There was an important streak that Los Angeles Kings achieved in their 3-1 win over Pacific Division foe San Jose Saturday night.
And there is a more important stat that correlates with the streak.
No longer middling or inconsistent, the Kings' power play has finally been an effective weapon over the last five games. The streak: a five-game power play goal streak is the longest stretch since April of 2013 and the two or more scored with the man advantage in the last four games is the longest such streak since 1993.
The stat: As Kings coach Darryl Sutter noted, the Kings have earned seven out of a possible eight points in their last four games.
"And that is the more important statistic," he said.
It is important - it brings the Kings back to a tie with the Sharks for second place in the Pacific Division.
"The power play stepped up for us and that's been huge," said defenseman Drew Doughty. "Finally, pucks are going in for us."
It wasn't for a lack of opportunities, Doughty says, because the Kings haven't changed their power play personnel or really anything else. It's just simply been bad puck luck.
RECAP: Anze Kopitar leads Kings past Sharks, 3-1
"I don't think we weren't generating chances in the past," Doughty said. "I think we were always generating, we have so much firepower on our power play units. We've just got to score more goals, obviously, and I think the last (four) games we've gotten one in every game so it's coming together.
"It's just getting pucks in the net. We're going to create opportunities and we know that but we need to bear down and put them in."
Special teams added a certain amount of toughness to the Kings. The prototypical L.A. defense wore down the Sharks in their own zone, limiting their chances. They played San Jose exactly the way they needed to with heavy checking along the boards and a dominant possession game.
"We need special teams in order to play like we did tonight," said center Anze Kopitar. "We need puck possession and puck management. If we manage the puck up the ice it usually results in better possession in our offensive zone and we can create chances off that. We did a pretty good job of that tonight."
The last time the Kings faced the Sharks on their own Staples Center ice, it wasn't pretty. A brutal beatdown was the result of a celebratory hangover after the Stanley Cup banner was raised. It wasn't indicative of the way the Kings play on home ice.
At home, L.A. is 14-4-2 for the most home wins and home points in the Western Conference. Again, the special teams plays right into that as the Kings are 10-0-0 when scoring a power play goal at home.
"You've got to give the Kings some credit every once in a while," Sutter said, turning the sarcasm level up a few notches. "We're way behind everybody, but give the guys some credit."
