LOS ANGELES_Maybe it wasn't John Stevens' fault the Los Angeles Kings sat at the bottom of the NHL standings when he was fired last Sunday.
Maybe it wasn't Stevens' fault they lacked passion, a shortcoming that general manager Rob Blake cited as crucial when he let Stevens go and installed Willie Desjardins as the interim coach for the rest of the season.
Maybe the problem was _ and still is _ that the Kings have become a rudderless team that can't finish and can't maintain the speedier tempo that's required to succeed in the NHL. Those flaws are beyond the power of a new coach to fix.
Winger Ilya Kovalchuk, 35, was the Kings' best player Saturday night in their 1-0 loss to the Calgary Flames at a sometimes silent and much-less-than-full Staples Center. That says a lot about Kovalchuk's desire to have an impact in the NHL after a five-year absence. It doesn't say much about his teammates' determination to turn around a dismal start. In being shut out for the first time this season the Desjardins-led Kings looked as uninspired and disjointed as the Stevens-led Kings, and that's not a good look.
The Kings' second loss in Desjardins' three games behind the bench was sealed in the first period. Calgary defenseman Travis Hamonic, helped by teammates who kept the puck in the zone, took a shot from just above the right circle that appeared to be deflected before it got past a screened Jack Campbell at 2:26. Dustin Brown forced backup Flames goaltender David Rittich to make a save with his left pad at 11:17 of the first period and Tanner Pearson got behind the defense during a third-period power play to force Rittich to make a point-blank save but the Kings otherwise allowed Rittich, a 26-year-old Czech with 29 games' prior NHL experience, to look like a reincarnation of Georges Vezina, Jacques Plante, and Terry Sawchuk rolled into one.
Rittich made 21 saves as the Flames improved to 10-6-1 and the Kings fell to 5-10-1. Campbell, who inherited the starting job when Jonathan Quick suffered a knee injury that required surgery, was again solid in making 35 saves.
As for that passion that Stevens couldn't generate, the Kings are still looking for it. Or else they're hiding it well. Team captain Anze Kopitar, asked after the morning skate on Saturday if players were still hungry to win, said they are. "Definitely. The hunger never left," he said. "We realize that with the team and the character and the personnel that we have here it's certainly doable, so we're hungry."
His assurance aside, that didn't feel true on Saturday.
Desjardins faces a tough task. He spoke Saturday morning of wanting to shorten players' shifts and trim the playing time of Kopitar and Drew Doughty so he can roll four lines and three defense pairs and keep everyone fresh enough to play at a brisk pace, but the temptation will be strong to give both of those players heavy minutes. Kopitar didn't sound like he's a fan of short shifts. "Obviously he wants us to play the up-tempo style. It's not that Johnny didn't want to, it's just a little bit different. I think," Kopitar said in comparing Stevens and Desjardins. "Willie is big on shift lengths so sometimes he's pulling us off when we're on the ice for about 25 seconds. It's not the greatest thing in the world sometimes. It's just the time of the game, the position where the faceoff is, all kind of comes into consideration. I think he's done a good job coming in."
Kopitar recorded career-best marks of 35 goals and 92 points last season but has only four goals and six points in 15 games. He hasn't scored a power-play goal and he has no game-winning goals, after sharing the team lead in that category last season with six. He smiled when it was suggested he has been struggling a little bit. "It's not a little bit," he said. "Certainly not the start that I wanted but there's still some hockey left to be played. I feel good physically. Now it's just getting to putting up some points and feeling good about myself and getting it going again."
The longer he struggles, the longer the Kings will struggle, no matter who's coaching.
Doughty said Saturday morning he had seen more flexibility in Desjardins' structure than in Stevens' game plans and that practices have been "a little more flowy" under Desjardins. "I think he's just more about competing. Not that Johnny wasn't," Doughty said. "They were all about competing, too, but they were more about Xs and Os whereas he's giving us. ... Not that he's not about Xs and Os but he's more just about the mood to play, the confidence to play, to try and get some swagger back. Compete as hard as you possibly can. He doesn't want us to be robots. He wants us to think the game. He wants us to think of all the options we have."
Their only option now is to find their hunger quickly or risk the roster being shaken up or broken up. That might be inevitable, anyway.
