The Kings had a quiet and optional morning skate Monday, and Coach Terry Murray said he’s likely to make most of the remaining game-day skates optional in order to help players conserve energy.

Defenseman Rob Scuderi, who appeared to injure his ankle late Saturday and didn’t practice Sunday, is expected to play. Murray said Scuderi skated early Monday morning “and tried everything out,” and gave the thumbs-up sign upon leaving the ice.

Murray said the lines and defense pairs will remain the same as they were for the team’s 4-3 victory Saturday at Phoenix, which would leave Andrei Loktionov on the left with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, Ryan Smyth with Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams, Kyle Clifford with Trevor Lewis and Wayne Simmonds, and Brad Richardson with Michal Handzus and Alexei Ponikarovsky.

On defense, Willie Mitchell will pair with Drew Doughty, Scuderi with Jack Johnson and Matt Greene with Alec Martinez. Jonathan Quick will start in goal.

“Win, I don’t want to change too much here,” Murray said. “It was a good effort --very good effort the other night. Go back over it and review it, there were some great decisions made with the puck. Offensive-zone play obviously, and I like the tempo. And the attitude of compete was real good, so we’re going to stay with the lineup and hopefully bring the same kind of game.”

One thing that could use changing is the Kings’ power play, which is 0 for 22 over seven games and through Sunday’s games had slipped to 19th in the NHL, with a 16.7% success rate. The league average through Sunday was 18.3%.

Doughty and Johnson were an effective power-play duo in the playoffs, but Murray said he doesn’t plan to reunite them — at least not yet.

“It’s tempting but I think we’re going to hang in there with the same group right now,” he said. “You reinforce the five-on-five play that we showed the other night with the goals that were going in from the back end, and it’s the same kind of a look that you want to have on the power play.

“That’s where we’re running into a little bit of a situation, I believe, where it comes up top and we’re still waiting for those passes to be coming back down low, guys waiting on the goal line on that strong side. Actually that player should be coming to the front of the net, coming to the high slot and you’re not an option. So up top, the puck has to be handled with the umbrella look and take it to the net looking for rebounds. That’s just a play off the puck that we need to get better at, to be more consistent at. And I think whenever you eliminate the options on the puck movement it forces things to come to the net.”

Check back for more at www.latimes.com/sports, including some musings by Murray on the Kings’ defensemen making more offensive contributions lately.

-- Helene Elliott

Even for Terry Murray, this was a major shakeup.

The Kings’ coach, known for frequently mixing his lines, revamped the top three trios in practice Wednesday and will use the new configurations Thursday at Staples Center against the Nashville Predators.

“The blender’s out, eh?” left wing Ryan Smyth said, smiling.

Shaking things up in hopes of stirring the Kings out of a four-game losing streak, Murray came up with these lines:

Dustin Brown-Anze Kopitar-Wayne Simmonds

Smyth-Michal Handzus-Justin Williams

Kyle Clifford-Jarret Stoll-Marco Sturm

The fourth line will be the same, with Brad Richardson, Trevor Lewis and Kevin Westgarth. Left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky is almost ready to return from the ankle injury he sustained Dec. 26, but he won’t play Thursday. The defense pairs will stay the same.

“As I said to the players this morning in our meeting, 39 games and we’re four games now that we have not won. It’s time for a change,” Murray said. “There’s been some very good games, some great team effort, some great line looks this year, but right now we need to get some attention back. I think we just got away from some of the details of the game and that to me is that emotional connection to the game for 60 minutes.

“We’re doing a great job for 40, 45 minutes. We’re outshooting teams and looking at our scoring chances against that we do every game, we’ve got a wide margin on that one. The bottom line is winning games and that’s why I’m changing up some things.”

A few points: Handzus normally centers the shutdown line, but Murray said he wants Handzus to contribute offensively. Interesting considering the Slovakian center’s goal against Chicago on Monday was his first in 20 games and only his fifth this season.

“It felt even longer. I was surprised only 20 games,” said Handzus, who recalled playing with Smyth a few times on the power play last season but played alongside Williams when both were Flyers.

“If you play with those guys I’m sure it’s going to be a more offensive role. I’m not going to change my two-way game but I’ve got to produce more for sure.”

Murray said Handzus has played a more offense-oriented role in the past and can do it again. “He’s got a pretty good history of being a player who’s played and made pretty good plays,” Murray said. “So I’m going to give him an opportunity with still respect to the checking part of the game, to play with two players who are having good years on the offensive part of it. I think that they can build on the offensive part of the game with Zeus in the middle. He’s a pretty creative guy, he thinks that part of it. He’s got pretty good hands to make plays and I’m going to give it a look for a little while.”

