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ST. LOUIS -- Hockey players are creatures of habit, they’re routine robots.

Game 2 of the Kings-Blues series is slated for 8:30 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. ET) Thursday, which frankly is nothing short of silly, and definitely quite different for the players.

"I don’t know if we’ve done that, but keep the people at the TV networks happy, I guess," Blues captain David Backes said with a shrug after the morning skate Thursday.
"Whatever it is, it is. [The Kings] are playing at the same time."

Anze Kopitar was scratching his head but couldn’t remember ever playing this late.

"I’ve never played an 8:30 game," the Kings star center said after his team’s noon CT skate.

"It’s different, for sure," added Kings veteran Jarret Stoll. "I don’t want to sleep too long today, or else I’ll get groggy. I’ll just hang out and stretch, I guess."

Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock didn’t hide feelings for the late start.

"It better not get to overtime or I’m going to be asleep on the bench," said Hitchcock after his team’s 11 a.m. skate. "The gap from now to 8:30, I don’t know, there better be some good games on at 6 p.m. [7 p.m. ET] when we’re sitting in the office twiddling our thumbs. It’s a long, long day. I’ve never seen anything like this. This will be interesting."

His counterpart Darryl Sutter was in the same boat.

"Having your meeting tonight at 7 o’clock, ha," Sutter said. "It’s kind of odd. What it affects, quite honestly, is the next part of your travel. We know we’re getting home sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m."

You probably have to go back to players’ minor hockey playing days to remember the last time they played a game that late.

"Second game at the Wonderland of Ice tournament in Toronto, maybe?" Blues star blueliner Kevin Shattenkirk said. "It’s strange, for sure. It’s a weird time. We pushed back the morning skate today [by a half hour], pushed back the meal and the rest of it. You just have to try and get an extra hour of sleep. But luckily with the emotion of the series, you’ll be ready no matter when the game starts."

Blues winger Ryan Reaves figured the extra 90 minutes would come in handy.

"It’s really not going to make much a difference in my routine, I’ll just play Xbox for another hour," Reaves said.

Kings mix it up

While the Blues are going with the same winning lineup from Game 1, the Kings shuffled things at their pregame skate Thursday. All four forward lines were redrawn:

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
King-Richards-Carter
Penner-Stoll-Lewis
Clifford-Fraser-Nolan

And so Colin Fraser, who didn’t play in Game 1, checks in for Brad Richardson on a revamped fourth line with Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan. No question that move is Sutter’s way of responding to the Blues’ fourth line, which was extremely effective in Game 1.

"I try to fill a role as best I can, an energy role, a fourth-line role, much like their line did in the first game," Fraser said after his team’s noon CT skate. "Our line is going to have to counter that tonight and be just as good as they were."

Quote of the day

Hitchcock cracked everyone up after the morning skate when asked to compare himself with fellow coach Darryl Sutter:

"In the summer, he talks to cows and I talk to golfers."

Responded Sutter, an hour later: "He’s probably a good golfer, too."

Looking To Get Even: The Kings try to avoid going down 2-0 against the Blues tonight. Since the NHL went to a best-of-7 format for all rounds in 1987, only one defending Stanley Cup champion has gone down 2-0 in its first playoff series and gone on to repeat as champions. In 1992, the Penguins lost the first two games to Washington before rallying to win the series and the Cup.

Senators at Canadiens, 7 ET (Game 1)
* Carey Price (MTL): 2-0-1 with a 1.58 GAA vs Senators this season, but faded down the stretch. During the month of April, Price was 4-7-0 with a GAA of 3.49, easily his highest in any month this season
* Senators: 1 of just 2 teams in the Eastern Conference to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a losing record (10-11-3) away from home (Rangers are the other)
* Kyle Turris (OTT): led the team in goals (12) and points (29) during the regular season. The team-highs are the lowest of any team to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and among all teams, only the Predators had lower team leaders (12 goals, 28 points).
* Special teams key: Senators had the league's best penalty kill at 88.0 pct, while the Canadiens power play ranked fifth in the NHL at 20.7 pct

Rangers at Capitals, 7:30 ET (Game 1)
* 3rd straight year (and 4th of last 5) teams are meeting in Stanley Cup playoffs; Capitals won 2 of previous 3
* Rangers won 2 of 3 regular-season meetings with Capitals
* Coaching disparity: Adam Oates coaching 1st career postseason game, John Tortorella coaching 78th career postseason game

Kings at Blues, 9:30 ET (Blues lead 1-0)
* Blues: last time winning consecutive playoff games vs Kings: 1998
* Blues in Game 1: snapped 8-game losing streak vs LA dating back to last season (reg. season and postseason)
* Blues outshot Kings 42-29 in Game 1, including 36-19 in regulation

Red Wings at Ducks, 10 ET (Ducks lead 1-0)
* Ducks: looking for 1st back-to-back playoff wins since 2009
* Ducks: 2-4 on power play in Game 1 (led Western Conference in power-play pct during regular season)
* Red Wings: lost 6 of last 7 playoff games overall, dating back to 2011

ST. LOUIS -- The architect of last year’s Stanley Cup championship squad watched attentively as his troops went through their drills during an optional practice Wednesday.

The military analogy is appropriate in this case, because Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi is an avid history buff who adores the comparisons between war and sport and the kind of self-sacrifice, leadership and guts it takes to achieve goals in both.

And so as The General watched practice Wednesday, you could just see the wheels spinning in his mind, his thoughts no doubt knee-deep in the test his team now suddenly faces just one game into the playoffs.

You want a history lesson? His Kings were never once behind in a series last spring, going up 3-0 in all four rounds en route to a well-earned championship.

The script has already changed just one game into the playoffs a year later. And that’s OK, Lombardi said. Standing back and looking at the big picture, it’s not such a bad thing, he figures, for his team to learn how to win in a different fashion.

“We’re going to have to deal with that eventually -- you’re going to have to learn how to win a long series,” Lombardi told ESPN.com outside his team’s dressing room. “Not that you want one, but it’s part of the growth process to learn how to deal with another level of pressure. We really only experienced that once in Game 6 last year [of the Stanley Cup finals]. So here you go. Here it is.”

Not that he’s surprised at what the St. Louis Blues pulled off in Game 1 on Tuesday night, a dominant performance if not on the scoreboard certainly in terms of physical play and puck possession.

Now, normally you’d say that’s a typical reaction from the losing team after dropping Game 1, saying they knew they were in for a tough series. But in this case I can vouch that even before Game 1 was ever played, a conversation with Lombardi during practice Monday revealed his utmost respect for the Blues and the huge test that he believed awaited his team.

And so on Wednesday, in the wake of the Game 1 loss, it is with absolute honesty that the Kings GM talked about the respect his team had for his first-round foe.

