists and was minus-two as Sweden's team captain. Kings coach Terry Murray has no doubts he'll benefit from that experience.
"It should have a real positive effect on him from the leadership side of things, I think," said Murray. "He was the captain of the team, an impact player for that team that was one of the favorites to win, and they did get to the final. So I think the overall effect on his view of the game and his leadership skills, it's gonna definitely be a positive for him. ...
"Obviously, when you go to the final you did a good job. I'm sure it's something he'll look back on and something he'll continue to grow with, with his country."
Moller, who has six goals and seven assists in 30 games with the Kings, could rejoin the team for Thursday's game with the Ducks.
"He's a young guy and I know he's going to say he feels OK," said Murray. "But we'll just decide."
Hickey and Teubert played together as the shut-down defensive pair for Canada -- meaning they were sent against the other team's top forwards -- which might have something to do with why Hickey was minus-four and Teubert was minus-three on a team that outscored opponents 45-12. Hickey had three assists in Canada's six games, and was named the player of the game in the Dec. 29 game with Germany, while Teubert had no points in the six games.
Murray, understandably more concerned with the present than the future, didn't see much of the junior tournament.
"I watched a couple of games, sporadically," he said. "A period, two periods.
"I know they were important players for the team, Teubert and Hickey. I was watching TSN" -- Canada's version of ESPN -- "one morning and they had a segment on those two players in particular and the importance they were going to play for that hockey club, in shutting down top lines on the opposing team. This was in the middle of the tournament. So I know they were key players.
"Hickey's the captain of the Canadian team, and Teubert's a big strong guy that's gonna play hard and did play hard in the games I saw. His matchups were almost overwhelming at times in the battles along the boards. It was a great experience for those kids."
The fourth Kings property, Voynov, finished with a goal and three assists in seven game and was plus-one.

For a young team, why not a young captain?
And for the Kings in particular, what better young player to serve as captain than Dustin Brown?
Brown, who celebrates his 24th birthday next week (Nov. 4), was named captain earlier this month, filling the vacancy created when last year's captain, Rob Blake, signed with San Jose. He is the youngest captain in franchise history, joining a fairly impressive list; the last five players to serve as captain are Dave Taylor, Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Blake and Mattias Norstrom.
In a sport where the captain's position is both a formal one (the captain carries a C on his jersey, er, sweater to denote the position, since it includes communication with the officials) and one with a distinguished history of leadership, it's clear the title resonates with the native of Ithaca, N.Y.
"I was excited," Brown says, recalling the announcement of his captaincy. "I looked forward to it. Me and Terry (Murray) had meetings this summer about it. I told him I wanted to take on that responsibility, that challenge. ... I'm excited about being here, and being a big part of this team and where we're going. So when that happened, it was obviously a huge honor and a lot of excitement. But at the same time, you're a little bit nervous. I mean, I've been a captain before" -- in youth hockey -- "but it's a little different at this level.
"Very few people get to wear a letter, let alone a C, in this league, so it's an honor."
And, he says, a responsibility -- "making sure people are on time, making sure everyone's prepared. A lot of logistical stuff, the way we dress, making sure everything's ready, how it's supposed to be."
Murray likes Brown as a captain because of what he embodies on and off the ice.
"He certain has got some instinctive leadership, and his heart and gritty play is a great way of showing leadership for me, for this young hockey club. We want to play the style of game that he plays -- hard work, heavy player, he's a physical player, he scores those goals that are hard-work goals.
"And the other side of it, off the ice, he has a great deal of compassion for the young guys, and for this organization. He's been here now for five years, came in as an 18-year-old, and really has a great handle on what it's like as a young player, to come into this game and onto this team, and experience it. So he's passing that along. He's helping young guys out, he's talking to them all the time."
There are certainly plenty of those players around, given a roster that includes 18-year-old Drew Doughty, 19-year-old Oscar Moller, 20-year-old Wayne Simmonds and six other players younger than Brown -- one of them, forward Anze Kopitar, one of the two assistant captains. (Defenseman Matt Greene is the other.)
"We have a lot of young guys here that haven't been in the league that long and might not know exactly how everything works," says Brown. "It's not only me. We have plenty of guys in here who can help out. It's kind of a joint effort, really."
If there's one part of the captaincy that didn't come naturally, it was serving as the on-ice liaison between the team and the referees.
"I'm used to it now," Brown says, "but I remember the first couple games, I kind of forgot I'm the one who has to go over there. Now, it's almost I do it instinctively."
In the process, he's expanding his circle of acquaintances.
