For those of you with a short memory, here’s a quick rundown on the history of the Kings’ defense over the past few years. Three seasons ago, coming out of the lockout year, Lubomir Visnovsky couldn’t shoot a puck at the net without scoring. He and Matias Norstrom were the notables on defense, with Aaron Miller in the picture but often injured. Near the end of the season, the team fired the coaching staff, including defense coach and former King Mark Hardy.

That summer, two years ago, the team brought Rob Blake back from Colorado, hoping for a rock on defense. In September 2006, they traded for a youngster called Jack Johnson, at the time a college student. His rights were held by Carolina, and to get him, they had to give up defenseman Tim Gleason, as well as Eric Belanger. They dressed Johnson for a handful of games late in the season, long after the cause was lost.

The following spring, in the draft, the team passed up some players everyone thought they should grab in order to get Thomas Hickey, a defenseman. That summer, the team also played the free agent game, if a day later than the Canada Day start of things, to get Tom Preissing from the Senators. Prior to his one-year tenure there, the 29-year-old played two seasons with San Jose, the first before the lockout, the second after. His offensive numbers were strong, with the Sharks getting 43 points and the Senators 38.

In 2007-08 with L.A., he tallied just 24 points in 77 games, and this season, he is off to a 1-2-3 start in the first four games of the season. Preissing told Gann Matsuda of FrozenRoyalty.net, “With me, probably confidence is a big thing, and you hate to say it, but I was probably lacking it a good part of last year, but I’ve kind of rediscovered it with this coaching staff.” He describes this year’s plan on defense as a combination of a simple approach with a few specific instructions for certain situations.

Last year, the team dressed Johnson for the whole season. His mentor, supposedly, was Blake. At the end of the year, however, Blake grabbed a good deal from San Jose and said goodbye. The fans said good riddance. And the team continued its strategy of building from the blueline by drafting d-men with their first, second, and third picks, namely Drew Doughty, Colten Teubert, and Viatcheslav Voynov, and also fifth, Andrew Campbell in the 2008 draft.

At the same time, they fired their coaching staff again, and this time, part of the replacement team was the aforementioned Mr. Hardy, back after a season in Chicago. As the current campaign began, the Kings looked to have one of the deepest blueline groups in the league, at least, in terms of long-term depth. Immediately, the crew looked awfully young, and in need of a steady hand.

That came in the form of Sean O’Donnell, a King once again after having spent three seasons with the Ducks, as well as stints with Minnesota, New Jersey, Boston, and Phoenix. His time in Anaheim, in fact, was highlighted by the Stanley Cup win in 2007, during which he played the entire run of 21 playoff games.

In addition, the departure of Lubomir Visnovsky to Edmonton along with Michael Cammalleri brought hope in the form of Matt Greene, 6’ 4” and 234 pounds, just 25-years-old, and veteran of three prior NHL seasons. His stats weren’t heavy on point production, with just one goal and 12 assists in 151 games, but he didn’t come to L.A. to score; he came to keep the other guys from doing that.

The team is now focusing on locking up the young guys, and in addition to contract offers to several youngsters who play forward (Brown, O’Sullivan, Kopitar), they offered Greene a long-term deal on October 17th, a contract which keeps him in town until 2013-14.

In addition, the team has kept Doughty in town for the start of the season, and recently claimed Kyle Quincey from Detroit on waivers. He is 23, a native of Kitchener and played six NHL games last year to go along with 66 in the AHL with Grand Rapids. His numbers included 20 points (5G, 15A), but 149 penalty minutes.

So you might think, reading this, that the Kings blueline these days is solid, a combination of veterans and youngsters that most teams would envy. And indeed, things are going well. But in the second game, Johnson went down with a shoulder injury. He had surgery the day after, and is out until the All-Star break.

That shook up the pairings some, because with Johnson out of the picture, his pairing with Matt Greene went away. Greene is now playing with Quincey (who, in fact, was picked up in the wake of Johnson’s injury). It took the latter a couple of days after getting to L.A. to become enough acclimatized to the team’s culture to get into a game.

Before he was inserted into the lineup Friday night against Carolina, Peter Harrold had played a game against Anaheim. He got in nearly 18 minutes that night, but has not dressed in the two games since. Instead, Quincey took his spot starting Friday, logging nearly 22 minutes, third behind O’Donnell and Doughty.

The standard pairings on defense are thus O’Donnell-Doughty, Quincey-Greene, and Preissing-Gauthier. The Quincey-Greene pairing thus far has looked solid. In addition to even-strength play, Quincey has gotten some time on the power play. It’s early days, but his coach said the other night, “I’ve been happy with his play. He’s a skilled guy. We’ll see as time goes on how he works out.” And the contract probably says all that needs to be said about Greene’s potential to do well. He told Inside Hockey of his partner. “We’ve only played together a couple of games, but he makes good passes. I’m there to support him, help him a lot with his offense. He’ll know that there’s always a guy back so he can do that.”

Greene and Quincey are both decent skaters, a mobile pair which isn’t afraid to pinch in at the blueline. While their goal production equals a total of two in the NHL, they might provide some puck movement from the blueline which could support a line like the Frolov-Handzus-Simmonds trio, whose specialty seems to be quick passing and surprise shots. Just as a for instance, in the last six seconds of the second period Monday night, when the Kings took on Colorado at home. With the faceoff in the Avs’ zone, coach Murray put Quincey on the point along with Jarret Stoll, the worry about a goal against erased by the shortness of the time on the clock.

