For Verbeek and the Ducks, the opposite has been true. Forwards Trevor Zegras, Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn and goaltender John Gibson have all sat out substantial time to injury this season, which is a big reason why the Ducks are better than only two other teams in goals scored, goals allowed and goal differential.

“It’s not ideal when your best players aren’t in the lineup — and they’re not in the lineup together, which was the intended purpose,” said Verbeek, who took over as Ducks general manager 26 months ago. “But, hey, every team deals with that. It’s just a little more pronounced now because we haven’t quite gotten the complete depth in our lineup that I’m looking for when we’re going to be good.”

There’s more to it than that, of course, because the Kings also lost key players — Viktor Arvidsson, Carl Grundstrom and Mikey Anderson — to injury. But the Kings overcame that with stellar seasons from Kopitar (26 goals, 70 points) and Doughty (15 goals, 50 points) in conjunction with the combined 86 goals and 114 assists they’ve received from Trevor Moore, Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala. Veteran goaltender Cam Talbot, who is arguably having his best season in eight years, also has been a key contributor.

However, the biggest turning point in the Kings’ season came in early February when the team fired coach Todd McLellan and promoted longtime assistant Jim Hiller. The Kings have won 20 of 32 games since the change and clinched a playoff berth by beating Calgary on Thursday.

“The system’s the same, but I’m not sure it’s the same message,” Robitaille said. “We’re all grateful for what Todd has done. He put in a system that our guys believe in. Unfortunately it seemed like we needed just a different voice and Jim came in and his communication is different.”

Hiller, an assistant for 10 years with four NHL teams, has a reputation for being more of a players’ coach than McLellan, according to many around the team. However, Hiller said the biggest factor in the team’s success was the timing of his promotion. The Kings had lost 14 of 17 games heading into the All-Star break, which led to McLellan’s firing, then won five of their first six when the season resumed. They are a league-best 13-2-1 at home since the All-Star break.

“When you’re not winning, it’s heavy,” Hiller said. “So you try to lighten it and bring some fresh energy, see if that will help. I think coming out of the break the players were refreshed and ready to get going again.”

It’s going so well that Robitaille and general manager Rob Blake took some heat for not making a move at the March trade deadline, choosing instead to bolster the team with the return of Arvidsson and Anderson.

“You don’t want to make a trade just to make a trade,” Robitaille said. “If you’re going to make a trade, you have to say, ‘Is that guy better than our guy?’

“Our guys coming back, we like the way they play. We believe in the way our guys play. And when Arvidsson came back, it showed us that we’re right. Same with Mikey Anderson.”

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.