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A Stanley Cup title is still five victories away, but many have pegged the Los Angeles Kings as favorites at this point of the postseason. The Kings, winners of eight consecutive playoff games and 11 of 12 overall, would earn a spot in history should they raise the Cup.

ESPN Stats & Info did a little digging and found out that according to sports-reference.com, only one other team among the four major professional sports in North America, the 1978 New York Yankees, has produced a championship team after making two coaching changes during the regular season.

Terry Murray started the season as head coach of the Kings, but was fired Dec. 12 after the team struggled to a 13-12-4 start while averaging 2.1 goals a game. John Stevens served as interim coach for four games before Darryl Sutter took over and guided the team to a 25-13-9 record the remainder of the regular season, good enough to claim the No. 8 seed for the Western Conference playoffs.

As they say, the rest has been history.

The Kings knocked off the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks in five games, then swept the second-seeded St. Louis Blues in the second round, becoming the first eighth-seeded team to knock off the top two seeds in the playoffs. They currently have a 3-0 series lead on the Phoenix Coyotes heading into Sunday's Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

The ’78 Yankees began the season with Billy Martin at the helm, but he was fired after 94 games and replaced for one game by Dick Howser. Bob Lemon then finished off the regular season before leading New York to the World Series title against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Only nine teams have won a championship with two different head coaches during the regular season; four in the NHL, three in the NBA and two in Major League Baseball. The most recent team was the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, which included current Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi.

Kings (32-25 -12, 76 points) vs. Detroit Red Wings (44-22-3, 91 points) at Staples Center, 7:30 p.m.

Five storylines to track:

1. Mystery men – Sitting courtside at the Clippers game Monday night was Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, two of the best players on the Kings. As they were shown on the multiple big screens that hover over the floor, there was, well, really no response. Almost as if they were unrecognizable. That would’ve never happened in Philadelphia, where both played for six seasons before they were traded to the Kings in the last nine months. One thing’s for certain, the Kings have supplanted the Clippers as the most unrecognizable pro sports team in L.A. Only a deep playoff run could possibly reverse that. At this point, the bigger challenge is just making the postseason for a third straight year.

2. Playoff picture – At least the Kings can cross the Ducks off the list of competition for one of the final Western Conference playoffs bids. Anaheim lost its third straight game Monday night in Colorado, leaving the team nine points back of the eighth-place Avs. Unless the Stars and Blackhawks accidentally pull their emergency chutes down the stretch, they can probably coast to the finish line, leaving five teams drag racing for the final two playoff berths. As it stands now, the Coyotes, Avs, Sharks, Flames and Kings are bunched within three points and have anywhere from 11 to 14 games remaining. To say this is a must-win is almost laughable. At this point forward, every game will fall into that category.

3. Defensive wizards – While the defensive pair of Rob Scuderi and Drew Doughty can’t seem to finish a shift without the puck hitting their net, rookie Slava Voynov and his veteran partner, Willie Mitchell, continue to pick up the slack. Voynov has made the trade for Carter last month look better and better each game, more than competently replacing Jack Johnson. In the eight games since the trade, Voynov has contributed a goal and three assists, all while building up a plus-6 rating. Mitchell’s numbers have been even better since he swapped partners, owning a goal and four assists with a plus-9 rating. He was a plus-2 in the previous 55 games, mostly playing alongside Johnson.

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There’s a new King in town.

The Darryl Sutter era has begun in Los Angeles, where he’s scheduled to conduct his first practice as head coach of the dysfunctional Kings on Wednesday morning at Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.

Sutter was officially named the 24th coach in franchise history Tuesday, a purely obligatory move after word of his hiring filtered out late last week while the team was on a four-game road trip.

Sutter, 53, takes over for John Stevens, who coached four games on an interim basis after Terry Murray was fired Dec. 12.

Having been away from the NHL for 12 months, Sutter inherits a franchise that, thus far this season, has fallen far short of expectations. Last in the NHL in scoring, the team hasn’t generated more than two goals in a game in the last 12. Every player seems to be stuck in one of the worst scoring slumps of his career.

Heading into Tuesday’s games, the Kings (15-14-4) were 10^th in the Western Conference standings and likely need to win about 60 percent of their remaining games for a shot at making the playoffs for a third straight season.

In other words, Sutter had his work cut out for him.