“This series last year was probably our toughest,” Lombardi said. “That was not a 4-0 series. Even in the regular season this year, these games are always hard. From top down, both teams are similar, both coaches believe in the same things. I don’t think there’s any question that our players respected this team.

“And so, I don’t know that it’s a wake-up call, per se, but I think it’s a clear reminder what it takes to win in the playoffs. Nobody, to a man, thought this would be easy.”

If there’s a wake-up call here for the players, coach Darryl Sutter said Wednesday, it’s not as much in losing a game but rather in the manner in which they lost.

“What grabs their attention is that they know several of our players can play better,” he said. “We got to overtime with really two lines and four defensemen. You’re not going to win very many games doing that.”

But if you’re looking for any signs of a frantic group after just one loss, even despite never being down in a series last spring, you came to the wrong dressing room.

This was a relaxed looking bunch, Mike Richards informing yours truly on the way out that a group of players was headed to the afternoon Cardinals baseball game to relax.

“The mood’s good,” said star defenseman Drew Doughty. “We’re down 1-0, but it’s all right. If we can get this win and go 1-1 back to L.A., that would be huge for us.”

And of course, that’s very true. A win Thursday night here at Scottrade Center, and the Kings go home confident and in good shape.

But for that to happen, they need to spend a lot less time in their own zone.

There wasn’t a single game last spring when L.A. was bottled up in their own end like it was Tuesday night by a ferocious Blues forecheck.

“We have to be quicker,” Doughty said. “They’re coming hard on their forecheck, they’re banging bodies, they’re creating those little turnovers. I think a lot of times when they created those turnovers we kind of went into panic mode and tried to make up for that mistake quickly.

"I think that’s the wrong thing to do; you have to sit back and find where your guy is and try to create your own turnover. That was the one area they really dominated us in. We didn’t get on our forecheck, which is one of the keys to our game. We need to do that in order to win the next one.”

Wave after wave, all four Blues’ lines hammered the Kings in their own zone. In particular, the fourth line of Chris Porter, Adam Cracknell and Ryan Reaves created pure chaos in the Kings’ zone with a relentless forecheck that left the Kings’ defense dizzy.

“They were coming in hard, and they can make plays, too. I don’t think many of us expected that from them,” Doughty said. “That could have been another downfall of ours. But now we know what they can do. We know they’re going to bend bodies.”

If you’re looking at that comment and thinking you’ve heard that before, it’s because you did -- a year ago. That’s when opposing teams were commenting on how the Kings’ fourth line was creating havoc with their physical play and forecheck, led by unheralded players such as Dwight King and Jordan Nolan.

“It’s the strength of our team, too, being able to play four lines,” Sutter said. “Our fourth line has been interchangeable quite honestly because some of the kids haven’t played very well. Those kids we brought up last year have not played very well this year. So we were hoping for them to play better now and better in a hurry.”

That’s about as blunt as it gets from the Kings' coach.

The Blues beat the Kings playing the same brand of game that won L.A. a championship last year. Now the Kings have to turn the tables Thursday night and find a way to get their forecheck going, impose their physicality on the Blues in the offensive zone.

“We need our guys doing the same thing to their defensemen,” Doughty said rather honestly. “Guys like [Jay] Bouwmeester and [Alex] Pietrangelo aren’t very physical guys. We need to bang their bodies and kind of take them out of the game so they can’t make their plays and rush up the ice.”

And that’s what will make Game 2 so compelling. The defending champs are determined to impose their game. They’ve been awoken. We will find out more about this Blues squad on Thursday night and how they handle that pushback from the Kings.

Buckle up, this series is just starting to get good.

Blues 2, Kings 1 F/OT (Blues lead 1-0)
* Alexander Steen (STL): 4th player since 1990 with postseason short-handed goal in OT (Source: Elias Sports Bureau)
* Alexander Steen (STL): 2nd career OT goal (1st in postseason)
* Alexander Steen (STL): scored both goals in game (didn't have a multi-goal game this season)
* STL: snap 8-game losing streak vs LA dating back to last season (reg. season and postseason)
* Justin Williams (LA): scored game-tying goal with 32 seconds left in game
* LA: was 4-0 in OT in last year's postseason
* LA: 1st defending champ to lose 1st postseason game in OT since Red Wings on April 10, 2003
FROM ELIAS:
Shorthanded Goals In Overtime
Stanley Cup Playoffs Since 1990
Team
Tue. Alexander Steen Blues
2006 Fernando Pisani Oilers
2006 Jason Pominville Sabres
1990 Tony Granato Kings

Ducks 3, Red Wings 1 (Ducks lead series 1-0)
* Teemu Selanne (ANA): 42nd career playoff goal (7th among active players); 11th career GW playoff goal (T-6th most among active players)
* Ducks: 2-4 on power play (led Western Conference in power-play pct during regular season)
* Jonas Hiller (ANA): 21 saves on 22 shots (fewest shots faced, fewest saves in a playoff game in his career)
* Red Wings: lost playoff opener for 2nd straight year (lost in 5 games in 1st round last year)
FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Teemu Selanne broke a 1-1 tie with a power play goal early in the third period and the Ducks went on to take a 3-1 victory over the Red Wings in Game One. The 42-year-old Selanne became the second-oldest player ever to score a game-winning goal in the NHL playoffs; Mark Recchi was 43 when he was credited with the game-winning goal in the Bruins’ 8-1 victory over the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final two years ago. (Recchi scored early in the second period of that game, making the score 2-0, and was credited with the game-winning goal in a game in which Boston had a 5-0 lead at the time that Vancouver scored in the third period.)

Blackhawks 2, Wild 1 (Blackhawks lead series 1-0)
* Bryan Bickell (CHI): game-winning goal in OT (2nd career OT goal in postseason, has 0 career in regular season)
* Marian Hossa (CHI): 37th career playoff goal (tied for 100th most all-time with Wendel Clark, Simon Gagne and Larry Murphy)
* Blackhawks: 1st series lead since winning Stanley Cup in 2010
* Cal Clutterbuck (MIN): 1st career playoff goal
FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: The Blackhawks defeated the Wild, 2-1, in their playoff opener, when Bryan Bickell scored 16:35 into overtime. Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville was behind the bench in a Stanley Cup game for the 140th time in his career, while Minnesota’s Mike Yeo was coaching in his first NHL postseason game. The 139-game difference in playoff experience between the two head coaches is the largest in an NHL postseason series since the 2002 Stanley Cup Final, when Detroit’s Scotty Bowman (348 games of playoff experience entering the series) faced Carolina’s Paul Maurice (30 games); Bowman and the Red Wings won that series in five games.

