Puck-Moving Defensemen Carrying the Torch for Los Angeles Kings

It hasn’t been pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but the Los Angeles Kings’ two-game winning streak has vastly improved their postseason prospects.

They currently sit six points outside of the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.

Though the club’s overall defense remains sloppy on a good day, two blueliners have delivered a significant push from the back end to patch over weaknesses and haul the team back into the playoff conversation.

Standout efforts of this sort will prove critical down the stretch.

Drew Doughty

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The 25-year-old has always been good in the regular season and phenomenal in the spring. His recent performance has skewed closer to the latter level, absolutely dominating games in spite of relatively weak partners.

Regular pairmate Jake Muzzin has struggled over the past 30 games, culminating in a slew of costly turnovers and an unceremonious demotion.

Here’s the extent to which he has held Doughty back this season:

	TOI	GF60	GA60	GF%
With Jake Muzzin	671:52	1.88	2.59	42.0
With Brayden McNabb	218:41	2.47	1.10	69.2
With Robyn Regehr	83:15	5.04	1.44	77.8

Now with the shaky Robyn Regehr by his side, the All-Star has nevertheless provided scintillating outings over the past week.

He took on two of the league’s finest young centers—Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos and Columbus' Ryan Johansen—in consecutive games and limited them to a lone assist while posting a plus-eight in raw Corsi.

Up against top-tier competition, he dictated the flow by depriving his talented opponents of space and managing the puck superbly once possession was regained.

He also fired home a goal on Saturday, eschewing his favored slap shot for a smart, direct wrister that snuck through traffic as well as netminder Ben Bishop:

Few blueliners boast such a complete game—transitioning from shutdown defender to offensive game-changer. Frankly, only Nashville Predators stud Shea Weber comes to mind, and he’s paired with a tremendous young rearguard in Roman Josi.

Doughty has been dealt a considerably worse hand, and his deployment has further increased his burden.

He leads the league in ice time per game, while Hockey-Reference.com indicates he has logged about four more minutes per night in 2014-15 than his career average. To other teams, it must seem like his shifts never end.

With these factors in mind, can he sustain his play?

Probably not, because he offered similarly brilliant displays early in the season and eventually tapered off. Moreover, Regehr clearly isn’t a first-pairing defenseman anymore—he hasn’t been since leaving Calgary in 2011—and Muzzin is in the throes of growing pains.

There’s little help for Doughty.

His workload borders on ridiculous, so one has to imagine he’ll settle into more familiar territory over the next couple of weeks.

For however long Doughty can muster remarkable performances, though, he’ll drag his team one step closer to a postseason berth.

Jamie McBain

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While he isn’t as competent defensively, McBain has replaced—even surpassed—the puck-moving ability of suspended defenseman Slava Voynov.

In a sense, he’s mirroring the trajectory of Alec Martinez from last season, bringing a spark from the back end during sheltered minutes as the team looks to find its big-game footing.

He’s posted six points and a plus-five rating in his past 10 contests.

On the power play, his feel for the situation is tremendous. He understands how to manipulate the penalty kill into favorable looks and possesses a sneaky shot from the point. The numbers speak for themselves, really:

	Pts/60	GF60	SF60
Drew Doughty	2.52	6.29	49.39
Jake Muzzin	3.44	6.45	56.72
Alec Martinez	3.08	4.92	41.24
Jamie McBain	7.13	12.47	58.78
Brayden McNabb	3.97	7.93	46.27

Even more impressively, he currently leads all NHL blueliners (minimum 200 minutes played) in points per 60 five-on-five minutes.

His play under the heat of a forecheck is nothing to write home about, but he’s limited mistakes and offered such crucial attacking impetus that he’s registered a team-best goals-for percentage. 

That mark also ranks ninth among the league’s defensemen.

Not bad for a midseason signing.

His hockey sense and knack for creating shooting lanes are important traits to complement a group featuring defense-first maulers like Regehr and Matt Greene—especially with the news that Martinez has been sidelined with concussion-like symptoms.

Look at how he manufactures space at the point against the Blue Jackets, executing a fake to pull the would-be shot-blocker out of position:

It may not seem like much at first blush, but these plays add up over time and tilt the ice in your team’s favor.

That rings particularly true in crunch time, when greasy goals and second-chance opportunities steal the reins from flashier offensive designs.

McBain’s showings haven’t exactly been revelatory. A case was made for him to figure into the team’s long-term plans not too long ago, and his form hasn’t wavered since—despite watching a few games from the press box.

Hopefully head coach Darryl Sutter will keep him in the lineup on a permanent basis.

Outlook

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At this point in the season, it doesn't matter how the victories look as long as the team is racking them up. Winning two straight contests is huge—particularly since they were road tilts, and it's no secret that the Kings have struggled away from the Staples Center.

L.A. has to continue to make up ground in a hurry, and in recent games, Doughty and McBain have done the heavy lifting.

Whether or not that lasts, Sutter's club will require a stream of stellar individual performances to overcome collective displays that have often lacked in fundamentals.

Advanced statistics courtesy of Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com, Behind the Net and hockeystats.ca.