Three Periods: Long live the Kings; Wild redemption for Dubnyk; NHL notes

Nicholas J. Cotsonika’s Three Periods column appears on Thursdays. This week’s topics include why the Los Angeles Kings decided to be aggressive and get Andrej Sekera; how a goalie trade fixed more than goaltending for the Minnesota Wild; and notes on Devan Dubnyk’s improvement, Patrick Kane’s injury impact and Alex Petrovic’s cross-check.

FIRST PERIOD: Why the Kings decided to be aggressive, acquire Sekera

He felt they deserved it. He felt he almost owed it to them.

General manager Dean Lombardi traded a first-round pick and a prospect to the Carolina Hurricanes for Andrej Sekera on Wednesday – a high price for a rental, even the top rental defenseman on the market – because of what his Los Angeles Kings had accomplished the past three years and how they had looked on an eight-game winning streak.

“Haven’t we seen this before?” Lombardi asked.

In 2011-12, the Kings struggled so badly Lombardi changed coaches, replacing Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter. They finished strong, and with a dominant 16-4 playoff run, they became the first No. 8 seed to win the Stanley Cup.

In 2012-13, they finished fifth in the West and returned to the conference final.

Last season, they fell into a 1-8-1 funk from mid-January to early February. They responded with an eight-game winning streak and ended up third in the Pacific, as the NHL went to a divisional playoff format. They faced deficits – 3-0 in the first round, 3-2 in the second, 1-0 in the third – and became the first team to win three seven-game series to make the Cup final. They won the Cup again.

Less than three weeks ago, the Kings were in a 3-7-5 funk. They had four teams between them and a playoff spot. They haven’t lost since and have risen to third in the Pacific. With a strong possession game and great goaltending from Jonathan Quick, they have looked like they have at their best.

Lombardi added a piece before the trade deadline each of the past three years: Jeff Carter in 2012, Robyn Regehr in 2013, Marian Gaborik last year. So why not go for it again? Why not seize the opportunity to do something special?

“When you sit in this seat, you say, ‘You know what? Let’s get aggressive here and make this team better, just as we expect them to make themselves better,’ ” Lombardi said.

This season has presented unique challenges. Defenseman Slava Voynov has been suspended since his arrest on domestic violence charges in October, and his status is uncertain at best. Sekera essentially replaces him. Center Mike Richards struggled so badly Lombardi sent him to the minors last month.

Trying to win another Cup is a unique challenge, anyway. No team has won three Cups since the salary cap was introduced in 2005-06. No team has repeated since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and ’98. No team has won three Cups in four years since the Edmonton Oilers from 1987 to ’90.

Listen to winger Justin Williams in September: “It doesn’t matter where you finish. I mean, we’re not a team that goes out and dominates the regular season.” Maybe it’s part DNA – a hard, heavy, structured team built for the playoffs – and part self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe it’s hard to manufacture urgency when you have done what the Kings have done the way they have done it.

“It’s been hard to get a handle on some things,” Lombardi said. “And part of that is not only a challenge for them, but my inexperience in reading a team that’s accomplished what they’ve accomplished and trying to stay there.”

After the Kings won their first Cup, Lombardi picked the brains of GMs and coaches who had won multiple championships – not just in hockey, but in other sports – trying to learn how to sustain success. Some told him the chemistry of their teams changed as guys started thinking more about getting credit. The Kings didn’t have a problem with credit or blame.

“I think they’ve always known that they hadn’t been working like they should,” Lombardi said. “It’s not only not pointing fingers at each other, but a lot of guys too were pretty hard on themselves.”

In the end, Lombardi trusted his team. Before training camp, he felt the players had come back with more professionalism and a deeper belief – confidence, not cockiness. When they couldn’t get going, like a car whose engine wouldn’t turn over, he knew age wasn’t an issue. The core players were in their primes, and younger players Kyle Clifford, Dwight King, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli were improving. He knew they wouldn’t quit, either.

The Kings have embraced new-age analytics. But Lombardi still goes by old-school feel, too. He said he couldn’t define the intangible, but he knows it when he sees it.

“Deep down, I know they care, so they’ve found a way,” Lombardi said. “Hey, we lost [eight out of 10 games] last year. Puck’s going in on off the back of the net. Lesser men would have folded or found excuses. But they haven’t in the past, so what would make me think they should start now? So it’s the only way I was able to sleep at night. And it hasn’t been very comfortable, make no mistake, but you get some solace in the fact that, ‘You know what? They’ve shown that they can figure it out.’ ”

SECOND PERIOD: How a goalie trade fixed more than goaltending for the Wild

The Minnesota Wild hit bottom Jan. 13 with a 7-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not only was the Wild losing – 0-5-1 in its past six games, third-from-last in the West – it had strayed from its identity as a structured, defensive team.

“Clearly we had lost our way,” said general manager Chuck Fletcher.

The Wild found it again after Fletcher traded a third-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for goaltender Devan Dubnyk, and back in playoff contention, he made another move Tuesday by trading a third-rounder to the Florida Panthers for forward Sean Bergenheim. Despite a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers that night, the Wild is on a 13-3-2 run.

