Since a teenage Drew Doughty joined Anze Kopitar on the Kings’ roster in 2008, the crew has gained its solely two Stanley Cups, posted the highest 5 seasons with essentially the most wins in franchise historical past and 6 of the highest eight seasons with essentially the most factors.
So does that makes this the Kings’ golden period?
“Absolutely,” Kings president Luc Robitaille stated with out hesitation. “Anze Kopitar and Drew have been the key players for our franchise. What they bring in the [dressing] room, what they bring day in and day out, the way that they’re careful to play has a two-way game.
“The success we’ve had, we attribute to them.”
Age, nevertheless, is threatening to boring the shine on that golden period, and that’s including a way of urgency to this season’s playoff push, which is simply starting.
Doughty, 35, hasn’t performed since breaking his left ankle within the preseason, marking the second time in 4 seasons he misplaced vital ice time to harm. And Kopitar, nonetheless extremely productive at 37, has only one full season left on his two-year, $14-million contract whereas Trevor Lewis, the one different holdover from the Stanley Cup groups, is 38 and considered one of six Kings who will grow to be free brokers this summer season.
But Robitaille, a Corridor of Famer and the franchise’s all-time chief in targets, believes the Kings’ biggest technology has not less than yet another championship run in it earlier than it skates off into the sundown. And it obtained an opportunity Wednesday to see the way it measures as much as the NHL’s finest, gutting out a 2-1 win over the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
Each targets got here within the third interval, the primary from Samuel Helenius, his first within the NHL, and the second from Adrian Kempe, his team-leading twenty fourth of the season, with 6 minutes 48 seconds left within the sport.
“To play against a Stanley Cup champion is a big test for your organization,” Robitaille stated.
And it’s a check the Kings handed with a livid third-period cost by which they took half the 28 pictures on aim that they had on the evening.
“That’s one of the top two or three games that we’ve had all season,” coach Jim Hiller stated. “It’s a hard-fought game. A playoff-style game.”
“It was like a playoff game out there,” ahead Kevin Fiala agreed. “We got the job done.”
But there’s nonetheless fairly a bit of labor to do to maintain the Kings on the identical stage of groups just like the Panthers, who’ve performed within the final two Stanley Cup finals.
With Wednesday’s win the Kings (26-14-5, 57 factors) are 4 factors higher than they had been after 45 video games final season, after they had been in a 3-14 droop that price coach Todd McLellan his job. And whereas the Kings are scuffling once more — the win Wednesday was simply the second in six video games and till the third-period outburst, that they had one aim in seven durations — Robitaille stated there’s no comparability between the 2 groups.
Kings middle Anze Kopitar (11) is among the many franchise’s growing older stars making an attempt to make one other championship run.
(William Liang / Related Press)
“It doesn’t feel like last year,” he stated. “I like the way we played, even though we didn’t win those games. So you always say keep doing the same thing over and over and playing the right way [and] you’re going to turn it around.
“Last year felt like we were on our heels and trying not to lose it. Now we’ve been on our toes and playing a certain way that’s hard for other teams.”
The crew is clearly Kopitar’s — appropriately — and he’ll undoubtedly play an enormous half in figuring out the Kings’ destiny. The captain, who hasn’t missed a sport, leads the Kings with 31 assists, is second to Kempe with 43 factors and is considered one of simply two forwards averaging greater than 19 minutes of ice time. He additionally holds the franchise data for video games performed and assists, ranks second in factors and third in targets.
What he hasn’t accomplished is be the primary to raise the Stanley Cup. Dustin Brown was the captain when the Kings gained in 2012 and once more two years later, making him the primary U.S.-born captain to hoist the trophy twice. Given Kopitar’s place in crew historical past, Robitaille stated he deserves that honor too.
“I would love for Anze Kopitar to be the first to lift the Cup,” he stated. “So there’s certain pressure and we’d like to do it while he’s still a premier player. I think we owe it to our fans and we owe it to guys like him.”
The Kings are about to get higher when it issues most since Doughty has begun skating once more. And whereas Hiller declined to offer a timetable for his return, Doughty will accompany the crew on a five-game journey that begins Saturday.
“He’ll have an immediate impact just coming back into the group,” the coach stated.
“We get Drew back, it’s exactly like making a big trade,” Robitaille agreed. “You can never replace guys like Kopitar and Doughty. It’s impossible. They’re very special players. You know the window of them winning? As you get older, it gets there. So I certainly would like to win it with them.
“But to a certain degree, the legacy they’re leaving within this franchise, it’s going to go on way past them.”
