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With a three games to none series lead over the St. Louis Blues in their second round series, the Los Angeles Kings are now 7-1 in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. By virtue of their responses and cutthroat instinct that were on display in a 4-2 win Thursday night at Staples Center, their confidence and command of the play against some of the NHL's elite is reminiscent of some of the Los Angeles Lakers' signature performances during the more dynastic moments of the previous decade.
While there's still plenty of hockey to be played, both in this series and throughout the remainder of the playoffs, the Kings aren't extraordinarily far off from the level of play demonstrated by the 2001 Lakers team that surged to a 15-1 record in the postseason en route to capturing an NBA title over the Philadelphia 76ers.
On Wednesday, coach Darryl Sutter commended the group he inherited from Terry Murray midway through the season as being a quieter collection of players that still displayed strong leadership characteristics.
On Thursday, it was one of those quieter, lead-by-example types who etched his own persona on another physical battle between two of the league's heavier forechecking teams. Los Angeles and St. Louis combined for another 85 hits in the Kings' win.
Mike Richards scored a key power play goal to end an 0 for 30 skid and assisted on Drew Doughty's back-breaking third period tally that re-established a two-goal lead. Prior to that, he fought fellow center Jamie Langenbrunner in a rallying cry heard by the rest of the Kings bench in producing a Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
"He got us going right off the bat," Doughty said. "He did a great job, got our team fired up, got us going and then for us to finally get a goal on the power play from him, that was huge. We need that power play to get going, and now that we've got one, next game we want to get more."
An intense, at times soft-spoken, leader who served as Philadelphia's captain for three seasons, Richards' effect on Los Angeles' playoff efforts has been through his steadiness. This is not a player to change his approach when things aren't going well. He was the first King to score in the postseason, erasing a 1-0 Canucks lead with a sharp angle power play goal he replicated Thursday by banking the puck off Brian Elliott's pad to put his team up 3-1 midway through the second period.
"The way we've done it, we've kept with our system, we've played well," Richards said. "To go out there and play the same systems and the same game that we played all year gives us confidence, and to have success with it obviously helps out, too."
On the other hand, there's Doughty. A much more outspoken locker room presence backed by game-changing skill, his own leadership characteristics vary greatly from Richards'. Maturing and developing through an up and down season that has seen him contribute his finest minutes late in the regular season and throughout the playoffs, Doughty's third period goal Thursday – which came off a Richards assist on a 3-on-2 rush – ended a stretch of action dictated by the Blues while re-establishing the ever-important two-goal lead.
"They had just scored to make it 3-2, and Richards made an unbelievable play. Not too many forwards can see that," Doughty said. "He was almost two zones ahead of me when I first started skating, and for him to know that I was going to be joining, and to stop up and make that feed, it was a great job by him, and it was great to get on the board."
He finished with a goal, three points and a plus-two rating in nearly 24 1/2 minutes of ice time in what may have been his most complete playoff effort in the NHL.
Willie Mitchell led all skaters with 28:44 of ice time, and at the morning skate Thursday spoke of the degrees of leadership peppered throughout the Los Angeles locker room.
"I think we have a pretty diverse group that way. Everyone brings different things to the table," he said. "There's some old guys. There's some young guys. There's some guys that have been in the organization for a long time. There's guys that have been on Olympic stages, guys that have been in other organizations, but have had success. I think everyone just brings their own a little bit to the puzzle. I don't think anyone strives out as a group or an individual to be a leader. The people look to you that way or look to certain qualities to you that way. I think we've got a good group that way. I think we've got guys who, in bigger games and bigger settings, rise to the challenge. I think that's important. We've got guys who compete, and I think that competing, that's leadership to me – guys who compete hard every night, and we've got a [bunch] that way. I think it's pretty diversified in our locker room as far as where our leadership comes from.
"We've got quiet leaders like Quickie in net," Mitchell continued. "I think he's one of the best teammates in my pro career, and I've played 11 years. He's just a very selfless guy and just competes hard every night. So I think everyone, like I said, leads in their own way. And when you have a collective group like that, I think you're in a pretty good spot."
Now with a team-leading 19 career playoff goals, Richards has been through this rodeo a few times, to use the parlance of one Darryl Sutter.
Speaking of which, if you were looking for a Viking, Alberta-themed evaluation of the way his playoff-attuned center carried himself tonight, you've come to the right place.
"He took the bull by the horns tonight," Sutter said of Richards. "He did an awesome job."