Murray said he was reluctant to switch Brown from right wing, where he has thrived, to left wing but felt compelled to do something. It has been obvious that Sturm, who had major knee surgery last May, isn’t physically ready to become the productive top-line left wing the Kings hoped he would be.

“I think that Marco’s still going through training camp. I think he’s behind the play,” Murray said. “There’s a little bit too many situations where there’s too much space between him and the puck and the support is not where it needs to be right now. So I’m going to back away on it and put him in a situation where he can keep getting his game conditioning and his legs under him and still play in the game and have a little more responsibility with Stoll and with Clifford as that line that’s going to match up on the checking part of things.”

Also, Jonathan Bernier will start in goal. He has recorded two of his four victories this season against Nashville.

Check www.latimes.com/sports later for more.

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: Kings coach Terry Murray. Credit: Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press.

Notes, quotes and stats from the Kings' 1-0 loss to San Jose on 1/1/11. As always, thanks to media relations guru Jeremy Zager, his crack staff and his Grandma Schwartz, who loves to see Jeremy's name in print and online.

Kings Coach Terry Murray:

"It was a good game. That was a solid effort by both teams. Both teams have been playing a lot, they’re coming off three in four and that’s been five in seven for us. That was intense, that was compete, and there were lots of good plays happening."

Murray on whether winning short-handed faceoffs was the key to killing a five-on-three San Jose power play in the first period:

"Winning faceoffs is a key on your special teams. Anytime you can get into the 60% in faceoff wins on your special teams, you’re giving yourself a pretty good opportunity to get the job done."

Murray in regard to killing the Sharks' five-on-three advantage:

"We won some pucks, we had opportunities to clear a couple and we didn’t quite get it out. The three guys, the two D and the forward, did a good job reading. There was a lot of intensity. We called a time out so we could stick with the same two defenseman and they came through for us."

About calling time out during the penalty kill: "We wanted to stay with [Matt] Greene and [Rob] Scuderi. They are the two veteran guys who have big bodies and can block a lot of shots. About halfway through the penalty kill, they did a great job. We were able to switch up [Michal] Handzus and [Anze] Kopitar but the two defenseman we wanted to stay with it."

Team captain Dustin Brown:

"We had our chances. . . . The effort was there and good D-play.  They had one goal, I think on the three-on-three and that’s what games are going to be like now.  The second half of the year every game is going to be tight checking so it’s about the little decisions we make and we just have to build on that.  It’s not the result we wanted that’s for sure, but we outplayed them, I thought.”

In the Jan. 3 issue of The Hockey News, the magazine's weekly top-10 feature looks at the NHL's "Big Hitters," the guys who throw their weight around with purpose.

And of the heaviest hitters since the 2004-05 lockout, No. 1 is the Kings' Dustin Brown with what was 1,406 hits at THN's press time (through Wednesday's game, he has 1,436). It's no surprise that Brown's non-profit that helps build playgrounds for children is called Ka-BOOM.

In the video above, this was a hit by Brown on Dennis Wideman of the Florida Panthers in early December. We can't wait to see how many he gets tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers.

This season, through Wednesday, No. 1 is the formidable Cal Clutterbuck of the Minnesota Wild with 165 in 36 games, while Brown has 120 in 36 games.

The one quibble is with the picture the magazine editors chose to illustrate the list -- not Brown but the guy who is a distant second. East Coast bias?

Here is The Hockey News' top 10:

1. Dustin Brown (Kings) 1,406

2. Brooks Orpik (Penguins) 1,270

3. Chris Neil (Senators) 1,202

4. Stephane Robidas (Stars) 1,155

5. Alex Ovechkin (Capitals) 1,098

6. Matt Cooke (Penguins) 1,068

7. Trent Hunter (Islanders) 1,029

8. Mike Fisher (Senators) 999

9. Mike Komisarek (Maple Leafs) 993

10. Dion Phaneuf (Maple Leafs) 977

--Debbie Goffa

Kings Coach Terry Murray gave his players Tuesday off except for an afternoon meeting, but the rest of the hockey world was still marveling at the high lob pass by Anze Kopitar to Dustin Brown that put Brown  behind the Sharks defense and in position to score the Kings’ final goal in their 4-0 victory at San Jose on Monday.

Here’s the goal, in case you missed it...

And here’s what Brown, Kopitar and Murray had to say about it after the game.

Question to Brown: Did you know that was coming?