We're not privy to the NHL's marketing slogan for the 2013-14 season, but it might be something like "Go Big or Go Home, but Definitely Go Outdoors."

Of course, if you read much of the negative commentary surrounding the NHL's decision to multiply its successful outdoor game model like so many bunnies next season -- with six in-the-elements events on the docket -- you'd think the league was determined to bring back the glowing puck and make all its players wear uniforms with blinking lights.

The NHL announced Wednesday the first plank in its ambitious stadium series of outdoor games for the 2013-14 season, a March 1 date at Soldier Field in Chicago between the Blackhawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins, set for 8 p.m. ET.

Over the next week or so, the league will unveil its plans for two outdoor games during Super Bowl at Yankee Stadium involving all three New York-area teams; one at Dodger Stadium between the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 25; and another installment of the Heritage Classic in Vancouver between the Canucks and the Ottawa Senators to be held the same weekend as the Soldier Field event.

These games are in addition to the previously announced Winter Classic to be held Jan. 1, 2014, in Ann Arbor, Mich., between Original Six rivals, the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

When news first broke last month that the NHL was going to take its product outdoors for a total of six games next season, it was interesting to note the instant boo-hooing that arose, mostly from the media.

Oh, too many outdoor games.

Oh, it'll turn the Winter Classic into a cheap dime-store version of its former self.

Oh, it'll rain.

Oh, it'll be too hot.

Oh, the league just wants to make money.

Funny how it works, but the NHL has long been criticized -- and rightly so -- for being too timid, too parochial, too unwilling to seize the moment and work at becoming more than just a niche sport in the United States.

Outdoor games aren't a panacea for all that ails the NHL, but when the league does think outside the box, it is flayed in some quarters.

Yes, these outdoor games are financially successful. Is that a reason not to do more of them?

Funny how much of the criticism of the league has come from the media, and yet we haven't heard much carping from the fans themselves.

Are people in California upset with the opportunity to take in an evening of hockey at Dodger Stadium? Don't think so. And unless we are completely off base (get it, a baseball reference for this game?) the tickets to the first regular-season outdoor game on the West Coast will go in a heartbeat.

Assuming the event is well-received, it will also open the door to more outdoor opportunities in nontraditional markets.

Are the fans in the New York area -- where the NHL estimates there will be 1,000 accredited media members for the Super Bowl festivities leading up to the game in New Jersey on Feb. 2 -- barking at the fact that the New York Rangers will play the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils in twin games at Yankee Stadium?

Uh, no.

Think fans in Chicago will turn away from a chance to see their beloved Blackhawks and the Penguins at Soldier Field because they already hosted a Winter Classic in 2009?

That game between the Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings, the second Winter Classic ever, is considered by Chicago officials to be a seminal event in that team's renaissance after years of being the butt of jokes throughout the sporting world.

The 2013-14 season provides an interesting opportunity for the NHL to try to write itself back into the good news department after another potentially catastrophic labor stoppage scuttled almost half the 2012-13 season.

In a matter of weeks, the NHL will formalize its relationship with the Olympics and agree to take part in the Sochi Games in February.

Two of the outdoor games, including the Soldier Field game, will take place the first weekend after the end of the Olympics and should provide a terrific lead-in to the stretch run of the regular season and be a nice reminder that the NHL is back in business after being shut down for the Olympic break (something that not all owners agree is a good thing).

As for the notion that introducing other outdoor events to the NHL landscape somehow cheapens the Winter Classic, which has evolved into the NHL's most important regular-season date, the schedule of events surrounding the Winter Classic in Michigan promises to make it the most successful iteration yet.

Each year the Winter Classic has grown in scope, and the net it has cast around the hockey community has grown. The event next year involving the Red Wings, postponed this season because of the lockout, calls for multiple alumni games to be played at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit, along with games at various levels, including the major junior and college ranks.

NHL COO John Collins suggested in an interview that the Detroit Winter Classic will be the “granddaddy” of Winter Classics given the surrounding events, including those at Comerica Park, and the game itself at the Big House in Ann Arbor.

Whether it's been Boston or Philadelphia or Chicago, the Winter Classic games have captured the imagination of the local markets and become a touchstone for the casual fan, an elusive group the NHL has been courting for decades.

The fact that more fans than ever will be able to take part in these kinds of events next season can hardly diminish that dynamic.

"It's not just one lens you're looking at this through,” Collins told ESPN.com on the eve of the Soldier Field announcement. "You have to be at these events to understand how the game becomes a gathering point for a community, the way a community lights up around hockey."

"That local impact is incredibly powerful," Collins said.

Would the fans in California likely have a chance to take in a Winter Classic if the league stayed within some self-imposed limit of having one or two outdoor games a season? Not likely.

Is it important to return to big markets like Chicago, where the game continues to grow in importance? Absolutely.

But next season allows the NHL to broaden its appeal while still promoting its biggest markets, and its biggest stars, on the outdoor stage.

Are there risks with taking the NHL into the elements six times next season? Of course.

The league will purchase a new portable ice-making unit that will be used for the Dodger Stadium game, then transported up the coast to Vancouver for the Heritage Classic. But even as technology has evolved and given the league more opportunity to create pristine ice surfaces outdoors in different locales, there will always be concerns about the integrity of the game when you expose it to the natural elements.

Any time the league puts on one of these events, it courts disaster as it relates to how Mother Nature will react. It rained in Pittsburgh in 2011 and the Winter Classic had to be postponed a day.

There have been issues with sun and snow, and the potential for precipitation in Vancouver or in New York next season will always be there. But the league has contingency plans, and what might happen with the weather has become part of the fabric of the events themselves.

What happens moving forward will depend largely on how next season’s outdoor experiment works out.

"I think it’s fluid but we are working on a three-year plan," Collins said.

Added deputy commissioner Bill Daly, "Next year represents opportunities that aren't going to be there every year."

There is nothing to suggest the NHL will go outside five or six times every year, but if these events unfold as planned, you can bet the number of teams clamoring to host an outdoor game will only increase.

In the end, is that such a bad thing?

ST. LOUIS -- Rarely does a series hinge so much on the opening game, but the psyche of the St. Louis Blues might have been crushed had the Los Angeles Kings scored in overtime Tuesday night.

And that’s not hyperbole. To dominate like the Blues did for 59½ minutes against the defending Stanley Cup champions and to not have come away with a victory would have been oh-so-damaging.

This is a team that got swept by the Kings last year in the playoffs and had lost eight straight overall to them dating back to last season.

For the Blues, thank goodness for Alex Steen's clever play 13:26 into overtime, giving them a 2-1 win, otherwise this series could have been another short one.