You might describe the pairing of O’Donnell and Doughty as what was supposed to be the tandem of Johnson and Blake last year: veteran paces youngster, mentoring him in the ways of the big-time. O’Donnell isn’t going to do anything fancy, though he can blast a shot or two from time to time. But he will be steady, and he’ll keep things calm so that the kid can learn.

The lessons young Doughty might gather from his mentor include the aforementioned steadiness as well as some toughness. The old man has been known to throw down the gloves from time to time, including against Kevin Bieksa and David Koci, who, if not the toughest guy in the league (and he might be) is certainly the meanest looking. Well, maybe Raitis Ivanans would dispute that, but from a distance at least, Koci looks like one big ball of nasty, but that wasn’t enough to deter O’Donnell from taking him on a couple of seasons ago.

Play to play, O’Donnell often is the one to guard the front of the net while Doughty heads behind. He represents the mobility of the tandem, as might be expected. At 6’ 1” and a listed 219 pounds, he’s big enough to do his job, but small enough to be a skater. The coach split up O’Donnell and Doughty some Monday night against Colorado, putting O’Donnell and Greene together late in the second period. They were soon back together.

And Doughty created his first career highlight by walking into the Colorado zone with the puck, faking a forehand-backhand move, and snapping a wrist shot which went through a kneeling Avs d-man and zinged past Peter Budaj’s glove hand for the third Kings’ goal. He described it this way: “It was great to get that first goal. It will help my confidence some, and hopefully I can get some more.” Describing his game, he said, “They told me to play my game. I play a skating game, and I will join the offense. They’re allowing me to do that.”

Of O’Donnell, he said, “He’s a mentor. He’s taught me a lot of things you don’t think about, how to be calm at all times. I watch him, how smart he is with the puck.”

If there is a weak link on the back line, it’s the pairing of Denis Gauthier and Tom Preissing. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what isn’t working there, but each of the pair was -3 going into Monday night, and at the time, that made them the weakest defensemen on the team in that statistical category. But it’s a little more than numbers; it’s positioning. Whether their communication isn’t good, their styles don’t really complement, or something else, they’re not doing what they need to to stay together as a pair. What to do with them is another question.

The alternate to keeping them together is to disturb another pair which is working, or to sit one of them, most likely Gauthier, in favor of bringing Peter Harrold back into the lineup. He might work with Preissing, but that would make for a tandem each of whom lists at under 200 pounds, or what would surely be one of the smallest duos in the league. Gauthier, by contrast, is listed at 220 pounds and 6’ 3” tall.

On the other hand, Preissing was -3 through two periods with just 9:38 of ice time on Monday, and the same at the end of three. No word on whether he was injured, but his plus/minus was the worst on the team. Gauthier was listed at -3 after two periods with 7:59 on the ice, and -2 at the end of three with 12:00 of ice time.

So who should sit? If Preissing is injured, and it’s not to say that anyone wishes that on him, the decision is made. If not, then he’s likely in the doghouse, if his ice time indicates a benching. But is it likely that the coach would relegate him to the scratch list at this stage? No, if for no other reason that that it would be a pretty strong statement on his part, and Murray seems not to be in that mode this early. Gauthier, on the other hand, spent all last year in the AHL, so being taken off the roster for a game or two might not be such a big deal.

In general, the team is doing well. If the penalty kill can be used as a measure, for instance, the Kings are amazing, having killed every single minor they’ve had since the season started. That’s a combined 0-23 for the other guys. Obviously, there can be a statistical anomaly at any time, and goaltending has something to do with the PK, but the defense, thus far, can claim at least their share of the credit.

Murray explains this by saying, “Penalty killing, there’s a new system, a new philosophy. We’ve put a lot of attention on the penalty kill. We knew last year was an off year, and to have success in this game, you’ve got to focus on it. Maybe some new players are getting an opportunity, and they’re putting in a big effort.”

Monday night against Colorado, they came out hard, and but for a couple of slightly soft goals, the Kings might have won and gone 3-2 on the year. As it was, they dropped a 4-3 game, with a weak second period being their main downfall.

The coach refused to blame this on the team’s youth, instead calling for steady performance from his guys. “Youth has nothing to do with it. We made some mistakes in the second period. We had some problems managing the puck, and their team took advantage of it. You have that lapse of 12 minutes in the second, and it ends up costing you the game. We had tremendous effort and focus in the third period. We just have to learn to do that for 60 minutes.” Nor did he blame his starting goalie, saying that the pull of LaBarbera after two frames was a message to the team as a whole, rather than a reflection of his performance.

All in all, the Kings are making a much better accounting for themselves that most people might have guessed, and if the rest of the league isn’t looking at young Doughty and salivating, well, they’re missing something. It’s been a long while since a d-man became this town’s favorite, but the way things are going in L.A., there might be a few guys who could steal some fans’ hearts this season and for a bunch to come.

Kings Notes

The team now travels to St. Louis for a Friday night game, then Nashville on Saturday. Monday, they’re back home to host the Red Wings.