Brown: “Yeah, we’ve actually tried that in similar situations. You probably don’t realize it because it’s never connected like that. Either I’m thinking he’s going to do it too early [and] I’m going too fast or he flips it on a second too late and it ends up being an icing. Tonight we both were on the same page with that flip. He put it right there.”

Question to Kopitar: Brown said you had tried that play before but it had never quite connected.

Kopitar: “We have. We’ve connected a few times. It just wasn’t a case like this. Either the [defense] was back so it wasn’t like a clear-cut breakaway. Tonight it worked out pretty well."

Question to Murray: When you saw Kopitar lift that pass to Brown, he said they had tried it before but never connected. Is that the time when maybe you can try it, or were you nervous and did not like it?

Murray: “It’s just to get it going north. That was the most important thing. You wonder if it’s going to be an offside. I’ve only seen that play connect one time before, ever. It was a pretty creative move.

“Actually just to release pressure it’s the right kind of move to make too. Get it over the top. The old moon shot. Then you just hope that maybe something happens off of it.”

Murray also said Tuesday that he plans to start Jonathan Quick on Wednesday against the Coyotes and is leaning toward starting Jonathan Bernier on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers at Staples Center. Through Monday’s games quick ranked third in the NHL with a .932 save percentage, second in goals-against average at 1.86, tied for third with four shutouts and third in wins with 18.

“The game [Monday] night was a good game for him," Murray said of Quick. "He’s been playing a very good game here in the last while too. Just get him right back into it.”

Murray said he hadn’t made a firm decision on Thursday’s starting goalie but Bernier is likely to get the nod. “He’s played pretty well too in his last couple starts. And there’s no need, necessarily, to go back to back with Quicker right now,” Murray said.

He also said he will wait until Wednesday morning to judge the readiness of left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky, who missed Monday’s game because of a lower-body injury. “He seemed to be walking a lot better [Monday] night but that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot when it comes to skating,” Murray said. If Ponikarovsky can play, his return would likely be the only change from Monday’s lineup.

And on his night off, Murray planned to scout the Coyotes against the Ducks on Tuesday at Jobing.com Arena.

Etc.

Kings prospect Brayden Schenn had a goal and four assists in Canada's 7-2 rout of the Czech Republic at the world junior championships.

-- Helene Elliott, in Glendale, Ariz.

The Kings on Sunday picked up where they left off before the Christmas break. Unfortunately for the Ducks, they did the same.

Dustin Brown had a goal and an assist, Marco Sturm earned his first point as a King in his third game, and Jonathan Bernier stopped 18 shots to lead the Kings to a 4-1 victory before an announced standing-room-only crowd of 18,313 at Staples Center.

It was the fourth triumph in five games for the Kings (21-12-1) and fourth loss in five games for the Ducks (18-17-4).

All the scoring came during the second period.

The Kings struck first, 15 seconds in. Matt Greene took a shot from the right point that ended up in a crowd and was deflected by Kyle Clifford. Michal Handzus swatted at it but it went off the stick of Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler and to the left side of the slot. Wayne Simmonds was stationed there for the short shot and his eighth goal this season, although its only his first at home.

That lead didn’t last long. Ryan Getzlaf controlled the puck along the boards in the Kings’ zone and passed it to the blue line for Toni Lydman, whose long shot was deflected by Matt Beleskey at the 47-second mark.

A classic counterattack enabled the Kings to regain the lead at 9:10 of the second period. The Ducks had been putting some pressure on Bernier but Brown controlled the puck in his own zone and made a long lead pass to Anze Kopitar. Jonas Hiller stopped the first shot but the rebound went to the left side, where Sturm pounced on it. Hiller stopped that, too, but Kopitar potted the rebound to extend his team-leading goal total to 15.

A giveaway by the Ducks in their own zone created an opportunity for Justin Williams to score the Kings’ third goal, at 12:55. Joffrey Lupul had the puck in his feet but couldn’t play it cleanly, giving Williams the chance to steal it and walk in on Hiller until he was about 20 feet out and lift a wrist shot.

Good puck movement on the power play generated the Kings’ fourth goal, at 17:57 of the second period, the last shot Hiller saw before he was yanked and replaced by Curtis McElhinney. Jack Johnson, playing the left point, passed to Drew Doughty, who shot through a crowd. The puck came out to the slot, where Brown rifled it home for his 14th goal this season.

Look for more later at www.latimes.com/sports

--Helene Elliott

Photo: The Kings' Wayne Simmonds ends up on top of the Ducks' Corey Perry after the two squared off during the third period Sunday at Staples Center. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

The Kings’ big scorers scored Tuesday and so did some of their less frequent contributors, and with Jonathan Quick stopping all 23 shots by the high-scoring Colorado Avalanche it all added up to an impressive 5-0 victory by the Kings on Tuesday at the Pepsi Center.