"Hockey gods took care of us, they did," Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We played a great hockey game. Waking up tomorrow would have been a challenge if we didn’t win the hockey game. We’re hopefully going to gain a lot of confidence from this that we can compete with these guys, and not just compete but actually win.

"I think that it would have been a shame not to win," he continued. "But when you’re the defending champion, you can’t just knock them off, you’re going to have stick a pretty big nail in them, and we’re just getting started in this series."

For almost three full periods, it was a near-perfect opening game for a Blues team wanting so much to prove themselves, to the defending champs and to the hockey world, that they are ready this spring to take that next step as a contender.

"They came out exactly how you expected them to," Kings head coach Darry Sutter said. "They play a work-speed game and that’s what they did. We had a handful of guys who weren’t ready for that part of it and it made for a tough time."

Not once during L.A.’s entire run last spring can I remember the Kings running around in their own zone and looking so overwhelmed by the opposition as they were in the opening period, outshot 14-6 and barely touching the puck.

They were a bit better over the second and third periods but still badly outshot and outchanced.

Reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Quick allowed the Kings to stay in the game with an MVP-like performance, stopping 40 of 42 shots on the night.

"You know what, I coached Eddie Belfour," Hitchcock said. "I’ve seen this act before. He’s a great goalie. You’re going to have to outwork and outbattle him. That’s what makes our game so special. You can play really well and the goalie can still win the hockey game for the opposition."

Added Sutter on Quick: "He was outstanding. He played a great game. …

"Kind of ironic the two best players on the ice were in on the [winning] goal."

Steen indeed capped an outstanding game by scoring shorthanded, of all things, on a play few people will soon forget in these parts, intercepting a Quick pass behind the Kings’ net and then walking out in front to backhand the puck into a vacated net before Scottrade Center erupted into euphoria (or was it relief?).

Steen, who opened the scoring on a power play 9:05 into the game, jumped on the ice during a four-minute penalty kill and, showing his hockey smarts, took a look at the landscape and realized he should pressure Quick playing the puck behind the net.

"That’s completely and honestly what I thought," Steen said. "I just had got on the ice, they had been out a bit, so once the puck went down I figured I had more gas in the tank and I took off. When I checked over my shoulder, his outlet was on my left side, his other guy was a little slow coming up, so I didn’t think he would go that way, so that’s why I took that route and I got lucky."

Not lucky, clever.

"Steener’s a guy that works his butt off and gets rewarded there doing all the extra things that he does on the ice," Blues captain David Backes said.

Quick’s view of the game-winner?

"It’s exactly what it looked like," Quick said. "I tried to make a pass. He blocked it and scored."

It was a heads-up play by a veteran player who delivered a clutch performance all-around Tuesday night.

"That’s what leaders do," Hitchcock said of Steen. "He has really stepped up in the last month on this hockey club, he’s really stepped up his game, he’s really stepped up his personality on the team, and he knew he had to step up today. He played a great hockey game."

So did Blues goalie Brian Elliott, who stopped 28 or 29 shots, although when he gave up the tying goal to Justin Williams with 31.6 seconds left in the third period, his performance would have been forgotten had the Kings finished it off in overtime.

"You don’t draw it up where you give up the tying goal with 30 seconds left," Backes said. "Those are the no-no’s of hockey. But I think it shows a bit of the character in here. Els was phenomenal and had to make some big saves in overtime to give us a chance. The hockey gods rewarded us, it seems like, for some good work tonight."

The Kings will have a lot to say before this series is over. But this was an important victory in so many ways for the Blues. For starters, they put the Kings behind in a series, which never once happened last spring. L.A. went up 3-0 in each of their four series wins last year.

Now at least the Blues get to see how the Kings react when things aren’t perfect. You know, make them live like a normal playoff team for once.

But for Hitchcock, the win wasn’t about what it did to L.A. It was about what it means to his team.

"From our standpoint, we needed to talk about something other than coming close," Hitchcock said. "We needed to start talking about here’s how you win. You can only go to that well so many times [before] the players stop believing you. We gave a big push today and got rewarded for it. So we’ve got something to draw on now. We’ve got something to sell [to the players Wednesday] morning and hopefully we come back with a similar effort."

ST. LOUIS -- T.J. Oshie is in for the Blues, rookie Vladimir Tarasenko is out for Game 1 on Tuesday night.

Oshie hasn’t played since March 28 while recovering from an ankle injury. Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock wanted to see how Oshie felt Tuesday morning after going hard in practice the day before and saw enough to make the decision to bring him back into the fold on a line with Patrik Berglund and David Perron.

That makes Tarasenko the odd man out, the coach confirmed after the morning skate.

"I’ve always believed that the first kick in the can in playoffs is for veteran players. You give them a go," Hitchcock said. "Tarasenko will probably get some time during the playoffs. But you want to give the veterans a chance -- unless they’ve really underperformed -- to prove that they want to take the ball and run with it. That’s what we’re going to do. And if somebody underperforms, we won’t hesitate to replace them and move on from there."

Tarasenko, who had 19 points (8-11) in 38 games this season, has electrifying talent but hasn’t been quite the same player since returning from a concussion earlier this season.

"In reality, this has been a very difficult season for him," Hitchcock said. "Not from the competition side of things but from intensity, games played, no practice, no rest -- I think he’s found this season, at times, overwhelming. …

"He’s played his best hockey when he’s rested. We expect him to come into the series and be a rested player."

Greene might get the red light
Kings head coach Darryl Sutter wouldn’t confirm on Tuesday morning his lineup for Game 1 but given that Matt Greene put in more time during the morning skate, it’s likely he’s out for Game 1 and Keaton Ellerby would replace him.

Greene was held out of the regular-season finale with an undisclosed injury. He had just come back and played four games after missing two months recovering from back surgery.

Showing their stripes
The series supervisor for the Kings-Blues series is Rob Shick, who met Tuesday morning with both head coaches.

It’s pretty clear what Hitchcock said to Shick.

"Message to the referees was, 'Stand on the third row, just get the hell out of the way, let us play,'" Hitchcock told reporters after the morning skate when asked about his meeting with Shick. "Because there’s two teams that know what’s at stake, two teams that play the game the right way, two teams that know how to play; this is a series that deserves to be played five-on-five.

"And I think the referees will act accordingly. I think they’re very good at understanding that these are two teams that really pride themselves on discipline and play with emotional control most of the time. Sure, we’ve got guys that take it over the edge, they’ve got guys that take it over the edge. But organizationally, [the Kings are] a team that gets on their players -- just like we do -- about taking bad penalties. I think if they just let us play, these teams will decide it five-on-five which is what we all want in the playoffs."

The refs for Tuesday night are Marc Joannette and Brian Pochmara.

