Kings Coach Terry Murray must have been smiling inside Friday night after his team notched a second straight win to pull even at 2-2 for the season. And what the media gathered around him after the game probably wanted him to say was something like, “Sure, this is who we are. We’ll keep it up. You watch.” But he took the slightly less dangerous route, instead commenting of his suddenly successful young team, “It always says something about the team, the work ethic, the support for each other. But we’ll see how it all shakes out in another month, another two months. You have to reinforce what happens, build on it, and we’ll see how it all goes.”

Caution at this point is probably the prudent route, but at the same time, the team has showed its poise in the past two games, and maturity beyond its years.

What has happened over the last week is that the Kings have suddenly come together, posting excellent come from behind wins first over Anaheim and then over the Carolina Hurricanes. Tuesday against the Ducks, it was a twenty-three shot affair which saw them win 6-3, scoring five unanswered goals in the process. Friday night, the LA team had another perfect night on the PK and scored four times on twenty-four shots to win 4-3, in overtime.

Off the ice, the team is putting ink to paper in getting its core established, recently signing Patrick O’Sullivan, Anze Kopitar, and, this week, Matt Greene to long-term deals. Dustin Brown is also locked up for the foreseeable future and is wearing the C this year.

So when they win on the ice, it’s tempting to think that things have gelled, that the bad old days are behind, and that the team is heading toward the playoffs. But wait. It’s October. And we’re only talking about two wins, no matter how solid they looked.

Admittedly, though, there is a difference in these wins versus any hot streaks that the team may have had last year. This time, the right guys are scoring and the goaltending is strong, and these are factors which haven’t been aligned rightly very often in the recent past.

To start with the goaltending, Friday, Jason LaBarbera played his fourth straight game. This after the coach reportedly thought of giving backup Erik Ersberg some work early in the season. But LaBarbera came into camp healthy and lean, and he’s been playing well, even in the two opening losses. Against the ‘Canes, he allowed three straight goals, but none of them were shots he had any chance of seeing. It wasn’t that they were screens or seeing-eye chances. They bounced from pillar to (inside the) post, pinging and ponging off of skates, sticks, and whatever else, and ending up in the net.

The third one was such a bouncer that it was credited to Matt Cullen, then changed to Ray Whitney. Then back to Cullen. After the game, LaBarbera explained “They were all deflections. They weren’t clean. The first one, I have no idea how it went in. The third one, it hit a skate and went in.” None were to his blame.

But what was his “fault” was a great save in overtime against Eric Staal. Staal broke in on the left side and cut across to deke. LaBarbera went down and, as the puck looked like it was headed in, kicked out his pads for the save.

He refused to take credit for the stop, saying, “It was just a desperation play for me. I got stuck on the shooter, and normally you’d slide across, and I think that was what he was expecting me to do, but I dove across and I threw my leg out, and got it. Right after that, we scored, so it was a pretty good play.” Actually, it was an amazing save, and it won the Kings the game. This is the kind of goaltending the team has been looking for.

Moving out from the goalie, the Kings defense is a bit of a work in progress right now. They probably have the best crop of young guys in the league in their organization, but for the moment, especially with Jack Johnson being out with shoulder surgery for several months, the on-ice squad looks shaky. More on this next time, because I’m focusing on the good news.

And that takes us to the offense. The Kings have three guys, Michal Handzus, Alexander Frolov, and Jarret Stoll, who might be considered veterans, although the latter two are only twenty-six, with Handzus being five years their senior. Still, they are the players who might be depended upon to provide offense to either lead or back up whatever Kopitar, Brown, and O’Sullivan can do.

Against Carolina, Handzus showed his stuff, scoring both the first and the fourth goals. Last season, he played in every Kings game, and was 7-14-21. But that’s in a year when he was recovering from major knee surgery. This year, he had two assists coming into the fourth game, and then he added that pair of goals. The first was at the .56 mark, when he took a pass from Wayne Simmonds out of the corner and scored. The second was at 3:21 of OT, when he carried the puck in alone, thought about passing over to Frolov, and shot instead. His wrist shot won the game for the Kings.

Afterwards, he said, “The first was a pass by Simmonds, and I didn’t do much, I just pretty much put my stick on the ice and got an easy goal. [The game winner] I was looking for Fro, but the guy [defenseman] kind of slid so I couldn’t pass so I took it to the net, and it went in.”

The other goals were by Dustin Brown and by Kopitar, his first this season. Brown’s was a wrister from the high slot. Kopitar’s a backhand from the goal line that he described in the locker room. “I got a lucky bounce there, and I needed one of those. I knew that the goalie was lying down, and I knew I had to get it up. It was kind of a tight angle, but I managed to squeeze it in.”

None of these were what Carolina fans might have labeled bad goals. Though Ward’s rebound control was a factor in Kopitar’s goal, he played a solid night in net. The Kings shooters were just better, and that’s something that hasn’t been said terribly often over the past couple of seasons.

So the Kings now draw even at .500, and they look forward to seeing Colorado come to town Monday. Fans can hope that Murray’s long view of the situation holds up, but they can also cross their fingers that more short-term success is in the cards. With scoring coming from lots of places in the lineup and goaltending holding the fort, maybe the next week or so will be happy days in SoCal as far as hockey goes. If so, the pain of having neither local team make the World Series in that other sport might sting a little bit less.

Kings Notes

As mentioned, Johnson is out until February with shoulder surgery after being hurt last Sunday... Wayne Simmonds, twenty years old, is one to watch. He’s playing well on a line with Frolov and Handzus. Murray might not have expected him to stay with the NHL club at the start of the season, but he’s making a case for himself.