When it comes to coaching changes in the NHL, the choice of Sutter by Kings general manager Dean Lombardi seems to have caused more debate than usual. The main complaint is Sutter’s similarities with Murray, both in terms of system and structure. In his previous nine seasons as head coach in Chicago, San Jose and Calgary, Sutter became known for his rugged, defensive-minded teams. Only once did his team finish in the top half of the league in scoring.

Isn’t that the type of coach Lombardi just showed the door?

The difference between Murray and Sutter might just come down to the ability to extract a 60-minute effort from individual players. Murray was a calm, gentlemanly-type of coach whose voice rarely elevated during practice.

There were no glares, no scowls, no angry looks. The referees probably loved working Kings’ games.

Players might feel differently with Sutter behind the bench. He can be harsh, demanding and impatient with mistakes. Put it this way, in the span of two weeks, the Kings have gone from having a teacher in the classroom, to a substitute teacher and now the vice principal.

If this doesn’t get their attention, nothing will.

The Kings have the talent to score more goals than they do, especially once Mike Richards returns from a concussion. They might just need a refresher course in, say, ‘effort plus execution equals success.’

We’ll know beginning Thursday when the Kings host the Ducks, another franchise that’s trying to turn their season around with a different message coming from the dressing room.

Detroit Red Wings 8, Kings 2

Eight keys to the game:

THE FACTS: Apparently, the problems aren’t just limited to the offensive end of the ice. The Kings, the lowest-scoring team in the NHL, allowed the most goals in a game in more than four years while getting held to two goals or less for the 11^th straight game in the rout at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

THE STAT: The Kings actually out-shot the Red Wings, 29-27, but weren’t nearly as efficient. Detroit had five goals on its first 11 shots on net and six on its first 16.

TURNING POINT: Two minutes into the game and the Red Wings already led, 2-0, giving Kings’ fans a head start on their Saturday night plans. Kings defenseman Jack Johnson couldn’t connect on a pass to Trevor Lewis and Detroit took possession. Darren Helm took a shot that was saved by Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, but the rebound came out to Drew Miller who squeezed it past the goal line for a 1-0 lead. Fifteen seconds later, Jonathan Ericsson took a shot from the point that was deflected past Quick by Cory Emmerton for the second goal of his career and a 2-0 lead.

HOT: Kings defenseman Davis Drewiske has transformed from recurrent healthy scratch to the Kings best sniper on this four-game road trip. Drewiske scored his second goal in two games late in the first period to cut the deficit to 3-1. Prior to this week, Drewiske had scored just one NHL goal and that came two years ago into an empty net. The second line of Jarret Stoll, Justin Williams and Dustin Penner also carried their offensive load against Detroit, combining for a goal and four assists.

NOT: After allowing three goals on seven shots in the first period, Quick was given the hook in favor of Jonathan Bernier, the first time this season he hasn’t finished a game. Bernier wasn’t any better, allowing two goals on the first four shots he faced and five overall. Since Quick’s franchise-record three straight shutouts earlier this season, he has allowed 51 goals in 20 games for a 2.55 goals-against average and .906 save percentage, neither of which would rank among the top 20 goalkeepers in the NHL. Johnson, who grew up in suburban Detroit and played at the University of Michigan, was a career-high minus-4, dropping him to minus-17 in 15 career games against the Red Wings.

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Kings 2, Columbus Blue Jackets 1

Eight keys to the game:

THE FACTS: The Kings didn’t improve on their woeful scoring average, but they managed to end a five-game losing streak against the NHL’s worst team Thursday night at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Dustin Brown deflected in the game winner off a slap shot from Drew Doughty with 11 minutes 48 seconds left, and goalie Jonathan Quick had 24 saves to preserve the victory.

THE STAT: The Kings, who came in as the lowest-scoring team in the NHL at 2.13 goals a game, scored two or fewer for the 10^th consecutive game.

TURNING POINT: The Kings had taken 78 consecutive shots on goal without scoring before defenseman Davis Drewiske, a healthy scratch in 26 of the previous 30 games, sent a slap shot from the left point that cut through traffic and into the net to tie the score, 1-1, with 15:27 left in the third period. Less than four minutes later, the Kings took the lead for good on Brown’s goal. It was Drewiske’s first goal since October 2009.

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