From the point of view that watching your team win is fun, a sellout crowd at Staples Center in Los Angeles didn’t have a lot to yell about Sunday night. The Kings, playing in their SoCal home opener, dropped a second straight game to San Jose. But from a “what did they do better tonight than last night” point of view, there were some things to celebrate.

First, the Kings held the Sharks’ shots down, something they had failed miserably at 24 hours earlier, when the Sharks had won, 3-1, in a dominating performance. Saturday in San Jose, the Sharks had fired 41 missiles at Jason LaBarbera, and he had stopped all but three. Sunday, the Kings allowed just 19 shots, and one got past their goalie, a wrister from the top of the circle, shot as San Jose’s forward line came over the blueline into the Kings’ zone.

Afterwards, LaBarbera said, “He [Kaspar] surprised me a little bit. That’s a spot that as a goalie, over your blocker, it’s hard to get. I just didn’t react to it quick enough. He shot it off his front foot; that kind of threw me off a little bit.” LaBarbera was plenty sharp on everything else he faced.

In turn, the Kings got 21 shots of their own, and two made it past starter Brian Boucher, but both were disallowed. The first went to review and was called no goal because a player, Dustin Brown, was in the crease on the shot from the point. The second was called back because Matt Moulson had kicked it into the net. That call was one of the easier ones to make of its type. So often, they’re off the foot but not a “distinct kicking motion,” but in this case, it was clear that the player had stuck out his skate as he skidded toward the net, directing the puck in ahead of him.

The Kings’ shot total bested their previous evening’s tally of thirteen, which had resulted in one goal. Unfortunately, on Sunday night, nobody scored for the Kings, and in the end, all the scoreboard showed was a 1-0 loss.

But their coach, Terry Murray, cited a turnaround in the second half of the game, saying that the team had displayed a willingness to play hard for each other. “There was a lot of blocking shots, playing heavy on pucks along the boards and in front of the net. The bar has been set, and I’m going to try very hard to keep it to that level now. It’s something to build on.”

Still, if things started to look up, fans didn’t seem much to notice, remaining quiet after their initial exuberance wore off. The night had started with a street party featuring autographs by Kings’ alums Marty McSorley, Daryl Evans, and Rogie Vachon, face painting, a shooting gallery and other activities. The faithful who turned out early for it wore their Kings sweaters almost to a person. Thousands of them, and they seemed jovial.

Once inside the arena, they cheered loudly when the home team was introduced, player by player. When the game began, they greeted one returned son, Rob Blake, with a torrent of boos that lasted as long as he had the puck. This is the same thing fans did all during the time Blake was in Colorado. But that knocked off somewhere relatively early in the going. Was it a sign of a loss of energy? Or was it the fans realizing that the guy just doesn’t give a hoot about them, and deciding that expending any further energy hating him is just a waste of time?

When he came back to LA after his time with the Avs, he said he wanted to end his career a King. Then he up and left for the Sharks after last season in a move I called at the time, “Thanks for the money. Now bugger off.” So you know what? Good riddance to bad company.

Blake aside, during the first half of the game, there wasn’t a lot to be happy about, and perhaps that’s why the crowd quickly quieted. The Kings failed to connect on passes, missed their checks, and generally looked a little bit like a bunch of kids playing a bunch of grownups. Stats show that they gave away the puck three times as often as the opposition, 18-6 for the game.

As things went on, though, the home squad sharpened up some, with some nice passing cross-ice and several good individual efforts. To wit, Patrick O’Sullivan carried the puck across the goalmouth on a power play and got two jams at it while the team tallied four on that power play; the line of Oscar Moller, O’Sullivan, and Jarret Stoll moved the puck well; and Kopitar came back from a misconduct for breaking the glass with a frustrated smash of his stick to play hard in the corner and draw a tripping penalty on the Sharks’ Ehrhoff.

So there were things to celebrate, not the least of which was playing a credible game against a team that a lot of people think will be in the Conference finals this coming spring.

After the game, the locker room was loose, unlike it might have been a year ago. It’s not that players weren’t sorry for the loss. But they seemed to realize that they’d made strides despite the score, and their faces showed a determination to move on and take what’s good with them. O’Sullivan said it best: “We had two goals called back, but we had some good chances. We’ve got to start going to the net, get more shots, but I think we’re much improved defensively tonight. We needed to clean up some things from last night, and goals are going to come.”

The Kings now host the Ducks on Tuesday, with each team looking for its first win. As Murray said, “There’s always special attention needed [to prepare for] the Ducks. Again, you have to make sure you’re doing the right things. You have to make sure that you’re having the pucks in right positions on the ice and not giving them opportunities to use their speed. You’ve got to make Pronger go back, Niedermayer go back, 200 feet every time. But with this young club, you have to keep the focus on who we are, what we’re doing to improve our game.”

Kings Notes

There’s lots to catch you up on contract-wise with the Kings. Key developments include Patrick O’Sullivan signing for three years and returning to the lineup Sunday night after missing all of Training Camp and also game one in San Jose, and Anze Kopitar signing a long term, $47 million deal which takes effect next season.

Kings defenseman Jack Johnson was injured at the end of the first period with what the team will only call an “upper extremity injury.” He played a little bit of the second to test it, confirmed the coach after the game, but left the game in that period and did not return. I spotted him in a sharp black suit after the game and without an ice pack visible. He’ll be evaluated by doctors Monday.