The Los Angeles Kings last season established themselves as one of the NHL's premier franchises when they won their second Stanley Cup in the past three years.
The Kings defeated the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Final and the New York Rangers in the finals.
Unlike most of their chief competitors in the West, the Kings were not very active in the offseason, choosing to re-sign playoff star Marian Gaborik while losing veteran defenseman Willie Mitchell. L.A. will move forward with a deep, big, fast and defensively responsible lineup that led the franchise to unprecedented success.
Will it be enough to become the first repeat Cup champ since the Detroit Red Wings did it in 1997 and 1998? We caught up with Kings Insider Jon Rosen, a former colleague from FOX Sports West, to get his thoughts on this season's edition of the Coyotes' most hated rival.
The Kings won the Cup as a No. 8 seed and a No. 6 seed. Does the regular season matter in L.A.?
Rosen: "If you talk to (coach) Darryl Sutter he'll say that it's important to reach that 100-point plateau because that's how you secure a playoff spot. The mantra of the team has always been make the playoffs and see what happens when you get in. This year, maybe not from Darryl but more from the players, I've heard winning the division as a goal.
It's not that the regular season is irrelevant. I just think this style of play is very hard to maintain. It's not just the heaviness with which the Kings play, it's chipping pucks deep and getting in and making hits and getting on the forecheck and maintaining possession in the offensive zone. Dustin Brown said it several days ago: The reason they don't have as much success in the regular season as in the postseason is because it's a very difficult way to play for 82 games."
How do you see a full season of Gaborik impacting an offense that was mediocre to poor in the regular season, but dynamic in the postseason?
Rosen: "It was almost night and day last year, although when he was joined the team and was placed alongside Anze Kopitar toward the end of the season, the offense did abruptly rise. It should have a big impact on them in the regular season and it should have a strong effect on the power play as well. There is natural chemistry between Gaborik and Kopitar. Whether they skate alongside Dustin Brown or Justin Williams, that's among the most dangerous combinations of players in the Western Conference.
COYOTES VS. KINGS
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Gila River Arena
TV: FOX Sports Arizona
Radio: ESPN 620 AM
Records: Kings 0-1, Coyotes 0-1
2013-14 season series: Coyotes won, 3-2.
Injury report: Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin and forward Trevor Lewis are out.
When you play with Kopitar you have to play that 200-foot game. You're going to get some of those defensive-zone starts, too. Gaborik has never been known as a player that has adhered to all the tenets of the defensive side of game, but he certainly was fine at it in those responsibilities in the playoffs.
But he's there to score goals; he's there to provide offense. Along with Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli he has one of the best releases on the team and a terrific wrist shot."
What do you make of the regular-season declines of forwards Mike Richards and Dustin Brown? Are they a concern or an anomaly?
Rosen: "I think it's a little bit more of a concern with Richards than with Brown.
All the intangibles that you've heard about the Kings -- the resiliency, the focus, the competitiveness that really came to light in playoffs last year -- I think Dustin Brown is the centerpiece and conduit of those abstract aspects that make this team so successful late in the season.
Richards has never been a strong possession player since he's been with the Kings. The Kings, along with the Blackhawks, Bruins and San Jose Sharks, have been among the best puck possession teams, perhaps the best puck possession team in the National Hockey league over the past two or three seasons.
Richards, who had all that success in Philadelphia, has been, at best, an even puck possession player. But he's had very difficult situations that he's been put into. He's been used as somebody who gets the toughest assignments against other outstanding centers in the NHL and he still is very valuable in his penalty killing and the defensive side of the game.
Too much has been made of him being a fourth-line center. He still finished fourth on the team amongst forwards in ice time.
The team chose not to exercise compliance buyout on him over the summer. He is a member of this team for a long time unless there's a transaction made. Dean Lombardi had had a sit down with him at year-end meetings and had an agreement there where he would be reporting to camp in the best possible shape. Dean even went to (hometown) Kenora, Ontario to check in on him. From all reports everything was fine and like the rest of the team, Richards reported to camp in fine shape."
L.A. managed to avoid cap issues in past years due to shrewd moves by GM Dean Lombardi. Is the time to pay the piper approaching?
Rosen: "It will be this offseason. There are going to be some very difficult decisions that will have to be made over the next nine months. The Kings have 11 free agents heading into this offseason. And on July 1, they're going to be able to negotiate a new contract with Anze Kopitar that will kick in for 2017.
As it stands, I think they have about $16.4 million or $16.5 million of cap space according to the wonderful hockey resource, capgeek.com.
The key guys who are unrestricted free agents are Jarrett Stoll, reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Justin Williams, and (defenseman) Alec Martinez, who scored the game-winning goal in game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
While Dean Lombardi and the team's cap guru Jeff Solomon and the hockey operations staff has done a wonderful job, they are going to have to make some tough decisions and there is the chance that some players who have been an important part of the team's core might not be with the team after this season. It's part of the salary cap era. That's why there's such good parity in the league.
But when you have a core of Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick, and Anze Kopitar, there is no real concern over the direction of the team because those players are either in or soon to be entering their primes."
Has Drew Doughty cemented his place as one of the league's top three to five defensemen?
Rosen: "He's already one of the top two to three with (Chicago's) Duncan Keith and (Nashville's) Shea Weber.
Between his Olympic performance and what he has accomplished in the Cup runs, you see complete refinement of his game.
When he put up those big numbers in the 2009-10 season when had 59 points, everybody thought he was going to be this offensive dynamo in the league. But the Kings don't score as many points and they're maybe not as strong on the power play as previous teams.
In terms of puck possession, he is one of the most dominant possession driving defensemen in the league. He and Jake Muzzin, since that pairing was formed, have become an outstanding duo in driving possession, having offensive instincts and response over 200 feet of ice."
Are there any lingering concerns over goalie Jonathan Quick's wrist surgery or the mileage he's accrued?
Rosen: "No. Not really. Maybe just in the beginning of the season since he only played one preseason game, but the way he looked in preseason, he should be fine and ready to go."
There was a lot of talk about the Kings younger players stepping up big in the postseason. Why have the Kings been so successful at infusing youth into a talented lineup?
Rosen: "There's a growing acknowledgement that they have among the best, if not the best development staffs in the National Hockey League. Even though they don't have a lot of can't-miss prospects, they've been able to work on all aspects of games with players they've had.
Look at Tyler Toffoli, who was a second-round pick and Tanner Pearson, who was a late first-round pick. With both players, the knock on their game was skating and now that is among the stronger aspects of their game.
Another aspect that I think is important is the Kings are a very patient team. They don't rush players up onto the roster. They let them develop properly."
Can this team become the first repeat Cup champ since the Red Wings?
Rosen: "This team is motivated strongly by jealousy. A number of the players have talked about this. They were profoundly offended by Chicago winning the Cup in 2013.
Justin Williams equated seeing someone else with Cup to seeing someone else with his wife.
But the Kings are also a highly competitive group, motivated not only by jealousy but, as Quick said, by a fear of losing. They have this fierce, seething resolve and it all comes together late in season when the team has the right emotional involvement and the right level of competition.
Everyone talks about how the Kings are built on possession and the underlying metrics, but that's only half of it. The other half is their emotional constitution. Those themes come back again when we get closer to the postseason and it will always give them a chance with their personnel, provided they stay healthy."
You can follow Jon Rosen on Twitter @lakingsinsider.
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter
