LOS ANGELES_Jarome Iginla has changed teams during the season before so he didn't need to be told what was expected of him when he joined the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, 24 hours after the trade-deadline deal that brought him over from Colorado.
"Honestly just to work hard, to go," he told reporters after meeting his new teammates. "Just to battle and just play hard. I think that's the identity of their team and to come in and be a part of that."
But if Iginla didn't change the identity of his new team, he may have helped change its luck, with the Kings getting third-period goals from Anze Kopitar and Tanner Pearson to force overtime, then beating the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2, in a shootout.
Kopitar, who has struggled offensively all year, had the only goal in the shootout while Kings' goaltender Jonathan Quick turned away all three Toronto skaters, lifting the Kings over idle St. Louis and into the Western Conference's final wild-card playoff berth with 18 games to play.
Tyler Bozak and Nikita Zaitsev scored Toronto's both goals, the first coming just two minutes after the opening faceoff.
Following a turnover at the Kings' blue line, the Maple Leafs worked the puck to James Van Riemsdyk behind the goal line. His no-look pass set up Mitchell Marner for a shot at the near post, but the puck bounced off goalie Jonathan Quick's pad to Bozak at the other side of the crease and he knocked it home for his 15th goal of the season.
Toronto doubled the lead off a faceoff 8:20 into the second period. Brian Boyle won the draw and sent the puck to Zaitsev, whose shot from the blue line was deflected as it made it's way through traffic before tumbling end over end between Quick and the right goalpost.
But the lead didn't last long into the third period.
Kopitar halved it on a power-play goal in the opening 30 seconds of the final period, sending a wild slap shot toward the net that struck Zaitsev in the head and dropped into the net. The play gave Zaitsev a welt on the right side of his forehead and gave Kopitar his first goal since Jan. 31.
Less than 90 seconds later the Kings tied it on Pearson's third goal in as many games, setting up a scoreless overtime that led to the game-deciding shootout.
The Kings had lost consecutive games in overtime earlier this week. And they hadn't won in a shootout since October. Iginla, who started on a line with Kopitar and Marian Gaborik, wasn't taking credit for the change of fortune.
He skated just less than 16 minutes and didn't get off a shot. But he did provide a physical presence with three hits and he took part in just the second Kings' win in five games.
Still, whether the run-up to trade deadline turns out to be the start of a drive to the playoffs or the beginning of the end for the Kings will take some time to sort out.
"I don't have a crystal ball," said Dean Lombardi, the team's president and general manager, who made the Iginla deal.
"The one thing about him is there's no question about his competitiveness," Lombardi continued. "What you're banking on is despite the age and everything else that that competitiveness can come through. And if it does, his dimension would we feel be a good fit."