"Before, I could probably name four or five referees'," he says. "Now -- I don't know 'em all yet, but I'm starting to get to know them pretty well. So now it's a little different. You kind of know them more personally."
Murray doesn't want him knowing them too well, though.
"The important thing ... is not to go to the referees too often," says the coach. "You just can't get into that kind of a habit because they stop listening after a while.
"But I think as you go through a game and you see as a team you're working hard, you're really trying hard, and you're getting, maybe in your mind, the odd penalty that you don't think you should have had, that it's good for the captain then to skate over to the referee and say, 'Look, we're really trying. We're working hard and really trying and just need a level playing field here.' And that's all he needs to say. I don't want him to get into being, quote, a whiner."
A leader? Well, that's a different thing all together.
"He's saying things in the locker room between periods that's the right stuff," says Murray, "about digging in and doing the right stuff in the system and sticking with it, and working on our game. And I really like everything that he brings to our team.
"He is a good captain, and he's going to be a tremendous captain."

First or second? Monday's 4-3 loss to Detroit was the Kings' first shootout of the year, and as such the first time to see what Murray's philosophy is on the great coaching choice of the tiebreaker: Do you want to shoot first or last?
Murray came down Monday on the side of going first. Dustin Brown and Oscar Moller were stopped, Pavel Datysuk and Henrik Zetterberg scored, and the Red Wings came away with the extra point.
"It is a philosophy," said Murray. "I've seen it go both ways. I like to go first. We have confidence in our players that we can get out and get the lead and put some pressure on teams. It didn't work tonight, but it will in the future."
The odds will be better, of course, when the opponent isn't one quite as talent-laden as the Red Wings.
"They've got some pretty good players they can put out in the shootout," noted forward Patrick O'Sullivan. "Shootouts are fun when you win, but when you lose, it kind of stings a little bit."

Good feelings: The Kings may have lost, but saw much to like in the way they played. For example, there was the basic concept of driving hard to the net, which paid off directly in goals for Moller and Kyle Calder, and indirectly in the Alexander Frolov goal that gave L.A. a 3-2 lead. (As he drove, he tried to making a crossing pass, but it went off a Detroit player and into the net.)
"We're trying to get that mentality solidified," said Murray. "It's starting to come -- get pucks to the net, drive to the net, and look for loose pucks. And two goals ended up being that. ...
"It's starting to come, and we'll keep patting away at it."
In the bigger picture, the team felt good about the way it competed, even though it squandered a lead late in regulation on a fairly egregious giveaway by Denis Gauthier.
"I really believed at the end of the night that we felt we deserved to be on the same ice with that team," said Murray. "They're the Stanley Cup champions and they've been one of the premier teams in the league for the last dozen years. ... In general, we played well. We showed a lot of competitiveness, we worked very hard, we showed intelligence, we found people at the right side on the checking side of the game."
Said forward Patrick O'Sullivan, "I think after the first five, 10 minutes, we settled into our game and saw that we were going to be able to compete with them, and we gave them a pretty good run. ...
"Overall, I think we have to be happy with the game, and we can build on it."

Welcome back.
A little late (thank/blame the Olympics, the Angels, the Dodgers), it's time to restart the online hockey notebook -- hopefully a weekly endeavor, but we'll see how that goes with other time demands, etc. Not sure if it will be an every-Tuesday event or if it's going to float around; for now, I'd suggest checking in on Tuesdays (if nothing else, I'll try to tell you when to come back) and watching for the note in the print edition.
As was the case last year, the focus will be on the Kings and Ducks.
Anyway, here's the first installment.
Stunning, and not in a good way: Never mind the final score. The most significant thing about the Kings' 4-3 loss to Colorado on Monday may have been the crowd. There wasn't one.
Since Staples Center opened on Oct. 17, 1999 with a Bruce Springsteen concert, I'd estimate I've been in the building hundreds of times. I have never seen it emptier than it was for this game.
At a guess, it was less than 40 percent full for the opening face-off, which would put the attendance under 7,250. This being L.A., fans kept trickling in for a while thereafter, but I'd be hard-pressed to believe there were as many as 10,000 people on hand. We'll never know, of course, since the announced attendance of 13,891 is based on tickets distributed, not tickets used. (Even though, you know, the term "attendance" should indicate the number of people who actually attend.)
Yes, the economy is bad. But still, it's jarring to see this few people at a game. Since moving to Staples, the team has averaged better than 16,000 every season, regardless of how good or bad (OK, mediocre or bad) it may have been.