In the 18 games before the Dubnyk trade, the Wild allowed four goals per game, worst in the NHL over that stretch. In the 18 games since, the Wild has allowed 1.61 goals per game, best in the league over that stretch.

The problem was not coach Mike Yeo, whom Fletcher supported as the media asked about his job security. The problem was goaltending. The Wild ranked among the league leaders in fewest shots against but among the worst in save percentage. The problem grew from there.

If the process is good, it should lead to good results. But if it doesn’t, sometimes bad results affect the process. The players are only human.

“For a while there, we were defending pretty well and yet not winning games,” Fletcher said. “The more games we lost and the deeper into the slump we got, we started to cheat and get away from our game. We weren’t playing the right way anymore. And now it wasn’t just a question of not getting enough saves. We were giving up odd-man rushes and players were trying to do other players’ jobs. It just spirals. You lose trust. You lose confidence in how you need to play to be successful.”

The players held a meeting after the Pittsburgh loss in which they challenged each other. Fletcher acquired Dubnyk the next day. At the time, he had a .916 save percentage in 19 games. Darcy Kuemper had a .902 in 28, Niklas Backstrom an .887 in 19.

The Wild blew out the Buffalo Sabres the day after that, 7-0. Frankly the players finally felt their goaltender was going to give them a chance to win, and they played like it. Another key: Mikael Granlund returned to the lineup four games later.

“There’s no way in my mind they were going to continue struggling,” Dubnyk said. “I just told myself that eventually they’re going to play the way that they’re capable of because it’s a great hockey team. ‘If I can go in there and just be sharp and just be solid … I don’t need to go in there and be a hero, because the team doesn’t need a hero. It’s too good of a hockey team. If I can just go in there and be solid for them, they’re going to start playing well again.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”

Why didn’t Fletcher acquire a goaltender earlier?

Veterans like Martin Brodeur and Ilya Bryzgalov were available as free agents. But neither would have been a good choice. Brodeur didn’t work out in a short stint with the St. Louis Blues and retired. Fletcher traded a fourth-round pick to the Oilers for Bryzgalov last season. Bryzgalov went 7-1-3 with a .911 save percentage. He went unsigned at the start of this season, then struggled in a short stint with the Anaheim Ducks.

As for trades, Fletcher searched the market, but nothing made sense until this.

“It’s not an easy thing to accomplish,” Fletcher said.

It won’t be easy for Dubnyk to keep this up, and it won’t be easy for the Wild to make the playoffs. Dubnyk has a .935 save percentage since the trade. The Kings, Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks all are within two points with a couple of spots up for grabs.

But better late than never, better hot than not and better in the mix than out.

“At this point now, we’re back playing the way we should play,” Fletcher said. “We’re not perfect, and we have a long way to go. But at least we’ve regained our defensive identity and players are playing the system and playing the right way.”

THIRD PERIOD: Notes from around the NHL

— Dubnyk bounced from the Oilers to the Nashville Predators to the Montreal Canadiens’ minor-league affiliate last season, posting save percentages below .900 at each stop. He found help from Coyotes goaltending coach Sean Burke. Dubnyk is 6-foot-6, 210 pounds. Burke, 6-foot-4 and 209 pounds, played 18 seasons in the NHL. “Obviously when we have the advantage of being as big as we are, we can play a little bit deeper,” Dubnyk said. “But it was never about playing deep. It was about where I needed to be in my net in order to beat the pass. The deeper you are in your net, the shorter you have to go. So it was about always beating the pass on my feet and being set for that play. I had to discover where I needed to be in my crease in order to do that. If I was too far out and couldn’t beat it on my feet, then I was too far out and needed to be back. If I was too far back and getting beat on a shot that I could have been farther out, then I needed to figure out to be farther out.”

— Patrick Kane’s broken collarbone is devastating news for him. Tied for the NHL scoring lead with 64 points, he had a chance to become the first U.S.-born player to win the Art Ross Trophy. Now that hope is gone. It’s bad news for the Chicago Blackhawks but doesn’t have to be devastating. Kane leads the team in scoring by 15 points. He has been their most valuable player this season. Now he will miss about 12 weeks, perhaps until the conference final, and who knows how effective he will be if he gets the chance to return. But with Kane on long-term injured reserve, the ’Hawks have the cap space to add depth before Monday’s trade deadline. And remember: When Kane won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ MVP and the ’Hawks won the Cup in 2013, he didn’t get hot until midway through the conference final. He had two goals in the first 15 games. He had only two assists in a seven-game stretch – Games 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the second round and Games 1, 2 and 3 in the third.

— Florida Panthers defenseman Alex Petrovic received two minutes for cross-checking after Kane crashed into the boards Tuesday night. Why no hearing with the department of player safety, let alone a suspension? The boarding rule covers a player who “checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously.” But this did not rise to the level of supplemental discipline because Petrovic did not extend his arms or finish the check. He gave Kane a slight shove at a bad time, when Kane was shifting his weight from his right leg to his left leg, and Kane lost his balance after contact. The feeling was that Petrovic could not have reasonably expected this action to cause that result.

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