Anze Kopitar

Every goal Anze Kopitar scores, every save Jonathan Quick makes, every shoulder-to-body message Dustin Brown sends, Dave Taylor is there. The Kings are in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1993, a massive rebuilding project that General Manager Dean Lombardi has nearly completed. Taylor, his predecessor, left him some building blocks. Brown, Kopitar and Quick - the three essential ingredients in this playoff run - were Taylor draft picks, though he is quick to pass the praise like a puck.

This wasn't quite like last season when Kings Coach Darryl Sutter declared in February that the partnership of Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown had grown stale, essentially calling out the duo. Instead, Sutter went fairly in-depth on Friday and took some blame in further discussing the recent struggles of the Brown-Kopitar-Justin Williams line. Brown has one assist in his last four games, and Williams has scored twice in his last 11 games but also has 10 assists. "If you look at Kopitar's line last night, they probably played two or three minutes too much," Sutter said after practice.

TAMPA, Fla. — The Kings are nearly unbeatable when scoring at least three goals. Too bad for them it has happened only 16 times this season. Kyle Clifford and Dustin Penner had second-period goals to lead the Kings past the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1, Tuesday night. Anze Kopitar also scored for the Kings, who are 15-0-1 when scoring three goals or more. Jonathan Quick, who began the game with a 2-0-0 record and a 0.38 goals-against average in three games against Tampa Bay, made 24 saves.

For all the things the Kings have accomplished during the best start in franchise history, there's one thing that has so far eluded them. They're still trying to develop a swagger. And if you don't think that's tough, just try doing it while on skates. "You need to have a little bit of a swagger in your stride as an athlete and as a team," Coach Terry Murray said. "It's a very hard thing to capture [but] it can get you through some very difficult times during the heavy part of the season.

A few good shifts and missing an open net in the third period of the Kings' 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday apparently earned winger Trent Hunter a spot on the first line Monday against San Jose. Coach Terry Murray, whose team has scored seven goals in the last four games, revamped his top three lines in practice Sunday to promote Hunter. Although the veteran has no goals and two assists in 11 games and has averaged only 11 minutes and nine seconds' ice time, he's expected to play on Anze Kopitar's right.

ST. LOUIS - From being overwhelmed by the Blues' frenzied forechecking at the start to losing on a stunning misplay by Jonathan Quick at the end, the Kings know they must improve in several areas to leave Scottrade Center on Thursday with a split of the first two games of their opening-round playoff series. Speaking after an optional practice Wednesday, the morning after the team's 2-1 overtime loss at St. Louis, Coach Darryl Sutter was clear about who must step up. Asked how the Kings can counter the Blues' energetic fourth line of Chris Porter, Ryan Reaves and Adam Cracknell, Sutter was blunt: "Some of the boys that play on our fourth line have to play like big boys.

Anze Kopitar summed up the incredible dagger of a short-handed goal almost casually — say, one step removed from nonchalant. "It worked out pretty well," Kopitar said Tuesday. This wasn't a garden-variety goal scored by the Kings center in November. It was the goal rattling the psyche of the Blues in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series Monday in St. Louis. These are the sort of opponent-deflating goals that can define a series. The score came with 5:44 left in the opening period to give the Kings a 2-0 lead on their way to a 5-2 victory and a 2-0 series lead against the Blues.

The Red Wings were coming at the Kings in waves early in the first period Saturday. Their passes were precise, their checks jarring, their plays made at a breathtaking pace ? every element was there to intimidate the Kings, who had wobbled through seven losses in their previous nine games. This time, the Kings didn't falter. In perhaps their most impressive effort of the season, they rallied for a 3-2 overtime victory at Staples Center and vaulted from ninth to fourth in a tightly packed Western Conference that's still led by Detroit.

The NHL's lockout of players is likely to drag on until this weekend, after the collective bargaining agreement they tentatively forged early Sunday is completed, reviewed and ratified. But a lock that was open Monday at the Kings' El Segundo practice facility symbolized the beginning of a return to hockey normalcy. The door leading to their locker room was no longer deadbolted, giving players entry to dress and shower in luxury. Lockout rules had banished them to a cramped public locker room when they had rented ice for informal workouts, but those rules have been relaxed.

The Kings' offense, dormant through the first three games of their opening-round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues, awoke Monday in time to prolong their season and their reign as Stanley Cup champions. Justin Williams completed a two-goal rally in the third period with a deflection that withstood a video review, as the Kings barged past the Blues for a 4-3 victory at Staples Center and evened the series at two games each. "Now it's all tied up and best of three," said center Anze Kopitar, whose first goal in 20 games, off a feed from a hard-digging Dustin Brown, had brought the Kings even at 7 minutes 14 seconds of the third period.