Dustin Brown matched a career high with four points, on two goals and two assists, Rob Scuderi scored his first goal in 108 games with the Kings and first since Oct. 4, 2008, and Brad Richardson scored his fourth goal against Colorado in two games this season as the Kings finished a grueling trip on an upbeat note and with a 3-2 record. They had shut out Detroit, 5-0, to start the trip Dec. 12.

The Avalanche had won its previous six games and had not been shut out this season.

Anze Kopitar set up the Kings’ third goal with the kind of forceful drive to the net that he doesn’t try often enough, taking a shot that was rebounded by Brown at 7:27 of the third period. Brown scored his second goal of the game by making  a terrific rush up the left side, cutting to the middle and firing a long wrist shot past Craig Anderson at 15:03 of the third period. Justin Williams finished the scoring at 17:49 with a shot from the left circle after Jarret Stoll had won a faceoff in Colorado's zone.

Colorado had scored a league-leading 121 goals entering Tuesday’s game but Quick was moving well laterally and had too good a glove for Colorado to beat him.

The Kings (19-12-1) scored once in the first period, once in the second and three times in the third to help Quick earn his third shutout this season and 11th of his career.

Left wing Marco Sturm made his Kings debut and didn’t score but played decently on the fourth line with Trevor Lewis and Alexei Ponikarovsky.

We’ll have more later at www.latimes.com/sports.

-- Helene Elliott in Denver

Brad Richardson, who had a hat trick here on Oct. 23 against his former team but had scored only one other goal this season, victimized the Avalanche again in the second period to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.
Richardson, traded by Colorado to the Kings for a second-round draft pick in June 2008, was stationed in front of the net to take a fine pass by Drew Doughty and tap it in. Doughty had made an excellent move to the outside to elude a defender and see a passing lane. Richardson had easy work to poke it home at 6:31.
Dustin Brown got the second assist, as he did on the Kings’ first goal. He now has eight multi-point games this season.
Jonathan Quick stopped eight shots in the second period and looked sharp throughout.
The Kings had two power plays in the second period, though one was brief, and couldn’t capitalize. Colorado had one power play and was stymied.
We’ll have more later at www.latimes.com/sports
Helene Elliott, in Denver

The last time the Kings played in Denver’s Pepsi Center, on Oct. 23, forward Brad Richardson played so well he worked his way up from the fourth line to the first line alongside Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown and recorded his first career hat trick in the team's 6-4 victory over the Avalanche.

Richardson, recently back from an upper-body injury, will start Tuesday’s game against Colorado on the left side with Kopitar and Brown. Whether he will still be skating alongside them by game’s end is another story.

"I seem to play on a lot of different lines," Richardson said after Tuesday’s morning skate. “Hopefully it goes well. I’ve played with them before and it’s pretty exciting. I’m just going to go do my thing and hopefully we get some results."

Richardson, valuable for his speed, energy, and ability to play center or left wing, was injured Dec. 9. He returned to play 12 minutes, 46 seconds against Chicago on Sunday.

“It was just a little one-week vacation, but not quite the way I planned,” he said. “I feel good. The last game I was winded at times but it felt good to get my legs back under me.”

The Kings could use more speed among their top six forwards and throughout the lineup. Colorado, which took a six-game winning streak into Tuesday’s game, has lots of speed and puts it to good use. The Avalanche, without a true elite player in the lineup, is the NHL’s most productive team, with 121 goals in its first 33 games.

“They’re a track-meet team. They’re a team that comes with a lot of speed, with four all the time on the rush, on the attack,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said. “They are a rush team. They make plays to the net with possession. They’re a real good transition team.

“That’s where you have to make strong plays again. They really come with those three very quickly. When they do dump, they have speed to get sweeping pressure over top of you. They’ve got a couple of guys who are going to make you pay the price on the physical part of it, a lot of sweeping pressure over top, looking more for you to show a lack of composure and maybe make the wrong decision with the puck. Go to the net very hard.... Everything is a shot mentality.”

Kind of what the Kings would like to do. And be.

We’ll have more from the finale of the Kings’ five-game trip later at www.latimes.com/sports.

-- Helene Elliott in Denver

Greetings from Denver, where there’s a lot of snow in the mountains but none downtown though it’s about 30 degrees colder than it was on Monday.

As expected, left wing Marco Sturm was activated from the non-roster injured list and is scheduled to make his Kings and season debut Tuesday night against the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.