Fourth-line finesse
The fourth line of Chris Porter, Adam Cracknell and Ryan Reaves remains intact for Game 1 -- a unit that Hitchcock has grown fond of.

"They’re more than our fourth line," Hitchcock said. "They score. Fourth line as an energy line, those days are gone. Those are dinosaur lines, they don’t work anymore in the league. The hockey is too good and your fourth line needs to contribute. And, boy, ours has come through in spades. They’ve scored, they’ve pressured on the forecheck, they’ve been able to play against top-six forwards, they’re a lot more than a fourth line."

Probable lineups
BLUES
Forwards
Scwhartz-Backes-Steen
Sobotka-McDonald-Stewart
Perron-Berglund-Oshie
Porter-Cracknell-Reaves
Defense
Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
Leopold-Shattenkirk
Jackman-Polak
KINGS
Forwards
Clifford-Kopitar-Carter
Brown-Richards-Williams
King-Stoll-Lewis
Penner-Richardson-Nolan
Defense
Regehr-Doughty
Scuderi-Voynov
Muzzin-Ellerby

ST. LOUIS -- For Robyn Regehr, it’s felt like eternity.

For Jay Bouwmeester, well, it almost has been.

On Tuesday night, the former Calgary Flames teammates will skate on opposite sides and cherish the chance at playoff hockey when the St. Louis Blues host the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

"It feels like forever. It really does," Regehr, 33, said Monday after practice with his Kings.

"I'm really looking forward to it. You grind it out in the regular season and this is the reward. I really enjoy playoff hockey and looking forward to being part of it again."

Five years since his last playoff game may seem like forever to Regehr, but Tuesday night will be a first for Bouwmeester. After 764 regular-season games over 10 seasons, the 29-year-old blue-liner will get his first-ever taste of NHL playoff action.

"Someone asked me if at one point I thought it would never happen; you never consider that as long as you’re still playing," Bouwmeester said Monday after practice with the Blues.

"I've come close a few times getting in and it just hasn't worked out. To finally get into the playoffs, it's a great opportunity. It;s not something you shy away from. This is what you want. You want to play this time of year. It’s exciting."

Bouwmeester and Regehr were teammates in Calgary from 2009-11. Little did they know they'd both be gone and facing off in a playoff series with new teams in 2013.

"We were pretty good friends for the time we spent there together," Bouwmeester said. "It's kind of funny how things work out."

There’s some symmetry to it all.

Both are high-profile, late-season additions who have been asked to skate in the top pairing on each team, Bouwmeester partnering up with Blues star Alex Pietrangelo and Regehr alongside Kings stud Drew Doughty.

"He’s had a very positive impact here," Regehr said of Bouwmeester, who has put up seven points (1-6) and a plus-5 in 14 games since coming to St. Louis from Calgary. "I've followed him throughout the year, he had a real good year, I thought he played better and put up better offensive numbers. I know that was something that was a bit of struggle the first couple of years he came to Calgary."

"He's built off a good start to the season and now to a different team fitting right in and playing on the top pair with Pietrangelo. He's a big guy who can skate extremely well and get up in the rush."

The Blues had been hoping for nearly a year to add a left-handed, top-pairing defenseman to play with either Pietrangelo or Kevin Shattenkirk, both right-handed stars. They got Bouwmeester less than a week after also acquiring veteran, left-handed blue-liner Jordan Leopold from Buffalo; the addition of a pair of top-four blue-liners has been a major factor in the Blues’ season turnaround.

Watching practice Monday, Blues executive and Hockey Hall of Fame blue-liner Al MacInnis said Bouwmeester has been a "great fit" with Pietrangelo.

"He's such a good skater, he seems like he never gets tired out there," said MacInnis. "He gets to so many loose pucks. He defends well with his feet, he defends well with his stick, he's not an overly physical guy but he's tenacious. He’s a guy that looks like he can play all night long. The longer the game goes on, the better he looks. It's been a great fit for us."

Pietrangelo said Monday he now has an even greater appreciation for Bouwmeester having played alongside him for a month.

"We always knew he was a great skater, but the way he uses that to his advantage is amazing, whether I make a mistake and he covers me or he makes a mistake a gets and he gets himself out of the problem," said Pietrangelo. "Just getting up and down the ice, he makes it look effortless. He understands the game extremely well."

"He makes the game look easy the way he plays," added Pietrangelo. "I don't think there's a better skater in the league, when you watch the way he uses it. It is fun to watch even if you're out there every day in practice. You see him every day, but you sit back and get a chance to see how smooth he is. It's why he's been so successful over the years."

Bouwmeester had never before been traded midseason, but if he had any qualms about the adjustment, they are gone now.

"You look at the team, how they played, the kind of players they have, it's been an easy transition," said Bouwmeester. "On the personal side of things, the guys have been real good. When the team has some success and you’re winning games and playing well, that makes it all easier to do."

But it has been a whirlwind in some regard.

"I think this is my second practice since I've been here," he chuckled Monday. "Just getting thrown into games, that's where you really learn and you figure things out as you go. There was no time to sit around and think about it too much."

While Bouwmeester adjusts to his new team, Regehr is doing the same with the Kings.

"It was just a lot of new things going on the first 2-3 weeks; new city, new team, new teammates, new equipment, new everything, there was lots happening," said Regehr. "But the way the team plays and the way the team is coached here with Darryl (Sutter), I was familiar with that and it made it a bit easier to transition."

Sutter coached Regehr on the 2004 Flames team that surprised many in reaching the Cup finals. The veteran Kings head coach knew what he was getting when GM Dean Lombardi delivered him Regehr, a smart shutdown defenseman.

"I know how he’s going to play at playoff time," Sutter said Monday.

It was a critical move, with Willie Mitchell -- such a big part of last year’s Cup championship team -- unable to play this season, his recovery from knee surgery not going according to plan.

"It was important, very simple," Sutter said of the Regehr acquisition. "Even though they’re different types of players, him and Willie, they play close to the same amount of minutes; and with that experience, also. It was important for us down the stretch to have another player like that."

Another similarity is that both Regehr and Bouwmeester controlled their trade situation to some degree with no-trade clauses.

"There was a number of teams that it could have possibly been, St. Louis was a place I thought highly of, I always did," said Bouwmeester. "Looking as an outsider, I thought it was a good, young team, I know it was a hard team to play against."

"So when it did all go down, I was pretty optimistic. I'm happy with the way things have gone so far."

Regehr carefully considered his trade options.

"You look at all kinds of different things," he said. "When I did the evaluation I looked at the team first of all, what kind of team are you going to? Not so much what they did in the past but where they are at that moment and where you think you can fit in and help out. You look at what kind of city it is, and if it's going to fit with the family and what their thought are. All kinds of stuff. But it's been a nice change, we've enjoyed it."

