(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — After getting off to a hot 4-1-0 start to the still very young 2009-10 National Hockey League season, the Los Angeles Kings find themselves in the midst a three-game losing streak as they head to Dallas on October 19, the final game of their six-game road swing.

Indeed, after winning four straight games for the first time since October, 2007, the Kings have hit the skids during their longest road trip of the season, and many Kings fans have already begun to jump ship, writing the Kings off for the season.

Given the team’s woeful history of mediocrity and with the Kings having failed to qualify for the playoffs since the 2001-02 season, fans have earned the right to be skeptical.

Nevertheless, the 2009-10 Kings are still a better team on paper than they have been at any time in the past three seasons and with the team only eight games into the season, is the growing skepticism warranted?

If you focus on their woes in the face-off circle, inconsistent goaltending from both Erik Ersberg and Jonathan Quick and the fact that the first line of Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams has cooled off a bit from their smoking hot start, the answer is yes, it is time to be skeptical. At the very least, these are causes for concern.

But the Kings' top line is still light years ahead of anything their top forward lines accomplished last season and the team is tied for fifth in the league in scoring as of this writing. Oh...there’s also that little thing about them having played just eight of their 82 games.

Under the circumstances, while the early naysayers may be proven correct down the road and although there are reasons to be concerned, it is still way too early to write the Kings off for the season.

One of the biggest factors, assuming the Kings shore up their weaknesses, is the production of their first line, as Kopitar, Smyth and Williams came out of the gate on fire, combining for ten goals and fifteen assists for 25 points in the team’s first five games, averaging five points per game.

But during the current three-game slide, the top line has generated just two goals and four assists for six points, averaging just two points per game.

To be sure, the top line has cooled off considerably, and Williams being one of eight players who were ill going into their game at Columbus on October 17 (a 4-1 loss) did not help matters.

Even though the top line has re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, they could easily rise again.

“I’m just glad that things are going the way they are,” said Kopitar. “Everything seems to be in place right now. We’ve been building the chemistry and it’s really good to see it come through.”

“You’ve got three skilled guys, but you’ve also have three guys who work hard, and you have to put the work before the skill if anything’s going to come out of it,” said Williams. “If we keep getting our chances, game in and game out, then we should be successful together.”

Kopitar is off to fast start, leading the Kings in scoring with four goals and eight assists for twelve points in the eight games.

Compared to last season, Kopitar is on a tear, as his fourth goal was not scored until November 25, 2008, and it took him fourteen games to tally twelve points.

“It’s great to see that when [Kopitar] has the puck, he’s trying to make something happen,” said Murray. “He’s attacking and looking to make plays, looking to shoot the puck. That’s the sign of a young guy who’s doing the right stuff and, hopefully, he continues to grow and build on that.”

“The talent, the patience with the puck...I look at Kopitar, how strong he is down low,” Smyth noted. “You don’t realize it until you play with him. He doesn’t just throw the puck away. He makes plays.”

“Kopitar understands the game tremendously and his work ethic on a nightly basis is excellent,” Smyth noted. “It’s just awesome to play with [him] right now and we want to continue what we’ve got going on. We know it’s going to be a tough task all year, but we’re playing real hard right now.”

A big reason Kopitar has gotten off to a fast start is that he is stronger and faster this season, thanks to his off-season strength and conditioning work. This has translated to him being far more effective along the boards and in the corners on loose pucks. It has also helped him generate speed through the neutral zone, backing defensemen off their blue line and creating room for him and his linemates to create in the offensive zone.

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