Sturm, acquired by the Kings from Boston on Dec. 11 for future considerations — which consist of taking his salary off the cap-strapped Bruins’ payroll — last played on May 1. He underwent extensive surgery on his right knee May 18.

He had been skating with the Bruins before the Kings acquired him and picked up his activity during this five-game trip. He went to Coach Terry Murray after Monday’s practice and said he felt ready to go and eager for a new beginning.

He’s scheduled to start on the fourth line, with Trevor Lewis and Alexei Ponikarovsky, but line combinations tend to be fluid with Murray behind the bench.

“Nervous, excited, a new team, obviously, makes it even more exciting,” Sturm said when asked how he felt after Tuesday’s morning skate. “As soon as I knew I’m going to get out of Boston, I think maybe it’s a good thing to start fresh again and start a new, key part of my career and hopefully in a good way.”

Sturm, 32, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December 2008 and came back in the 2009-10 season to score 22 goals in 76 games, the seventh time he had scored 20 goals or more. When he returned from the first knee surgery, adjusting to the speed and timing of the game was a big hurdle, he said, as was getting into battles.

“It’s more in the head than in the legs,” he said. “Sometimes you have to battle. That’s why it takes probably a few games to get used to it again but I hope it’s going to be not as hard.

“I feel fine. I feel good. I think it’s more mentally right now than anything else.”

He also said he’s comfortable with being eased back into action rather than being put on the first line. Brad Richardson, who had a hat trick in the Kings’ last visit here Oct. 23, is scheduled to start on the top line with Anze Kopitar and right wing Dustin Brown.

"It’s been awhile, so I’ve just got to get used to everything again,” Sturm said. “It’s maybe going to take me awhile too, so I think starting with Lewie and Poni is going to be good and hopefully I can move up from there.”

Playing well enough to move up to the first line is what the Kings hope to see after trying seven players on the left side on that line.

“My goal is to get playing again and get the first few over with and be the same player I was before. I know it’s not going to happen right away and it will maybe take some time.”

A few more notes: Jonathan Quick will start in goal.... Defenseman Willie Mitchell, who sustained a lower-body injury last Thursday at St. Louis, wore a huge brace on his left knee and did not skate but rode the bike. Defenseman Matt Greene, who suffered an apparent concussion last Monday, will be re-evaluated when the team returns to Los Angeles, a club spokesman said.

More in a little while at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott in Denver.

The opening period was fairly quiet until the last six minutes, when the Blues took two penalties and gave the Kings a five-on-three advantage. The Kings scored at 16:59, a second after the first penalty had expired, but the Blues matched that at even strength soon afterward.

Dave Scatchard was penalized for hooking at 14:58 and Nikita Nikitin followed him into the box at the 16-minute mark after firing the puck over the glass. The Kings lost control of the puck once when Ryan Smyth fell with no one near him and the puck came out of the zone, but they took the lead when Jack Johnson fired a shot from just above the right circle and past goaltender Ty Conklin.

Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar got the assists, and each extended his point-scoring streak to six games.

The Blues pulled even at 18:45 after the Kings turned the puck over in the neutral zone. Jay McClement carried it into the zone and dished it off but he managed to slip a backhander past Jonathan Quick for his fifth goal of the season.

Kings winger Justin Williams was sent off for roughing at 19:35, giving the Blues an advantage that carried over to the second period.

The Blues got some good news about prized defenseman Erik Johnson, who was injured in their game at Detroit on Wednesday. He has a slight sprain of his right knee -- the knee he had surgically repaired two years ago -- and his status is day-to-day. They were relieved because he's a cornerstone defenseman and they've already had more injuries than they can handle.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports
--Helene Elliott in St. Louis

In a world too often dominated by news about athletes behaving badly, here’s an item about an athlete doing a good deed.

Kings captain Dustin Brown, in cooperation with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Los Angeles, is granting a wish for 6-year-old William McLeod of Valley Village, who is battling acute lymphatic leukemia. Brown, who has two young sons and a third child on the way, will meet William on Friday at the Kings’ practice facility. William, who is in remission, will also attend the Kings’ game Saturday against Minnesota at Staples Center.

According to a Make-A-Wish spokesman, William wanted to meet Brown because “I love to skate and play hockey and always watch the games with my dad, and Dustin Brown is the best player ever.”

Kudos to Brown and other players whose moments of kindness make a huge impact on a child’s life.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: Kings right wing Dustin Brown, 23, and Detroit Red Wings defensman Brian Rafalski, 28, fight for control of the puck on Dec. 4. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / US Presswire.