Bouwmeester? How can he complain. He's in the playoffs, finally.

"I knew coming here would be a pretty good opportunity," said Bouwmeester. "I'm pretty grateful for it. We knew the way things were in Calgary it was going in different direction. To be able to come to a place like this where there’s a good solid, young team, it's been a lot of fun. You just want to fit in and help out as much as you can. I really think we have a good group here."

The 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs begin Tuesday as 3 Western Conference quarterfinals series begin. The Kings, trying to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since the Red Wings in 1998, will take on the Blues. The Blackhawks, trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup after having the league’s most points in the regular season since the Red Wings in 2008, take on the Wild. And the Red Wings, making their 22nd straight playoff appearance, take on the Ducks.

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Western Conference Quarterfinals
8 Wild at 1 Blackhawks – Game 1 - 8 ET
* Blackhawks: went 2-0-1 vs Wild during regular season
* Blackhawks: won Presidents’ Trophy for league’s best regular season record (77 pts); a team has not won Presidents’ Trophy and Stanley Cup in same season since 2007-08 Red Wings
* Blackhawks: led all Western Conference teams in goals during regular season (155)
* Blackhawks: led NHL in team goals-against average during regular season (1.98)
* Wild: 1st playoff appearance since 2007-08 season
* Wild: have not won a playoff series since 2003 Western Conference Semifinals vs Canucks
* 1st-ever playoff series meeting between these teams

Playoff Results For Presidents’ Trophy Winners Since 2007-08
Winner Points Playoff Result
2012-13 Blackhawks 77 ?
2011-12 Canucks 111 Lost, Conf. Qtrs.
2010-11 Canucks 117 Lost, Cup Final
2009-10 Capitals 121 Lost, Conf. Qtrs.
2008-09 Sharks 117 Lost, Conf. Qtrs.
2007-08 Red Wings 115 Won Stanley Cup

5 Kings at 4 Blues – Game 1 – 8 ET
* Kings: trying to be 1st team to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions since Red Wings in 1997 & 1998
* Kings: 4th straight playoff appearance (team’s longest streak of playoff appearances since making playoffs 7 straight years from 1986-87 through 1992-93)
* Kings: went 3-0-0 vs Blues during regular season
* Kings: swept Blues in 2012 Conference Semifinals
* Blues: only 3rd playoff appearance in last 8 seasons (2nd straight playoff appearance)
* Blues: have won 2 of previous 3 playoff meetings vs Kings all-time

7 Red Wings at 2 Ducks – Game 1 – 10:30 ET
* Red Wings: 22nd straight playoff appearance (longest active postseason streak in the 4 major pro sports)
* Red Wings: went 2-1-0 vs Ducks during regular season
* Red Wings: 7 seed in team’s lowest seed since current playoff format was adopted in 1993-94 (are a 5 seed or lower for 3rd time in last 4 seasons)
* Henrik Zetterberg (DET): 3rd among active players in playoff goals (51)
* Ducks: only 2nd playoff appearance in last 4 seasons after making playoffs in 4 straight seasons from 2005-06 through 2008-09
* Ducks: 2 seed matches highest playoff seed in franchise history (2007 – won Stanley Cup that postseason)
* Ducks: led all Western Conference teams in power play percentage at 21.5 pct (4th overall)
* Red Wings have won 3 of 5 playoff series meetings vs Ducks all-time (Red Wings won last meeting in 2009 Conference Semifinals)

Longest Active Playoff Appearances Streaks
In The Four Major Pro Sports
NHL 22 Detroit Red Wings, 1990-91 to 2012-13
NBA 16 San Antonio Spurs, 1997-98 to 2012-13
NFL 5 Baltimore Ravens, 2008 to 2012
MLB 4 New York Yankees, 2009 to 2012

ST. LOUIS -- The players were loose inside the Kings’ dressing room Monday on the eve of their 2013 playoff opener with the Blues.

As they begin defense of their Stanley Cup title, the Kings have a quiet confidence about them.

It’s well-earned. Unlike several recent champions, the Kings did not suffer from a Cup hangover. They've had a terrific regular season and look every bit a championship contender entering the postseason.

"Our players have done an incredible job of handling the attention, they've done an awesome job," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said Tuesday after practice. "It hasn't affected their performance one bit. That's the best part about our team. We were over a 100-point team when you do it [prorate it over 82 games]. The players deserve a lot of credit for that. There was zero highs and lows in our game. It was just managing through the injuries and a couple of guys that didn't do as much as they should have during the lockout."

The Blues know they've got their work cut out, especially after getting swept by the Kings a year ago. But they also believe they’re a different team.

"We’re better, we’re a better team," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "More experienced. Two guys on the back end in [Jordan] Leopold and [Jay] Bouwmeester that give us great depth. We went through a lot of adversity this year, we're stronger, we’re better. Whether we're good enough to beat them first of all in a game to start with, let alone a series, is still up for grabs. We have a lot to prove, not only to L.A. but to ourselves and the rest of the hockey community. And I think our guys are up to the challenge.

"Los Angeles is the only team that has the knowledge of what it takes to win. Everyone else can talk about it, but they have it. They know how deep you have to go, they've been there, they've done it. They have that experience. We got to tap into it and see if we can take it."

Injury news

Blues winger T.J. Oshie skated hard in practice Monday, and it sure looks as though he's ready to return from an ankle injury that has kept him out since March 28. Hitchcock, however, wouldn't confirm that as a fait accompli for Game 1.

"Today was his first real practice with the full team," Hitchcock said Monday. "So we'll see how he feels tomorrow. If he feels OK, he's obviously going to play. If he doesn't, we'll do something else. He's going to be like that the rest of the series."

To underscore the importance of Oshie, Hitchcock later added: "He carries the conscience of the team. When he's in the lineup, we’re better."

Meanwhile, Matt Greene practiced with the Kings on Monday. He missed the regular-season finale Saturday with an undisclosed injury.

The question is whether he will be in the lineup in Game 1.

"He practiced with the team, so that means he's healthy," Sutter said.

Greene, an important leader on the team and a physical force, missed two months this season with a "midbody" injury, as the team called it. He came back recently and played four games before missing Saturday's game.

"It's fine, everything's good, life is good," Greene said after practice.

Hey, it's the playoffs. You can forget about knowing anything about injuries.

ST. LOUIS -- You get jaded sometimes in this business, you forget how lucky you are to do what you do for a living.

But this time of year always rejuvenates my love for the game.

It always reminds me why when I was 9 years old, I dreamed of covering the NHL while my pals wanted to play in it. I was the weird kid who did play-by-play during street hockey games (in French and English).