So is it strictly the economy? Is the formerly loyal fan base sending a message that it's been turned off by one too many price increases, and one too many seasons out of the playoffs? Or, more likely, is it some combination of those factors?
And perhaps more to the point, what if anything can the team do about it?
Based on early returns, it appears tracking the Kings' attendance is going to be as significant as tracking the results. So far, those numbers aren't good. After selling out the home opener, they had an announced 14.451 for last week's game with the Ducks, which used to be an automatic sellout. Up next at home (next Monday) is Detroit, another team that historically has been good for a full house.
As for actual hockey ...
Growing pains: An 18-year-old playing in the NHL is going to have some growing pains, but the highs and lows are rarely going to come as dramatically as they did in a six-minute span for Kings rookie defenseman Drew Doughty.
With 3:28 to go in the second period, Doughty was absolutely undressed as part of a highlight-reel goal by Colorado's Ryan Smith (I'm sure it's already up on YouTube) that gave the Avalanche a 4-2 lead.
"It hit my foot first and went back to him," said Doughty, the No. 2 pick overall in this year's draft. "So it was kind of a lucky bounce on his part. But I still have to be taking the man in that position. So it was partly my fault but definitely a lucky bounce for him."
But 2:25 into the third period, Doughty scored his first NHL goal to cut the lead to 4-3.
"It was awesome," said Doughty. "It was so good to finally get that goal just to give me that boost of confidence. After that goal, I was more in the play and rushing the puck a little bit more, and so it was really good.
"Obviously it would have been better to win the game, but it was really good to get that first one."
Murray was pleased with Doughty's resilience.
"After a tough goal against there in the second period, on what ends up being the winning goal, he had no (ill) effect whatsoever," said the coach. "Just a great effort on that goal to show poise and handle the puck and come in off that left-wing side with a great shot."
He wasn't the only Kings player to get his first NHL marker. The first Kings' goal of the night was by rookie center Oscar Moller, who's much, much older than Doughty -- all of 19. He banked his in from a bad angle off Colorado goalie Peter Budaj.
"It was only a matter of time before these young guys were going to get their first goal," said Murray. "And it's great to see it happen so early in the season, quite honestly.
"Moller's goal was a veteran play, throwing the puck to the net. You never know what's going to happen. It's the right play when you make that kind of play. But it's usually an experienced guy who ends up doing it."
Not sure how they're going to celebrate their first goals, but champagne is not going to be part of the plans. Well, not legally, anyway.
Shouldering his burden: The good news for the Kings at Monday's pregame skate was that Jack Johnson was on hand. The bad news was that his left arm was in a sling, and you won't be seeing the defenseman back on the ice any time soon.
Johnson is on the mend after surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, suffered in the Oct. 12 game with San Jose.
"I knew right away there was a problem," Johnson said. "Like any other stubborn athletes, I said, I'll go out and hopefully it will go away, and kept playing. And I knew it wasn't working for me, so there was no point in pushing it this early in the season, or this early in life, so I packed it in for the night."
And then some. Johnson said the doctors have told him to expect a three-month recovery period.
"Hopefully I'll be back sooner than that," he said. "My foot" -- a fractured right foot that caused him to miss the last seven games last year --
healed quicker than they told me it would heal, so I'm hoping my shoulder will be the same case."
The surgery fixed more than just the torn labrum, he said, calling it a "tune-up ... (I) had stuff repaired that happened to me previous years, in college and juniors, and it turned out to be something that was well needed. And I'll be better for it in the long run, better for it in three months because my shoulder will be pretty much on a clean slate again."
Quincey's case: Johnson's injury led to the acquisition of defenseman Kyle Quincey off waivers from Detroit. The 23-year-old made his debut Friday against Carolina, logging more than 21 minutes and collecting an assist in a 4-3 win. That had him back in the lineup Monday night.
"You know, the game was really good the other night," coach Terry Murray said before the game. "There's some area that he gets a little bit of that pressure-up kind of a look, and it put a little stress on us. I think there was one on the 4-on-4 where he got caught in the offensive zone, trying to make a play, but overall, his composure with the puck, his breakout, his handoffs, his vision on the ice is very good. And he has a bit of an edge to his game on the physical side of it, so I'm going to keep going with him right now."
The 23-year-old Quincey, a fourth-round pick by Detroit in 2003, averaged better than 120 penalty minutes in three seasons with Detroit's Grand Rapids (Mich.) AHL affiliate. He came into the season with 13 career NHL games over three seasons, one goal, four penalty minutes and a plus-minus of minus-3. Monday night, he played 25:47 and was plus-1.