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).