Being an NHL journalist has been my life’s sole journey for as long as I can remember. I have a Grade 8 scrapbook in which I wrote game recaps for each game of the 1986 Stanley Cup finals between Montreal and Calgary.

It was always going to be my living, one way or another.

Through my work at The Canadian Press, The Score, Sportsnet, "Hockey Night In Canada" and today both for ESPN.com and TSN, I’ve been able to live out my dream.

But sometimes, like when I’m covering a soul-sucking lockout or stressing out over the smallest of transactions around the trade deadline, I ask myself if I’ve lost my passion for this.

Then the playoffs come. This time of year always brings out the young hockey-playing boy who grew up in Northern Ontario wearing a Guy Lafleur jersey, my dad cheering on the Habs, my late mother the Maple Leafs. My sister Denyse, as well as my best friend growing up, Claude Breton, loved Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers, and a boy I really didn’t like, he loved the Nordiques.

Oh, the verbal jabs. All spring long.

The NHL playoffs, nothing beats it.

I remember in spring 1985, I was in Grade 7, Peter Stastny scored in overtime of the deciding game of the Adams Division finals with the Habs -- slipping a rebound past Steve Penney -- I swore for the first time in my life in front of my parents, which did not go well (my mother studied to be a Catholic nun before she met my dad and got swayed away from that life; good thing for me, right?).

I was crying myself to sleep that night, wishing with all my heart Peter Stastny had never defected to North America to play for those rascally Nordiques.

I’ll never forget my dad coming into my bedroom with what I thought would be a stern lecture, but instead he wrapped his arms around me and said, "Don’t worry Pierrot, the Habs will win the Cup next year, I promise."

Somehow that comforted me. And somehow, 13 months later, the Canadiens did just that, thanks to a rookie goalie named Patrick Roy.

I think of my mother during the NHL playoffs more than any other time of the year. She was a huge hockey fan. She inherited the love of the Leafs from her Irish-born father. The fight for the remote control in the ’80s in our house was a little fierce, given the divided Montreal-Toronto loyalties. Oh, but she loved her Leafs. Dougie Gilmour almost did it for her in spring 1993.

My mother died in June 1998 at the age of 55 from ALS. One of the last times I ever saw her -- she was struggling to talk, the disease crippling her vocal cords -- she managed to joke that she hoped the Leafs would win a Cup in my lifetime, at least. She also made me promise to marry the girl I was dating at the time. If you’re reading this, Mom, I did (and you’ve got three grandchildren; the boy is a meathead, just like me).

Oh, and Mom, the Leafs finally made the playoffs again.

The playoffs, the memories ...

Today, I don’t have a favorite team. When you work in this business, you quickly shed your fan passions. It becomes work, even though it’s a great job. As I always say, I cheer for the people in the NHL who phone me back for an interview. Ha.

But I remain a fan of the game. Sure, there are too many teams and there shouldn’t be hockey played in June, but the NHL playoffs still rock.

Somewhere in Chicago, there’s a 9-year-old wearing his Jonathan Toews jersey to school today telling everyone who wants to hear that his Blackhawks are going to win the Stanley Cup this year. He might very well be right. But what he’ll remember most 20 years from now is watching the games with Mom and Dad and his closest buddies.

Nothing beats the NHL playoffs.

Not on Z's watch.

Those were Dan Cleary's words Tuesday when discussing how badly the Detroit Red Wings want to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time in 22 seasons.

It just can't happen in Henrik Zetterberg's first tour of duty wearing the C.

"It's his first year as captain, he's such a great captain, we respect him so much as a player and love him so much as a guy, we just don't want to see it happen on his watch," Cleary told ESPN.com. "And all of us have a lot of pride -- 21 years and counting in the playoffs for this organization, no one wants to be on the team that ends it."

The Red Wings enter Wednesday night's big tilt with the visiting Los Angeles Kings one point out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference (held by the Columbus Blue Jackets), but with one game in hand.

The Wings hear the talk that after 20-plus years near the top of the hockey world, four Stanley Cups and easily the model organization in the game during that span, their time has come to find out how the regular folk live.

Talk of Detroit's demise also fuels the veterans in that dressing room who have Cup rings.

"It's a huge part, to be honest," said Cleary, a Cup champion in 2008 with the Wings. "We know. Every hockey player knows what's being said about their team."

Truth is, battling for their playoff lives in the home stretch of the regular season is simply an uncommon feeling for the veteran core of this team.

"It is, there's no other way to put it; we've never been in this position, quite frankly," Cleary said. "If anything, we're usually battling for first place or home ice in the playoffs. It's been different."

Also different is the team's offensive struggles. The Wings sit 21st overall in goals per game (2.47), nearly half a goal down from last season (2.92), when they were seventh in the league.

"When you're struggling offensively and losing, it falls on the guys that are counted on to score, and it hurts. Guys take it personally. Obviously I'm one of those guys," said Cleary, who has nine goals in 45 games.

Monday night's 4-0 win over the visiting Phoenix Coyotes, only the fourth time in a dozen games the Wings scored three or more goals, was a welcome sight.

"Monday night was good, [Valtteri] Filppula scored, [Johan] Franzen scored," Cleary said. "Once Franzen scores, next thing you know he reels off six or seven goals in a few games.

"We also scored three on the power play, which was really huge, to be honest."

Filppula had only one goal and one assist in his past 15 games before Monday's tally, so the Wings hope he's ready to turn it around. The center plays nearly 18 minutes a game, and the Wings need consistent offensive production from him.

A tough test awaits Wednesday night in the reigning Cup champs from L.A.

"L.A. is a great team," Cleary said. "They started the season with a bit of a lull, which happens. But they're firing on all cylinders now.

"That team is rolling now. L.A. can't win the division but they're still jockeying for home ice. It's a big game."

The Kings' 2-1 road loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, coupled with the San Jose Sharks' 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars, has L.A. and the Sharks tied at 57 points in the 4-5 battle in the West; the Kings own the tiebreaker, with more regulation/overtime wins. To Cleary's point, the Kings still have plenty to play for in terms of wanting to nail down the No. 4 spot.

After Wednesday's game, the Wings host the Nashville Predators the next night before closing out the regular season Saturday at Dallas.

Just get in. That's all Detroit wants. Because after that, who knows in this parity-filled league?

"Obviously you have Chicago and Anaheim playing really well [in the West], and Pittsburgh in the East, but other than that, everybody is so tight," Cleary said. "If you don't think that all you need to do is get in and that you have a legitimate chance to move on, then you're crazy; because you really do. We have a great goalie [Jimmy Howard], and a great goalie can bring you a long way."

So, maybe we were a bit hasty in assuming the Minnesota Wild were locks to make the playoffs.

After a lackluster 4-1 loss Sunday night to the lowly Calgary Flames, the Wild woke up Monday to find that they'd sunk into a tie with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final two playoff berths in the Western Conference, with the Detroit Red Wings just three points back with a game in hand.

Now, credit Joey MacDonald, who was stellar for the Flames, stopping 34 of 35 shots. But, come on, these are the Flames -- a team long banished from playoff contention. The Wild's offense, never the team's strong suit and less so with Dany Heatley out with injury, continues to sputter. Minnesota has only three wins in its past 11 games and has gone from battling the Vancouver Canucks for the top spot in the Northwest Division to fighting for its playoff life, a fall that is mindful of the Wild's great descent from the top of the standings midway through last season to a 12th-place finish in the conference.

During this 11-game span, the Wild have been outscored 33-19. Sorry, that won't cut it.

Even though Zach Parise and linemate Mikko Koivu combined for 15 shots Sunday, the Wild are going to need more finish or this season is going to end quickly, whether they make the playoffs or not.

The Wild still control their destiny in the race against the surging Blue Jackets (who came up with a huge 4-3 road win Sunday against the San Jose Sharks) and with the Red Wings, Dallas Stars and Phoenix Coyotes lurking in the weeds. The fact that the Wild play the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche down the stretch (along with the Los Angeles Kings) should help pave the way to their first postseason berth in five years.

Of course, we would have thought that heading into Sunday's game, too.

The molten desire to become a pro athlete in spite of any and all obstacles isn't necessarily part of a person's DNA.

Sometimes it has to be coaxed out of him.

Sometimes that desire, that commitment, is like a flickering flame that has to be poked and prodded before it becomes something that throws real heat.

Sometimes, as in the case of a player like Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin.

Named the league's rookie of the month for March, Muzzin illustrates that there is no textbook case for how to become an NHL player, no tried and true calendar for when the switch gets thrown.

"I always believed I could play here and be here," Muzzin told ESPN.com in a recent interview.

It's just that his belief was sometimes at odds with such characteristics as work ethic and focus, as well as things that are out of a person's control, like drafts and injury.

Muzzin has been able to reconcile all of those competing elements to become an important -- dare we say crucial? -- part of the Kings' Stanley Cup defense, even if he acknowledged that he has not followed the traditional route to the NHL, not by a long shot.

Born to blue-collar parents in the farming community of Woodstock, Ontario, not far from London, Muzzin missed an entire year of junior hockey because of back problems that eventually required surgery. He played 37 games the following season, in 2006-07, and the Pittsburgh Penguins saw enough in the big defenseman that they took him in the fifth round of the 2007 draft.

Two years later, though, Muzzin wasn't able to come to an agreement with the Penguins on a contract and went back into the draft.

The 24-year-old acknowledged that he was in a period when he wasn't yet a "full-time" hockey player or fully engaged in the process of becoming one.

As is often the case when players find themselves on the draft carousel a second time, no one took a chance and Muzzin became a free agent. But after a strong over-age year in the Ontario Hockey League with Sault Ste. Marie, where he collected 67 points in 64 games, Muzzin started attracting attention from a number of NHL teams.

Muzzin signed with the Kings in the summer of 2010 and played 11 games with the club in 2010-11, but for the most part he was consigned to the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Manchester for the last two seasons.

When he joined the Kings, Muzzin said he felt he had something to prove and that it was a conversation with his parents that helped get him to that point mentally.

After being passed over in his second draft opportunity, Muzzin had to consider what else life might have in store for him. He began looking at applications for colleges.

"But I was like, 'I do not want to go to school. I want to play hockey,'" Muzzin said.

Fine, his parents told him. But if he was going to be a hockey player, he had to treat it like a job. He was a man now and not a kid, they said, and he had to make the sacrifices necessary if hockey was going to be his life.

It was a message that hit home for Muzzin, who had seen the sacrifices his parents made to make sure he got the opportunities to pursue a hockey career.

"The drive was there," he said.

Still, Muzzin is a great illustration of the idea that desire isn't enough, no matter what the movies tell us. In fact, when he first went to Manchester, there were lots of instances where coaches and management had to push Muzzin to fully take advantage of his skills.

"I don't know if Jake understood how important it was to be at his best every day," Kings assistant GM Ron Hextall told ESPN.com recently. "There were a lot of little things he was kind of letting go by the wayside."

If the Kings were at a different point in their evolution, perhaps it wouldn't have mattered so much what Muzzin did or didn't do at the AHL level. Maybe they could have lived with the inevitable mistakes that young defensemen make as they try to make the jump to the NHL. But the Kings are no longer that team.

"Every mistake is magnified much more so than for forwards," Hextall said. "There's a lot of little things to learn. There's a lot of things people don't understand from the outside.

"Where we're at as a team, we can't afford to have those mistakes. He's done a great job since he's been called up, though."

With Willie Mitchell and Matt Greene, two key members of the Kings' Cup-winning blue line, out for the long term with injuries, Muzzin's ascension this season has been critical for coach Darryl Sutter in spreading out the ice time.

Most specifically, Muzzin's abilities to play on the power play and log quality minutes have given Sutter the freedom to deploy former Norris Trophy finalist Drew Doughty more often against opposing team's top lines while killing penalties as well. Muzzin's six goals are tops among L.A. defensemen and tied for first among first-year blueliners. In his last 19 games, Muzzin has logged at least 19 minutes in ice time 15 times. His 14 points are fourth among rookie defensemen.

"We were looking, we were waiting for someone to step up, and it's been Muzz," Hextall said.

Doughty, alongside whom Muzzin has played for long stretches this season, credits Muzzin for helping maintain balance along the Kings' blue line.

"Muzz opens up some things for me with those two big guys out," Doughty said.

Give the Kings credit for sticking with Muzzin, one NHL personnel director told ESPN.com.

"His progress was questionable, and he looked unstable early this year when NHL started," he said. "I saw him more recently, and he found the confidence needed because they kept feeding him ice time in important situations. Now it looks like they have a big body, smart D-man who can play top-four minutes. Skating is not pretty, but size and smarts are NHL, so he gets the job done."

Another NHL team executive familiar with Muzzin said there were similar concerns about his foot speed and mobility early on but added that he was always a popular player.

"He's just an enjoyable kid to be around," the executive told ESPN.com. "He turned out to be a marathoner rather than a sprinter."

Muzzin's father works in a local factory, and his mother works as an accountant for a local business. After a recent game in which Muzzin felt he hadn't played well, he was talking to his father, who told his son how proud he was of his accomplishments.

Talk about perspective.

"It's nice to hear," Muzzin said. "And it's nice to have the chance to make him happy."